Omens

Omens are rare changes of the world: once every few days something happens and lasts from a minute to a day. Each comes where its current is — to murky water, to a living workshop, to Gauge Stones, in a storm or at sunset — and each has an answer in your hands and a reward right at the danger. Witness an omen and it is written here on its own page: what it is, how to answer it, what it rewards.

World events are switched off by the world rule "World events", cult raids by their own rule "Cult raids"; on a server it is decided for everyone, in single player by you.

The Procession of the Sunken comes to murky water by your workshop at night after rain: the Mirebearer carries a living mire tussock on its back and plants it in the water, where a new knot of mire will rise. Cleanse the water before they arrive and the procession turns back; break all of it while the tussock is still on its back and it dries into silt, and the Keener sometimes drops a Sunken Lament. Every three to six days, to whoever has studied "Mire"; a clean neighborhood does not call the raid.

The Toll Collection comes by day to a Gauge Stone you attuned: the Bailiff drives a Toll Tap into it, and three chunks around dry to the bottom of the bed. Strike the Bailiff down while he kneels at the stone and the Collection fails, leaving you a Toll Reliquary of drunk flux; too late, and you break the tap, and the flux returns in a splash. Every three to six days.

The Rounds of the Still are a threat to your workshop with a reward: at sunset the Order comes to a living workshop — where flux is drawn and still runs full — to stop it, and leaves still grains to whoever meets it. A Still Pane rises by the workshop: for twenty seconds it sets, and the Stillness shows through it. Thaw it with a Thaw Lantern within eight blocks or with quickwater, or break it with three blows, and there will be no raid, and grains are left by the pane. Too late, and the squad comes out: the Bellringer walks to the middle of the workshop to read the stone rite, while the Vowkeeper and the Clockbound guard him. A full-strength blow breaks the rite and it starts over; a squad broken before the stone leaves more grains, sometimes a Rule as well. Finish the rite, and a Halt Stone rises: in 3 × 3 chunks no device can draw flux until the stone is broken or a day has passed. Every four to seven days, until the Restart.

The Hour's Hitch is a gift and an alarm at once: at sunset the world falls into the Stillness's beat for three minutes, and Stilled people appear near you — their still memories and grains otherwise come only from the Stillness and from Snarls. The sun stands at the horizon, stars show by day, the light holds at sunset, and the flux in the world neither flows nor refills — use what you have. A Thaw Lantern within eight blocks or quickwater lets a person finish their step: they speak a line and leave a Still Memory, and every third one rises as a Laggard; a pickaxe breaks one into still grains. The untouched crumble once the sun moves on. Every seven to twelve days, for everyone in the world, if someone has seen the Stillness.

The Murk Storm strikes where the flux has stagnated: in a thunderstorm near a murky workshop, every twenty to forty seconds a murk discharge hits a murky chunk nearby — with no fire, so buildings do not burn. Two or three seconds before the strike a ring of runes cracks and hisses on the ground: step away. A lightning rod within thirty-two blocks catches the discharge and grounds it — six tenths of the chunk's murk turns into flux, so the storm cleans your workshop for free; on open ground the discharge burns murk away, but where murk is above half the bed and flux is being drawn, a Snarl is born; a Snarl nearby twists tighter unless it has a Weir. Whoever is caught takes three damage and Silting. A clean neighborhood does not call the Murk Storm. Every three to five days, for whoever has studied "Snarl".

The Upwelling is a night threat with a find: the Lees lie right under the water, and sometimes the bottom breathes out — a Lees Boil wells up on the bed of water near you. For ten minutes it raises murk in the chunk (up to three quarters of the bed: above a third, mire grows, and the Procession of the Sunken finds murky water), and Murk Fry rise from the bottom. Cap the boil: a Lumenash Grate in the stack above it (on the bottom and up to two blocks higher) clogs with silt in half a minute and dampens it by a third; a working Purifier in the chunk counts as a grate once a minute. Three thirds and the boil is capped, and finds float up from the bottom: Lees Shells, Bedsilt, sometimes Niello and a Murky Geode; rinse the clogged grates in running water as usual. A Sounding Lead thrown into the surface over a live boil raises a Whirlpool at once — a short way down to the Lees. An uncapped boil dies down on its own and leaves the murk behind. Every four to seven days, at night, for whoever has been to the Lees.

The Murkflow is a Lees threat with loot in its crest: murk flows in the Lees, and sometimes a surge drives it along the bottom. A wall of haze rises on one side and moves past you as a straight front, a block a second — a mod line tells you where it comes from. Whoever it engulfs gets Silting while inside (about ten seconds), and the fog closes in to twenty blocks; every chunk on its way gets three murk (the bed murk pulls it back by itself), and mire grows thicker there. The Murkflow passes the Bright Shallows and a chunk with a working Purifier by: one murk and no Silting — the lesson of a Clean Camp. Things of the bottom tumble in its crest — Lees Shells, Niello, Silt, Murky Geodes, rarely a still grain: strike one with a Pike Pole, as you would a Snarl's kink, and it flies to you; whatever is not snatched leaves with the front. Every twenty-five to forty minutes in the Lees, outside the Bright Shallows.

