UNDERWANDERERField archive
Case file O-014ObjectsAll levels

Hand-Crank Flashlight

The only light that never fully runs out, because you can always stop and wind it. But lit, it gives you away at almost forty meters.

Testimony

“With it you see more, but you’re seen more too. And if I hear a crank somewhere, I know where its owner is.”

The hand-crank flashlight is the light source most wanderers carry. Its charge is never fully spent, because it is recovered by turning the crank. The price is stopping, and standing still in Level 0 with your hands busy is the last thing a survivor wants.

Charge

  • The charge belongs to each flashlight, not to the wanderer. A flashlight you pick up carries its own, and keeps it if you leave it in a shelter or take it off another’s corpse.
  • Below a minimum it won’t turn on. You have to turn the crank.
  • The charge shows as the item’s wear, with no separate bar.

How it is used

It is held in the hand, and the crank turns while you keep it pressed, not with a single stroke. The more you turn, the more charge. It is a long, rhythmic, noisy motion, and the ratchet can be heard from a few rooms away.

The price of light

A lit flashlight gives you away. Other wanderers see the beam and detect you at 38 m. With it you see better, but you are also more visible. Level 0 is full of things that look toward wherever there is light, and the Smiler is the worst.

Smiler very close, with the flashlight on
Smiler very close, with the flashlight on

Survivor tips

  • Turn it off when crossing a long empty corridor. The total darkness of Level 0 is no worse than the hum.
  • Turn the crank with your back against a wall, never at an intersection.
  • If you hear a crank in another chunk, don’t go looking for the light, and wait to see who arrives.
  • Watch your sanity when you use the light, because in complete darkness what you see out of the corner of your eye multiplies.

What is said

  • Those who have found flashlights describe them with different residual charge, never completely full.
  • Some say the crank noise attracts certain creatures that hear, not only those that see. No group agrees on which ones.

See also Consumables.

Mentioned in

O-008 · ObjectsConsumablesFood, drink and medicine, the only things that refill the body’s bars. There is little, it is scattered and the labels come torn.L-002 · LevelsLevel 1: habitable warehouseFourteen-meter concrete bays, shelves and pallets under a sparse amber light. Everything that falls down the pits ends up here.O-024 · ObjectsBandages and WoundsThe bandage doesn’t heal. It closes the wound on an arm, and the strip of cloth is the only sign that you did it right.L-003 · LevelsLevel 2: service tunnelsNarrow corridors of wet concrete, pipes and machine rooms under a flickering light. The dripping never stops.P-015 · PhenomenaEnvironmental EventsA lamp that bursts, a zone blackout, fuses that come back. Level 0 changes even if nobody touches it.E-019 · EntitiesShadowThe third of the legacy records, with forty health points. By its name it would be the creature of the dark, but no one has seen it.