the clock tower

[groundrules]

Happy Hallow-elevator! The clock tower event lasts between 22 October and 8 November. ICly, the tower incursion stretches around a week, and you’re welcome to have your character investigate something else, if they finish early!

THE CLOCK TOWER

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ALL IS AS ALL WAS| TRIAL & NO ERRORS | THE TOWER

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ALL IS AS ALL WAS

Play it cool, as Serthica’s customs officers pore over your passport papers, before grudgingly allowing you overground. Minaras, you hear, is hunting a delinquent.

Both it and Eidris fare well, with no sign of the damage that preceded the Unwinding. Locals no longer behave eerily, dragons and clockwork droids roam freely, and everyone hates taxes.

Yet perfect strangers insist they know you. Your assigned address leads to a different house. The roads, buildings and architecture look ‘lived in,’ but changed.

No one remembers the Unwinding.

■ Burlap mannequins sometimes watch from mirrors, windows and reflecting surfaces.

■ You might hear shifting and scratching in Eidris walls.

■ Minaras has doubled its bounty for a man not unlike Leonard McCoy.

■ Black fungal spores are found on the increasingly voluminous experiment vials, specimens and supplies thrown out by Minaras medical facilities.

■ Frail and confused, Ellethia survivor Zenobius finally awakens. A short thread is up for RNG grabs.

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TRIALS & NO ERRORS

The guard troops that Eidris and Minaras assign to the Neutral Zone now protect King Thivar and High Councillor Arabella during the annual Sanctuary Reckoning trials. Both adjudicate cases that violate the ceasefire.

Prolonging the trials buys time for your companions in the clock tower.

■ Create a distraction — flood the judgement hall rooms? Fire? Illusions?

■ Pose as trial participants: perhaps you are of Eidris, and you caught this wicked Minaraian raiding your home? Mayhap this wretched man of Eidris stole your girlfriend? Wait, you’re a Minaraian who wants to kill King Thivar?

■ …organise breakouts, if Thivar or Arabella have your jailed. You are first imprisoned in makeshift Sanctuary cells — all but poorly locked, glorified closets. Get a trial sentence!

■ Thivar and Arabella treat the trials as a box-ticking exercise.

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THE TOWER

As Eidris and Minaras play court, you can infiltrate the Neutral Zone clock tower of Vassarizhia.

■ Only token security remains. The door is unlocked.

■ Karsa supplies paper talismans that must be burned in the watch fire at the tower’s top level.

■ Each burned talisman amplifies the reveal spell that Karsa activates. Link a finished burning thread by 8 November to help the cause.

■ A November mod post will describe how much of Serthica’s ‘undeath’ characters can see.

■ Placing Magnus’ dragon eye before the tower’s telescope will allow characters to always see Serthica’s undeath, moving forward.

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✘ ELEVATOR ETIQUETTE

Imperfect stillness dominates Vassarizhia: your footsteps do not click, words die in your mouth. The tower’s rickety gear slither silently. Your heartbeat aligns with the clock’s tick… tock.
You have the growing, gnarly certainty that you have invaded something ancient and alive.

The tower’s entryway level is large, deserted, stacked with gears. At its core is a dilapidated open elevator shaft.

A large sign says to find and pull the floor lever, if elevators stop.

■ There are two elevators. Each narrow lift can hold up to four people, crammed. The upper half of the carriage is chain-link fence, while the floors contain hatches that sometimes open mid-travel for 30 seconds. Hold on to ceiling-bound leather straps.

■ The ropes holding the elevators are thick, but tattered.

■ The elevator’s creaking squeals can awaken swarms of 1m-tall bats and bat wyverns. They rattle the lift, but ultimately withdraw.

■ The elevator can stop at as many levels as you want (or none!).

■ Beyond the second level, you feel intensely paranoid and see your companions as the persons you most hate/fear for five to 10 minutes. Reaching the top, you are tempted to cut the lift ropes of those who follow. (The ropes and elevators recover, after crashing to the bottom. )

■ On each floor, as you exit the elevator, a nearby wall shows a different scratched instruction, signed by DAVID.

