A View Between Time

Profaned Oculory • Eaten Isle • Wistful Dark

◉ Investigation

◆ Discovery

☉ Observatory

Adventure Description

The Helical Archive's Head Field Researcher believes they've found a mythical Divine Ruler relic buried in the Eaten Isle - and needs the party's help to reach it.

Starting the Adventure

"As so many times before, your skyship touches down and you are immediately on alert from the deadly surroundings. This expedition, you find yourselves on the Eaten Isle - the wasteland of the infamous ritual gone wrong. The Helical Archive's Head Field Researcher, Limit Testing, has contracted you to investigate the supposed site of an ancient Divine Ruler relic - a telescope said to see the past and future of whatever it's pointed at. They will be joining you on this one. Past the writhing flora, a plain bunker-like entrance sits in the mountainside ahead. You strap your gear on - another expedition awaits."

The tilt mechanism is the central fun of this Adventure Site. Players shouldn't know about it until they move from Node 2 to either 3 or 5. Start with rumblings underfoot and feelings of vertigo to set the tone. After a tilt or two, the penny will drop that they need to head down both corridors at roughly the same rate and weight. It's up to you if they can hear each other between the paths enough to effectively communicate.

Important Characters

Limit Testing — Bio-Mechanoid, Male, ???

Limit is a Rank 5 Factotum (Source, pg. 16) with Folklorist, Healer's Hands, and Pack Tactics. If a Player is already a Factotum, change Limit to a Battle Butler (Source, pg. 390).

NOTE: Limit takes up a total weight of 16 Inventory Slots.

"The wicked pistol and beat-up Gleysian briefcase Limit carries would make one forget they are, in fact, an accomplished researcher."

Sources & Adversaries

This is an adaptation of the 1-page dungeon Loosely in the Sky A Diamond by ChrispyChickin, licensed with CC-by-SA.

Eaten Isle: BREAK!! Blog
Outer World Technology: BREAK!! Blog
Atropol: by ichiCharmed (Homebrew)
Yeeti: by The Lonely Sand Person (Homebrew)
Akaobato: by GoblinJunkyard (Homebrew)
Grim Wing/Skele-Master/Proudhound/Battle Butler:
Source, pg. 386/404/400/388
Chrono Creamer: BREAK!! Blog
Aetheric Monocle: Homebrew Items

Secrets & Clues

The Profaned Oculory was a scrying facility used by the Divine Rulers to foresee - and influence - the future.
Purposefully built at the peak of the Eaten Isle to overlook the Divine Rulers' favorite domain - Yeso the Splendid.
The entire facility can rotate along its central axis (through 1-2-4-6-7) using hidden gyroscopic hubs built into the mountain.
When the scryers began to foretell the Heaven's Seal and fall of the Divine Rulers - and nothing the Rulers did altered the forecast - the Clockwork Creator executed them all.
To ensure the creation lived on in the Rulers' absence, the Clockwork Creator ripped out its Heart, embedding it into the Device, and declared this "their last creation". Even now, it beats rhythmically.
The Divine Ruler who built this is lost to history. Known as the Clockwork Creator, they were devoted to grand clockwork creations - their ultimate ambition being to replicate the entire Outer World in metallic miniature.
Much of Akenia's Magitech prowess traces back to knowledge recovered from the Clockwork Creator's work.

⚙ Puzzle Mechanic

Below is how to run the weight balance mechanic of this Adventure Site. Follow BREAK!!'s Exploration mechanics (Source, pg. 230) for Location Actions and when to roll events.

⚖ Weight Split: The party must evenly split weight between the two paths. Each PC's weight = Species Weight (6/8/10 for Small/Medium/Large) + filled Inventory Slots.

⚖ Balance Check: Check after every Location Action or Combat Turn. To be in Balance, the weight split must be within 3 Slots of each other - which might require the Party to exchange items!

⚖ Tilt: A Deftness Check is required every time the Device lurches into a new position, or a Falling Injury is taken. Falling Debris (CLICK!) may also occur.

Map of the Oculory. Art by ChrispyChickin.

Random Events [D6]

1: Gravity Reverses! Requires a
Deftness Check or become Toppled.

