Printable guide sheet: Thirteen O'Clock in Chimewell

Read this to your players to start

In Chimewell, the great stone chimes of the Chime Tower tell everyone when to wake, work and sleep: the boats go out, the market opens and the lamps are lit by them. For three days they have rung at all the wrong times: thirteen o'clock at breakfast, the waking bell at midnight. The whole town is yawning and cross. Oswin Bellamy, the chime keeper, has checked the clockwork twice and found nothing wrong. He asks the heroes to find out what is ringing his chimes.

Scenes (all session lengths — scene’s tag shows the shortest length it appears in)

1. Scene 1: Thirteen at Breakfast from Quick Quest on

   In Chimewell, the chimes tell everyone when to wake. You stand on the roof of the Chime Tower, under the great frame of stone rods. It is breakfast time. Bread is warm, and the fishing boats wait in the harbour below. Then the chimes ring. Bong. Bong. Bong. Thirteen times. People freeze with their spoons in the air. A small man in a nightshirt rushes out. "Not again," he moans.

   Goal: Find out what is wrong with the chimes.

   • Ask Oswin Kind, DN 8

     It works: Oswin has checked the clockwork twice, and it is perfect. The wrong chimes always come at the sleeping hours, or just after. And every morning there is shiny slime on his rods. "Slime," he says, horrified.

     It doesn’t: Oswin is too tired to explain properly. He only mutters, "Slime. On my lovely rods," and wanders off to make tea.

   • Look at the chime frame Clever, DN 8

     It works: The rods are crusted with a shiny silver trail as wide as a cart. The glowing lichen on the frame has been eaten in big, round bites.

     It doesn’t: The morning light is too low to see much, but your hand comes away sticky with something cool and shiny.

   Ask your players

   Ask each player in turn: Oswin lets each hero take one thing from his workshop. What does your hero take? A little chime, a coil of rope or a basket of glowing lichen. Lichen is perfect at the climax.

   Oswin is precise and terribly sleepy, and he takes the wrong chimes personally. Either way, the heroes learn that something slimy has been on the chime frame at night. In the shortest length, go straight to the climax: the heroes wait by the chime frame at the sleeping hour.

2. Scene 2: Glowmarket at the Wrong Hour from Short Session on

   Glowmarket is open, though nobody is sure it should be. Lanterns of glowing lichen light the stalls blue and green. Half the traders are yawning. The other half are arguing about what time it is. A troll selling peppers is fast asleep on her counter. A woman covered in rock dust pushes through the crowd. "You're the ones asking about the chimes?" she says.

   Goal: Find out where the slimy visitor comes from.

   • Listen to Dagny Kind, DN 8

     It works: Last week, Dagny's crew scraped the old lichen out of the Old Delvings to cut new chime stone. Since then, she has seen a huge silver trail heading from the Delvings toward the town.

     It doesn’t: Dagny is in a hurry and a bad mood. But she says enough: "We cleared the Delvings, and something's been leaving trails ever since."

   • Follow the trail through the market Clever, DN 8

     It works: A wide silver trail crosses the floor from the Hill Gate toward the Chime Tower. On the way, one stall's lichen baskets have been eaten, baskets and all.

     It doesn’t: The trail has dried to a faint shine. But a trader grumbles that her lichen basket was eaten in the night, basket and all.

   Ask your players

   Ask the table: Everything in Glowmarket is sold by the hour it was made. What does your hero buy, and why? A basket of glowing lichen is the best buy here. A hero who carries one can try the clever way at the climax with no roll.

   Dagny is blunt but fair, and she had no idea anything ate the lichen. The clue is that the trail comes in through the Hill Gate. The next scene follows it out to the Old Delvings.

3. Scene 3: The Scraped Gallery from One-Sitting Session on

   Beyond the Hill Gate, a jungle path leads to old quarry tunnels. Rusted rails run along the floor. The stone hums whenever the air moves. In one long gallery, the walls are bare and scraped clean. Fresh pick marks shine everywhere. It smells of dust and wet stone. Across the floor runs a silver trail as wide as a cart, leading back toward the town.

   Goal: Find out what used to live in the Old Delvings.

   • Squeeze into the side tunnel Brave, DN 10

     It works: You squeeze through and find a round hollow lined with silver slime. Something huge used to sleep here, right beside the lichen. Now the lichen is gone.

     It doesn’t: You get stuck for a moment and scrape your elbow. Then you pop through and find the hollow, round and slimy and empty.

   • Read the walls Clever, DN 10

     It works: The pick marks are new. Under them, old round bite marks cover the stone. Something grazed the lichen here for years, until the stonecutters came.

     It doesn’t: The marks are a muddle at first. Then a hero spots one round bite mark as big as a cartwheel. Something ate here before the cutting.

   Ask your players

   Ask the quietest player: The stone here rings softly when your hero touches it. What tune does your hero play? This is just for fun. The tune echoes away down a tunnel toward a waterfall, and that tunnel is the Long Echo.

   The Old Delvings were the creature's pasture, and the stonecutters did not know. Now the heroes can guess the truth: whatever is on the chimes is hungry, not naughty. The trail leads back through the Long Echo.

