New Vance City

The Siphon Gallery is an old inspection corridor turned open secret among the denizens of the Waterworks. Once used to monitor flow rates from the underground reservoirs, it's now a derelict stretch of winding tunnels and vertical shafts where off-grid water siphoning operations quietly thrive. Hidden behind a rusted maintenance door beneath Pump Station 9, the Gallery is technically off-limits—but few things in New Vance stay sealed forever. Makeshift valves and stolen filtration gear litter the space, installed by smugglers and black-market techs hoping to tap into the Hegemony’s flow without paying the water tax. Some treat the Gallery like a communal well, others like a goldmine. But the deeper you go, the stranger it gets. Moisture hangs in the air like breath, and the walls throb with a low, rhythmic pulse—like the pipes themselves are alive and aware. Most never reach the final chamber, where the water runs warm, and the silence is so heavy it crushes your thoughts.

The Siphon Gallery resembles a half-flooded digestive tract of the city—long, narrow corridors lined with sweating metal, flaking warning paint, and makeshift scaffolding made from scavenged piping. Fluorescent strips flicker behind rust-caged casings, casting pale green light across slick floors riddled with algae and discarded tubing. A tangled network of valves, hacked meters, and re-routed piping runs along the walls like exposed veins. The deeper areas narrow into cramped crawlspaces, with old signage barely legible beneath mineral crusts. At the Gallery’s far end, a circular chamber swirls with lukewarm vapor, its curved walls humming faintly with pressure—a still, drowned heart in the system’s dark body.