Description
Clocktower Facade
At the centre of the square is the clocktower. The three-hundred-foot tall square tower is about fifty feet wide at the base, with rounded turret corners and walls supported by great buttresses. The front facade is a mechanical wonder. Near the top of the tower is a massive thirty-foot-wide clock face made from glass, the numerals and hands filigreed with silver, brass, and gold. Above are several crenellated balconies, and the roof is a steep spire topped with a wrought-iron weathervane.
Bordering the central clock is an embossed metal and glass dial that depicts the transit of the sun and the phases of the moons through each month. From this dial, one can read not only the time but the date, as it shows a stylized interpretation of the seasons and constellations. Extending down the clock face is a further system of circular glass plates, gears, and wheels that illustrate in mechanical precision the grand cosmic dance of the planets and stars as they hurtle through the astral void. Multicoloured glass lenses superimposed over the planet depict the metaphysical orbit of the afterworlds and side-realms and their relation to the mortal world. The rest of the tower is decorated with elegant carved statues depicting angels, saints, demons, devils, elementals, and the various creatures of the worlds beyond. On some levels are rows of gothic windows with trefoil arches filled with stained-glass mosaics.
On the ground level, a set of stone stairs leads to the copper double doors.
Clocktower Interior
The tower interior is a dramatic contrast to the elegant outer facade. The walls are exposed brick, and a rickety wooden staircase ascends the interior supported by a wrought-iron scaffold. The decorative exterior windows allow some light to pass into the tower; many along the way are shattered and broken. Gears connected by chains, stacks of heavy dangling counterweights on pulleys, and pendulum mechanisms hang down the northern wall. High above can be seen the bells.
Stairs. These creaking wooden stairs snake along the inner walls of the tower for two hundred feet, connecting the ground floor to the belfry gantries above. Each individual flight rises sharply twenty feet to a small corner landing and sports a thin metal railing.
Belfry. The staircase ends at a wooden gantry clinging to the outer walls of the tower. This narrow walkway overlooks thirteen massive bronze bells hung in the middle of the tower belfry. Each ranges from three to five feet wide and weighs several tonnes. The bells are yoked to steel girders and do not swing. Instead, the bells are struck by exterior hammers fitted to each and controlled by the machinery above. As each bell sounds in a distinct tone, this mechanical system can play many unique bellsongs.
It’s a two-hundred-foot drop to the floor below. A spiral staircase in the northwestern parapet ascents twenty feet to the Clockworks above.
Clockworks
A complex mechanism of gears, counterweights, and clockwork dominates this chamber. Several thin windows overlook the surrounding cityscape. The floor features several steel grates and wooden hatches that allow access to the machinery and bells below. A strange granite obelisk is set in place of the main clock pendulum; the core of the “ticking” mechanism that controls the clock. Three empty sockets lined with delicate copper tracery are cut into the stone. A fine elven script inlaid with thin lines of silver and gold are etched into the surrounding surface. Several pennies are precisely balanced atop it. A system of pulleys, winches, and levers connects it to the rest of the clockwork.
A set of shelves here contain several notched metal discs, each kept in a paper folder bearing the title of a song. When the clock tower functioned, these discs could be loaded into the receptacle to determine which song was played by the bells.
The elven runes describe in precise and exacting detail several mathematical calculations involving the passage of time, the planets, the seasons, and the planes.
The stone itself is quite lightweight; a character proficient in Arcana or engineering-related fields could deduce that such a stone would normally not be sufficient to accurately drive such an intricate clock mechanism.
Examining the stone further with detect magic or identify spells determines it is a magic item. It is attuned to time and space itself, and could vary its density and composition to act as the perfect pendulum.
Spire Attic
The clockmaster’s apartment is set in the attic.
Treasure. A restorative ointment is next to the bed.
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