Use this document when the players are exploring, socializing, or completing quests within the Clockwork Gardens. This zone is a gilded-prison social horror sandbox focused on etiquette, visibility, and psychological control.
The Clockwork Gardens are Chronos’s curated showcase: a floating island designed as a living museum of humanity. Here he stores his “favorites” from countless timelines—artists, aristocrats, celebrities, thinkers, and curiosities who have little functional value to the Vault beyond being decorative.
Every building is polished brass and glass. Walls are transparent, floors gleam, and entire towers are designed to be seen into. Privacy is a luxury that effectively does not exist.
Ruler:
Baroness Margaret Thatcher, the Curator of Composure. She enforces “morale” by shaping residents into perfectly behaved display pieces: polite, elegant, and emotionally flat.
Residents:
“Favorites” = living exhibits
Service staff and automatons = host layer
Wardens = enforcement layer
Anyone who disrupts the image—by crying, shouting, rebelling, or being “unsightly”—risks being removed from view: shipped to the Judicial Processing Center on Prime Meridian, or dumped straight into the Dredge Disk.
Arrival – The Gilded Threshold
Players arrive at The Gilded Lily teleporter and are immediately surrounded by beauty, glass, and eyes.
First Hook – The Aviary of Vices
Music, light, and wealth draw them into the Aviary of Vices casino—the most obvious social hotspot.
Social Hub – Prism Estates & Gilded Galleria
Players learn the rules of etiquette, meet “Favorites,” and hear about Thatcher and disappearances.
The Web – The Gardens Proper
Exploration of Mercury Park, Eternal Conservatory, Chronos Opera House, Clockwork Maze reveals the full shape of this gilded prison.
The Summit – The Iron Orchid Penthouse
Endgame in this zone: gaining access to Thatcher’s glass throne at the top of Prism Estates and deciding whether to play along, bargain, or break her system.
Visuals:
Brass-and-glass skyscrapers like ornate birdcages.
Transparent apartments stacked in the sky.
Glass domes filled with curated nature, art, and entertainment.
Gold filigree, porcelain accents, subtle pastel light, reflections everywhere.
Atmosphere:
Soft music, clinking glasses, polite laughter.
Perpetual sense of being observed.
Smell of perfume, polished metal, and floral cleaning chemicals.
Horror Element:
Social and psychological horror, not gore.
You are always on display.
Emotional expression is dangerous.
People vanish for “improper conduct” and no one talks about it.
Smiles become masks. Manners become survival.
Description:
A circular white porcelain pad inlaid with copper filigree vines and clockwork flowers. Twisted glass railings ring the platform. A pillar of pearlescent pink-white light hums above it, framed by metallic flora and curved glass windows.
Use: Primary arrival/exit point. Easy place for Warden presence and “welcoming” staff.
Description:
A colossal skyscraper shaped like an ornate Victorian birdcage. Gold and brass filigree supports vast curved panels of reinforced glass. Inside, transparent living units are stacked like crystal perches—with furnishings visible from surrounding walkways and observation decks.
Use: Main residential hub, ideal for neighbor drama, surveillance, and feeling watched in your own home.
Description:
Atop the Prism Estates sits Thatcher’s lair: a dome of multi-layered glass framed in polished brass girders shaped like thorny vines. Inside, it’s cold, immaculate, and blindingly bright—part ultra-lux suite, part high-society arena, part surveillance control center. From here she monitors social behavior across the Gardens.
Use: Final confrontation/negotiation site, high-stakes social or political scenes.
Description:
The ground floor of a towering birdcage structure, filled with chandeliers, gear-driven roulette tables, brass slot machines, and velvet-chaired card tables. Automatons in tailored vests and flapper-inspired outfits serve drinks and enforce soft etiquette. Spiral staircases lead up to the Galleria.
Use: First social hub, gambling, intrigue, blackmail, and recruitment.
Description:
The second floor of the Aviary, arranged as a circular promenade with a central atrium view of the casino below. Shops are “cages” made from gold bars and curved glass, with no opaque walls; shoppers and goods are always on display.
Use: Luxury shopping, status comparison, fashion shows, social rivalries, theft-or-heist scenes.
Description:
A lavish theater deeper in the Aviary complex. Seating rises in a vertical golden spiral around a stage that uses hard-light projections and a massive exhaust-powered pipe organ to reenact historical scenes, propaganda epics, and curated “culture.”
