Lore/Story Corkus Clockworks - Custom Quest

Length: Long
Location: Corkus City
Province: Corkus
Combat Level: 84
Starter NPC: Charles
Required Quest: The Envoy Part I
Reward: As follows:

• 1500000 Experience Points
• 4096 Emeralds (didn't take the tome) / 5120 Emeralds (took the tome)
• Watch Chain (Rare Necklace)

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Stage 1
> Go to the park in Corkus City at [-1533; 68; -2901].

• Charles: Mo'in gentleman! It's a really nice day isn't it?
• Charles: It feels like it's almost tea time... Let's check on the clock tower.
• Charles: Really? It's still twenty-four to five p.m.? I wouldn't have expected that!
• Charles: Wait... It can't be... The clock read half past four when I came to sit here and read the newspaper.
• Charles: Surely at least twenty minutes passed! I don't think my sense of time is broken to the point just six minutes feel this longer!
• Charles: It can mean only one thing... The clock of the tower has stopped.
• Charles: ...
• Charles: CATASTROPHE! I MUST IMMEDIATELY REPORT TO THE AUTHORITIES!
• The man's reaction seemed exaggerated to you. What big of a matter could that clock stopping be?

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Stage 2
> Try to find out more by talking with the citizen in the park.

• Harrison: Mo'in! Aren't you the envoy Beltrude brought to Corkus?
• Harrison: I imagine you are confused about why that fella had such a panicked reaction to see the clock stopped.
• Harrison: You see, the clock tower beats the time of life here. Every other clock is periodically checked to be synchronized with it.
• Harrison: It's considered to be the only hundred percent reliable clock in the whole province.
• Harrison: It's also the only time reference for the ones who don't own a pocket clock when they are outside.
• Harrison: With the clock tower stopped, the city will soon fall into a havoc of people getting the time wrong, coming too early or too late at appointments or workplaces.
• Harrison: It has to be fixed as soon as possible.
• Harrison: Now you may ask why I'm relatively calm...
• Harrison: It's because I'm used to faulty clocks. I own the most famous clock workshop in Corkus.
• Harrison: Actually, it's me who designed and built the clock of the tower decades ago, after three failed attempts. I was always prepared in case the fourth one, i. e. this one, broke, and that time has now come.
• Harrison: My plan requires an assistant though, and that's something that I currently have missing.
• Harrison: Luckily I met you at the right time, which ironically I don't know what is!
• Harrison: Anyways, let's get to work. Meet me at the first floor of the castle, on the southern perimeter walls. You can take the elevator in the tower just on the left of the exit of the park.

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Stage 3
> Enter the clock tower with Harrison.

• Harrison: A jewel of clockworks, isn't it?
• Harrison: It doesn't even use electromagic! It's fully mechanical.
• Harrison: It has a complicated system of springs and gears. It "calculates" time mostly thanks to a ratio between the teeth of two consecutive gears.
• Harrison: Enough about clock engineering, we don't have time for a lecture, even if I'd love to do one!
• Harrison: Let's go to the top, I will identify the problem and tell you what to do.
• Harrison: There's a ladder conveniently!
• Harrison will start climbing the ladder but it will break after the first few steps.
• Harrison: Ouch! At least I'm still in one piece, unlike the ladder! I guess it hasn't been used in such a long time that it has worn out.
• Harrison: There must be another way up...

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Stage 4
> Find a way to get to the clock mechanism.

Spoiler: How to get up the tower

There will be platforms along the wall at a parkourable distance. Some of them are, however, closed. You must right click one to open it, but those will break after a few seconds you stand on them.

After you reach the top, the following dialogue will play:

• Harrison: Finally! It's been like a hike!
• Harrison: Let's examine here...
• Harrison: Aha! The spring went out of place!
• Harrison: I need something to push it down so that I can reconnect it to the mechanism.
• Harrison: This is the first thing I need to ask you. I don't have anything heavy enough, and if I knew magic I could have used it to hold the spring in place!

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Stage 5
> Hold the spring down for Harrison.

Spoiler: How to hold the spring down

You will have to repeatedly cast spells on the spring. It will go down and Harrison will repair it. While you cast spells, the following dialogue will play:

• Harrison: Perfect, it's being compressed!
• Harrison: I'm reconnecting it to the gears. Almost there...
• Harrison: ...and done!

The following message will appear on the screen along with a sound effect:

• The spring has been repaired!

