The Reservoir is a location on the Stranger. It is an enormous reservoir with wooden piers and buildings on both shores.
Description[]
Features[]
Sign of the Reservoir
The Reservoir's main feature is its wooden dam, which is responsible for holding all the water back. The region itself contains several buildings which can be entered, as well as the Submerged Structure that is located below the water. The main way to enter the Reservoir is from either the Cinder Isles or the Hidden Gorge.
On the left shore is a slide reel theater, where one slide reel can be found. However, the slide reel storage building containing the slide has collapsed into the water. This makes it necessary to either dive down to obtain it, or to wait for the dam's collapse. The slide reel shows how the Stranger's inhabitants locked up the Prisoner inside the Submerged Structure.
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The slide reel theater -
Theater interior -
The flooded slide reel storage building
Near the slide reel theater is the building which contained the controls for the Eye signal blocker. The entrance is locked with a symbol sequence. This sequence can be found by firing the Scout through a broken wall in the building adjacent to the entrance.
Inside the building is a room with the burned control interface of the Eye signal blocker. Next to this room is a projection showing the broken connection between the Eye signal blocker and the Stranger. This room also contains the entrance's symbol sequence which the Scout can photograph.
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The building leading to the Eye signal blocker controls -
The burned Eye signal blocker control interface
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Projection indicating the broken connection between the Stranger and the blocker
On the right shore is the building where the controls for the Submerged Structure used to be located. It can be entered from a hole in the floor by diving into the water. Inside is the burned control interface that was used to lower the Submerged Structure into the water. It also contains an image of the interior of the Submerged Structure, indicating how it can be entered from below.
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Submerged Structure control building
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Burned control interface of the Submerged Structure
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Image showing the interior of the Submerged Structure
The top of the dam has several rooms on the right side that can be entered. The main hallway leads to an observation room with a view of the Solar System. Two other rooms branch from this hallway. One leads to an elevator that goes down to the sunward ship bay entrance of the Stranger. This elevator can also be used when entering the Stranger, providing a shortcut to the Reservoir.
The other room contains a projection indicating the Stranger's position relative to the Sun. As the Sun's activity increases over time, this projection shows the Stranger slowly moving beyond the reach of the supernova.
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Observation room near the dam
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The elevator at the sunward entrance
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The projection room showing the Stranger's movement
Dam[]
The top of the dam
The defining feature of the Reservoir is its dam. The top of the dam has a raft elevator that can be used to cross from the Reservoir into the River Lowlands. The dam also has grates that can be swum through.
The Reservoir after the dam break
The Stranger's sails activate around seven minutes into the loop to move the spacecraft away from the impending supernova. Due to the strain this puts on the Stranger, the dam starts breaking down. 13 minutes into the loop, the dam eventually bursts. The receding water destroys one of the raft elevators and exposes the Submerged Structure to the surface. It also becomes harder to access the buildings on the right shore.
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The dam at the start of the loop
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The dam close to breaking
History[]
Inhabitants building the Eye signal blocker
The Reservoir always held significance to the inhabitants of the Stranger due to the presence of the dam. After the inhabitants decided to build a spacecraft that could block the signal of the Eye of the Universe, they built its control interface on the side of the Reservoir. When they constructed a simulation based on their home moon, the inhabitants set up the Stranger to autonomously move away from the Sun once it starts going supernova. All inhabitants then went to sleep inside the simulation.
The structure being submerged
Sometime later, one individual woke up from the simulation and went over to the Eye signal blocker controls. They disabled the signal blocker, freeing the Eye's signal once more. However, the other inhabitants quickly caught this individual and reactivated the blocker. They built a Sealed Vault in the Reservoir which was used to imprison this individual. A bell-shaped structure was then constructed around the vault. This structure was subsequently submerged within the Reservoir.
The inhabitants burned the controls for the Submerged Structure, as well as the controls for the Eye signal blocker. Across the Stranger, they incinerated most of their slide reels inside Slide Burning Rooms, destroying all but a few slides. The Reservoir was then abandoned as the Stranger's inhabitants went to sleep in the simulation forever.