Graden’s Clock
It is well known that the finest clock and watch makers come from Ironhammer halls. Their creations range from ornate time pieces that play a different tune every hour, to jewelled pocket watches for the nobility. To the outside it may seem like the clockmakers compete with these designs, but to the Ironhammer dwarves these ornate and complex designs are mere window dressing. Where they really compete is in the precision and spring life of their timepieces.
Every decade the clockmakers of the halls compete in the Watched Time Showcase, vying for prizes in the different categories. While precision is considered to be the prize with the greatest honour, spring life is a close second and the award has sometimes been the most controversial.
In 36 C5 two noted clockmakers were expected to closely contest the spring life prize. Both had produced prototypes that were very evenly matched in the years leading up to the competition and something of a rivalry had developed between their supporters. Graden Rockbrow’s creation was an exercise in meticulous simplicity ensuring as little energy as possible was lost from the spring. However, Erlon Ironhammer’s caused gasps of shock and disgust as it had no spring, instead relying on a flow of magically produced wind to provide motion.
Graden locked himself away in his workshop for, only emerging when driven to by necessity. When his colleagues and family tried to tell him that the result of the competition had been overturned, he just ignored them and went straight back to work. Despite not accepting new commissions, which used to be the cornerstone of his business, Graden did not lack for funds. A steady flow of clocks came from his workshop, all marvels in the craft but seen as flawed by Graden. His status as a recluse and the way he had stormed out of the showcase created a demand for his clocks, with bidding from interested parties reaching previously unheard of levels. All of this passed Graden by as he continued to toil away in his workshop.
It was one morning in spring in 142 when Graden’s daughter, Garnet, found the workshop unlocked and no sign of her farther. A frantic search was conducted but he couldn’t be found anywhere within the family caves. The workshop was as neat and tidy as Graden always kept it, with the exception of a pile of gears, rods, and other bits of metal on the floor near a workbench. On the workbench was a large clock with multiple dials and displays showing the date and phase of the moon as well as the time. Atop a pile of neatly stacked diagrams was a note.
Garnet did not survive the questioning she was subjected to and the Ironhammers were left with the problem of the clock. It might be dangerous, but the benefits of having a mechanism that could cast spells would be incalcuable. They therefore set mages and clockmakers to studying the clock and it's mechanism, but were hampered by the fact that Garnet had hidden or destroyed the designs left by Graden.
The clock was researched for several centuries before being locked away in a vault. During this time stories drifted in from overseas about people disappearing, with only a pile of gears found in front of a clock. The Ironhammers did what they could to retrieve the clocks made by Garnet, but were only ever able to locate two of them.
Though many hope that the other two have been destroyed, tales still trickle in about people disappearing, leaving only a pile of cogs behind. Many dismiss these as mere myths but the Ironhammers know that one of the clocks is to blame and immediately send out agents to try and locate the clocks. However, whenever they arrive the clocks have already been taken away somewhere else.
The Watched Time had long prided itself on being a showcase for mechanical skill, not a display of arcane trickery and there were calls from Erlon’s creation to be hand. However, the judges ruled that since the main mechanism was mechanical it was technically still within the rules, and they awarded the prize to Erlon. Graden was mightily offended by this and stormed out of the showcase declaring that he would show that clockwork would never lose to magic.
Some time later it was found that undue pressure had been put on the judges by senior members of the Ironhammers. The scandal nearly ended the competition, and it was only able to resume after new rules were introduced explicitly banning all magic.
My final work. With this it is complete. Now clockwork will rule supreme.
While Garnet was looking through the diagrams, the clock struck the quarter hour and a small image of two people striking bells appeared above the clock. Intrigued Garnet took a look inside to see what was creating the illusion, but there didn't seem to be anything unusual inside. An inspection by a mage also revealed that there was nothing magical about the clock, leaving the mage confused over how the illusion was being created.
Over the next year Garnet studied the diagrams, which showed how the clock was made, while still hoping her father would reappear. When Graden didn't turn up, Garnet decided to gift the clock to the Ironhammers, in a not so subtle rebuke for their previous actions. The Ironhammers took this in good part (they were getting the last of Graden's clocks after all), and placed the clock where it would be seen by senior members of the family everyday.
The clocks play a different tune each quarter. The image displayed above the clock also changes, with the number of people striking the bells matching the hour of the clock. Despite Garnet's best efforts she couldn't change the images for the replicas.
Garnet spent the next decade trying to build copies of the clock with the diagrams Graden had left behind. There were numerous failures but she managed to produce four more that could create illusions like the first one. Her work was interrupted when the Ironhammers sent soldiers down to arrest her. Two members of the Ironhammers had gone missing in the last decade, in both cases they were last seen in the room with Graden's clock, and in both cases a small pile of cogs, gears, and rods were found in front of the clock. The first incident which happened 5 years previously was not considered overly suspicious but after two the family had questions.
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