Five Clocks

This is a small work-in-progress adventure for 13th Age.

Elevator Pitch

The Dwarf King reactivated a group of five ancient machine-kind far below Forge, the Dwarven Capital. They've all gone AWOL, and now someone wants you to decommission them.

Go adventure in the Shallow-Reaches below Forge, where the pearlescent glowing roots of the Elven Silver Tree reach, cohort with Dwarves, Dark Elves, and Machines, and ultimately, deal with them and whatever schemes and machinations they've got going on in the Deep-Reaches.

Conceit

The Dwarf King, some small time ago, has been ousted from the throne of Forge. He's traveled deep under the mountain, re-awakening an ancient slumbering troupe of mechanical creatures, in order to wreak havoc on his usurper's plans.

The machines aren't very loyal to the Dwarf King and seem to be enacting their own plans and schemes. For some reason or another, one faction wants these machines 'decommissioned.' Either the Dwarf King is disappointed and wants them gone, or their machinations truly are interfering with the governance of Forge, or some third-party recognizes their plans as destructive.

Six Main Points

  1. The Dwarf King has been ousted from Forge by The Black, one of the dragons of The Three.
  2. Forge is running along mostly as-is. There's discontent among the noble class, but as long as the industrious Dwarven guilds get work and get paid, they're happy. Which they are.
  3. The Dwarf King's revival of the machines was seen as a risky gambit, even by supports.
  4. The deep roots of the Silver Tree, house of the Elf Queen's court, tangle all through the land and into the darkest reaches of Forge's bowels. Anywhere the roots shine, Dark Elves consider their home. The Dwarves, by and large, disagree.

Set-Up

The party should be told the entire core conceit before making their characters. During planning, you should see if there are any common themes among icons, and try to make modifications to the adventure to fit the theme.

Here's what the players will be told about their mission by their quest-giver, at the start of the first session.

The Quest

There are five ancient machines that have been re-awoken, each as unique as they are dangerous. They're old Dwarven technology from before the First Age. We have the following information on three of them. The first is Hinge. It's the most-public of the five, and we've heard reports of it mingling with deep-society under Forge. You might be able to track it down fairly quick, but be wary -- it's quick with a knife, and can disappear just as quick. The second is Lever. Lever is known to work together with the third, Piston. Lever is larger than average, and seems to be the group's workhorse, as well as their heavy hitter. Piston is dangerous at a distance, specializing in long-ranged weaponry. We don't know Piston's role in their group, but folks report clanging and beating wherever Lever goes -- we think they're working together to excavate something. The remaining two don't have any eye-witness reports. They should be considered exceedingly dangerous. If you encounter either of the two, consider destroying it your highest priority. We're trusting you with dispatching all five of them. Good luck.

The Machines

The machines are working together as a loose party, burrowing and tunneling through the deepest reaches under Forge. They know where an ancient god's corpse is buried and they're trying to excavate it.

Here's a quick rundown, in the order they might be encountered by the party:

  1. Hinge, he/him, assassin
  2. Lever, he/him, laborer
  3. Clickspring, she/her, archer and reconnaisance
  4. Drive, he/him, leader
  5. Latch, she/her, witch

Note that all non-machines tend to refer to the machines by 'it,' while the machines amongst themselves have some conception of gender identity.

Hinge

Hinge is an affable assassin, tall and lithe, with a fixed face-plate that doesn't emote, stuck in an inquisitve raised-brow position, but an otherwise human-ish appearance. He seems the least concerned about the rest of his gang's mission, and often spends time in the shallow-reaches, frequenting Dwarven tavern halls and Elven gardens. He seems happy enough to make anyone's acquaintance and learn their story, and speaks in Dwarven. Hinge doesn't consider anyone to be a real threat, and acts in a relaxed, casual manner, offering to buy anyone drinks in exchange for a story from the past thirteeen ages.

Hinge will speak kindly of his friends Lever and Clickspring, while warning about Drive and Latch. In particular, he calls Latch a 'hateful machine' and warns any non-machines to avoid her at all costs. He notes that Latch 'is envious of what she does not have,' and that he doesn't enjoy being around her and Drive.

Hinge is an assassin, one with a supernatural control over space. He never carries a weapon around, nor any other apparel, so it appears as if he's always unarmed. Instead, he hides weaponry around his environment and can call them forth to his hand with a whim. Additionally, he can shift himself great distances in space in a flash of off-green light, and can similarly dismiss other folks with a touch.

