The Hourglass Sings 1/3
[The Hourglass Sings is a journaling game created by Kurt Refling/A Smouldering Lighthouse and is heavily inspired by the gameplay loop of The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask, with regularly resetting a cycle that threatens total annihilation of the world. It is made for 1-6 players and players take on three roles: The role of THE TOWN, the place the story is focused on, THE DARK and its herald trying to end the world, and THE HERO, trying to stop this from happening. I am playing solo, so I’m journaling all three roles (otherwise, roles are shared or distributed among players). The first thing you do is choosing among several options for the roles, or creating your own, then you simply draw cards from a standard 52 card deck (including Jokers) and look up the prompts related to the drawn card among the roles.
You can find The Hourglass Sings here: https://a-smouldering-lighthouse.itch.io/hourglass
All Art used in this article is taken from The Hourglass Sings with permission by Kurt Refling/A Smouldering Lighthouse. Thank you!]
THE TOWN:
I am many souls, alive but damaged. My oath:
I will create strange and wondrous people. I will show their magic.
I will create grounded, daily moments. I will show their mundanity.
I will show the connections between people: their pasts and presents, their love and conflict.
I will make places feel lived-in and purposeful, connecting them to daily life.
THE TOWN is an island, dense with structures and life. It is characterised by rich trade and tight spaces.
THE HERO awakes each cycle in a cosy bed in an old cottage, with scratchy blankets and folk art, after being washed up on the beach. There's an old fisherman here who greets THE HERO with warm concern.
THE TOWN is written in cursive.
THE DARK:
I am the promise of darkness: the cruel end of the world. My oath:
I will embody the darkness in people.
I will end stories in tragedies.
I will show the world through a dark and twisted mirror.
I will show the end approaching ever closer, and the machinations of those behind it.
THE DARK breaks the light, waking nightmares and plunging the town into shadow. At the end of all things, the sun will snuff out into nothing.
THE DARK is advanced by a spurned lover, who once lived among the people. They seek revenge and infamy, at any cost.
THE DARK is written in bold.
THE HERO:
I am the hope and light: a beacon of courage and understanding. My oath:
I will care about people.
I will show how small acts fight the darkness, and end those behind it.
I will see the world through my curious past and my hope for the future.
I will save stories from becoming tragedies. Each soul I save will grant me an amulet of power.
THE HERO is a spirit, strange and ethereal. They may save THE TOWN through their grace.
I carry an instrument, something with the power to turn back time. The sound drones or lingers when played, washing away the hours like the tide erodes the shore:
A harmonica. Its notes fly upon the wind.
THE HERO is written without emphasis.
CYCLE I
[Seven of Hearts]
A small child runs along the winding alleys of THE TOWN, it does not seem to be lost, but rather enjoying the journey so to say. It passes the small store near the southern waterfront, noticing a cloaked figure standing there, but not caring.
It runs further, up the steps to the broken wall that once protected THE TOWN from floodwaters. There, they meet their friends with a loud hurrah and a lot of hubbub. Unnoticed behind them, a cloaked figure stands nearby. Is it the same as before, or a different one? How did it get up here this fast?
[Five of Hearts]
The cloaked figure watches the children. Now, it does not look like a threatening presence, its dark cloak drawn tight around its body, but the stance is relaxed. The figure does remember a time long gone, when it was running around what would become THE TOWN just like these children. When the pain and suffering of the world was not as ever present as it is now. Suddenly, it violently shakes its hooded head, a single long strand of ginger hair escaping the dark confines of the hood. Freed from the mesmerizing influence of despised memories, the figure turns away, escaping into the throng of people moving into the centre of THE TOWN.
[Queen of Hearts]
Meanwhile, in a small cottage on the beach below the row of waterfront shops, THE HERO awakens from their slumber. It is not a violent reaction, just an easy awakening, like from a good nights' dream. They are greeted by an old fisherman, half blind and with bent and aching joints. The fisherman is named Arnaud, and he has found THE HERO washed up on the beach and brought them over to his cottage, despite the hero seemingly being translucent. THE HERO first sits upright, and then stands, thanking Arnaud for their help and gently resting a hand on the fisherman's shoulders. Just a light touch, but the touch itself seems to relief and heal some of the pain in the fisherman’s body, who sits up straighter and with a more relaxed face than in years past.