LEVEL I: THE LABYRINTH| LEVEL II: THE ANCESTOR | LEVEL III: TAG! YOU’RE IT
LEVEL IV: THE ROOM WHERE NOTHING HAPPENS | LEVEL V: IT’S RAINING (AGAIN)

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LEVEL I: THE LABYRINTH
CONTENT WARNING: MINOTAUR, BODY HORROR

Step into a jail maze, flooded to knee level. Confusing corridors narrow, widen and contort, while wall torches dim.

Intermittent howling reveals you’re not alone. Hiding, you see child-like chalk drawings of forest animals on walls — and a great minotaur. Keep silent.

■ David S P’s wall scrawl says, IT RUNS IN THE FAMILY.

■ Collect some of the many discarded daggers or axes. Rope bundles float in water — use them to paralyse your captive or briefly force them under your control.

■ Don’t linger in one place: rotting, bodiless hands surface to restrain you.

■ Bad news, if you swallow water when the minotaur or dead hands try to drown you: your skin stretches and bursts, while your bones pop and extend. You mutate into a half human, half woodland creature, all bloodlust. ( Inspiration, anyone? ) Your companions should still recognise you; between hazy memories and constant pain, you might struggle to remember them and even attack.

■ Morphed characters can (painfully) return to normal within minutes of re-entering the elevator.

■ A smaller and distressed three-headed minotaur also roams the labyrinth. Two of its heads sob, while the third urges you to hide with it when brother approaches. It tries to throttle you with a noose to make brother happy, if you follow. David did say.

■ The minotaur and its sibling have poor sight. They cannot enter a corridor where you’ve drawn or laid down a line.

■ Pull the lever, and a straight corridor leads you to the elevator.

TOP | LEVEL II | LEVEL III | LEVEL IV | LEVEL V

LEVEL II: THE ANCESTOR
CONTENT WARNING: GIANT SKELETON, BLOOD DRINKING

Here, only barren stone and thin rivulets of fresh water pouring from wall fountains with sharp-tipped ornaments — your spilled blood quickly infects the basins. Knives, pins and bowls have been abandoned nearby.

High pressure and vertigo overwhelm you. Follow a rhythmic heaving to where the upper half of an enormous skeleton — the Ancestor — has broken through a wall. White, silk thread fetters it. Dried blood rims its cracked mouth. Before it, the stone floor has been tarnished, up to a 5m radius.

The Ancestor appears dormant, a crown of iron thorns on its head. It clutches the lever tightly in its right hand. Above it, an engraving urges, SPILL WINE FOR YOUR ANCESTOR.

■ David S P’s elevator scrawl says, WATER TO WINE.

■ Dally staring and you feel dizzy, nauseous, depressed and compelled to share your close-death encounters. Before you know it, you are stepping into the Ancestor’s radius…

■ …where it plunges for you, if you don’t bear a filled cup. The silk ropes keep the Ancestor from reaching beyond 5m.

■ Two carvings under his fists read HONOUR THY FATHER and DISHONOUR THY MOTHER.

■ Quickly distract the Ancestor from crumbling his captives, tearing their arms or attempting to eat them.

■ The Ancestor is instinct-driven, consumed by thirst. It cannot see or smell, and only remembers taste. Sounds divert it.

■ Improvise: there is no actual wine here. Infuse water, spill blood, or vocally pretend you are delivering wine, and the Ancestor might spare you.

■ If sated, the Ancestor releases the lever.

TOP | LEVEL I | LEVEL III | LEVEL IV | LEVEL V

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LEVEL III: TAG! YOU’RE IT
CONTENT WARNING: SCARECROW, SKINNED CREATURES

Enjoy pitch dark, dread and bile spreading in your gut. Take a candle from near the elevator and roam through small, unlocked rooms that feature tattered beds, strips of tanning leather and blood or wax spilled on the floor.

