Assembly Room
This room, with its worn-out workbenches and rusted tools, was once a bustling hub of innovation. Olivia Chronosmith, the city’s watchmaker, might provide the required tools and instructions to restore the Assembly Room.
Read Aloud
The ornate doors creak open to reveal an expansive room. Rows of long, dust-covered tables stretch from one end to the other, filled with rusted tools and disassembled mechanical artifacts. The room seems to be in a state of neglect, bearing testament to its once-great significance. Ancient sketches and mechanical designs adorn the walls, providing a glimpse into the genius that once thrived here. Discarded tools, their once-sharp edges now dulled by rust and time, litter the floor. Dust covers workbenches and tools alike. Despite the decay, an aura of past glory and innovation hangs in the air, beckoning you to restore it to its former splendor.
Additional Information
The main goal of this encounter is for the PCs to realize the importance of the Assembly Room and seek out Olivia Chronosmith for help in its restoration.
Tick and Tock
Read Aloud
- Tick: “Chirp-chirp! O-O-Olivia knows, how to fix, where it goes!”
- Tock: “Tock-tock! Sprites play tricks, on the way to Olivia’s mix!”
Roleplaying Olivia
Olivia, with her deep ties to the Clockwork Tower through her ancestry, is eager to help the PCs. She’s knowledgeable, passionate, and might even be willing to guide the players through some of the more intricate aspects of the Clockwork Tower.
If Olivia is with the PCs, she provides guidance and can offer a simple puzzle or riddle related to the room’s restoration. Successfully solving it reveals a hidden cache of tools or a minor magic item.
The Clockwork Puzzle
If Olivia is with the party:
Read Aloud
Upon inspecting the room, Olivia’s eyes fixate on a peculiar desk at the far end. The surface of this workbench is inlaid with a decorative array of polished gears and cogs – its rare ornamental beauty a clear indication of its importance. As she walks towards the workbench she remarks, “Ah! This is the Mechanism Table. Legend has it that Constantine Chronosmith, my ancestor, would use such tables to test the aptitude of his apprentices. It’s said that solving the puzzle reveals a special cache that he hid for his most promising students. Let’s see if you can decipher it.”
Olivia guides the PCs to the Mechanism Table, but instead of gears, there are five indented circles set into the wood. Around the table are a single six-sided die , 4 cards, a coin, and a wodden cup. A nearby plaque reads:
Use what’s around, unlock the power.
Die casts its fate, a coin does gleam,
Cup holds a secret, cards tell a dream.”
The Puzzle
Die (Dice): The single six-sided die, glows with an arcane energy, suggesting it has a role in the puzzle. While the number 4 seems initially arbitrary, players versed in arcane or natural lore may draw connections to the four classical elements of Earth, Air, Fire, and Water, or perhaps the four cardinal directions. A DC 15 Arcana or Nature check would reveal the significance of the number 4, hinting at the elements or directions it might represent. The players must place the die in one of the circles with the number 4 facing up .
Coin: The coin is not of the usual mint found in the realm. Its shiny, reflective surface captures the room’s dim light, shimmering like a small beacon. When placed in one of the circles, the coin seems to evoke the celestial, perhaps symbolizing the sun or moon, or even the glint off the Clockwork Tower’s metallic exterior. A DC 13 History or Religion check would make a character recall the symbolic significance of coins in ritual, leading them to place the coin as a representation of the sun or moon in a circle.
Cup: The wooden cup may appear unremarkable at first glance, but its role becomes clearer when filled with water. It could symbolize the moat around the Clockwork Tower or perhaps the life-giving rivers that traverse the lands. DC 12 Survival or Insight check would allow a character to understand that water typically represents life or barriers, encouraging them to fill the cup and place it in a circle .
Cards: Four cards lay on the table, each adorned with a different emblem - a tower, a flame, a cloud, and a rock. While these symbols may seem incongruous, someone with the right training might see them as markers of civilization’s evolution, progressing from the simplicity of a rock, through fire-wielding communities, up to cloud-reaching towers. A DC 16 History or Arcana check would let the players realize the cards represent stages of development or elements, guiding them to place the cards into a circle, stacked in the following order, from bottom to top: rock, fire, tower, and cloud .
