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

[clavesregni]

As soon as Caitlyn steps into the rickety elevator, she feels a growing sense of unease gnawing at the pit of her stomach. Her shoulders straighten, her jaw clenches, and her brows draw down as she focuses on tamping down her nerves. One hand goes to the strap of the rifle case on her back, her thumb idly tapping against the leather - the one clear and obvious tell that she is, indeed, nervous.

Still, she's not one to back down from a challenge, especially a challenge that could help herself and her friends get home. And one that ought to provide them all with more information. The more information they gather, the better their decision-making will be, after all.

She doesn't notice anything too off right away. It starts with a faint purple-pink glow in the eyes of the boy she's sharing the elevator with, all too reminiscent of the last thing she saw before waking up in this world. She shifts her weight uncomfortably as the elevator creaks along its journey upwards.

If she's to be sharing an elevator - and possibly fighting for her life - with this boy, they should at least know each others' names, shouldn't they? She smiles, strained and awkward. "We ought to introduce ourselves. I'm Caitlyn."

[somebadnews]

It bothers him when he doesn't recognize someone from the group, and that's become more and more common since they came to the city. He doesn't trust most of them, even the ones who have traveled with him since the beginning, but at least he knows something about them. The woman in the elevator could have come from anywhere, and the fact that she'd immediately throw herself into a dangerous mission doesn't lower any of his suspicions.

There's a drawn out moment of silence after she gives her name and asks for his. Somehow attempting to be friendly just makes him scrutinize her more.

"Number Five." Every now and then, he likes to throw in the 'Number' part of his name, on the off chance it'll spark recognition. The Commission might not seem like an active threat any more, but he's never dropped his guard. The elevator creeks and draws his gaze upward.

"Do you always volunteer for suicide missions, or is this your first one?

[clavesregni]

'Number Five' is a curious name. Her mind immediately supplies the idea that he could have been a prisoner - they're assigned numbers, after all - but there are other possibilities. Perhaps more likely possibilities, given that a prisoner would be unlikely to use their assigned number in lieu of a name. She opens her mouth, about to ask him at least about the 'Number' part of it, whe he poses his own question.

"Suicide mission?" It's dangerous, she knows, going into this clocktower. But surely it's not as dire as that. She has every expectation of coming out of this mission alive. "You really believe that's what this is?"

[somebadnews]

She really hasn't been a part of them for long. Five never was very good with small talk, but he might as well be the one to break it to her. It's only thanks to most of them having some sort of abilities that have kept them alive this long. Most of them. He still doesn't believe all the ones who disappeared are safe back at home, particularly when it comes to his siblings.

"If it were anything less, they wouldn't have sent us." He smiles at her, like he does when nothing is really funny. The fact that Karsa was thrown back into the mix just sours him more on the idea. "It's what they do."

[clavesregni]

Caitlyn had barely interacted with Karsa, and she'd been all but incapacitated at the time, but Karsa hadn't seemed that cruel or callous. And the Merchant... yes he had been stand-offish, but that didn't mean he'd send people off on a suicide mission.

She's skeptical, but his insistence that this is, indeed, something they're not meant to - or at least not likely to - come back from isn't helping her nerves.

"Why did you agree to come, then?"

[somebadnews]

He can see her skepticism written on her face. It's nothing he isn't used to seeing. When he first screwed up his equations and landed himself in his thirteen year old body, it was mostly an inconvenience that seemed insignificant with the weight of the apocalypse on his shoulders. Now that he's been living like this for well over a year, he's found that he's a lot less tolerant for how easily he's dismissed.

"Better reasons." He still wants answers. And depending on what those answers are, he has a debt that needs paying. "My brother went missing just before the Unwinding. I don't know if it's related, but I do think whoever was behind that will show up again. I'm going to find him."

[clavesregni]

Caitlyn's just about ready to roll her eyes in response to his irritatingly vague 'other reasons,' assuming he doesn't plan to elaborate. But then he does elaborate, and her irratation vanishes.

A young boy, apparently alone and recently separated from a family member? She can't help but feel sympathy for him. It's difficult enough for her being trapped here away from her parents, she can't imagine being that young and having someone she cared for disappear like that.

"Have you got any idea what happened to your brother? Where he might have gone?"

