T-028 Tether

Threshold Institute · Case file T-028

Number

T-028 in the catalogue

Kind

Creature

Class

Class II: dangerous, and held in a cell

Found

Year 29, month 12, day 8

Where found

The land's western arm beyond T-001, near the edge of the void

Status

Contained, with incidents

Now

At the lab and in the rift

Part

Part III: Going through (the places and creatures)

Containment procedures

No one walks within sight of the land's edge alone; on the western arm teams go in threes. A surveyor who is caught calls out at once. The rest fire along the line, not at the ground near the caught surveyor, and two take the caught surveyor by the arms. No one cuts at the line. In the cell block a tether is held in a sealed cell far from any shaft or drop, with its line's reach marked on the floor; observers keep outside the mark.

Description

A creature that latches on and drags its prey toward the void. It is seen as a thin, dark line, a cord with no beginning, that catches at an ankle or a wrist and pulls at a walking pace, never slower, toward the nearest edge or hole. A knife parts the cord like smoke and it closes again. The thing at the far end of the line has never been clearly seen. What goes over the edge does not come back.

Discovery

On the land's western arm a surveyor walking point, Ruth Abel, felt something catch at her ankle. She looked down and saw only the line, running off over the ground toward the edge. Then it pulled.

Addenda

Addendum T-028-1

interview with surveyor R. Abel, Year 29, month 12, day 11. Interviewer: T. Rehn. Present: Dr. H. Ek

Rehn: How far did it drag you?

Abel: From where I was caught to about six paces from the edge. Saar says sixty paces. It did not hurry. That was the worst of it. It pulled like someone walking a dog.

Rehn: Your team held you.

Abel: Two of them, by the arms. It pulled all three of us. Rask cut at the line with his knife. It went through like smoke and closed again behind the blade.

Rehn: What made it let go?

Abel: Saar fired along it. Not at me, along the line, toward the edge. After the third shot it went slack and slid back over the edge.

Rehn: Did you see anything over the edge?

Abel: No. But I heard something, at the end, when I was close. Below the rim.

Rehn: What did you hear?

Abel: Voices. A lot of them. I thought they were saying something. I could not hear what.

Addendum T-028-2

note by T. Rehn on the file

I set this beside the well (T-024). Everything we have found beyond T-001 that pulls, pulls toward the void. I have asked that the manual say so as a law of the land, and that Lina Dahl's rule of two (T-018) become a rule of three on the western arm. I have also asked for a search of the ruins nearest the western edge for the voices Abel heard.

What followed

The voices were found the next summer, and not at the edge (see T-029).

Previous fileT-027 StatuePart III: Going through (the places and creatures) Next fileT-029 ChoirPart III: Going through (the places and creatures)

In the file

• People: Tomas Rehn, Lina Dahl, Viktor Saar, Dr Hanna Ek, Ruth Abel and J. Rask.
• Places: The cells and The land beyond the rift.

In the game

The note you find in the game:

Year 29, month 12, day 8. Taken on the land's western arm beyond T-001, near the cracks where the ground gives way to nothing, after the surveyor walking point, Ruth Abel, felt something catch at her ankle and looked down to see only a cord running off over the ground toward the edge. Then it pulled.

A tall, thin figure of void, with a cord of the same void running out of a hole in its chest.

It does not need to reach a subject. From a distance it casts the cord, latches on and draws the subject slowly toward the nearest edge of the void; where there is no void near, it reels them in to itself. A cut cord frees them, and so does its death.

The cell holds it as long as nothing stands within its cast. Status: contained, with incidents.

Today it is found at the lab and in the rift.

It goes down after losing 1500 ml of its 4100 ml of blood. How it hunts and where it turns up: see the zombies page.

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