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

[somebadnews]

Making eye contact wasn't an invitation for conversation. Five scoffs like she just made a terrible joke. Relaxing isn't something he does, and he'd be an idiot to while they play into the hands of whatever is controlling these people. Since he doesn't remember her, she's either not yet experienced the joys of what awaits them, or she's purposely trying to get him to drop his guard.

"Am I making you nervous?" She might regret getting his attention, because now he's focused on her. The too-casual stance rings its own alarm bells for someone like him, and he narrows his eyes. "Why aren't you?"

[spoilers]

Her eyes glitter with amusement, of all things, and she laughs softly, tempting fate as she leans against the chain-link. "Why would you make me nervous?"

Oh, she knows better than to judge anyone on appearance alone, but she's never been easily intimidated. And for better or worse, she possesses an unhealthy attraction to trouble. The Doctor's influence has had a mellowing affect over the years she can't deny, but some tendencies never go away completely. It's always best to have somewhere reasonable to direct them.

"Doesn't really suit me." She shrugs, still smiling. "It has to be done, doesn't it? My husband might argue fear is good, but worrying's never gotten me far."

[somebadnews]

The laugher isn't appreciated, and the smile he gives in return is sharp and unpleasant. But still on the face of a teenager. People tend to misinterpret it, but he doesn't necessarily mind being underestimated. That's one of the only benefits of looking like he does, if he can manage to keep his temper in check.

"What do you think this is?" he asks mildly. Five has been around long enough to see right through anything the Merchant asks them to do, but he's curious how the newcomers see it. "I wouldn't count on them telling us everything. They might have sent us all because they don't expect everyone to make it."

[spoilers]

She half shrugs and glances up at the top of the lift as if considering the answer. "Creepy, allegedly magical tower. Hardly any security. I'd say it's a trap. Wouldn't you, sweetie?"

Of course, that's not going to deter her. It isn't that she has a death wish, or even that she's not afraid of dying. She just likes the rush.

River doesn't appreciate pointless death any more than the Doctor, but she also doesn't often get attached to people the way he does. She can be practical as well as reckless, as she knows he can, even if he'd prefer not to acknowledge it. If they're successful, it doesn't necessarily matter if they all make it.

"I have no intention of dying in this tower, but it would make little difference if I do."

[somebadnews]

His eye twitches at 'sweetie', but she's not wrong about it being a trap. Even if they succeed in burning a bunch of magic talismans, they wouldn't have sent all of them if they didn't expect something to go wrong. Five at least has the excuse of an ulterior motive. Which begs the question what hers is.

Somehow he doesn't buy that she's just suicidal. More likely she hasn't seen magic before and she's hoping to prove it's anything else. Five could sympathize with that frustration if it didn't mean she'll probably be getting in his way.

"It might make a difference to you." And her husband, presumably. The elevator shudders again, but he keeps his focus on her. "What are your intentions? Get answers or die trying?"

[spoilers]

Touched a nerve, has she. Well, that doesn't especially deter her either. She's always had a disinclination to learn people's names.

"Something like that." It's a fair enough assessment. She wants answers. Any reasonable person would, she thinks. She also loves a challenge, and that faint spark of excitement has never quite left her eyes. It won't be the first trap she's willingly walked into, nor is it likely to be the last if she survives it, as long as she remains here. "I've died before. I'm not afraid to do it again."

For the right reasons. Or the right person.

"But to tell you the truth, this is where the Doctor will be, it's what the Doctor would do." Her personal motivations might not be so noble, but the Doctor's presence, even the shadow of it, has a tendency to drive her actions. "And if he gets himself killed now, I'll never forgive him."

[somebadnews]

She knows the Doctor. That doesn't really explain a lot, but he's familiar enough with him to form certain associations. The Doctor wouldn't be the first time traveler to bring someone back from the dead, which he really could have mentioned when they had their talk.

"Is he your husband?" Wild thought, but the people who come from the same timelines tend to have some sort of close relation to each other. He also gathers that the Doctor is already here in the tower somewhere. She doesn't seem too outwardly concerned, despite what she says, but he likes to understand what someone might be willing to die for.

[spoilers]

At the question, she grants him a bit more of her focus. She still doesn't entirely lose her casual air, but her body language becomes a shade more serious.

"Yes." The lift rattles, but her fingers barely flex around the leather strap in her hand as she studies him, like she's trying to decide if he's the threat rather than the tower. The Doctor's would-be assassin, now the wife who would protect him at any cost. "I take it you've met him."