[somebadnews]

Five didn't explain to get sympathy, and he regrets being honest when he catches the way her attitude shifts. He isn't some lost kid who needs looking after, he's a grown man out for revenge. She doesn't know how far he'll go if he finds that the child and the man in white were involved with his brother's disappearance. He never got the chance to figure out what happened to his other siblings, and he won't make that mistake again.

"I'm here because I had a hunch." He could be wrong, but he isn't going to stop looking for answers. There are too many connections for him not to look into the possibility. "If they had anything to do with it, I'll find out."

The elevator shudders again, and he hears the distinct sound of wings flapping, drawing his attention upward. If he knew what floor he might find them on, he wouldn't have bothered with this deathtrap of an elevator.

[clavesregni]

Caitlyn looks up as the elevator shudders, her grip tightened on the strap over her shoulder as she once again swallows her nerves.

"They?" Is he referring to Karsa and the Merchant, or to someone else? There's so much about this world she doesn't know. Viktor's been here for months, how long has this boy been here?

She glances back at him, and once again catches a glimpse of purple in his eyes. And this time, she hears a hauntingly familiar laugh.

That's not possible. Jinx isn't here. The person she's sharing an elevator with is a young boy named Five, not Jinx. She clenches her jaw and stares up through the grated ceiling of the elevator, looking for the source of the flapping wings.

[somebadnews]

It sounds like bats, but they're probably something worse. Five half-expects them to come crashing through the top of the elevator. When he looks down at her question, he catches her eyes on him and twitches.

Why does she keep looking at him like that?

"Who do you think? They didn't just disappear after the Unwinding." He explains it as an obvious fact that the child and the man in white are here somewhere. In his mind, they'd be looking for them, so of course they'd want to trap them in a tower. 'They' aren't the only ones he has to look out for. Showing sympathy could have been a way to get him to drop his guard, and Caitlyn seems to be watching him a little too closely.

"It's not too late to turn around if you're having second thoughts." He smiles again as he grants her more of his attention. Blatantly challenging what she's really doing here. "I'll be on my merry way at the next floor, and you can ride it back down out of here."

[clavesregni]

"That's quite alright. I've no intention of turning around." Partially out of stubbornness, partially because she's certainly not going to let a small boy go into a dangerous situation on his own, and partially because she'll do anything that will help get herself, Vi, and Viktor get home, as well as all the other displaced people they've found themselves trapped with in this world.

The elevator shakes again, harder this time, and Caitlyn looks upwards half-expecting to see some sort of giant bird or bat attacking them. But it's too dark to see anything in the elevator shaft.

When she looks back down towards the boy... the person she sees is Jinx.

Reaching for the rifle is pure instinct. It's out and unfolded and aimed at Jinx in the span of a heartbeat.

[somebadnews]

Five can't be totally surprised when the inevitable happens. She was probably waiting for the elevator to distract him, and as soon as he looks away she pulls a rifle on him. Fucking knew it.

"You're one of them, aren't you?" A nice, vaguely ominous question. He lets go of the strap and leans forward with a taunting grin on his face. His eyes narrow, like that will help him see through her disguise, and then it does. Of all the people to find him. They're in a tight space with little room to jump, but he can handle her.

"How many times do we have to go through this before you stay dead?"

[clavesregni]

Caitlyn has no idea what Jinx - the boy? - Jinx? - is talking about. One of who? An enforcer? But that look on Jinx's face, and what she says next, seem perfectly clear.

She narrows her eyes.

"Neither of us has to die." She keeps her voice as low and steady as possible. Her nerves were already frayed, and now she's unsure whether she's going mad or whether she really is trapped in an elevator with a girl who's tried to kill her several times. She can't let on how scared she is, so she scowls angrily, keeping her rifle pointed squarely at the center of her target's forehead.

the latest;; sorry, December was garbage

[somebadnews]

Five backs up in the small space and readies himself to blink the second she makes a move. The Handler isn't stupid, and she wouldn't confront him if she hadn't already figured out some kind of exit strategy. It isn't the first time she's had a gun pointed at him. This close range, he's got a lot less room for error if she pulls the trigger.

"One of us already died. And they call me stubborn." Life and death mean nothing here. He could snap her neck right now in the elevator and she'd probably still be up mocking him the next day. His fingers twitch. "You want to make a deal, is that it?"