Skip to content
CharGen Icon
CreatePricing
The Clock - AI-generated fantasy Faction

The Clock

Stage One: Loose networks of waterfront thieves and watch-farmers. Stage Two: Formalization under the Horologist with the pocket watch ceremony binding members to secrecy. Stage Three: Expansion into inland trade hubs via forged documents and planted agents. Stage Four: The Deepening, when offshoots contacted strange entities from beneath the waves. Stage Five: Present—an ancient guild with global reach, fighting internal schisms and foreign mental influences while preserving its core rites.

Factions
Thieves' Guild · True Neutral

The Clock

Locally seen as shadowy but governed by old rules.
Type
Thieves' Guild
Size
201 to 1000 members
Reach
Global
Base
Waterdeep is the modern symbolic seat where some traditions persist, but Chambers exist in dozens of port cities worldwide.

Overview

Stage One: Loose networks of waterfront thieves and watch-farmers. Stage Two: Formalization under the Horologist with the pocket watch ceremony binding members to secrecy. Stage Three: Expansion into inland trade hubs via forged documents and planted agents. Stage Four: The Deepening, when offshoots contacted strange entities from beneath the waves. Stage Five: Present—an ancient guild with global reach, fighting internal schisms and foreign mental influences while preserving its core rites.

How it began

The Clock began as a string of seaside pickpockets and river thieves who organized after a disastrous tidal heist cost many their lives. A pragmatic thief known only in stories as 'The Horologist' devised strict rules and the ritual of the pocket watch to bind members to one another and to the craft. Over generations the Horologist's proto-guild coalesced into a formal network with offices in coastal trade hubs. The watershed moment came when the nascent Clock intercepted a convoy of noble reliquaries and chose to return one artifact to a grieving widow rather than fence it, an act that won the guild moral latitude and a market for 'discreet recoveries'.

How to know them

MottoTime takes what it must. We take what time forgets.
EmblemA stylized clock face with a single missing tooth in the gear and a slender hand pointing between midnight and one, overlaid with a thin key.
Colours

brass, charcoal gray, deep teal

Signs
  • Pocket watch tokens given to Hands with carved initials
  • A notch pattern scratched into a hidden wall gear to indicate safe Chamber
DressNo formal uniform. Members favor muted practical clothing with brass accents, pocketed cloaks, and often a small personal clock token worn hidden on a belt or as a lapel pin.

Standing

AlignmentTrue Neutral
AgeTwo centuries; formalized roughly 210 years ago from a loose network of trinket thieves and river smugglers
WealthRich in influence and clandestine assets but unevenly distributed; some Ticks live in poverty while Hands manage considerable hidden caches.

What they say they want

To preserve the craft of the lift and protect members from tyrannical prosecutorial overreach
To maintain stability among criminal trades and ensure fences have business

What they are doing now

Expand influence into coastal city-states and key trade hubs.
Secure arcane wards for safehouses to protect members from mental intrusion.
Investigate and purge the Deep Hand cell that contacted elder intelligences beneath the sea.

Where it leads

Survive as the unseen keeper of information and wealth, shaping commerce and politics subtly while maintaining the art of the lift. Some senior Hands see a darker path toward open influence through blackmail and coastal dominance.

How others see them

Locally seen as shadowy but governed by old rules. In some quarters the Clock is romanticized as a thieves' code with a strange honor; in others it is feared as a dangerous criminal syndicate.

People

6 ranks

The Main Spring

The Main Spring

Measured, secretive, and ritualistic. Prefers slow moves and long-term planning.

  1. The Main Spring1 member

    A single, seldom-seen figure who adjudicates disputes between major Chambers and approves major strategic moves. Identity is hidden behind layers of proxies and rituals.

  2. Clock Council5 members

    Senior Hands who run regions and interpret guild law. They meet in masked conclave and issue edicts.

  3. Thief Generals20 members

    Commanders of major Chambers or specialized operations. Example: Thief General Freeman is a famous Thief General who mentors promising recruits.

    • Thief General Freeman Senior Thief General and regional commander who personally sponsors promising Ticks
  4. Hands100 members

    Full members who run cells, train Ticks, fence goods, and execute complex heists.

  5. Knobs200 members

    Apprentices and junior operatives who have graduated Tick but have not yet earned full Hand status. They handle streetwork and low-level forgeries.

  6. Ticks500 members

    Lowest rank. Initiates who must complete simple lifts, observation runs, and household chores. They are watched closely and often expendable in dangerous ops.

Other key members

  • Maris 'Deep-Note' Vellar Head of the Tide Chambers and suspected conduit to kraken-touched influence
  • Sylas Venn A member of the Clock Council pushing for influence in municipal politics
  • Krackle A Hand and talented forger who once rose from Tick; his kenku origin makes him an exemplar of Freeman's approach

How they are organised

How it is runSecretive, ritualized thieves' guild divided into Hands and lower ranks
Who comes nextSuccession is ritualized. The Main Spring is rarely overtly replaced. If a Main Spring proxy fails, the Clock Council convenes in secret and endorses a new proxy through the Watch-and-Ward ceremony. Actual power often goes to the most politically adept Thief General until a formal Main Spring can be re-established.
How they recruitProspects are observed as Ticks for a year. They must perform a successful pick of a watch during an initiation and recite the Oath of the Horologist before being raised to Knob and then Hand through demonstrated craft and discretion.
To join
  • Demonstrated skill in lifting a pocket watch from a senior member during the initiation dance
  • Completion of the Tick year where the applicant performs observational runs for one year
  • Oath of the Horologist recited in the presence of a Chamber's clockwork heart

Relations

8 factions
Coastal Merchant…NEUTRALHarbor FencesALLYThe Quiet LedgerALLYIron SyndicateRIVALVigilant BladesENEMYVaried City WatchesENEMYIron SyndicateRIVALTidebound CovenantENEMY
Ally · ally
Harbor Fences

A network of fencehouses and illicit auctioneers in major port cities who handle stolen goods for a cut and provide plausible deniability.