■ David S P’s wall scrawl says, O CATCHES IT.

■ Ahead, you see candle-bearing mannequins that dance a hora to the same song played by Jim Kirk’s music box: “Up the mountain, in the grove, hand in hand to Ke-Waihu, fresh harvest’s a treasure trove, each fall we feast anew.”

■ The creatures are patched abominations of wax, skinned flesh and burlap. In the middle of the hora is a wiry scarecrow, eyes blazing with candle fire as it points a large cleaver. In certain lights, the scarecrow’s face briefly contorts into that of your mother. It wears priestly robes that Arc III survivors may recognise from the House of Ravens.

■ As the dance finishes, you notice the lever in the middle of the circle, where flame spells out TAKE THEM, NOT ME. The game begins.

■ The abominations run, gleefully manic and screaming TAAAA~AAAAAG. YOU’RE IT! The scarecrow unflinchingly cuts them down while pursuing you. Hide in the abandoned rooms, or risk snuffing your candle to avoid detection.

■ Some abominations slap you, hold you, or alert the scarecrow. Others offer shelter. A few peel off wax skins from their limbs — showing black fungi beneath. They murmur, IT NEVER GOES AWAY.

■ Parchment strips fall from the scarecrow’s sleeves, reading, HAPPY NAME DAY, MOTHER KNOWS BEST, THE SIN RAN DEEPER THAN SKIN, IF YOU CAN BEAR IT, IT’S A GAME.

■ Bless David: draw the scarecrow into a drawn or makeshift circle to trap it.

■ Intense, paralysing fear arrests you, if the scarecrow catches you. The wax abominations chant, TAKE THEM, NOT ME. One might even take pity and move your numbed mouth to utter the words. Say them — and the scarecrow lands deep cuts on your arms, then pursues your companion.

■ If you betray someone, the abominations take the appearance of your worst version: whether physically mutated, with a temper that amplifies your worst features, or both.

TOP | LEVEL I | LEVEL II | LEVEL IV | LEVEL V

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LEVEL IV: THE ROOM WHERE NOTHING HAPPENS
CONTENT WARNING: MANIPULATION, MENTAL COERCION

You enter a quiet room. The lever sits on a table, beside rope and a dagger. As you approach, your surroundings transform: perhaps your dearest dead appear to warmly welcome you. Crowds of your doubters celebrate your success. Or you are in a calm oasis, where nothing hurts.

■ David S P’s wall scrawl says, THIS DREAM IS A NIGHTMARE.

■ Whatever your deepest wishes, the room’s vivid illusions provide. With time, your beautiful dreams deteriorate into horror. Sometimes, you hear whispers of, Make a wish.

■ The room increasingly drains your life force. Within half an hour, you have gaunt flesh, brittle bones and a hunched back. Or you might feel compelled to harm yourself, clawing your arms and face, or pulling your hair out.

■ The damage comes undone minutes after reaching the elevator.

■ The room focuses on one person: if someone joins you, they see fainter echoes of what the room shows you, but they are not enthralled. They must coax or drag you away.

■ If you are under the room’s influence, it forces you to make any later intruders stay.

TOP | LEVEL I | LEVEL II | LEVEL III | LEVEL V

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LEVEL V: IT’S RAINING (AGAIN)
CONTENT WARNING: PLAGUE, THE CHILD

At the tower’s open-sky top, fire crackles from a small stone pit, shielded by a familiar, immovable blood-spattered white umbrella. Nearby, discover an immense rusted telescope and other discarded astronomy tools.

You trip on rain-battered yellowed bones at every step. One skeletal hand holds a watch piece, engraved for Mr. David Sebastian Pumpkins.

■ David S P’s has only scrawled his signature.

■ You might reach the flame easily, or be overwhelmed by sickness, black fungal spores blooming on your fingers, while you cough blood and experience intense fever. The symptoms wane once you reach the fire.