[somebadnews]

Five picks up on the shift that happens once he makes that connection. It wasn't a big leap, but it seems she wasn't expecting him to put it together. He won't tell her that the Doctor didn't mention her during their lengthy conversation about time travel. He already figured there was a lot that he was leaving out.

"Two versions of him now." The first wasn't anyone he cares to meet again. That Doctor looked and acted nothing like the second, so he's taking his word for it that they're in fact the same person. Alien. Whatever he is. "The way he talked about his ship, I'm surprised he has any room for you."

[spoilers]

River's never been especially secretive about her marriage, except with the Doctor, but she's also self-aware enough to know he's her biggest weakness. He's also her greatest strength, and she'll gladly destroy anything that threatens him.

But he doesn't seem to have any ill-intent, at least not yet, and she relaxes again.

"The Doctor and I don't travel together." Is she surprised he hasn't mentioned her? Not in the slightest. "Could you describe him for me? The other one, I mean. I'm married to all of them, you know."

[somebadnews]

That sounds like a complicated relationship, even if he puts the time travel aside. Five still doesn't have the full context of what happens to the Doctor when he switches bodies. It seems like more than a physical makeover, and if it hadn't been for the name, Five never would have picked up on them being the same person.

Interesting how she refers to him as 'them'.

"He looked older. Dark hair, bowl cut, disheveled. Not someone I'd volunteer to do a covert mission with." Speaking from experience; he proved how he's far more trouble than he's worth. How that man lived to be thousands of years old is his guess. "How long have you been married?"

[spoilers]

Complicated wouldn't begin to cover it.

She waves a hand dismissively. "Well all of them look older than him, sweetie." But his description has clearly sparked recognition. "I know the one."

And as much as she loves him, she doesn't trust him either, not the way she does many of his other faces. But that isn't something this stranger needs to know.

"A few years? Decades? Centuries, maybe. It's hard to keep track." She doesn't seem troubled by that either. "Certainly longer for him than it has been for me."

[somebadnews]

'Sweetie' again. Five bristles and flashes another tight smile. He might not be centuries old, but there's a reason he finds their story so easy to believe. The Doctor gave the impression that he was the only time traveler that survived where he comes from, and yet here's his wife, who has somehow been alive for as long as he has. Presumably.

"Longer for him. Does that mean he keeps coming back to the same time for you, or do you regenerate like he does?" Apparently that was the logical follow up to the stereotypical 'how long have you been married' question. The Doctor liked to ramble, both versions he's met actually, so he's banking on her being just as willing to share.

[spoilers]

He'll go on about travelling through time and regenerating, but he still can't be bothered to mention he's married. Honestly. She could slap him sometimes.

"Stuck in this body, I'm afraid. Not that I'm complaining." It's not technically a lie, if it isn't exactly the whole truth. "He's travelling one direction. I was travelling another. We rarely met in the right order, and the time in between always seemed to be longer for him."

Spending most of their time apart doesn't make them any less married in River's estimation. Or the Doctor's, as far as she's ever noticed. Distance and time can't change what she feels for him.

"It's luck he knows me as well as he does. Your older gentleman with the bowl cut wouldn't have recognized me at all."

[somebadnews]

There are several things lacking in her answer. It might seem like their relationship shouldn't be any of his business, but he's obligated to be skeptical of anyone who boasts about being an immortal time traveler. So he continues to ignore the way the elevator shakes and keeps his eyes on her.

"Funny. He told me he was the only Time Lord left." From the way she describes it, they weren't traveling together. If he thought he was picking up on some Commission vibes before, what she's said throws everything the Doctor told him into doubt. "Do they have another term for you?"

[spoilers]

"Nothing polite." The way she smiles says she's still clearly seeing the amusement he seems to have missed entirely. "But mostly, they call me human. We're both time travellers, but the Doctor is the last Time Lord. Sorry to disappoint."

The truth, of course, is more complicated. It always is. But if the Doctor sometimes advertises himself a little too loudly, she likes to keep her own genetics to herself until some trust is earned.

"You seem terribly curious about my husband and me. And you haven't even asked my name. Or did you just plan to call me The Doctor's Wife from now on?"

[somebadnews]

Being human unfortunately doesn't negate the ability to time travel. Just look at every single person at the Commission who could operate a briefcase. And then there's Five, who is growing more skeptical by the minute of their entire cover story.

