Dungeon Entrance

“The entrance appeared right in the street, literally in the middle of the group. A bunch of folks fell in. There were stairs just like you said. But then Agatha over there pushed her cart right onto the stairs like she was… well I don’t know what the hell she was doing. But the stairs transformed into a ramp. It wanted her to come on down. A long, easy ramp. Agatha was the first to voluntarily go down there, cackling like she always does. Hollerin’ she’d saved all our lives." -- Brandon Andrews (Book 1, Chapter 22)

Survivors may choose to enter the Dungeon and become crawlers by descending a stairwell from the Earth's surface. Anyone who chooses to remain on the surface is designated as a "Native."

Overview

After the Transformation and subsequent System AI announcement, a trumpet-like horn sounds and 150,000 stairwells are randomly distributed in high population areas across Earth. Each stairwell entrance is marked by a spotlight-like light shining upward.^[1]

Entering the stairwell is not enough to be classified as a "crawler." You must physically set foot on the First Floor.^[2]

Distribution

Although technically "random," stairwell locations are monitored by the System AI and are rarely distributed equally.^[3] Stairwells are more likely to appear in areas where groups of survivors are gathered. If a stairwell appears under where a person was standing, that person falls into the stairwell and disappears; it is unclear whether they land safely at the bottom or are "collected."^[4]

Time Limit

Potential crawlers have one hour to prepare and descend the stairwell before the stairwells disappear.^[1] Humans and animals are able to enter and exit the stairwell at least a few times before the System AI physically prevents them from leaving again by trapping their foot. If you attempt to grab someone trapped in a stairwell (as Chris Andrews discovered), you become trapped as well even if you are not physically in the stairwell. A minute or so after being snared, you experience physical pain if you do not descend.^[4]

Forty minutes after the stairwells open (around 3:10 AM PST), a follow-up announcement warns that anyone "lurking" in the stairwells must join the crawl.^[4]

Layout

The brightly lit stairwell is made of wide wrought iron steps engraved with a strange "almost Asian-looking" pattern depicting demon-like fish, and seems to descend forever before terminating at a marble floor and a 30' W x 30' H (9.14 m) arched, wooden double door carved with the same stylized, oversized Kua-tin. The base of the stairwell is humid and balmy, approximately 80°F (27°C).^[2]

Looking at the engraving on the door triggers a tool tip/infobox, suggesting that crawlers have crawler-standard wetware and limited access to a Heads-Up Display (HUD) even before entering the First Floor.^[2] The tooltip reads:

This is a rendition of a Kua-Tin, the dominant species of the Borant System and principal owners of the Borant Corporation. Make sure you recognize these guys. There’ll be a test later.^[5]

Although the door looks heavy, it opens easily to reveal a main thoroughfare on the First Floor.^[2]

References