>Insight: how long until we reach a populated area?
>This is a difficult question to answer. So far, you've seen almost no sign of animal life, let alone anything that might conceivably have a civilization as you might easily recognize it. You've not heard a single bird cry or insect hum, or seen anything that suggests to you that civilization exists. There are two real exceptions, and you're not entirely certain what to make of them.
>One is the door that lead you hear, which is clearly artificial in nature. However, while artificial, it feels that it wasn't built in any normal manner. It may be a magical construction, or it might have been something created out of then air by the act of a god or a similar being, while has never physically been to this place. Even more weirdly, it may not be "artificial" at all, but arose as "organically" as this place has. With things as they stand, you've seen no signs of anything that might have built it in any normal manner, even making exceptions for the fact is connects to someplace else.
>The other thing that might have suggested intelligent beings here are the unfinished statues that you save in the caverns. They...could have been the work of some being or beings. But, aside from those statues, you haven't seen any sign that anything intelligent lived there. It seems to suggest that they might not be proper statues at all, and may have origins similar to the doorway. Another more disturbing possibility is that they aren't truly statues, but beings that have been turned into stone. Or, possibly, stone that has made some steps toward becoming a being. Right now, you cannot really answer that particular question.
>With regards to a populated area, the closest thing you can really say is that you don't expect to find one in any of the places that you have visited. If there is one to be found, likely it would be through a gap that you have yet to traverse. Even then, you don't feel very optimistic about finding such a thing. You feel well and truly alone here, more than you can easily remember being.
>Make our way carefully down to that tunnel.
>You make your way carefully to the tunnel, moving step by step and taking care to keep your balance. As you reach the edge of the tunnel, you can see it curves rightward, sloping further downward and seemingly following along the edge of the shapeless mound that the bubble rests upon and reaching deeper into it. After a moment, you think you catch the hint of a lone noise down the hall, a single distant sound on the edge of your hearing. After a moment, you hear another one like it, confirming that you weren't just imagining it.
>_