Port Threshold¶

Civilization

The busiest crossing in the multiverse. Take a ticket.

At a glance
Kind of world	Civilization
Serum in the arrival Box	2 ampoules
Native Serum stand-in	Quarantine Coolant
Quests	Yes: see your Traveler's Guide

Screenshot comingport-threshold-hall

The Arrivals Hall: a crane lowering a Box onto a numbered pad under a glass roof of brass and green marble, queue stanchions and split-flap boards below

What happens when you arrive¶

A hundred and twelve years ago a Box came through the roof of this world's national museum, and instead of worshipping it, they took it apart. Now every arriving Box is caught by a crane and set down on a numbered pad in a cathedral of brass and green marble, and the PA welcomes you to the busiest crossing in the multiverse. A man in a cap is waiting by the pads. He has a ticket for you. Its number is 4817. The board says 112.

You can't break or build anything in the city: every fitting is bolted down. (Out at sea, beyond the city, you can.)

The rule: take a ticket¶

Nothing here will hurt you. What stands between you and the city is paperwork, and the paperwork is the game. Your visa level decides which districts the turnstiles let you into:

Visa	How you get it	Opens
Transit	Arriving.	The Arrivals Hall, the café and the Museum.
Visitor	Your first clean pass through customs.	The airside hall, the Exchange and the Departure Concourse.
Resident	Three jobs for the Authority or the Exchange.	The Licensed Workshop.
Courier	The Authority's own story (see below).	The Box Authority tower and the Gate Engine.

Used from the front, a turnstile asks for your papers and sets you down on the far side. From behind it always lets you out. A Forged Passport stands in for any visa, but one time in six a guard looks closely and keeps it.

Your first quest: Through Customs¶

Step	What to do
1	Take a ticket from Ticket Clerk Pell by the pads.
2	Wait for your number (about three minutes), or skip the queue (see below).
3	Declare your goods to Inspector Moll Akhtar at desk four.
4	Walk through the scanner arch behind desk four.
5	If the scanner sends you to the yellow line, wait there until you're whole.

You come out with a Threshold Passport and a Visitor visa. The passport is a leather book with a stamp for every world you have been to, and it works in any world.

Ways to skip the queue

Tip Pell: 3 Threshold Credits, an emerald, or a gold ingot. Your number comes right up.
Compliment his hat. It works one time in three. Everyone likes the hat.
Swing at the staff. Security walks you straight to the front of the line, which is exactly where you wanted to be.

What the scanner reads¶

The light curtain reads you, not what you told the inspector.

If you are...	What happens
Decoherent	You are sent to the yellow line until it wears off.
Carrying matter from Plenty	It is taken (it would tear itself apart out here anyway).
Carrying Serum you didn't declare	It is held at the desk. Moll gives it all back for 4 Credits, however many ampoules.

The Serum check happens on your first crossing only. After that, a passport holder's ampoules are their own business.

Screenshot comingport-threshold-scanner

The scanner arch behind desk four, its light curtain glowing, with the yellow line painted beside it

The city¶

Place	What is there
Arrivals Hall	The pads, the queue, Pell, the Information Robot's kiosk, the café, the yellow and red lines.
Airside hall	The departure boards and the coolant racks.
The Exchange	Broker Sato's stall and the Requisition board.
Licensed Workshop	Engineer Ottoline Vance fits Box upgrades. Residents only.
Departure Concourse	Ten gates, each themed for the world it trades with.
The Museum	Where the first Box came down. Professor Ada Lindqvist lives at the top of the tower at its west end.
The Undercroft	Tunnels under the hall, down the stair in the airside floor. Quill the fence keeps a stall here.
The Gate Engine	Under the Undercroft. Couriers only.

The Information Robot knows the answer to every question, slowly. It has been asked not to mention the Undercroft.

Earning Threshold Credits¶

Threshold Credits are the city's money, and every counter takes them.

Carry parcels for Broker Sato: each Exchange Parcel is addressed to someone in the crossing (Mirela the cook, Pell, the Robot, Moll, the Authority receptionist or Quill). Deliver it by hand for 5 Credits (Mirela adds a pretzel). Three deliveries make you a Resident.
Work desk five (see below).
Sell to the Exchange and fill Requisitions.
The café gives you one free Arrivals Coffee.

The Exchange and the departure boards¶

The ten gates trade with ten worlds, and each gate's board shows how that line is running today. Trouble on a line moves the price of its good: a blizzard at Coldhearth sends fire-starters up, a robot strike in Neo New York makes robot parts crash. Every traveler sees the same prices on the same day.

Gate	World	Good
1	Coldhearth	Tamsin's Stormglass Ember (fire-starters)
2	Neo New York	Vacuum Tube (robot parts)
3	Isla Ámbar	Amber Chunk
4	Rootbound	Amber Sap
5	The Exhibit	Zoo Token
6	Spook Central	Ectoplasm Residue
7	Plenty	Gold Ingot
8	The Testing Grounds	Slice of Cake
9	Lilliput	Lilliput Brick
10	The Grid	Code Fragment

Broker Sato buys and sells each gate's good at today's price, bids on goods from any other world you carry, and changes other worlds' money for Credits at a posted rate.

