![[Cosmological Clocktower.png]] # Market Square The market square is the largest open courtyard in the city. The square consists of two plazas, separated by a cluster of banks, vaults, guildhalls, and businesses. The ruins and remains of high town houses with storefronts surround the square. Scattered across the plaza are the remains of Drakkenheim’s central open air market: rows of stalls, canvas tents, pavilions, baskets, crates, wagons, barrels, wheelbarrows, carts, and bones creating a tattered display of the chaos of that day left behind. The distant sounds of a lullaby, chimes, and faraway bells fills the air. Market Square Plaza bears the scars of many battles: makeshift barricades, scorch marks, broken weapons, armour scraps, and a few scattered corpses. Many rats scurry about, crows pick over the remains, and a thin, silvery-purple mist hangs in the air. Looking up, you can see the Cosmological Clocktower piercing through the fog. ## Drakkenheim Guildhall This building is not far from the clocktower. Formerly the administrative hub for trade and industry in Drakkenheim, this larger open hall is a gathering place for the city guild leaders and merchants, and contains offices, vaults, and a large auditorium that served as council chambers for the guild. However, the once-great vaulted roof has entirely collapsed, leaving mostly only the outer shell of the great building behind. Perhaps several impressive vaults lay buried under heaps of wreckage and rubble, but it would take significant effort to excavate the damage. # Cosmological Clocktower At the centre of the square is the clocktower. The three-hundred- foot tall square tower is about fifty feet wide at the base, with rounded turret corners and walls supported by great buttresses. The front facade is a mechanical wonder. Near the top of the tower is a massive thirty-foot-wide clock face made from glass, the numerals and hands filigreed with silver, brass, and gold. Above are several crenellated balconies, and the roof is a steep spire topped with a wrought-iron weathervane. Bordering the central clock is an embossed metal and glass dial that depicts the transit of the sun and the phases of the moon through each month. From this dial, one can read not only the time but the date, as it shows a stylized interpretation of the seasons and constellations. Extending down the clock face is a further system of circular glass plates, gears, and wheels that illustrate in mechanical precision the grand cosmic dance of the planets and stars as they hurtle through the astral void. Multi- coloured glass lenses superimposed over the planet depict the metaphysical orbit of the afterworlds and side-realms and their relation to the mortal world. The rest of the tower is decorated with elegant carved statues depicting angels, saints, demons, devils, elementals, and the various creatures of the worlds beyond. On some levels are rows of gothic windows with trefoil arches filled with stained-glass mosaics. The entire mechanism is frozen, stuck on the 11th day of the 11th month, 111 years ago, at 11:11 AM, the phases of the planes resting between the Elemental Chaos and Dreamland. On the ground level, a set of stone stairs leads to the copper double doors.