When it's mentioned that he can disappear in a blink, this is why. While he is very stealthy in a mundane sense, he can also silently teleport fair distances with a whim, which is a trick he keeps mostly-secret. Under duress, he might try to summon a knife, slit a throat, and then teleport away, all in the same motion. Do note that this appears to be an ancient form of arcane magic -- wizards and sorcerors in the party lacking a sufficient background won't be able to pinpoint what happened, but can recognize it as 'arcane.'

Lever

Lever is a very friendly, very meek-minded machine -- while he can speak Dwarven, he speaks quietly and does not try to raise his voice. Lever is eleven feet tall, and has the build of a centaur, though completely mechanical. His head is that of a falcon's. Attached to his forearms are two articulated joints, which help him hold the massive implements he uses for excavating and for combat.

Lever obeys any order given to him with sufficient authority. Typically, Clickspring tells him what to do and he follows it. If they're separated, the party can order him around, and as long as it doesn't involve directly harming his fellow machines, he'll comply without too much thought.

Owing to his size, Lever is a straightforward wrecker. He might mention being a tree-feller in the past, but in the shallow-reached and mid-reached, he's been given a modern Dwarven pickaxe, retrofitted with an arcane blasting rune. When the rune is dim, the next strike against the ground will spark it. When the rune is lit and smoking, a lever on the haft will cause it to burst, launching the axehead forward with tremendous force, which Lever's articulated grip can direct with lethal accuracy.

Clickspring

Clickspring is a lean, regal-looking machine, and has a feminine looking face, fully-articulated. She has a greatbow and quiver slung on her back, which are suspiciously unweildy for cavern activity.

She's the most openly skeptical of humankind and their intentions, without being outright hostile. She knows the layout of the caverns very well, and can echolocate within them, with a signature clicking sound. If the party crosses paths with her, she will tell them to leave the machines alone. If the party continues trying to interact with her, positively or negatively, she will become aggressive, and try to get Lever to 'deal with these problems.' The party might overhear her talking about 'Drive's designs,' and she talks about Drive's plans to extract some rare resource from the deep-reaches.

Clickspring's wrist can articulate away from her forearms, revealing a loaded blasting chamber. She prefers to use her greatbow, but up close she will fire a close-range volley of buckshot to create distance.

Drive

tbd

Latch

Latch is a grotesque, short-statured machine with no head, three arms, and two faces, one on her clavicle and one on her stomach. The upper face is contorted in a pained, crying expression, while the second face has clenched-teeth look of rage. A black, tar-like substance occasionally seeps from the corners of the lower's mouth, while smoke occasionally billows from the upper's eyes.

Latch has an open homicidal hatred for non-machines, and will attempt to disfigure them on sight. She considers her horrible form to be a blight, and envies the beauty inherent in all living things. Seeing as she cannot make herself more beautiful, her twisted mind sees fit to take that beauty away from them. If the party is approaching anywhere Latch is currently working, they'll see the horrid warning signs of her work: flayed corpses, eyes missing, face twisted with pain.

Latch is a witch who is frail and slow, though remains the most dangerous of the five due to her curses and hexes. Whenever she sees a non-machine she has no use for, she arranges her three hands in a vile sigil, while a rhythmic, grinding screech echoes from her lower face. Her curses target that which makes living things beautiful -- her hex causes skin to blister, boil, and split; eyes to rupture; and limbs to rot.

Locations

Shallow-Reaches

The Shallow-Reaches lay below the day-to-day thrum of Forge and her suburbs. There are some lifts and winding passages that do lead back to civilization proper, but the route is long.

The glowing pearlescent roots of the Silver Tree reach below Forge and into the Shallow-Reaches, providing a dim light throughout the tunnels, chasms, and plains. There are several hamlets that appear here and there throughout the Shallow-Reaches -- the largest, Sediment, has some two-thousand Dwarves, Dark Elves, and even Humans residing in it.

Hinge mostly carouses in Sediment, in tavern halls, gardens, and the square.

Lever and Clickspring roam the tunnels and passageways of the Shallow-Reaches. Clickspring occasionally sends Lever to talk to Hinge, in an effort to obtain ritual materials for Latch to use down below.

Deep-Reaches

The Deep-Reaches lie below what the Dwarves and Dark Elves are typically willing to navigate. The machines are from the Deep-Reaches, and know some of its secrets. Deep below, entombed in stone and earth, lay a corpsefield of gods, one of which the machines attribute particular importance to -- Ballos, Blackblooded.

Latch and Drive work in the Deep-Reaches and refuse to go higher into the Shallow-Reaches. Latch is preparing a ritual that can burrow a tunnel through Ballos's teeth, though the ritual requires many ingredients from the Shallow-Reaches and further above. Drive moves back and forth between Deep-Reaches and Shallow-Reaches, to coordinate the two groups.