■ Burn paper talismans and link finished threads to help Karsa’s spell.

■ The child with a fox mask from the Unwinding could appear. Sign up for one of three short threads, which must finalise by 3 November.

NOTES

■ Some of the bigger plot clues have been emphasised, to help navigate through the horror details.

■ You can hit up some NPCs during the trials.

■ Check out plotting posts for last-minute team-ups.

■ Back to the top.

QUESTIONS

Comments

level iv

[inferus]

( Wrath has begun to wonder if this level of the tower specifically has it out for him. He has been through it enough times as it is despite multiple attempts to transvenio away, to go up in the elevator and not return. Primarily it has been with this tower's version of temptation for him. It should not be effective on him at all, and yet this world continues to surprise with how it can pluck his deepest secrets from his mind and put them on display for all to see. Perhaps it is what many would feel he deserves for being the Great Tempter in the Garden of Eden.

There is power in truth, in choice, in knowledge.

He is relieved when it is not his wish on display this time that he finds himself in the very same level. In Hell, one learns to hide any vulnerability, any desire, because it will be used like a weapon might be to hurt, to manipulate, and he hates there are a couple now who now know what he would have preferred remain hidden.

The lever is out in the open. Wrath does not recognize the sight that plays out around him. It isn't of any Earth he knows nor is it of Heaven or Hell. Then he recognizes the voice of the individual from the network - the Time Lord who had discussed with him the reality of good and evil, the Doctor exiled from his own planet and determined to save Earth. They had spoken about meeting in person another time, and this is unlikely to be what either of them had in mind.

His gaze lingers, wondering how lost in this vision he is. How much mental fortitude can remain even for beings older than most when faced with what they would want more than anything else? They all have their weaknesses, their vulnerabilities. )

...your home planet?

[thedreamer]

[ That faint voice - familiar and strange all at once - tethers the Doctor to the last shred of reality left. He has a tenuous hold on the truth, he can feel it, like trying to hold open a door with a single finger while a giant thrusts its weight against the other side. He feels exhausted and elated at the same time. It would be so easy to give in, to live here with Susan; not just Susan now, it's so many old friends. People who died because of him, for him, or just eventually, in their own twilight, so long removed from him.

He'd seen the lever when he'd first entered the room, he should have pulled it then, but everything had shifted so quickly; how, he wonders. How was that possible? It shouldn't have been. He's stronger than this.

But then, a soft touch wraps around his wrist. Susan, looking up at him, teasing him about his bowtie. He closes his eyes for a moment, trying to focus on the man speaking to him. ]

-Gallifrey. [ He offers. Because they might be here a moment, maybe longer, if he loses his grip. No, he can't. ]

Located in the constellation of Kasterborous at galactic coordinates 10-0-11-0-0/0-2 from Galactic Zero Centre, roughly 250 million light-years away from Earth. [ He rattles that off from instinct, needing to say it, to anchor himself. ] It was - it is. It's beautiful, isn't it? The Shining World of the Seven Systems.

[ Already, he's losing a bit more grip. Speaking of Gallifrey in the present. ]

[inferus]

( Wrath hears the shift in the words: was to is. This city, this planet no longer exists. He had said he was exiled from it, but the was is so telling. He doesn't know what happens to destroy so much: war, most likely, but on a scale greater than any his own world has ever seen given it remains. He watches the Doctor's face, senses what he is feeling: hope, desire for this all to be his. It is the fantasy seeping in, taking hold. It does that right before the dream twists into a horrid nightmare instead.

Wrath had seen what he wishes for with the curse ending, sitting on his throne beside his wife, watching the First Witch suffer for all her crimes, and then it shifted into his wings leaving him again, the First Witch breaking free, telling him he had run out of time, watching his wife disappear. It is inevitable this one will do the same, and either way, he'll be trapped.

He lingers on the way the city looks, and then clarifies: )

It was beautiful.