The Skeining gives you a new skein — born before your eyes, once every five to eight days, and you decide how it winds. By living water (a river, a swamp, a jungle), where the flux runs full and the murk stays below a third of the bed, the streams of the eight nearby chunks reach for a point above the water and twist like yarn on fingers: for the first minute they gather, for three minutes the bud grows, in the last one the threads draw tight, and a skein hangs above the water. A full vial of distillate poured on the bud makes its current a native thread — up to three, in place of the place's weakest threads; opposite Springs without Lattice wind a turbulent skein, Murk from a vial a murky one. Keep the water clean: murk at a third of the bed by the bud for twenty seconds winds a murky skein; draw no flux in the 3 × 3 chunks — ten seconds of work nearby make it greedy. A Lumenash nearby sometimes gives a lucent skein. Its size follows how full the chunks stayed: full gives a medium one, sometimes large; drunk dry, a small one. Go farther than sixty-four blocks and the bud unravels without a trace.

The Roll Call fills your workshop with flux and gives Channel Records — at a clear midnight the Gauge Stones check each other, as in the Reckoners' days. It needs your attuned stone and at least one more within a hundred and twenty-eight blocks. Yours answers first, then the others in turn: on each, the Marked Tiles light up from the bottom, and a thread of light runs to the nearest stone that has answered — the network of beds becomes visible. For two minutes the seams of these stones carry flux three times faster, and while you stay by your stone (within thirty-two blocks), the flux around each answering stone gathers to your workshop — their chunks never drop below six tenths of the bed. Read an answering stone with a Loupe — three times in ten it gives a Channel Record, no more than two per Roll Call. There is no danger. Every four to six days, for whoever has studied "Gauge Stones".

The Living Minute is a minute of flux in a world without flux, and still grains from the sky. The hand of the motionless hour sometimes slips by one mark: for whoever has spent half an hour to three quarters of an hour in the Stillness, outside a lantern's circle and the Thawed, the Stillness moves for a minute. Within forty-eight blocks of you the bed is sixteen: the Conduit, the Flux Workbench and devices work without their own store, and still skeins give up their threads — hurry to cast, craft and fill. Six to nine still grains fall from the sky within twenty-four blocks — frost flashes on the ground for a moment where a grain will land; gather them. Sentinels within forty-eight blocks wake and come for you, and if there are none, one steps out of its half-step: leave or meet it. The water stays glass, no block thaws. A click — and everything stands: the minute's flux is gone, the hand goes back.

The Spillover gives eight minutes of a rare current of place and full chunks: a Quickstream race spills over the brim of its bed and flows across the sky above the surroundings of someone who has been to the Quickstream. Under it — within sixteen blocks of its trace on the ground — the bed is 1.4 times as deep, and the current of place is the race's current: the Flux Workbench pays with it, Current Seeds grow by it, skeins wind their threads twice as fast, murk is carried away; fill a Flux Reservoir and a Belt Reliquary. A race can carry any current; the "guest" ones — Soul, Tempo, Echo, Halo — come more often. Climb up to it — with a Grapnel up a hill or a tree beneath it, with a Vane or Freshet Mantle, on a pillar of blocks — and it carries you like the races of the Quickstream: crouch to ride slowly, step out sideways with the movement keys. Schools of racefish stand in the race against its run — read them with a Loupe up close: that is how its current is discovered. In the last ten seconds the race lowers whoever it carries gently, and the flux above the bed flows off to the neighbors. There is no danger: it is a gift, but a short one. Every seven to twelve days.

The Racefish Run gives readings and rare currents: at dawn, for whoever has read a race, schools of light-fish swim up a clean river nearby — the bed of every chunk is a branch of the Quickstream, and its fish go up the branches. Each school carries its own current — the current of the place, and sometimes a guest one that never occurs here; some also carry one of the currents it is made of. Come within five blocks of a school and read it with a Loupe — that is how rare currents are discovered. Where a school has passed, the river freshens: flux rises by a twentieth of the bed, murk falls by a third. A murky river — murk from a sixth of the bed — turns the schools back: keep the river clean. A racefish cannot be caught: a blow, a hook and a bucket do not take it, it fades into light. Two to four schools over four minutes, every three to five days.

The Turn of the Wheel grants a day of unusual currents of place — and takes the usual ones away: the Tollkeepers in the Quickstream spin the Toll Wheel with the flux they have drunk, and from dawn to dawn the Springs of every place stand one step further along the Wheel — Tide reads as Strata, Strata as Ember, Ember as Gale, Gale as Tide. By a river the current of place is Strata, in a desert it is Gale; the Poles and the combined currents, items and creatures stay the same. Use it: a Flux Workbench recipe or Current Seeds that lacked a Spring of the place will come together today; or wait it out — a Brimming Jug by a river is silent for the day. A Loupe on the place says the Wheel is turned. At the start of the day a wheel shows in the sky and turns a quarter, at the end it turns back. Defeat a Tollfarmer at his Toll Barrage and the Wheel is never turned again. Every eight to twelve days, for everyone in the world, if someone has met the Tollkeepers.

The Peddler's Visit brings what is far to fetch: every three to five days by day, a Snagling Peddler with a laden Driftback comes to whoever has started the Codex — saplings and herbs of distant places, a rare find such as a Current Hank, and a map to a ruin. He trades with anyone, without gifts, for things carrying his craved Spring; with a Kin Knot, at half price. He stays a day where he came out and leaves; strike him and he takes offense and leaves at once. There is no danger.