He lets that question hang for a moment in which he's trying to decide just how familiar she seems.

"How rude of me." He looks like he'll ask, then veers at the last moment. She can call it curiosity if she wants, but he knows she's purposely leaving a lot out. "You're his wife, and you still call him 'the Doctor'?"

[spoilers]

How rude indeed. But if he isn't going to ask, she isn't going to volunteer. She doesn't wholly mind being 'The Doctor's Wife.'

Most people would have volunteered something of their own by now. He seems to have as many trust issues as she does, maybe more. It makes her wonder what secrets he's hiding.

"Well that is his name, sweetie. What would you suggest I call him?" She knows his real name, of course. There's almost no one left to claim that. But she'd only ever speak it between the two of them. No, he's always been and will always be the Doctor.

[somebadnews]

Five isn't one to talk about strange names, but it's the way she says it that makes him think he has another one that he doesn't want getting out. Which begs the question why. He's aware that he supposedly stole his ship, but they're outside of the natural timeline, effectively in another dimension, why hide it here?

"It doesn't matter to me. It's your business if you want to keep your marriage professional." If she really is his wife. Five is the one who asked, and she could just be going along with his assumption. "While we're on the subject, my name isn't sweetie. You can call me Number Five."

[spoilers]

River's answering laugh echoes through the lift. There's really no other way to respond.

"Professional." She makes a soft, considering 'hm' as she tilts her head. "I suppose that's one way of putting it."

She'll let him think on that a while.

"If I may, dear, Number Five is hardly more mainstream than the Doctor." Not that she especially cares if it's his real name or not. River Song isn't her real name either, but like the Doctor, it's who she's chosen to be.

[somebadnews]

He's aware, and that's part of why he gives his name so freely. Not that he's going to brag about it, but he was fairly infamous in the Commission. Ever since Lila showed up, he's been starting to think he dismissed them as a threat too easily. They can reach him here. Anyone who had any ties would recognize his name instantly, and even if she doesn't react to it, he hasn't ruled out that she isn't just a very good actress.

They had plenty of those.

"If slightly less pretentious." There is no 'the' in front of his name, for one. Although on the face of it, 'the Doctor' isn't a terrible alias. Not many people are smart enough to ask for credentials. "Are you not going to tell me yours?"

[spoilers]

"Now you're asking?" But she still seems amused rather than annoyed, and the answer comes easily, "River."

She chuckles, leaning back against the chain link. "Not the most remarkable name in the room, I'm afraid." Or, at least, it isn't making an open statement.

"Who do you think the Doctor is? What do you think he does?" Because it's clear enough Five doesn't trust him. Or her. Maybe he doesn't trust anyone.

[somebadnews]

He shrugs, because she'd been the one who wanted him to ask. River is another unusual name, but it sounds the most like one. Even if he'll still think of her as 'the Doctor's wife' the next time he runs across him.

"Now why would you ask me that?" If she wants to corroborate his story, that's fine with him. He only knows what he's told him. Which is a lot more than she might expect, but he's only had his word to take. "He says he's an alien, who travels through time to meddle in whatever he feels like. You must be relieved he got himself trapped here where you can keep an eye on him."

[spoilers]

It's her turn to shrug. "Because the answer is different for everyone, sweetie." And a beat later, almost an afterthought, "Sorry, Number Five, was it."

This time, she doesn't bother to hide her annoyance with the Doctor's particular way with people, or her fondness. "I'd say there are nicer ways to put it, but it is a fairly accurate description." She does hope Five's taken some liberty with the wording, otherwise she should probably have another talk with the Doctor. "I'm not relieved about anything. I'm happy to see him, yes. I always am. But the Doctor's restless; he's never liked staying in one place. And I would never ask him to."

[somebadnews]

"Just Five is fine, dear." Call him petty. He can't say he's older than her, what with the complicated immortal time traveler implications, but he's too old for childish nicknames.

Of course his way of describing the Doctor is considerably more succinct than the story he got. 'Meddle' is Five's word. He feels like he walked away from that conversation with neither of them totally approving of their particular brand of time traveling.

"Explains why he's eager to grab any opportunity to go exploring. Are you usually the one chasing him down, or do you take turns?" Despite his tone, Five genuinely wants to know her motivation. He's not above prodding to see I the can catch him in a lie.