The Requisition board posts three bounties a day for goods from worlds you have actually walked in, and pays two and a half times what the broker would. Each thing you fill is remembered, so it never pays twice.

Screenshot comingport-threshold-boards

The split-flap departure boards over the Concourse, one gate flipping to DELAYED

Shops¶

All prices are in Threshold Credits.

=== "Licensed Workshop (Ottoline Vance)"

Residents only. Licensed parts, licensed fitting, licensed prices.

| Credits | You get |
| --- | --- |
| 24 | <span class="mw-item" title="Viewing Port"><img class="mw-icon" src="/assets/icons/box_viewing_port.png" alt="" loading="lazy"><b>Viewing Port</b></span> |
| 12 | <span class="mw-item" title="Box Lamp"><img class="mw-icon" src="/assets/icons/box_lamp.png" alt="" loading="lazy"><b>Box Lamp</b></span> |
| 32 | <span class="mw-item" title="Quick Seal"><img class="mw-icon" src="/assets/icons/box_quick_seal.png" alt="" loading="lazy"><b>Quick Seal</b></span> |
| 48 | <span class="mw-item" title="Destination Memory"><img class="mw-icon" src="/assets/icons/box_destination_memory.png" alt="" loading="lazy"><b>Destination Memory</b></span> |
| 16 | <span class="mw-item" title="Registration Plate"><img class="mw-icon" src="/assets/icons/box_registration_plate.png" alt="" loading="lazy"><b>Registration Plate</b></span> |
| 2 to 6 | Terminal blocks: green marble, limestone, polished brass, brass rails, bevelled glass, lamps, stanchions, benches, stamps, a split-flap board |

=== "The Undercroft (Quill)"

Bootleg parts at about half the price, and no questions.

| Credits | You get |
| --- | --- |
| 10 | <span class="mw-item" title="Bootleg Viewing Port"><img class="mw-icon" src="/assets/icons/bootleg_viewing_port.png" alt="" loading="lazy"><b>Bootleg Viewing Port</b></span> |
| 5 | <span class="mw-item" title="Bootleg Box Lamp"><img class="mw-icon" src="/assets/icons/bootleg_box_lamp.png" alt="" loading="lazy"><b>Bootleg Box Lamp</b></span> |
| 12 | <span class="mw-item" title="Bootleg Quick Seal"><img class="mw-icon" src="/assets/icons/bootleg_quick_seal.png" alt="" loading="lazy"><b>Bootleg Quick Seal</b></span> |
| 20 | <span class="mw-item" title="Bootleg Destination Memory"><img class="mw-icon" src="/assets/icons/bootleg_destination_memory.png" alt="" loading="lazy"><b>Bootleg Destination Memory</b></span> |
| 6 | <span class="mw-item" title="Forged Registration Plate"><img class="mw-icon" src="/assets/icons/bootleg_registration_plate.png" alt="" loading="lazy"><b>Forged Registration Plate</b></span> |
| 30 | <span class="mw-item" title="Forged Passport"><img class="mw-icon" src="/assets/icons/forged_passport.png" alt="" loading="lazy"><b>Forged Passport</b></span> |
| 2 | <span class="mw-item" title="Quarantine Coolant"><img class="mw-icon" src="/assets/icons/quarantine_coolant.png" alt="" loading="lazy"><b>Quarantine Coolant</b></span> |

=== "The café (Mirela)"

| Credits | You get |
| --- | --- |
| 2 | <span class="mw-item" title="Arrivals Pretzel"><img class="mw-icon" src="/assets/icons/arrivals_pretzel.png" alt="" loading="lazy"><b>Arrivals Pretzel</b></span> |
| 1 | <span class="mw-item" title="Arrivals Coffee"><img class="mw-icon" src="/assets/icons/arrivals_coffee.png" alt="" loading="lazy"><b>Arrivals Coffee</b></span> |
| 1 | 2 Bread |
| 2 to 4 | Food from other worlds: pizza, fishwich, sourcake, pickled roots, cooked dinosaur meat, glorp jelly, star crisps, cake slices |
| 2 | Honey Bottle or Pumpkin Pie |
| 1 | 6 Sweet Berries |

Each upgrade is a panel that replaces one Box Panel in your Box. A Registration Plate gets your Box caught gently by the clamps here and landed on its own pad.

Desk Five¶

Ask Moll if the desk is hiring and she gives you the empty inspector's cell at desk five. Sit down, and travelers come up to the glass one at a time with their papers on your screen. Stamp green to let them in, red to turn them away, or press the button for Security.

