UNDERWANDERERField archive
Case file E-016EntitiesLevel 0Very high

Skinstealer

It imitates a survivor: a believable name, a pose, an object in hand. It lives alongside you as one of your own, it is avoided by looking at it, and it never speaks.

Testimony

“I’d have sworn it was one of ours, flashlight and all. It walked the same. Then it stood still and that was it, it didn’t anymore.”

The Skinstealer is the oldest horror entity in the archive, a survivor who isn’t one. It approaches the way a person would, copies the pose and the object in hand, and passes itself off as one more of you. In Level 0 today there lives a harmless version that stalks, shadows and searches, but does not strike.

How to recognize it

It wears no label and has no different shape. It looks like any other survivor and dresses like the rest. The only thing that gives it away is its behavior.

  • It doesn’t speak.
  • It doesn’t answer messages.
  • It goes still as soon as you look at it.

It also doesn’t show up in your group’s headcount, and whoever counts by hand finds there is one too many. States, figures and voice in Skinstealer: Behavior, Measurements and Voice.

How it lives in Level 0

  • It spawns far away. Between twenty-four and seventy-two meters from you and out of direct sight, and it withdraws if the whole group ends up more than ninety-six meters away. At most one per survivor, and four in the whole world.
  • A false name. It doesn’t copy anyone’s name. It takes a believable one from a list of forty, different from those of all the survivors and of the other Skinstealers.
  • It lives alongside you. The first time it sees you, it spends five to eight minutes “as one of you.” It keeps five to twelve meters away, sometimes follows you in stretches of four to ten seconds, stops for three to nine, looks around, crouches every twenty to fifty seconds, and toggles its flashlight every minute or two. This happens only once per Skinstealer.
  • Then it stalks. It shadows, searches and closes in, but never strikes and never reveals itself.

How to survive

  1. If someone doesn’t answer to voice or messages, don’t write them off as mute. Count the group.
  2. Watch it. A real survivor keeps moving, and the Skinstealer stops.
  3. Keep the group together, because splitting you up is what it wants.
  4. Don’t approach to check. Fall back toward your own.

What people say

The word is that on old runs the Skinstealer took off its mask and screamed for a second and a half before pouncing. There is no record of this in the current Level 0. Others say it copies the voice or leaves messages on the walls. See its movement and the scare.

Relationship to other creatures

It shares with the Smiler and the Watchers the way of presenting itself as just another part of the place, though it is the only one that imitates a survivor. See the comparison, the audio and the Pulse, which decides when it appears.

Sub-entries

E-017 · EntitiesSkinstealer: Behavior, Measurements and VoiceThe Skinstealer’s thirteen phases of behavior, from wandering to the grab, with its field measurements and the ten voices it has been heard to make.E-018 · EntitiesSkinstealer in Level 0: Movement and ScareHow the Skinstealer moves through the corridors of Level 0. It appears far off, stalks you, reveals itself and runs at you, stopping at a meter and a half.

Mentioned in

L-001 · LevelsLevel 0: yellow officesEndless offices of damp carpet and humming fluorescents. Every wanderer wakes here, and nobody leaves by the way they came in.E-026 · EntitiesWatcherAn adult sitting in an office chair, back turned, who slowly turns their head to follow you. It does nothing else.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.O-013 · ObjectsCans, Food and BottlesSix things to eat or drink, with how much hunger and thirst each removes. What is on the shelves, when there is anything.E-020 · EntitiesSmilerA figure of smoke with two eyes and a smile, at the far end of the corridor. It only advances when nobody is looking, and nobody has seen how.P-002 · PhenomenaA Day Down ThereExplore, loot, stabilize and return: the routine of anyone surviving in a labyrinth that moves. Tear off a piece of it and make it yours.E-013 · EntitiesLegacy RecordsThree names the archive keeps from another era: Lurker, Crawler and Shadow. Nobody has seen them in the current Level 0.P-007 · PhenomenaThe PulseThe place seems to keep its own rhythm of calm, stalking, peak and lull. Wanderers call it the Pulse.E-002 · EntitiesHow Creatures SoundAlmost no creature in Level 0 makes a noise, so silence is the warning, and what makes no sound is usually what is closest.E-022 · EntitiesSmiler: The Smoke FrontAccounts of a Smiler that doesn’t walk but spreads like smoke across floor, ceiling and cracks, and always ends up withdrawing.O-017 · ObjectsFloor NotesPapers on the carpet, sometimes pinned. A sentence from someone who had time to write before disappearing.E-024 · EntitiesField Guide: CreaturesHow to recognize each Level 0 creature, what it does if it reaches you, and what to do before you find out.