Testimony
“Something fell really far away and all I got was a low rumble, no direction. I don’t know where it was, but it was big.”
Sound in Level 0 arrives by two routes, the direct one, which is heard more or less clean, and the one that hides behind the partitions. Wanderers learn early to tell them apart, because knowing whether what you hear is in your corridor or two rooms away depends on it.
What you hear and how
- Occlusion by walls. A phone, a hum or a footstep sounds more muffled the more partitions the straight line between you and the source crosses. It works up to about 18 meters. It does not bend around corners, and if the straight line is clear it sounds sharp even if the real route is long.
- Reverberation by room. Each type of zone has its own echo. An open office does not sound like a service duct, and you notice the difference when you cross the door.
- Isolation by floor. The hum and ambient noise do not pass through a floor slab. What sounds on the floor below does not come up.
What does not happen
There is nothing special for a loud, distant sound. All sounds with a known range in Level 0 die out between 7 and 18 meters. There is no propagation around corners either, and a shout on the other side of a corner arrives as if it had been said through the wall, not as if it had gone around the corridor.
How to survive
- Don’t trust volume to judge distance. A muffled sound can come from very close, right on the other side of the wall.
- A clear sound means a free straight line. If you hear it clean, whoever is making it can see you.
- To calibrate, count partitions. Two walls between you and the noise make it almost inaudible at 18 meters.
- Your own footsteps follow the same rules. See Footsteps on Carpet and Footsteps and Footwear.
What people say
- After a blow or a shout you hear a low, delayed rumble, hundreds of meters away. It is a low echo, with no direction, that arrives about half a beat later, and the most unsettling part, they say, is not being able to locate it.
- Those who have heard it say it is the warning that something alive is on the other side, without saying where.
- Whether sound manages to bend around corners in certain zones, or whether a very loud one crosses a floor slab, depends on who you ask. The old-timers say yes and the archive’s measurements say no.
- The Skinstealer remains the exception, because its voice seems to arrive wherever it wants.
Mentioned in
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.P-019 · PhenomenaGreat HallsHalls 48 to 96 meters across where the ceiling disappears. They are the only relief from the corridors and the only place where you feel small.P-028 · PhenomenaFluorescent HumThe sound of the place is a low electrical hum that never quite goes quiet and, now and then, something being dragged far away.E-003 · EntitiesCrawlerThe frailest of the legacy records, with thirty health points in the reports. Its name suggests something dragging itself along the floor.S-017 · SublevelsPit FieldAbout twenty-five small holes in the floor, each with a crude platform at the bottom, and a single walkable path.S-016 · SublevelsFallen Ceiling TilesUnder every gap in the drop ceiling, a piece of tile on the carpet. Above, the gap was already there.S-020 · SublevelsBreaking Walls and FloorsSome say a wall or floor in Level 0 can be broken, and that what is broken stays broken for everyone. Nobody has managed it.