The Power of the Crossroad

In the Shadow called 'Crossroad' stands a monstrosity; what would be viewed in some
Shadows (like our own) as an avant-garde dry-humor monument to post-Eisenhower
construction. On a dry, wasted plan of scrub and sagebrush, littered with detritus
and roadside garbage from half-a-hundred worlds, stands a monolith close to three
hundred feet tall.

All in all, it looks like a massive interstate 'cloverleaf' junction, about nine
levels high.

It is no normal juncture, though: if you look closely, you can see that some of the
paved paths are made of set stonework, like ancient Roman highways... some (near
the bottom and almost constantly shadowed) appear to be cobblestone, of all
things... some are overgrown, some are crumbling, a few are even pristine...

And not one leads anywhere.

So it seems to the naked eye, at any rate.

If you can see with eyes that see the True Way of Things, however, you can see that
each road (the number of which is almost impossible to determine) leads off across
the waste: each with its own world wrapped around it, its own landscape providing a
backdrop, and even its own junctures along its route.

Of course, if you have such eyes, you are probably going to be more interested in
the knightmares and nightmares that crowd the shadows of the overpasses... and with
the pillars of clear brillance that flicker at the center of this network of Roads.

This is Crossroad, home to the homeless: a once-bright world-turned-Shadow during

the dark time when a prince's curse brought all roads under the sway of one Black
One, one Black Road that superseded all others. One Black Road that ravaged or
destroyed the lives of those in a thousand worlds...

Including this one.

This is Crossroad.
The Crossroad Partial Power Breakdown
(First two abilities would be considered 'basic level').

Imprint - Shadow move/Sense Shadow's Power (10)

Walk the Roads (5)
Run the Roads (5)
Track User (5)
Invoke the Crossroad (10)

Imprint/Shadow-move/shape
Before one can move along the roads in Shadow using the junctions (hitches) between
shadow, you first have to learn to see and sense the power that lies behind all
Shadow, and Realize that the perceived differences in each Shadow are largely
cosmetic. (They can still KILL you, but they're still basically cosmetic --
nightmare creatures have an odd way of defining 'cosmetic'.)

An initiate of this level canNOT create gateways to a known location in shadow, but
can learn to sense the 'natural' openings that can be used to pass into another
Shadow. However, even compared to someone who can 'walk the roads', this level of
movement is painfully slow, and an initiate at this level has not yet learned to
read the signs around a juncture to deduce whether the Shadow on the other side
lies in the direction he needs to go, or even if the Shadow is inimical to the
initiate's life. As such, this is a very slow, dangerous means to travel about, but
a necessary step along the way to learning how to 'Walk'.

Walk the Roads

Learn to walk the roads of Shadow, learn to sense the various junctions -- the
places where you can take a simple side-step, or a twist, or merely hold your
breath at the right moment to visit the world next door. On a road, so long as you
can move, it is possible to move through Shadow by 'Moving through Junctions'.

This is done by sensing and using the places in each world where an opening exists
or can be made to another world. At one time, these points might have been random,
but over the aeons, sentient will and superstition (mostly the later) have shaped
the realities of each world, drawing these junctures to points of transition:
through doors, gateways, beneath ladders...

...and over Crossroads.

Run the Roads

Simply put, a skilled user of the Junctures that lie along roads can manipulate and
use these openings even when moving quickly or when not fully concentrating, which
(at least when used in the 'fast movement' situation) allows the initiate to move
much more quickly from juncture to juncture.

Track User
Higher levels of attunement allow an initiate to sense disturbances in the stuff of
Shadow, allowing them to follow another initiate of the Crossroad, or to simply to
sense other major disturbances to nearby Shadow (such as the passage of an Amberite
Hellrider or Logrus Master).

Invoke the Crossroad

Some nightmarelings have made enigmatic statements that imply that it's possible to
stand in the center of the Crossroad (the true Crossroad, not any random meeting of
paths) and invoke its power -- some say it will take you wherever you will, or
wherever IT will... but the only beings Cal's seen enter the center of the
Crossroad have vaporized, so the tales are either garbage, or there's more to it
than just walking to the middle.