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

and then i was gone all weekend 😔 also sorry!

[flatly]

[Alec is just starting to get a taste of what this world has in store for them, generally speaking, but he'd taken one fleeting glance at the looming clocktower and known it was bound to be a gauntlet even without months of being subjected to Serthica's (and everywhere before its) shenanigans. It just looks like trouble.

Luckily, they have backup. Or, more accurately, Fei is the one who has the backup as she's the one taking point here. Alec keeps an eye on her for the first few skeptical minutes as they slosh through the flooded maze, but it's pretty clear she knows what she's doing—at least as much as any Shadowhunter under his command (more than that, obviously, but he hasn't seen her at work for himself yet)—and he turns his attention to the more pressing matters of the room around them.

Like the hair-raising roar of the wandering minotaur, which goes echoing around the walls of the maze, making it impossible to pinpoint by sound alone. That... gives him an idea, actually.] Alright, I can keep an eye on the hands. [He (a touch reluctantly) lets Magnus go so he can fish his Stele out of a pocket, and hastily burns the Heat Vision rune into the palm of his hand. Before the mark even cools, he slides his bow off his shoulder and nocks an arrow on it. He looks to Fei, though he has to blink rapidly against the sudden onslaught of visual stimuli, the burning red forms the two people who walked in with him and the faint yellow of one, no— two roaming beasts beyond the tangle of walls.] And I can locate— whatever that is, through the walls. [Another roar sounds, as if on queue.] But if it gets too close you might be on your own. [Heat vision is very disorienting to fight with, after all. Telling friend from foe is not easy when all you have to go by is temperatures.] Alright?

[He probably should have asked that of her before activating the rune, but he's just sorta used to being the one in charge of plans and everyone falling into line, sorry Fei.]

[snowcleave]

[ Though the magic Alec works is a new sight for Fei, she's too preoccupied with cutting a path forward through the reaching hands of the dead to ask questions. Instead, she holds her sword at the ready, surging through corridors while swinging the wide blade in broad strokes, giving Magnus and his partner room to work.

The thunderous roar from somewhere that sounded much closer than Fei would have liked makes her tense, her jaw setting determinedly as she nods. ]

I am ready.

[ Fei turns this way and that, surveying all the passageways that led to the spot she, Alec, and Magnus now stood before another rush of reaching hands steals her focus, sending her rushing over, putting herself between her two companions and them, fighting them off. ]

If it comes closer you must tell me.

[incantates]

I hate to break this to you both, but it's definitely close already.

[ As if on cue, another bellowing roar rattles the outer walls of the maze, signaling the minotaur is quickly homing in on their location, possibly through scent or by all the noises they're making. That doesn't bode well for any of them nor do they have a lot of time to prepare, but Magnus is trying not to let that slow him down as he sends magic pluming towards the closest phantom hands, incinerating them just so he can approach the maze more closely himself. ]

Alright, I'll leave all defensive duties in both your very capable hands. Although, if you need an extra pair...

[ He gently kicks the two disembodied hands now floating aimlessly in front of him with the edge of his boot. His eyes then flicker gold for a moment as he starts casting a larger spell, his magic weaving its way through his body before extending across the maze, creating a glowing thread to guide them.

The minotaur's incoming steps make the water vibrate animatedly around him, but Magnus doesn't allow that to throw off his concentration as he continues to map the area as quickly as he can manage. ]

[flatly]

[Alec curses under his breath, steps back from another disembodied hand trying to grab at his boots before Fei manages to get it, and then to repay the favor he lets loose a couple arrows to skewer a further two reaching through the water at Fei's feet from behind after she turned to assist them. Improbably, his arrows pierce into stone floor beneath those wriggling limbs, pinning them flat, preventing them from moving any further. Not quite as elegant as her sword work, considering that it sprouts a couple tripping hazards around their feet, but he's working with what he's got here.]

It's coming at your three o'clock! [He warns when Magnus lets them know just how close it has gotten even in their short time in the maze, without thinking about whether or not she would be familiar with those specific positioning terms. Hopefully the fact that the water that they're splashing through starts to ripple out from the minotaur's gait even through the walls might help to clear up any confusion, though.

The heat of Magnus' magic draws Alec's eye even as he tries to keep out of its direct path even as he steps around his fiancé to make sure he's standing between him and the incoming minotaur.] There's another one. Smaller. A lot farther away at our 11. [Just to warn both of them, since it's not making nearly as much noise as the one they're about to meet.]

[snowcleave]

[ As much as the moment may justify it, Fei doesn't have time to look aghast over the disembodied hands as appropriate as she feels the response is. Instead, the bellow of the minotaur sounds off much, much too close for comfort moments before its hulking frame comes into view.

Alec's directions are - well, there's no time for that either, and thankfully regardless of her failure to catch his meaning and connect what time has to do with any of this, it's hard not to spot the Minotaur as it comes down one of the mazes' passages. ]

I will get its back to you, then you fire.

