The Clockwork Tower

After restoring power to the bridge and reaching the city’s center, the party entered the massive Clockwork Tower of Thisslewit — a silent spire once controlled by the artificer Atlas.

Each floor revealed new secrets and pieces of a forgotten dream:

🏗️ 1st Floor — Mechanical Inventory System & Master Key

The tower’s base floor housed a vast inventory system, with hundreds—possibly thousands—of categorized components stored in bookshelf-like sliding compartments.

Above, an overhead rail network silently moved between shelves, retrieving and delivering requested parts. This rail extended vertically throughout the tower, connecting multiple floors — a full logistics system created for rapid automated access.

While exploring the area, Thomas discovered a hovering sphere, about the size of an apple, pulsing gently with blue light. When touched, the sphere interfaced with the inventory network — acting as a master key that allowed him to summon parts, open compartments, and directly interface with the system’s logic. This effectively made Thomas the system’s new recognized operator.

⚡ 2nd Floor — The Power Core

A damaged arcane generator sparked violently, unstable but still functional. The party carefully navigated the hazards and noted that it continued to power parts of the tower — albeit unpredictably.

⚒️ 3rd Floor — The Forge Guardians

A floor filled with forging automatons, many still partially active. Some saw the party as threats and attacked with hammers, tongs, and molten tools. After a hard-fought battle, the party shut down the hostile remnants and pushed forward.

🎻 4th Floor — Ballroom of Broken Grace

An eerie ballroom. Mounted on embedded floor tracks, a dozen decayed dancing automatons continued a never-ending routine, their gears rusted but still moving. The walls echoed with music from a long-dead age. The scene was beautiful, tragic, and deeply haunting.

👤 5th Floor — Atlas’ Chamber

At the top floor, the party found Atlas — an ancient artificer suspended by a golden umbilical cable. He was working on his final creation: a perfect replica of his wife, Viola. When they approached, the replica screamed — triggering a battle of memory, magic, and machines.

The battle was chaotic: automatons fought like zealots, magic warped space, and Viola's echo fractured the minds of those who listened.

It was Silas who stepped forward in the final moments, delivering a merciful end to the artificial soul.

Thomas reached into Atlas’ coat and retrieved his key relic: the Veilstone Amulet.

As silence fell, the tower spoke:

“Continuity program activated. Custodian of residence, please state your designation.”

“Thomas.”

“Welcome, Custodian. Awaiting directive.”

The tower's gears stirred once more.