• Harrison: Now I need two more arms to get the gears back spinning.

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Stage 6
> Manually operate the big gear to reactivate the clock mechanism.

Right click to start

• [!] When you see "Press!" on the screen, you will have to right click in less than two seconds.

If you fail:

• Harrison: No, it slipped back!
• Harrison: Let's retry, but hold tighter and stronger this time!

You will have to start again.


If you succeed:

• Harrison: Yes, the clock is back running!
• Harrison: Now we'll need to get the right time from a clock at my workshop.
• Harrison: Sadly it won't be a hundred percent precise, but the error will be kept constant...
• Harrison: Hey, where are you going?
• Harrison: Oh no! You were standing on a tooth of another gear!

You will be transported along said gear, unable to move, until you reach the follower gear. The view will then turn black and you will take a bit of damage, while hard sounding sound effects play. You will find yourself in a room in the middle of spinning gears.​

Stage 7
> Find your way out of the clock.

• There seems to be a door with a broken mechanism... Maybe you can use some spare parts to repair it?

Spoiler: How to get out of the room

In the room you will be able to find the following items:

• 4 Metal Plates
• 3 Gears
• 3 Shafts
• 2 Belts
• 2 90-Degrees Gear Couples
• 2 Pistons
• 1 Worm Gear

You will only need 2 Gears, 2 Shafts, 2 90-Degrees Gear Couples. Once you have with you these items, right-click on the door. You will be teleported in a room with a grid with letters from A to F over the top and numbers from 1 to 6 along the left wall.

• Remember that there was a valve with a gear in front of the bottom right square!

There will be a checkered gear placed on C3 and another normal one placed on D4. These do not prevent you from placing other components in those squares. You will have to add in the mechanism:

• Gear; F6; Bottom.
• Shaft; F5; Vertical.
• 90 Degrees Gear Couple; F4; Driver Gear Bottom; Follower Gear Left.
• Shaft; E4; Horizontal.
• 90 Degrees Gear Couple; D4; Driver Gear Right; Follower Gear Back.
• Gear; D3; Back.

• It looks like this might work...

You will be teleported to the previous room. Right click on the valve to open the door.

Spoiler: Optional thing to do

Along with the other items, you can find a "Tome of Clockwork Engineering First Edition" item in the room. By having this item with you at the last stage of the quest unique dialogue will play and you'll receive 16 more emerald blocks as rewards.

Stage 8
> Talk to Harrison.

• Harrison: Thank the lord you are here and unharmed! I was searching for you in vain!
• Harrison: But now we need to be as fast as possible. The chaos is starting...
• Harrison: I had a look down towards the street: people are arguing about what time it is!
• Harrison: Someone went as far as trying to measure the angle of the Sun!
• Harrison: Get down with this rope, get to my workshop and tell me the right time, let me write the coordinates on your book.
• Harrison: In the meantime I'll build a mechanism to adjust the hands more easily.

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Stage 9
> Run to Harrison's workshop at [-1653; 68; -2932].

You'll get teleported to [-1510; 82; -2881], just outside of where you entered the tower, and after a countdown you'll have twenty seconds to get to Harrison's workshop. However, the timer won't be shown and the city will be full of Panicking Corkus Citizen hostile mobs. If the timer runs out, you'll have to redo the stage.
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Stage 10
>Find the right time.

• 
  
  
  • Oh no, there's so many clocks in here... Is it possible that Harrison hasn't thought that finding the one with the right time among these is a really difficult challenge?

Spoiler: What to do

You'll simply need to get upstairs and you'll find a clock with green particles and a sign saying "THIS CLOCK HAS THE RIGHT TIME". A message will play:

• It looks like he actually has...

Right click the clock to get it in your inventory.

Stage 11
> Tell the time to Harrison.

• 
  
  
  • But do I really have the time to get once again up there? Maybe there's a faster way to get him to see the time...

Spoiler: What to do

You'll have to grab three more items in the room: a Cushion, a Hard String and a Lighter. Once you have those, head outside of the workshop and climb the city wall just on the left of it. There will be a cannon with green particles. Right click it to progress.

Spoiler: What to do

• 
  
  
  • As much as sending him the clock like a cannonball seems a silly idea, it sure enough saves time...

You'll lose the clock item, the Cushion item and the Hard String item. Hold the lighter and right click the cannon again. You'll have a very zoomed view towards the clock tower, but it'll move back and forth horizontally. When the pointer is aligned with the clock tower, right click. An explosion sound effect will play, you'll get thrown back on the street and you'll lose the lighter item too.