[ Bursting into a flurry of motion Fei charges towards the beast, darting from one side of the passage to another, her feet sliding in front of her, making her appear to almost glide before a little jump propels her smoothly upwards, allowing her a fleeting moment of height advantage to bring Youhuang down in a wide swing at its head.

The blow is parried, as she anticipated it would be, but it allows her the space she needs to step sideways, back going flush against the wall of the cavern and get around to the other side of the Minotaur, forcing it to turn and face her to avoid being stabbed in the back, in turn opening it up to being stabbed multiple times in the back, by arrows, hopefully. ]

[incantates]

[ From the sounds of Alec's arrows flying and Fei's acrobatics, it's difficult for Magnus to maintain his own concentration, especially knowing the minotaur is practically breathing down their necks already. To add to his stress, a fresh pair of hands is starting to wander up his legs, nails piercing and biting into the flesh and bone of his ankles to try and pull him down. He can also feel the blood vessels along his arms strain and pulse as more magical threads emerge from his fingertips, trying to find where the maze ends while fighting to keep his balance.

Just a little more.

Once he locates the exit that will presumably take them to the next level, he's barely given time to feel any sort of relief as his legs are dragged further downwards, making him fold his knees and wind up half submerged. The magical threads outlining the path out remain afloat and in view, so he doesn't have to worry about that as much as he does drowning at the moment, which is good. Very good.

To stop himself from descending any further, he reaches out and grabs the nearest thing to anchor himself –which happens to be Alec's leg. Sorry, honey. ]

Don't swing your blade, Alexander, it's just me, and I quite like my hands being attached to the rest of me. I'm sure you do too.

[ It's never the wrong time to flirt. ]

[flatly]

[Normally Alec is much more observant on the battlefield, but heat vision renders all his surroundings in bright, broad splashes of color and that makes being detail-oriented in the moment terribly difficult. This is is why he usually orders someone else in his unit to use the rune, but that obviously wouldn't be possible for the two non-Nephilim he's with today.

He almost protests when Fei tasks him with shooting the minotaur in the back—hard to tell which way the big red blob is facing—but it turns out that context clues are more than enough and when she twists it around with that fancy footwork. He lets loose a rapid volley of arrows as soon as she presents him the opening—he's very accustomed to working in pairs with swordsmen—one right after another after another, aimed high enough to pepper the minotaur's head and shoulders so that he doesn't run the risk of hitting her as her distinct splotch of body-heat red merges with the monster's and gets lost to his eyes.

The beast roars and rears back as it gets turned unceremoniously into a pincushion, giant body slamming clumsily into the wall where Fei had just been pinned before scrambling to run away through the labyrinth to lick its wounds, veering immediately off of Magnus' string of light path into the winding corridors. Alec's concern for Fei having maybe gotten crushed against the maze wall is immediately diverted by the grip on his leg.] Magnus! [Sorry Magnus, he's a little too keyed up to appreciate the flirting like he usually would (even if he might not admit it), and they're definitely too close for his bow to be any use right now. The weapon disappears from his fingers in a flash of blue light so his hands are free to grab Magnus and try to haul him back out of the water.] Let it go, we can keep an eye on it and deal with it if it tries to come back. [But hopefully they can just follow Magnus' magic to the lever and book it before they have to see either of the creatures again.]

[snowcleave]

[ Once she'd gotten the beast to turn his back to Alec those hands in the water came for her, tripping up her steps enough that when it rears over her and smashes her back against one of the cavern walls she is taken by surprise, and gets the wind knocked out of her.

The shouts of the other two in her party pull her focus enough that she can rally, determinedly sucking down a breath past now aching ribs before sprinting towards them, cutting through the hands that aided the minotaur in landing a crushingly hard blow as she makes her dash, her vision clearing enough to see Magnus brought to his knees by another set of hands and being aided by Alec.

Coming around to the other side of Magnus she manages to get an arm around the man, trying to help get him free - the hands too close to stab, unfortunately. ]

Do we know the way?

[incantates]

[ Best part of having a tall tree-trunk of a boyfriend is that he makes for a sturdy enough anchor for Magnus to climb his way back out of the water as he uses his magic to burn away the insistent phantom hands until he's free. Now, if only he wasn't half-wet, but he's not going to worry about that too much right now. He can dry all three of them off later.

Instead, his attention turns to Zhou Fei, looking her over to make sure the minotaur's rage didn't injure her too badly. He absently answers her as he does– ]

The path is a bit tricky as the walls tend to shift around and expand and contrast at will, but if you follow the glowing string, it should take you to the end in case we all get split up. Do you fancy a quick heal before we sprint through the maze?

[ The last thing he wants is for the pain to slow her down and for her to fall behind. It'd be easier if he could just teleport them all to the end, but he's extra cautious about opening portals in spaces unknown to him, and given that this is his first proper trip to the tower... well, he's not taking any chances. ]