4. Scene 4: The Long Echo from Full Session on

   The trail leads behind a waterfall into the Long Echo, a cave where sound comes back late. You hear footsteps that are not yours. Then you realise they are your own, a minute old. The silver trail glistens on the floor and up one wall. Then, from far ahead, comes a sound you did not make. A slow, wet slither. And a single stone chime, ringing.

   Goal: Get through the Long Echo to whatever is making the sounds.

   • Call out ahead Brave, DN 10

     It works: A minute later your shout comes back. With it comes a puzzled bubbling sound, like a very large kettle. Something up ahead heard you.

     It doesn’t: The echoes muddle everyone, and the heroes keep jumping at their own voices. They laugh it off and walk on.

   • Send a message on the echo Clever, DN 8

     It works: Your message rolls away up the tunnel. When it comes back, it brings the sound of slow, happy munching.

     It doesn’t: The message comes back garbled. But behind the jumble, everyone can hear munching.

   Ask your players

   Ask the table: Travellers leave messages in the Long Echo for whoever comes next. What message does your hero leave? This is for fun. If a hero leaves a kind message for the creature, let it echo out at the climax.

   Beyond the waterfall, the Long Echo runs under the hill and comes out on the tower roof, right beside the chime frame. It is the sleeping hour, and the chimes are about to ring. Go straight to the climax.

5. Scene 5: The Snail on the Chimes from Quick Quest on

   You climb out onto the tower roof, beside the great chime frame. And there she is. A snail as big as a cottage is sliding slowly up the stone rods. Her shell is swirled grey stone, and her long horns wave. Each time she slides over a rod, it rings. Bong. She stops to munch a patch of glowing lichen, very happily. Then she slides on. Bong.

   Goal: Get the snail off the chimes so the town can sleep.

   • Talk to her gently Kind, DN 8

     It works: Her long horns turn toward you. She stops munching, and she lowers her head to listen. Read "If you made friends."

     It doesn’t: Her horns pull in, and she freezes on a rod. Bong. When they come out again, a second kind try needs no roll.

   • Lay a lichen trail away Clever, DN 10

     It works: She sniffs, turns, and slides slowly after the trail, away from the rods. Read "If you laid a trail."

     It doesn’t: The trail is too thin, and she keeps munching the frame. With more lichen, the heroes can try again with no roll, or try a kind way.

   Ask your players

   Ask the table: Look at the stone where she has slid. What does your hero notice? Wherever her silver trail has dried, tiny new lichen is already glowing. She does not only eat it; she grows it. A hero who suggests giving her a garden of her own needs no roll. Read "If you gave her a garden."

   Grindle is a great stone snail, slow, polite and very hungry since her pasture was scraped. That is the secret, and every ending lets the heroes find it. If a hero attacks, she pulls into her shell and stays on the frame: beating her Guard of 14 is harder than the kind way at 8 or the clever way at 10, and it would ring every chime at once. When she is off the frame, read the ending that happened, then the homecoming.

   How it ends

   Read the ending that happened, then the homecoming.

   If you made friends. The snail turns her long horns toward you. Slowly she lowers her head, and you stroke the cool, smooth skin between her horns. She makes a soft bubbling sound, like a kettle about to sing. Then, very carefully, she slides down off the chimes without ringing a single one. Oswin lets out a huge breath.

   If you laid a trail. The snail follows your glowing trail down off the frame, munching as she goes. Not one chime rings. The trail leads her through the Hill Gate, back toward the old quarry. Her shell gleams in the lichen light as she slides away, slow and content. Behind you, Oswin sets the chimes right. They ring the true hour.

   If you gave her a garden. You lead her to the Spice Terraces, where the gardeners clear a corner just for her. She settles there with a happy bubble and starts to munch. Wherever she slides, new lichen glows. By morning, her corner is the brightest place in Chimewell. The gardeners call it Grindle's Patch. Above them, the chimes ring true.

   Homecoming

   Every ending: a full night's sleep in Chimewell. That night, Chimewell sleeps all the way through for the first time in days. The chimes ring the true hour. Glowmarket opens on time. Dagny's stonecutters leave one gallery in the Old Delvings unscraped, so the lichen can grow back. And sometimes, at the sleeping hour, a soft bubbling drifts over the rooftops.

Monster stat blocks

Rewards

• Oswin's Pocket Chime: once in your next adventure, ring it, and everyone who hears it stops and listens to you for a moment.
• A Pinch of Grindle's Lichen: once in your next adventure, scatter it on bare stone and it glows, lighting a dark place for a whole scene.

Tips for running this one

• Thirteen o'clock is funny, so play it for laughs: yawning traders, breakfast at the wrong hour, Oswin in his nightshirt. The mystery is light, and the jokes carry the table along to the snail.
• The clues are slime on the rods, eaten lichen, a scraped gallery and a slither in the Long Echo. Let your table guess the creature before they see her.
• Playing in Story mode? Take 3 off every DN and skip the roll for anything kind. Veteran tables add 2 to every DN.