Operations

What they do

Petty theft, targeted recoveries, forgery, information brokering, staged heists for political leverage

How they do it

Pickpocket runs timed to large public events
Forgery of travel documents and ledgers
Use of clockwork devices and timing signals to coordinate heists
Blackmail using personal tokens in the Hourbook

Services for hire

  • Discreet RecoveryVariable; often paid in favours or tokens rather than coin.
    Recovery of stolen or lost items; discretion guaranteed
  • False FacesHigh coin or a recorded favor in the Hourbook
    Forgery and identity crafting for travel and legal cover
  • Clockwork WhisperTrade in blackmail tokens or a long service
    Information brokering and whisper campaigns targeting specific names in the Hourbook

What they can do

Networked informants in docks and markets worldwide
Highly skilled petty thieves trained in coordinated timing and mechanical distractions
Access to forbidden arcane and psionic techniques via clandestine contacts

What they have

A global ledger of stolen tokens and favours known as the Hourbook
Safehouses hidden beneath clocks and shipwrights
Skilled forgers and a cadre of mages and artificers who craft mechanical noise-masking devices

Where they are weak

Dependence on secrecy; exposure of the Hourbook would destabilize the guild
Internal factionalism between Deep Hand and traditionalists
Vulnerability to mind-control or psionic attack if wards fail

Territory

Headquarters

Waterdeep is the modern symbolic seat where some traditions persist, but Chambers exist in dozens of port cities worldwide.
KindDecentralized Chambers centered around a principal 'Main Spring' in major trade cities

A decentralized hub system. Major headquarters, called Chambers, are hidden in converted clock towers, abandoned warehouses, and shipwright basements. Each Chamber is layered with false walls, sound-muffling clocks, and complex lockworks that act as both defense and social theater.

Lands they hold

Coastal ports and inland trade hubs across multiple nations
Clusters of Chambers aligned along major shipping lanes

Outposts

  • The Tide ChamberHarbor Chambers under a converted watchtowerOperations for coastal lifts and handling smuggled sea-ward items
  • The Archive ChamberInland trading city with a clocktower libraryForgery workshops and Hourbook custody

Secrets

The big secret · GM only
What they really want · GM only
Hidden plans · GM only
Smaller secrets · GM only
What insiders say · GM only
Trouble inside · GM only
Crimes · GM only

Plot hooks

4 hooks
  • 1
    The Missing Tick
    lowReward: ally or secret
    Personal scale: A player character finds an intricately engraved pocket watch with a hidden compartment containing a single ledger name. The Clock wants it back. Returning it could earn favor, but investigating the name reveals a target the PCs may sympathize with.
  • 2
    Midnight Seals
    mediumReward: reputation and information
    Local scale: A Chamber in a coastal city is acting erratically, stealing back civic seals and releasing a wave of strange whispered threats. The PCs are hired either by the city watch or by a Council member to uncover why and discover the Deep Hand's influence.
  • 3
    The Hourbook Heist
    hardReward: wealth and powerful enemies
    Regional scale: Evidence shows that an unseen force is using the Clock's Hourbook to blackmail several port magistrates into allowing deeper sea dredging. PCs must infiltrate the Archive Chamber and retrieve or destroy sections of the Hourbook before a fleet opens a rift to the deep.
  • 4
    Hands of the Deep
    very hardReward: world-shaping consequence
    Campaign scale: The Deep Hand completes a ritual intended to let the kraken extend its influence into the minds of key shipping magnates, threatening continental trade and coastal stability. PCs must gather allies, expose corrupted Hands, and decide whether to sever the kraken connection by killing the bonded Hands or attempt a risky psychic rescue.

Work they offer

1A delicate lift at a masked ball where the mark is heavily guarded
2Recovery of a family token in exchange for a night's training with a Thief General
3Forgery work to create a false identity allowing travel into a hostile port

What gets in the way

Any Hand that aligns with mind-controlled leaders risks exposure and prompt purges.
Local authorities sometimes tacitly tolerate the Clock because of bribes, but that tolerance can flip to violent crackdowns.
Rival criminal groups recruit from disaffected Ticks by offering faster promotion and fewer rituals.

Rumours

1True rumor: A pair of Hands in Tide Chambers have been seen communing with a voice only they can hear late at night.
2False rumor: The Clock worships a god of thieves and sacrifices victims nightly. The Clock uses ritual theater but not human sacrifice.
3Speculation: The Main Spring is dead and the Clock effectively run by an unaccountable cabal of Thief Generals.

Connections

Media

0 images

No images yet.

Visual sheet

Turn The Clock into a sheet

A high-res, share-ready sheet you can post or print.