Atium Tunnels

Despite the total lack of light and constant, confusing turns in the Pits, convicts- particularly skaa- are expected to navigate them well enough each week to find the precious atium geodes demanded by the administrators. Many are incapable of doing so, and collapse from dehydration, starvation, or exhaustion after becoming lost. New miners quickly become used to crawling over corpses in varying stages of decay; after all, it’s only one more horror in their harsh lives, and a small one when compared to the constant threat of death hanging over their heads. So narrow and low that at times they are almost impossible to get through, these tunnels are the dread- and the only hope- of every convict forced to live here.