The Ladder

Under the pretense of an indefinite medical quarantine, elements within the Romanian government have conspired with European corporations and non-Gate holding members of the EU to sell regular access to their trap door, the Ladder. The European agents, governmental or private, go in under the cover of medical researchers or relief workers and smuggle out findings as Hazardous Materials.

First Romanian Post
In 1990, the capital city of Bucharest in Romania was the site of significant civil confusion, as their government was in the throes of radical political shifts. A significant portion of the city was destroyed and in that year, by means of what might have been intended as an atomic explosion...

Within a few months, the Romanian borders were closed to entry by the ad-hoc government created by the undamaged regions.

They have not since reopened to normal civilian traffic. However, diplomatic traffic, all of it cleared by the Romanian government, has since resumed, and is escalating. A significant number of militaries worldwide have sent military specialists into Romania for training within the last three years - almost all from nations with access to the Dungeon.

The first few fully-trained specialists have returned; those who have seen and met with these returnees note their pale, almost wasted appearance, along with significant symptoms of what looks like hugely accelerated aging.

Each has been immediately installed in their respective base as an instructor in "Xenomethodology" or some other bit of jargon.

The rumors abound, tiny pieces of 'who saw what' and 'what happened when'. But they all say, ultimately, the same thing...

They're doing magic. And it's killing them.