The Fifth Circle: An emblem of clock hands, frozen at midnight, is engraved into the fifth circle. It stands apart from the others-no object fits here. Instead, the key is time itself. A DC 14 Perception or Insight check would allow a player to notice the intricacy of the clock hand engraving, deducing that time, rather than objects, is the key to this circle. They would understand that they should wait without disturbing the table for one minute .
Solution
The order of placement doesn’t matter, but all elements must be set correctly. Once everything is in place, and the players have waited for a minute for the fifth circle, a drawer pops out from the table’s side.
Reward
Clockworker’s Medallion
This ornate bronze medallion features intricate engravings of gears and cogs. When worn, the medallion provides the following benefits:
- Attunement to the Tower: The wearer gains advantage on skill checks related to understanding or interacting with the mechanisms within the Clockwork Tower.
- Artificer’s Insight: Once per day, the wearer can tap into the medallion’s power to cast either the Mending cantrip or the Identify spell without using a spell slot.
- Temporal Resonance: The medallion has 3 charges. As a reaction, which is taken when the wearer is hit by an attack roll, they can expend a charge to rewind a few moments in time and automatically cause the attack to miss instead. The medallion regains all expended charges at dawn.
Inside the cache, the PCs also find a neatly folded note:
“To the one who understands the rhythm of the cogs and the dance of time, wear this medallion with pride. For you are now a guardian of this tower’s legacy.
- C. Chronosmith”
Wear and Tear Restoration Tasks
Worn-out Workbenches
- Task: Carpentry check to restore benches.
- Directions: Players can make an Intelligence check (using carpenter’s tools). DC 12 for basic repair, DC 18 for a masterful restoration that might provide a +1 bonus on crafting checks made on this workbench in the future.
Rusted Tools
- Task: Clean and restore tools.
- Directions: Players can make a Dexterity check (using smith’s tools or tinker’s tools). DC 10 to clean off rust, DC 15 to sharpen and realign the tools to provide advantage on the next use.
Dust-Covered Tables
- Task: Clean the tables.
- Directions: A simple Dexterity check (can use tinker’s tools) (DC 8) ensures the tables are cleaned without damaging them. Using a Prestidigitation spell instantly cleans one table.
Incomplete Work
Disassembled Mechanical Artifacts
- Task: Reassemble artifacts.
- Directions: Players can make an Intelligence check (using tinker’s tools for advantage). DC varies based on artifact complexity (range DC 10-20). Some artifacts might require specific components or Arcana checks to integrate magical elements.
Environmental Actions
On initiative count 20 (losing initiative ties), the Assembly Room activates one of the following effects; it can’t use the same effect two rounds in a row:
- Whirling Tools: The rusted tools in the room spring to life, animated by some unseen force. They fly around the room, forcing every creature in the room to make a DC 13 Dexterity saving throw or take 2d6 slashing damage.
- Clockwork Shadows: The remnants of old constructs emerge as ghostly apparitions. These shadows provide half cover to all constructs present in the room.
- Mechanical Floor: Parts of the floor rotate, shift, or rise. A 10-foot square section of the ground either rises by 5 feet or sinks by 5 feet (DM’s choice), potentially changing the battlefield’s dynamics.
- Emergency Repairs Arcane energy flows through the room, repairing any constructs by 2d8 hit points.
Infobox
table-of-contents
Introduction
Link to original
Town and Surroundings
- Clockwork Tower Exterior
- Council Chambers
- Haven City Archives
- Haven Ironworks
- Great Junkyard
- Luminous Caverns
- The Watchmaker
The Tower
- Chronos Lobby
- Artificer’s Library
- Assembly Room
- Echo Chamber
- Gear Foundry
- Timepiece of Eternity
Resolution
NPCs, Monsters, and Items
Scaling Monster Numbers
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