The carillon rose before them, set back in a circular courtyard. Surrounded by a small ornamental fence that anyone, even Alastair in his diminutive size, could step over without issue. It encouraged curious onlookers to stay out of the courtyard more than prevented entry to the tower itself. The tower rose about five floors above the ground to be viewed from most places in West Shilgrave.
As they walked around the fence, Flor noticed additional details. The tower rose almost like a diminishing cake with fewer sides on each floor. If someone looked down from a bird’s view, the tower would have inset shapes of increasing size and number of sides. The circular clock faces were set into the sides of an equilateral triangle; the floor below was square, followed by a pentagon, and a hexagon. At the ground level, seven entrances were set into the building, although the southernmost one seemed to be a primary entrance with larger double doors set in the stone.
Walking around the tower, they explored if someone would prevent their entrance. The place looked empty and quiet, although the clock chimed fourteen.
Alastair broke the silence. “It’s almost like a dungeon in the city…do you think we’re prepared to enter?”
“What’s the worst that can happen? We lose a day and face it again tomorrow?”
“Let’s go find some clockwork parts.”
With one additional look around them, Flor and Alastair stepped over the fence and walked toward the double door. Alastair glanced around furtively, but the few people on the streets gave them no attention. Flor pulled the door open, and they entered.
Brass-ensconced lights, embedded in the walls, provided illumination enough to get a view of the general room. A large pit in the center housed weights and the prime pendulum. The pendulum didn’t move far but had enough space to time the movements of the gears. The pit was fenced off with decorative brass. Flor looked anyway and saw the pit went down a few meters. Looking up, she could see the clockwork further up.
The space was tidy. The tower was unusually quiet outside of squeaking and movement noise from the clockworks. In her time in West Shilgrave, Flor realized the buildings were mostly well isolated from the sound of the weather.
“So, where do we get chrono parts, then? It doesn’t seem like any are scattered on the ground, and I don’t think I’m inclined to steal some from the clock itself.”
“How about we climb? Maybe there is something further up?”
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Flor shrugged concurrence, and they walked toward the stairs. As they approached the first landing, Flor’s interface flashed and a five-by-seven grid overlaid her vision, filled in with the four colored runes.
{Since it’s been a minute since they’ve seen combat, let me refresh you. The runes are red, green, blue, and bone-colored. (Occasionally a purple-colored one appears). Two runes can be swapped at a time, and when three of a color line up, the matched color causes an action. A red match results in an attack, a blue match results in defense, and a green match results in restoring health. Matching bones results in a crossbones which, when selected, causes the player to miss a turn but then strike a critical hit the following turn.}
Flor’s interface showed three hearts, full energy, a time of 1415, a coin purse that looked not empty, and a rage of four. Alastair’s goofy character was cartoonish in the corner and waved at her when she noticed him. She looked around for her opponent, but couldn’t identify who or what she was supposed to attack, until a moment later she heard a tiny squeak. Looking down, she saw a mouse armed with a mop and a bucket, wearing a little floral dress and a head scarf.
Am I supposed to attack? I can’t bring myself to attack this cute little mouse maid.
Skip your turn? Yes/No?
If you put it like that, it’s foreboding. But, yeah, even though I’m in full health, I’d rather block to see what happens.
Flor selected a move that would combine four blue runes. She radiated a bit of blue. The mouse maid grew animated and angry and then flashed red. Surprisingly, she kicked the mop bucket at Flor. The mouse then thrust forward with the mop. Perhaps due to selecting block, Flor deflected the tiny bucket. It clanged on the steps, and sidestep the mop thrust. It was then that Flor realized that she had a false impression of how large this mouse was, thinking that it had initially been normal mouse size, but on reevaluation, it must have been about the size of a large cat since it came up to her knee. In reality, getting hit might be an annoyance, but getting hit in the game probably decreased health.
So that’s how you’re going to be. Fine! Flor had a good lineup that combined four red and three green runes. Her feet glowed red and her fists green as she kicked at the mouse maid. The mouse maid glowed blue, but the impact of Flor’s foot broke through the defense and the maid took the full kick to her body, flying against the stairs and shattering.
Combat complete. +1 to Combat.
Attempt again? Yes/No?
No. The interface disappeared and Flor came out to find Alastair watching her.
He said, “You didn’t seem to need me that time, huh?”
“No, but that doesn’t mean an attacking mouse maid doesn’t disturb me.”
“Well, let’s increase the disturbed factor and loot the mouse…”
“Goddess that’s an awful sentiment.”
Alastair went to the mouse and looked at it more closely. “This thing is just a toy, Flor, called a Mechanical Mouse Maid. It doesn’t look like it has any loot other than a coin. I wonder if that’s her lunch money or something.”
“You just don’t know when to stop talking, sometimes, do you?”
“Look, should I take the Mechanical Mouse Maid’s money or not? Fine, sure. I’ll keep the jokes to a minimum.”