The Endless Machine

*As it has been.*

*As it will be.*

*As it is.*

## Overview

The Endless Machine. Although it's true purpose is likely lost to all who live, it served as a bastion to the balance to the balance of time, it's exact purpose lying beyond mortal comprehension. Damaged nearly beyond repair, it found it's way into Waypoint, in the guise of a pocketwatch, where it lost it's Clockkeeper, and eventually it's core to an outside corruption. The Endless Machine died quietely, early one Saturday morning, sitting on a desk in the Order household. Since it's demise, the fabric of time and reality around Waypoint has grown weaker, seemingly related to the iconography of a broken circle.

## History

The Machine was first gifted to what would be known as the Brassbeard clan from time immemorial. An order based construct, the clan formed a symbiotic relationship with the Machine, electing one to serve as Clockkeeper each generation, to protect the Machine's machinations, and gain powers pertaining to the influence of time itself.

This prevailed for many centuries, the Brassbeard clan grew and changed, until the Endless Machine found home in the workshop of a humble tinkerers store called "bits and bots". This was the Brassbeard's current residence and with it, a new Clockkeeper in the form of Thaldroth Brassbeard. Thaldroth was far more irresponsible than his peers and often shunned his duties. Choosing to gain the powerful benefits of being a Clockkeeper, while rejecting to care for the Machine, seeing it as an outdated tradition. He would often stretch the boundaries of what was 'allowed' for a Clockeeper, from speeding up time, to freezing it.

This came to a breaking point one early Saturday morning, he was out on the town and in a string of bad luck, Thaldroth chose to reverse time, in an attempt to win back some of the money he lost. Breaking the final core tenant of the Clockkeepers, Thaldroth did not feel his powers react, as for the first time, the Endless Machine broke. The resulting explosion took the entire Bits and Bots store with it, in a flash of violet light, leaving behind only a broken pocketwatch. This pocketwatch represented the last vestige of the Endless Machine and Thaldroth vowed to fix it.

Thaldroth made his way to Waypoint, hoping for money or advice to aid in the watch's repair. While he made some allies in Arete and a few others, he ultimately perished. The pocketwatch carried on, now in Arete's possession. Without a Clockkeeper, the Machine was forced to repair itself painstakingly slowly, absorbing one small piece of metal or mineral from it's vicintity every Saturday morning. This was ultimately it's downfall, as one fateful morning, it absorbed an obsidian fragment of a being from beyond this world (also in Arete's possession).

The corruption was immeninent and intense, the Machine too weak to muster up a proper fight, it was ultimately claimed by the corruption. As such, for the second and final time, the Machine detonated. Six adventurer's were able to contain the full force of the explosion, but they were unable to save the machine.

About a month after the Machine's destruction, small strange happenings began occurring in Waypoint, minor things not moving as they should through space and time, each accompanied by faint violet light.

And a symbol of a broken circle appeared on Arete's desk.

## Relevant Quests

### [date] "I don't know. Call it whatever the [expletive] you want."

The vestige of the Endless Machine detonated, succumbing to it's corruption, destroying the fabric of Waypoint's reality. Six adventurers were caught in the explosion, finding themselves in a place of fractured time. Traveling through this strange world, they eventually found a doorway to the Machine, guided by the vestige's empty vessel. What lingering life left in the Machine attempted to guide the adventurer's, allowing them to travel in time between the corrupted reality, and the moment of infestation, to try and communicate what must be done. The adventurer's eventually reached it's core, but were unable to destroy the corruption before it took root. The infestation took the Machine down with it, and although the adventurer's safely returned to Waypoint, the delicate bastion of time crumbled to dust.

### [date] "A crack in time"

(First appearance of the Broken Circle outside rp)

Five adventurers and a couple villagers off the east of Waypoint, on Forthington's Farm are all caught in a time loop. Unaware of this, the adventurer's eventually break the cycle, with the aid of Ren, Stacy, and Vea. Vea seemed to have some knowledge of the previous loops, but internalized them as nightmares where her parents, and in turn everyone else died. In each loop, the party were hunted by strange horrors, formed of fog and violet light, vicious and hungry. The breaking point was in a sealed off cave under a dead wheat field, where the walls were plastered with carvings depicting farms, wolves, clouds, a tower, and at it's apex, a broken circle.

*Time was sacrificed.*

*The bird, ascended.*

*The End was chosen.*