“Silence scares me now. Whatever followed me two floors didn’t make a single sound, and I only knew it was there because the hum got louder.”
Wanderers repeat it to the newly arrived: here, fear is something you see. Almost no creature in Level 0 makes a sound. The hum of the fluorescents covers everything, and whatever walks the corridors moves without warning. This entry gathers what the archive has noted about how each one sounds and what it means to hear it.
How each one sounds
| Creature | What you hear |
|---|---|
| Stalker, Prowler, Grille | Nothing. All three are mute |
| Children and Watcher | Footsteps, up to about 22 meters, and a voice |
| Disguised Skinstealer | The footsteps of the person it imitates |
| Revealed Skinstealer | A surge of chase sound |
| Smiler | Layers of hum and breathing, see Smiler: Smoke Body, Face and Sound |
Silence and the Pulse
The place is never entirely silent. At 14 or 26 meters away, something distant sounds every 35 to 110 seconds, whether a door, a drag or a thud. The shape changes with distance, and the place seems to set a rhythm of calm, tension, peak and lull that is the Pulse. Wanderers who have studied it say that a sudden silence, when the hum is left with nothing to accompany it, usually precedes a creature.
How to survive
- Don’t expect to hear it. Whoever trusts footsteps runs out of time.
- Distrust distant sounds. Hearing footsteps far off doesn’t mean someone is there, and sometimes they correspond to nothing.
- If you hear footsteps that are your own, count your group, because it could be a Skinstealer.
- If the hum changes pitch, stop.
- Consult the footstep echo and the propagation of sound, because knowing when you hear something helps you know when you don’t.
What people say
Two who hid in a cupboard note that Prowlers drag something metallic and that the Stalker weighs more than it seems. Neither heard them close enough. There is no agreement on whether the silence is a tactic of the creatures or the way the place hides them. A comparison is in Field Guide: Creatures.