A cutscene will play. You'll have a view on the hands of the clock tower, which after a few sound effects will be adjusted. Then you'll see the inside of a dentist's:

• 
  
  
  • Mr. Paul: No! This lady has the appointment before me!
  • Mrs. Smith: Impossible: my appointment is at a quarter to six p.m., now it's a quarter past five!
  • Mr. Paul: But it's a quarter to six! My appointment is after that!
  • Dr. Nemo: Calm down patients, look at the clock tower: it's half past five.
  • Mr. Paul: Oh if the tower says so...
  • Mr. Wick: Excuse me, I'm fifteen minutes late for my appointment...
  • Dr. Nemo: Ah, I was waiting for you! Please come in the study...

After that you'll see a man in a restaurant:

• 
  
  
  • Anxious Corkian: Oh come on! Who am I kidding! My date should have been here more than half an hour ago!
  • Anxious Corkian: I knew it! It's the third time in a row she doesn't come!
  • Anxious Corkian: Oh wait... It's half an hour before? I still have hopes!
  • Anxious Corkian: This means more time for me to go crazy!
  • Anxious Corkian: Give me a Nemract Whiskey, bartender!

Finally you'll see two men on a bench just outside of Corkus City:

• 
  
  
  • Vladimir: Look. They've repaired the clock. It's eighteen minutes before than we thought.
  • Estragon: But still we should have met him two hours before.
  • Vladimir: But you know, it's still a bit earlier of a wait, don't you think?
  • Estragon: It's an interesting point to discuss about...

You'll once again get a view of the clock tower and along with a sound effect the following message will appear on the screen:

• 
  
  
  • The clock tower has been repaired!

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Stage 12
> Find Harrison in front of the bank.

If you didn't take the tome in Stage 7:

• 
  
  
  • Harrison: Mo'in! We did it!
  • Harrison: Although I had to rely on my pocket watch to adjust the hands...
  • Harrison: What?! You sent the clock from my workshop with a cannon?! How could you think it would have worked?
  • Harrison: Well, if I remembered I had a pocket watch earlier I could have saved you the run...
  • Harrison: Anyways, you deserve a proper thank you. Take these, I hope you like the sample from my works!

If you took the tome in Stage 7:

• Harrison: Mo'in! We did it!
• Harrison: Although I had to rely on my pocket watch to adjust the hands...
• Harrison: What?! You sent the clock from my workshop with a cannon?! How could you think it would have worked?
• Harrison: Well, if I remembered I had a pocket watch earlier I could have saved you the run...
• Harrison: Hey, what do you have there? No way! Where did you find it!
• Harrison: My first ever clockworks book! I thought that I had lost it forever!
• Harrison: Not that now I need it, but it has a great sentimental value to me...
• Harrison: You really deserve a huge thank you! Take these, and I hope you like the sample from my works!

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Post-quest Content

You can visit Harrison in his workshop at least twenty-four hours after you finished the quest.

• Harrison: Mo'in mate! How are you doing?
• Harrison: Oh, I have to tell you something! This morning I found an unexpected package from Bucie in my mailbox.
• Harrison: It only had a key inside saying that it's "the key to the lord of time".
• Harrison: If it doesn't recharge all clocks with no exception or it doesn't open a vault full of emeralds it's useless to me.
• Harrison: However, I think it has something to do with the clock tower near that gavellian town.
• Harrison: I'd like to check it out, but with my work I don't have time!
• Harrison: Why don't you take it and go there? Tell me what you found afterwards!
• [+1 Clock Dungeon Key]

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Trivia

• The whole quest is based on the premise of the clock tower moving being of major importance to the Corkians. However, in normal circumstances the hands never move.
  • On top of that, different quadrants don't even tell the same time.
• Charles is a reference to Grian's real name.
• Harrison is a reference to real XVIII century British clock maker John Harrison, who became famous for solving the longitude problem with his H4 clock, the fourth after three failed attempts.
• Vladimir and Estragon are a reference to Samuel Beckett's "Waiting for Godot".

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Now I know that this won't be regarded as one of the best quests, but I don't want that, I don't have the imagination necessary to write something like Hollow Serenity, Misadventure on the Sea or Order of The Grook. I just had this idea since I first came to Corkus and here it is written out!

P.S. Sorry if some spoilers are bugged but I tried to fix them and it was just causing more problems.