Stash

You will find small storage rooms while exploring — Supply Caches, Utility Closets, Maintenance Bays, and Ice Vaults up in the mountains. They work like chests. Walk in, put things down, pick things up.

There are hundreds of them in a sector, so you are rarely far from somewhere to leave what you cannot carry.

What's Already In There

Some rooms hold something when you first reach them. Most don't — expect to clear several before one pays out.

Essence shards are the usual find. They get better the further you are from the centre of the world, matching what the monsters out there would have dropped.
Starter gear — a cloth cap, vest, leggings, wraps, sandals, a walking stick — only turns up near the centre, in the first couple of sectors. Past that it stops appearing, because by then you should have better.
Starter gear has no stats of its own. Every one of those items exists to hold a shard. Anything a monster drops beats them in the same slot.

Loot a room once and it stays looted. Walking out and back in doesn't refill it. What a room holds is fixed to that room, so it's the same find for whoever reaches it first — and once it's gone, it's gone.

Free Storage

Dropping something into the room you are standing in costs nothing. Picking it back up costs nothing. That is all most players ever need.

The catch is that anything left in a room can be taken. If a faction captures the tile, the contents go with it. If you're nervous about an item, carry it or put it on a network.

Unclaimed Rooms

A stash room on unclaimed ground is a commons. Anyone can walk in, take what's there, and leave things behind. Nobody owns any of it, including things another player left.

Taking from one isn't stealing — there's no claim to violate. Call it scavenging.

If a faction later claims that tile, the room becomes theirs and you lose access to the door. Whatever was inside stays where it is; it doesn't become anyone's property, and it isn't added to their network.

Faction Networks

If you're in a faction that holds two or more stash rooms, you can link them into one shared inventory. Any member can then reach any linked item from any of those rooms.

The item never duplicates. It physically stays where it was deposited, and pulling it to you is transport — the room hums while it travels.

Linking costs DENSITY

Putting an item on the network draws DENSITY shards from your faction's HQ reserve, based on the item's weight. Storing mass is paid for in the currency of mass.

If the reserve can't cover it, the new item fails to link. It isn't destroyed, and it doesn't knock anything else off — it just sits in the room as ordinary storage, free to pick up, simply not networked. Newcomers get rejected; whatever is already linked stays linked.

Donate more shards to the reserve and rejected items get reconsidered automatically. There's also a Relink action if you want to force the check.

Pulling costs KINETIC

Retrieving an item from a different room than the one you're standing in costs KINETIC shards from your own pack, scaled by weight and distance. Retrieving from the room you're in is always free.

If Your Faction Dies

The HQ reserve is destroyed. Nobody gets those shards, including whoever killed you.
Every link collapses. The network stops existing.
Rooms on tiles nobody contested become unclaimed commons, contents intact, open to anyone who walks in.

Quick Reference

Storing and retrieving where you stand: free.
Linking an item: DENSITY from the faction reserve.
Pulling across the network: KINETIC from your pack, weight x distance.
A rejected deposit is safe — it stays put as ordinary storage.
Unclaimed rooms are open to everyone. Take, don't "steal."
Loot is rolled once per room. Empty it and it stays empty.