None of this is real. This room tempts you with what you most desire, and then it twists it into a nightmare. You'll want to escape before that happens. You said you were exiled, but I imagine there is more to that story and that more may be put on display here.

[thedreamer]

[ That's true, of course it is. Gallifrey is gone, long gone, burned to dust and oblivion. And Susan with it. Susan and everyone else. It's not just Susan he sees now, but the Brigadier, Adric, Sarah Jane, Amy and Rory. They're gone, all of them, so they can't be here.

His eyes close tightly for a moment, and it's clear that he's trying to actively fight the delusion. He shouldn't be questioning it, but he is, because he can feel Susan's hand on his wrist.

( He's wrong, Grandfather. You know he is. He's trying to take you away from me. ) ]

But you can see it, it's real. She's real - Susan, my granddaughter. She's right here, tell me you see her. She's - it's been so long. I thought she died in the Time War. I didn't want her there, I wanted her safe, and then she was - oh, I couldn't tell her anything. And when Gallifrey burned, when I - [ When he destroyed it. But he didn't, it's here. It's real. There's a chance he may be forgiven, that all of this might never have happened. ]

I lost track of her. I didn't want to know. But she's alive, she's beautiful, they all are.

[ Susan wraps her arms around him now, and he can't seem to refuse her, holding onto her in turn.

He taps her nose, telling her she's the most beautiful thing he's seen in so long, but of course, he's speaking to nothing at all and he's losing his sense of reality even more. ]

[inferus]

( when I- The Doctor's voice cuts off. When he was exiled? When something else happened? It burned. So he was there for the end? Wrath watches him carefully still, walking closer to him though he pays no mind to the young woman who argues against him.

He experienced the same. Emilia herself would sit on the throne, disagree with anyone who stepped inside and attempted to pull Wrath from what this room created for him. )

She does not appear the same to me as she does to you. Like faint echoes, like an illusion meant to trap and to hurt and to siphon you of what energy you have. Given what you are, I would imagine that is more than most.

( So the room may be especially reticent to release him from its group as it was to Wrath. His voice grows sharper now, laced with the command that only the General of War can bring: )

If you do not recognize this is a vision and she is not real, not alive, you will watch it all be lost again and be equally unable to stop it. ( But perhaps that is what he wants, taking any last moment he can even with the pain that will undoubtedly follow. In the moment, it is so difficult for anyone to resist their greatest temptation, surrounding them with the strength of the illusion this room can provide. It plucks it directly out of one's head like a trap, like a Hell. )

[thedreamer]

[ He hears what's being said, but it feels far away, the longer he holds on to Susan. ...Susan. No, it can't be possible. It's a tug-of-war between reality and fantasy, and the deeper it pulls him in, the more afraid he feels. He's not in control now, he's rapidly losing his equilibrium and his sense of himself and the world around him. Can he trust Wrath, someone he barely knows, or can he trust Susan?

He can't trust himself so he has to choose.

The words being spoken are rational, grounded, and some part of him knows they're true. But can he linger long enough for his one selfish want, his need - to be forgiven, by her, by them, by himself. Who can grant him such absolution?

( Stay here, Grandfather. Stay for a little while. And then we can travel together again. )

His eyes shut tightly again and he speaks to Wrath now, but doesn't look at him. It's a sign that the illusion still has a hold on him, but he's trying to break through it. ]

We can stay here, just a little longer. You can stay with us. A few moments, please. Just a few moments. I'm not ready -

[ How does he say goodbye? How does he do it? He's never really known how.

But things begin to devolve, the world around them fraying at the edges, burning. Susan is burning, they all are.

( You did this, Grandfather! ) ]

No, please - please, I can explain -

[ He's trying, trying so hard, but his emotions begin to get the better of him, eyes glistening with unshed tears. ]

[inferus]

( It always shifts.

Wrath thinks this room might be more successful if it focused only on temptation. He certainly knows the power of that (the serpent in the garden of Eden, offering truth but for a price), but it always changes to a vision of something terrible and painful and wrong (or too right in some cases). What he says, how the world frays and burns, how his granddaughter turns the blame on him tells him a great deal.