2: A heavy Clockwork Spider runs
down one corridor, making the Device tilt!

3: Part of the floor falls away,
leaving a gaping hole to the void below.

4: The party finds a mirror that shows
them at various stages of their lives.

5: A massive chain breaks, adding 5
Slots of weight to one half of the Device.

6: A voice over an invisible loudspeaker urges the party to leave in Bright Speech.

Rank 7-8 Adventure

Decrease: Remove the emerging Spiders and lower the Clockwork Heart's stats.

Increase: Replace the Spiders with a War-Drone in the Clockwork Heart Encounter.

Starting Coin: 800C

Oculory Locations

1 Ancient Security Station Entrance Trap

The entrance-way is mostly non-descript, built to look like a bunker. Inside, Cramped Pathways funnel the party one-by-one through ancient, still functioning security devices.

Shattered glass barriers reveal operating desks with personnel clearance badges.
Failure to present a badge results in a Smash Walls Trap (CLICK!) against the front PC.

2 Cracked Plinth Encounter

The tunnel opens into the machine's foyer - a small disk platform floating over an endless void. A massive Clockwork Raven [Grim Wing] perches on a cracked plinth, whirring as it recites riddles on "level headedness". Its wings are razored for those who mean it harm.

3 Mural Room Encounter

A gorgeous mural covers every wall of this circular chamber, depicting an unknown Divine Ruler creating this device. "The Clockwork Creator's ~~Greatest~~ Last Creation" is written in Bright Speech on a plaque underneath, defaced. Slumped against the mural is Fio [Proudhound], a Chib Mana Blight Raider with a twisted ankle. "You! You did this to me!"

4 Central Library Encounter Loot

A small clerical desk and ancient library sit over the churning mechanisms below.

The executed Head Scryer's spirit [Akaobato] lingers here, hungry for new knowledge. If threatened, it summons Spirits [Yeeti] that can throw PCs and cause the Device to lurch!
Secrets & Clues can be discovered here - ancient writing is etched on spinning gears.
Loot: Forgotten Tome on Yeso, a Can of Chrono Creamer, and an Aetheric Monocle.

5 Repair Quarters Encounter Loot

Operating beds and heavy magitech machinery pack the room. Inert, rusted Clockwork Soldiers litter the floor. Davine [Proudhound], a Tenebrate Mana Blight Raider leans on a halberd, bitterly muttering about "that idiot Fio". Cooperates in exchange for finding Fio.

Loot: Cabinets contain repair tools and a vial of Ennui Sludge (Source, pg. 292).

6 The Clockwork Heart Boss

Massive tubes line the walls, creaking and groaning. Suspended in the center of this circular chamber is a Clockwork Heart [Atropol], still-beating. 2 Clockwork Spiders [Skele-Master] crawl out of some tubes as the door slams shut!

Applying Ennui Sludge to the Heart's exposed gears (repeatable Deftness Check,
Snag from Magic Resistance) slows it to a halt, ending Combat.

7 Profaned Oculory Resolution

When the Clockwork Heart is defeated, the complex to the south powers down and crumbles. The party must dash across a thin bridge over the void to reach an enclosed observatory atop the mountain. It houses the Profaned Oculory, with just enough power for one last use, and overlooks a sweeping view of the Eaten Isle below. Limit activates the Device and the party see the results within Quest Resolution.

Quest Resolution

The telescope peers over the Isle's crater and the party sees the Eaten Isle of eld:

First, they see Yeso the Splendid in its full glory during the 2nd Aeon - serene lakes set against great seats of power, the Iron King himself walking the land.

It cuts to the Fall of Yeso - the moment the first mages turned the Rulers' very own Divine Sigils against them, leaving the beautiful capital city in ruins.

Finally, they witness the final moments of the war between Akenia and Calian, the Gigaframe Paladinius and the bio-titan Ragnarok exchanging lethal blows to each other's spellcore as the display turns white.

On top of any loot found, Limit rewards the party with 3 Gems and offers their services - and the Archive's resources - for whatever venture comes next.

With the complex crumbled, the question Limit asks is "...so, how do we leave?"