Dissonance and Visions
The price knowledge takes from the mind: the kinds of Dissonance, pressure and the check, twenty-four visions, the Metronome and everything that brings the Hush.
Dissonance is the price of knowledge: whoever has seen the Stillness in the records, broken a flowing Confluence or seen more than was meant to be seen finds their mind falling out of step. Dissonance sends visions, and the Hush takes it away. Stillness heals Dissonance: the Still are partly right, and that is their temptation. A fluxionist takes from stillness exactly as much as is needed, and moves on.
The entry 
Dissonance opens by itself the first time your mind falls out of step.
Kinds
| Kind | From | How it leaves |
|---|---|---|
| Ripple | the Shudder of a broken Confluence, Keen Eye at the Desk, a Sentinel's cry, an untangled Snarl, a blow from a Dissonant Roiled beast, a long guise | by itself — one unit per check; the Hush is faster |
| Dissonance | heavy Codex entries, a stopped great Confluence | the Hush: hush water, the Hush Fork |
| Deep Dissonance | only the Stillness | never |
| From gear | worn things of stillmetal, the visors of Dissonance, things with three weavings or more | take the thing off |
Dissonance survives death and relogging: it lives in the mind, not the body.
Pressure and the check
Every Dissonance you receive builds pressure (Deep — 2 per unit, Dissonance — 1.5, Ripple — 1), and every check adds a share of what you carry. A vision drops the pressure to a third.
- A check every 150 seconds. The countdown is yours and is saved: restarting neither grants nor takes away a check.
- The chance of a vision is pressure / (pressure + 30), no more than three quarters: at pressure 30 it is a half. The Will aptitude adds 6 per rank to the 30: at the fifth, at pressure 30, it is a third.
- The severity of a vision grows with all kinds of Dissonance and with pressure, but heavy Dissonance does not cancel light visions: a roll falls anywhere up to the ceiling. Things with Dissonance weigh on visions the most. A Calm Visor in a Dam Helm makes them lighter.
- Under the Hush effect the check rolls no dice and pressure does not grow.
Visions
A vision belongs to one player: shadows and Sentinels are seen and heard by them alone; a companion nearby notices nothing but what the vision does to the body.
| Severity | Vision | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | a clock ticking behind you | nothing — a sign |
| 5 | a bell tolling far away | nothing — a sign |
| 9 | "someone's steps fall into step with yours" | a voice; steps behind you |
| 13 | Clouding | the mire effect for 30 s |
| 17 | Seeping | drops and a puddle of Murk distillate every 10 s, 40 s |
| 21, 73, 77 | Hollow Hunger | fullness melts five times faster; rotten flesh lifts it |
| 25 | "your shadow lags a step behind" | a shadow behind you: visible if you turn |
| 29, 81 | standing fog | Still-colored fog, drops and motes hang in the air |
| 33 | Ripple Sight | rings, as from drops on glass |
| 37 | Lightshy | bright light burns, shade heals, a minute |
| 41 | "your hands bog down" | Mining Fatigue II for 30 s |
| 45 | Spreading Clouding | the clouding passes to the living nearby |
| 49 | a clear moment | Night Vision for 90 s |
| 53 | Heavy Gaze | whatever you look at withers and grows angry |
| 57 | Figments | two shadows walk your last path; touched, they melt |
| 61 | "the hands of the clock in your pocket have stopped" | the world's sound goes dull for a second and a half |
| 65 | standing fog and Sentinels | a Sentinel seen by you alone |
| 69 | blindness | 8 s |
| 76 | a moment of clarity | −1 Dissonance |
| 89 | Figments that strike | three shadows strike with magic |
| 93 | the Halt | 5 s: you are slowed, and creatures hunting you bog down; the frame stands still, a single heartbeat is heard |
Figments and Sentinels
A Figment is a shadow your out-of-step mind made up: it walks your own path over your last steps. Usually harmless, with heavy
Dissonance it strikes; one blow and it crumbles into ink. Read it with the Loupe to open 
Figments.
A Sentinel is one of the Order's first Vowkeepers, frozen mid-step in the Great Stilling. It strides once a second, in the beat of its
hour: a raised palm falls a second later — step away or get behind it. Its blow takes a second from you — the place holds you fast —
its cry leaves Ripple, and from afar it looses a Still Bolt that flies in jerks to the beat of the hour: step off its path while the
bolt hangs. A vision's Sentinel melts after 30 seconds and drops nothing; in the Stillness Sentinels walk on their own. Read one with
the Loupe — 
Sentinels.
The Metronome
The Metronome hears the mind. In hand it ticks evenly while the mind is calm, wavers with Dissonance and stumbles in
advance when a vision is near; in the lower left corner of the screen a small metronome shows a scale behind its glass, filled with
Dissonance by kind. Hover over it in your inventory to see the numbers. A metronome in a hood (
Freshet Hood) shows the
same but stays silent.
Without a Metronome there are quiet signs: when Dissonance grows, ink quivers at the edge of the frame; when a vision is near, ink breathes in the corners.
The Hush
The Hush opens once your Dissonance passes ten.
Hush Salt and hush water
2A pinch of Hush Salt in a source of still water — a pond, a well — hushes it and the neighboring sources of the
same surface, up to nine. A river, or water with flowing water beside it, will not do. Step into the hushed water and keep still:
- on the third second the Hush comes — while it lasts, no visions come;
- keep standing — Ripple leaves every 4 seconds, Dissonance every 8;
- one step, and it all begins again.
The Hush Fork
The 
Hush Fork lifts Ripple and a share of Dissonance anywhere, without hush water. Strike it and stand still while it
sounds (6 s): if it plays out, all Ripple and 2 Dissonance leave, under the Hush — 4. A step cuts the chime short. The fork wears
dull — 24 chimes.
The Hush Sachet
The 
Hush Sachet gives the Hush on the road. Wear it at your neck (a slots mod's necklace slot) or hold it: with
Dissonance, stand still for three seconds — the sachet takes a pinch of Hush Salt from your inventory and gives the Hush for 2 minutes.
It does not lift Dissonance, it only keeps the visions away.
The Font
The 
Font keeps hush water around itself — a standing place to lift Dissonance. Pour in a bucket of water and
drop a pinch of salt (up to four): a few seconds later the Font overflows from four spouts, and eight places around it become hush
water. A place counts only if the water has nowhere to run: it needs a floor beneath and a rim beyond the ring. Lay a low stone basin
around the Font, and there will always be hush water in it. One pinch is one overflow; scoop a place out, and the Font refills it
while it has salt.
Thresholds
| Dissonance | What opens |
|---|---|
| the first | Dissonance |
| above 10 | The Hush and a mod line |
| 25 or more | The Whisper of Stillness: visions grow heavier — quiet it before it is too late |
| 50 or more | The Edge of the Beat: sometimes the whole world stops |
The Hush, the Fork, the Sachet and the Font are studied at the Desk; the cure for Dissonance does not hide behind the hardest puzzle — the Hush board is 5 × 5.
What next
- Aptitudes — Will makes visions rarer.
- Current Guises — a long guise leaves Ripple too.
- Murk and Mire — Clouding and Silting.