Every stamp is judged against the day's rulebook. New rules arrive a day or two at a time, and they stay.
Each traveler judged right pays your rank's rate. Two mistakes are forgiven; each one after costs a Credit.
Finish a story shift with no more than two mistakes for a 3 Credit bonus and the next day of the story. A failed shift is worked again, with new faces.
Some travelers slip a bribe through the slot. Travelers you show mercy to leave gifts at your pad for next time.
Story shifts last 6 minutes; after the seven story shifts, daily shifts last 8 minutes at Chief's pay.

Rank	Shifts	Pay per traveler	New tool
Trainee	1 and 2	1
Inspector	3 and 4	2	The dose reader (who is Decoherent)
Senior	5 and 6	2	The bag scanner (what they carry)
Chief of Desk	7 and after	3	Questioning a traveler

The rulebook

Papers in date and one name on everything; the registration card matches the Box's plate; entry stamps are genuine; Decoherent travelers go to the yellow line; nobody from today's storm-struck worlds; diplomats approved unread; passengers need papers, alive or not; Coldhearth's fire goods must be declared; Serum must be declared; Echoes go to Security, never just turned away; and the Director's order: nobody carrying a Rescue Beacon gets in.

Faces from other worlds come to your glass, along with some special cases you will want to think hard about.

Screenshot comingport-threshold-desk

The view from inside desk five: a traveler at the glass, their papers on the desk screen, green and red stamps ready

The story: What the Engine Eats¶

After your seventh shift, the real story starts.

Step	What to do
1	Find Inspector Akhtar away from the desk.
2	Ask Nix Okonjo about the crate in the Undercroft.
3	Look in the crate under the stolen sign (the third tunnel).
4	Tell Moll what's in the crate. She gives you a Courier pass.
5	Take the Courier gate down to the Gate Engine.
6	Ask Professor Lindqvist what the Engine eats.
7	Hear out Director Cassius Brand, Moll and Nix.
8	Choose: Brand's post, Moll's gala or Nix's heist.

What the Engine eats, and the three endings (spoilers)

The crate is full of Coherence Cores with their Boxes' registration plates still wired on. The Engine runs on coherence, like the first Box, only a hundred thousand times hungrier. The impounded cores go in, and when that is not enough it drains a world far down the Corridor. The travelers whose cores were taken are sealed in stripped Boxes and pushed out after it. They call it Boxtown. Lindqvist designed the drain.

The first ending anyone reaches is the city's, for everyone, for good:

Side	How	What changes	Your reward
Moll's gala (Open Crossing)	Read the Impound Ledger by the Museum's statue at the anniversary gala.	No queue, no impounds, Brand gone, Moll at the desk as Chief. The Engine runs on traded coherence and Boxtown's drain stops.	20 Credits
Brand's post (Courier)	Accept the Director's offer.	You become a diplomat: processed on arrival, every gate open. Nothing else changes, and the deportee Boxes still go out every night.	30 Credits
Nix's heist (Lights Out)	Turn the Engine Heart Key on the catwalk round the heart.	The Engine is dead, boards blank, scanners and gates dark, the staff gone. Children play in the empty hall. Boxtown is freed.	A spare Coherence Core

Serum and getting home¶

The arrival Box's cache holds 2 Serum Ampoules. Declare them at desk four or the scanner holds them.
Native stand-in: Quarantine Coolant. It runs the Cryo Stabilizer without ice. Take 2 canisters a day free from the coolant racks in the airside hall, or buy them from Quill for 2 Credits each.

Tips¶

Declare everything on your first visit, especially Serum. It saves you 4 Credits and a talk with Moll.
Do three parcel runs early. Resident status opens the Workshop, and the runs walk you round the whole crossing.
Check the departure boards before selling: a delayed line is when its good is worth the most.
A Registration Plate is worth it if you come back often: your Box lands on its own pad.
The forged passport is tempting at 30 Credits, but a guard keeps it one time in six.

Birds¶

Birds you can photograph for your bird log here. Open one to turn it round, watch it move and hear its call.

Ticket Sparrow: common
The Gantry Crane: rare

Everything this world adds¶

13 blocks and items (click to open)

Arrival Ticket

Threshold Passport

Forged Passport

Threshold Credit

Approved Form

Denied Form

Exchange Parcel

Quarantine Coolant

Inspector's Lamp

Arrivals Pretzel

Arrivals Coffee

Impound Ledger

Engine Heart Key

The traveler's tape¶

Every arrival Box has a chest by its door holding a cassette: the last traveler reading their journal of this world aloud. This is what they say. It gives a lot away.

Read the journal (spoilers)

There's a world where they've built a whole airport for us. A crane caught my Box out of the air and put it down on a pad with a number on it, and a man in a cap gave me a ticket. I waited six hours. They took my fingerprints and my spare ampoule, and the woman at the desk said 'Welcome.' I've never felt less welcome. The café was nice. If you go: declare the Serum, don't make eye contact with the scanners, and if you're in a hurry, the clerk takes tips.