City of Curses: Timewalkers (Maralda with some Fate Core)

#Crux blog post about Timewalkers.  Time travelers, wanderers, nomads and considered lunatics, Timewalkers patrol the places in Crux that bleed temporarily.  And they tend to create headaches for normal folk.

The Incomprehensible Guild of Timewalkers.

The tiny shack in Old Crux never made sense to me.  The plaque above it said it was a guildhall.  Yet, there wasn't much room in it.  The Guildhall of the Timewalkers looked more like a one-room hovel than some sort of headquarters.

"Hello?"  I knocked on the rickety door.  It bobbed up and down with my knocks.

No answer.

I tried again.  "Hello?  I'm here for a interview-"

"You!  I thought I told you never to come back here!"

"Uh..."  I blinked.  "Excuse me, but I'm Maralda Inculti Tyranus, and I'm here to-"

"Interview!"  The voice retorted.  "Yes, I bloody heard you.  I told you before, we ain't going to talk

with the likes of you after what you did-"

"Did what?"  I asked.  "I'm sorry, did I do something to offend you?"

"Wait a tick."  There was a bang on the other side.  Then the whirling of what sounded like clock gears.

"I'd like to know if I'd done something wrong.  Please.  Apologies if I have."

Pause.  Then a cough.

"Oops.  Wrong day."

Then came the slip and clank of several bolts from the other side of the door.  As the man on the other side tried to open the door, I noticed something.  Something had rendered the door crooked inward.  Bent.  Crumpled. In such a fashion that one could only see the crook in it as it opened.  And the metal door creaked.  I had thought it wooden, but saw the chips in paint as it swung outward.

"Hullo!"  The man told me.  "Come in!  Twasn't expecting you... well, to be exact, wasn't sure of what year it was.  You know what I mean?"

The tiny hovel of a guildhall was even more cramped inside.  I saw stacks of chairs and tables.  Crates covered with sheets.  Papers littered the floor.  There was enough room for my host, but I worried about where to step.

"Uh..."

"Don't mind the mess!"  He bellowed at me.

I looked over to the shorter Timewalker.  His clothes were horrible.  They didn't follow a fashion so much as violate every taste.  At least all the ones I could imagine.  His hat looked a decade out of date.  His waistcoat hung too low.  Instead of a vest, his shirt clashed with his pants.  His shoes didn't match.  HIS shoes.  One was a boot, the other, well, I didn't know what.  It looked more like a slipper.

"Ok..."  I stepped warily into the guildhall.

He looked up to me.  The left chunk of his face was metallic.  Silvery.  The eye in it looked dark, like a insect's.  Dozens of glittering lights in it.  It whirled about on its own.

I looked away from it.  I didn't want him to catch me staring.  Eek.

"I'm the resident member of the Timewalkers here."  He smiled, proud of his chosen position.  "I'll be more than glad to answer a few of your questions, Miss."

"Great...  So...  Uh...  Who are you, sir?"

"The resident- Righto, name."  He scratched his chin.  "Forgot about that.  Gets confusing sometimes, y'know?"

No one everyone calls them the incomprehensible guild of Timewalkers.  They can't even answer a question without being confusing.  Not even a simple one.  Ack.

"Name?"

"Oh.  They call me SoHo.  After the neighborhood, where I grew up."  He smiled.  Then paused.  Then added.  "Y'all haven't build it yet.  Nevermind that."

Okay.  This was going to be a long interview.

Nomads, Wanderers and Lunatics.

Timewalkers are specific about how and who founded them.  They say they work for the Prince of Crux.  Then they pause, and say, not the "current" Prince.  The "future" Prince founded them.

From another time.  If one asks for more details than than, they will give them.  But it hurts one head to try to unravel.

Their guild seal is that of an upright hourglass.  Within is the Seal of Crux in miniature.  It suggests their purpose, that they patrol something that even Crux can't manipulate.

Timewalkers patrol time.  That is how they describe it.  It sounds like a blend of patrolling and shepherd's work.  Listening to the hows and whys just leaves one confused.

That's how the Timewalkers like it.

Crux, as a the city goes, bleeds.  Not in the literal sense.  It bleeds in both planar and temporal axes.  As such, the Timewalkers work to keep many time periods and eras from crossing over too much.  Even they indulge in a few paradoxes for their own sake.

No one can quite say why.  Or what they are.

Unicorn Herders.

Most Timewalkers in Crux think of themselves as Unicorn herders.  This is an apt term, as many of them seem able to view time almost the same way Unicorns do.  Unicorns cause most of the temporal disruptions.

Herding or looking after them would seem to be a good way to handle it.  But Unicorns sometimes invert their own timelines.  Timewalkers fall into the same sort of trap.  Like unicorns, they sound mad.

We don't know how the Timewalkers recruit.  They give answers, but there seems to be no real consistency in responses.  The Timewalker Guildhall in Old Crux is a tiny hovel.  It looks rundown and ruined.  There are at fifty or more Timewalkers operating out of it.

Those aren't the only mysteries Timewalkers involve themselves in.  Those most curious about them often become recruited into their number.  But no one has quite figured out what happens to those who trespass time.  How do the Timewalkers punish crimes against time?  There aren't even decent guesses for that question.

The last note should be that the Timewalkers seem the least loyal to the Prince of all the Guilds that serve the city.  They abstain from criminal activities.  More than once a Timewalker has interfered with the criminal actions of the City Watch.  The Prince seems unable or unwilling to control them.

The Prince founded the Timewalkers in the future, they claim.  Some suggest that the Prince who founded them isn't the same as the current one.  In their own confounding way, the Timewalkers' explanation is more paradoxical.  Far more than anyone else can understand.

Timewalker Stunts. (Fate Core)

Timeways: You know how to travese time, often through the nooks and holes in Crux.  You know which ones lead where, and when.  If you spend a fate point, you can announce that one is close to you, but you can't choose when it goes.

Time Sense: You've experienced time nonlinearly enough that you don't get thrown off by it.  Being that avoid or bypass time, you can sense them.  You even can understand what they are talking about.  Others, don't.  This doesn't help much with normal people.  But you knew that when you took this, right?

This stunt gives you a +2 on rolls to Overcome entities that are nonlinear in a temporal sense.  This includes Unicorns, but also can include horrific things no one should spend time around.