Use: Grand events, masked galas, assassination attempts, backstage conspiracies.
Description:
A sprawling glass dome whose interior resembles a nature museum and zoo. Paths wind through three incompatible ecosystems displayed side-by-side: a prehistoric jungle, a Victorian greenhouse, and a surreal alien biome. Aggression-suppression tech and containment systems keep deadly flora and fauna in check… usually.
Use: Exploration, exotic hazards, secret meetings, containment-break encounters.
Description:
A sunken garden framed by towering glass buildings. A central basin of mercury-like fluid reflects the skyline like a mirror. Fiber-optic willows sway with light instead of leaves; copper lily pads and benches surround the basin.
Use: Quiet conversations, clandestine rendezvous, emotional crack points.
Description:
Located in the Brass Arboretum: a whimsical hedge maze made from 10-foot wrought iron lattice painted green, filled with copper-leaf ivy and brass vines. The entire maze sits on a massive clockwork turntable and reconfigures itself every hour.
Use: Timed puzzles, chase sequences, “tests” of worthiness or composure.
Origin:
Celebrities, nobles, artists, intellectuals, cultural curiosities from many timelines.
Behavior:
Appearing composed even when terrified.
Speaking politely, rarely using direct defiance.
Using gossip and social maneuvering instead of open fights.
Some embrace their status; others quietly suffocate under it.
Sample Hook:
A famous poet smiles too hard, whispering, “If you see someone cry in the open… don’t stare. They’ll take you too.”
Behavior:
Corporate propaganda tone: “Your composure keeps the Gardens beautiful!”
Cheerful, rehearsed, and glitchy.
May spout etiquette tips mid-sentence.
Report emotional disruption and rude behavior to Wardens.
Role:
Standard Vault Wardens, but their forces in this sector are assigned and prioritized under Thatcher’s authority. She uses them as her blunt instrument:
Escorting “noncompliant” residents to Judicial Processing on Prime Meridian.
Or having them quietly rerouted to the Dredge Disk when deemed unsalvageable.
They are highly visible, shock-baton–equipped, and constantly reciting compliance slogans. Their mere presence reinforces the rule:
break composure in public, and you can be taken.
Use these as templates:
The Mirror Gallery: Hall of lagged reflections where emotions show a second late. Perfect for paranoia, secret messages, or eerie foreshadowing.
The Smile Clinic: Cosmetic and behavioral “wellness” salon that helps residents maintain “appropriate expressions.” Treatments may involve drugs or micro-implants.
The Etiquette Tribunal: A salon where minor offenders are made to apologize, be corrected, or be publicly judged by high-society peers.
The Whisper Balcony: Overlooking Mercury Park and Prism Estates; favored spot for blackmail, affairs, and anonymous meetings.
The String Quartet Rotunda: A glass dome with an automaton quartet playing endlessly—great ambient background for tense conversation.
1. Guide, Don’t Strand
On arrival, immediately highlight:
The beauty and transparency of the surroundings.
The nearby Aviary of Vices and the towering Prism Estates.
Use staff, invitations, or gentle “guidance” to steer players toward social hubs instead of aimless wandering.
2. Establish the Stakes Early
NPCs should strongly imply:
Emotional outbursts, rudeness, or public arguing are dangerous.
People who “embarrass themselves” are taken away.
Thatcher decides who stays “on display.”
3. Default Tension is Social, Not Combat
Use gossip, exclusion, and etiquette as primary weapons.
Wardens and open violence should feel like escalation, not default.
Make consequences for open aggression heavy and systemic (Wardens, bans, surveillance, Thatcher’s attention).
4. Always Frame Cruelty as Care
When someone is removed, describe it as “help,” “rest,” or “necessary correction.”
Even victims may repeat this language, visibly doubting themselves.
5. Play Up Glass & Surveillance
Frequently note reflections, people watching from above, silhouettes behind glass.
Let players feel like privacy is something they have to steal.
6. Let the Pressure Build
Small etiquette slip-ups lead to warnings or social snubs.
Bigger ones bring Wardens or formal reprimand.
Eventually, players decide: play along, subvert quietly, or break the glass and accept the consequences.
In the Clockwork Gardens, the rule is simple:
Smile. Someone is always watching.