At the very least, the Doctor blames himself for what happened here - the destruction of this place and those inside of it (why? another question but one to be answered later). The Doctor will drown in that guilt as he will drown in his grief and desire for one more moment with family that has now been twisted by that same guilt that roots him to the spot. Wrath can feel the waves of it coming from him: guilt and grief. This room will start to take from him, drain from him. Where does the power go? To the Tower itself, to whoever is in control of it all? Wrath has no answer for that. Too many people in this world like to play as if they are gods.

He knows he could repeat how not real this all is, but that will not change the way the vision around him feels. He cannot simply convince himself of that reality - certainly with someone he has only just met.

So instead Wrath focuses on a specific action to give, laced with ancient command- a push in the right direction if it will even work in this place: )

Find the lever. ( That is real. ) Take it. ( The lever, his mind. Fight it. )

If you allow your guilt to drown you, this Tower will take your energy for its own brutal purposes, and you will not leave this room. Live true to your name, find the lever, end this.

[thedreamer]

[ The lever. The way out. It was here, he'd seen it when he first entered. He remembers, but everything had shifted so quickly and the Doctor was already weak in his mind then. He's been losing a battle against the forces at play here in this tower and that unsettles him more than anything else has so far in his time here. If his abilities can be so unpredictable, how can he trust himself to help?

Worries for another day. Another day. That means getting out of here.

Find the lever. Take it.

Those words, that voice - it's an anchor, a hand out in the dark. Wrath seems to find the words he most needs to hear. His name.

When he destroyed Gallifrey, he broke the promise of not only his name, but his guiding principles. Never cruel or cowardly, never give up. He lost himself, he chose the only way out that he could see at the time.

There's no forgiveness for the Doctor here, not today. The only peace waiting for him, the only peace possible is within his own soul, though that continues to elude. He won't find that today either, but he doesn't need to. They only need to get out.

The promise of his name - Doctor. Helper. This room has only affected him, but what happens if they don't escape? Could something happen to Wrath in turn, the longer they linger? It's the fear of losing his grip and allowing someone else to be harmed alongside him that helps to focus him even more.

Susan burns and turns to ash as the Doctor pulls his hand away, finally forcing himself to look away, to seek the lever. ]

I'm sorry. I'm so sorry...

[ He feels weaker still, drained, but his mind is able to overcome it enough that the lever fades into focus and he turns his back on the world he's already lost once before. He pulls the lever with a shaky hand, though the peace he hopes for doesn't come, even as the room shifts. ]

[inferus]

( Wrath does not interfere any further than he has to, which means he says no more through all of the rest. He watches, however. It is impossible not to with it surrounding the room as it is. The grief flows off of the Doctor in waves along with his regret and his guilt (I'm so sorry ), along with a yearning for an answer that cannot be found in this false room - cannot be found from those who are dead and gone.

He watches as the Doctor is able to grab the offered anchor, to take hold of it, to lead himself to the lever and pull it even as the ghosts of his past turn to ash around him.

The elevator opens in response.

Still he allows a moment of silence before he breaks it. Grief is not anything Wrath has ever had to experience, and guilt is equally not an emotion he feels readily. When he did lose, he was made to forget that loss before he could truly know what it means to grieve, before he could understand what had happened to her and who he was truly forgetting. It is a very mortal experience (to love and to lose, he was not made for either and did not seek it when he fell, did not have the capacity for love for most of his existence until he met his queen to be and everything changed).

Someone mortal might have something more comforting to say in this moment of grief and pain. Wrath focuses on action again. )

Take a moment to regain your strength, and then I recommend leaving the room before it can start again.

( He speaks from experience, and he will stay to be certain the Doctor is able to leave. The dangers of the Tower mean speaking is difficult here and lingering is not advised though Wrath will remember what he saw today. )