[Jack of Clubs]
In the upper quarters of THE TOWN, literally being the highest parts of the tiered structures, the rich and affluent are having a parade. Frills on clothing, wide skirts, thighs, clean leather shoes and hats that are made to be elegant, not shield from the sun, are on display. The parade passes with loud music through the quarter, laughter everywhere, and comes to a stop at the large plaza at the north end of the quarter, which overlooks the lower quarters. The parade gathers at the wall to gaze down on the rest of THE TOWN and with a loud 'HUZZAH' the affluent throw down packages they are holding: Bundles of old, unused clothing. Technically as a present for the lower rungs of society, but most often just thrown out and away since they are completely useless and worthless in everyday life.
[Nine of Spades]
From among the throng of people gathered in the lower quarter, a stone is thrown. It is hefty and fast. Thrown much farther than humanly possible, bridging the elevation between the quarters far easier than it should. It hits one of the gaudy celebrants up top straight in the face, destroying an eye and taking sight where a moment ago there was still health and happiness. Loud shouting erupts and drones out everything else, but hours later, some people swear they saw the figure who threw the stone, cloaked in an unusual, long and dark garment. A few even went so far as to say they heard the figure usher a few words: 'Just like this, the sun will disappear from your world, leaving only darkness.'
[Seven of Diamonds]
While THE HERO walks through the winding alleys of THE TOWN, they stumble upon a curious sight. While the building looks like a regular house at first glance, upon closer inspection it becomes clear that it has been marked with a symbol that looks like a crossed-out eye, carved over and over again in the brick stones that have been exposed by fallen off plaster. THE HERO circles the building once, twice. Feeling uneasy, but not quite knowing why. Finally, he decides to gently push open the door and peer into the house itself, finding a group of people, young and old, men and women, gathered in the darkness and holding down a young woman on a table. One person hovers a large knife above the woman’s face, threatening to gouge her eye out. THE HERO quickly pulls the revolver at his hip and shouts out, taking vague aim at the group. They turn towards the shout, ready to attack, but slink back at the sight of the weapon. Covering the group, THE HERO motions for the woman to stand up and follow him outside. The two leave the alley as fast as possible, and THE HERO escorts the victim back to her home, where she hands him a curious amulet, made to look like a bull moose as a means of thanking him.
[Four of Diamonds]
Far away, on the other side of THE TOWN another woman, this time old and grizzled, is making her way through the dilapidated cemetery. She stops at a headstone that seems to be even older than herself, and with not much more effort than the flick of a wrist she calls forth a haunt. A rebirthed spirit of the dead, bound to sate the old woman's curiosity. She is an oracle, an age-old craft that is nearly forgotten now. She asks the haunt about the strange things that have been happening in town lately. About the cult that has started to spring up everywhere, the attacks on people that always seem to target the eyes of the victims.
The cloaked figure.
The haunt recoils when they hear that question. They will not answer.
[Three of hearts]
The cloaked figure approaches the Hall of Mirrors - a place of fun and merriment. But beneath their cloak, they tightly grab the large hunting knife with the antler grip.
They enter the Hall, their figure distorted and multiplicated by the hallways made of large mirrors, but they expertly navigate the labyrinthine ways, overtaking adults and children alike. Almost as if it knew what they are doing.
Violently, it stops in its tracks when it catches sight of a young couple, embracing and kissing each other in the cover of a dead end. It nearly drops the knife, just catches it before it thuds loudly on the floor. Gathering their cloak more tightly around itself, it runs off, towards the exit of the Hall.
[Jack of Diamonds]
Many hours later, THE HERO lies in ambush. Luckily, being a spirit, he does not sleep, drink or eat, so his only enemy in this endeavour is boredom. He plays and fiddles with a pair of dice he carries around.
But finally, the time has come to spring the trap. His targets approach. It is the group of cultists he had freed the woman from last evening. It was time to make sure they wouldn't hurt her again.
At one moment, the alley was dead silent except for the shuffling feet of the stalking cultists. The next, it was filled by the jingling of THE HERO's spurs. Then, it erupted in loud bangs and chaos as he gracefully and deliberately guns down each of the cultists with a single shot from his two revolvers.
Putting the smoking guns back into their holsters, THE HERO takes off his dark brown hat and lowers his head slowly, before leaving the scene but a minute later.
[Joker]
A troupe of artists has arrived by a wondrously colourful boat the day before and now, all eyes in town are drawn up to the facades of the buildings forming the tight alleys and streets. The troupe are acrobats and parcourists, their trade displayed every day for everyone to see. They jump, crawl, fly from building to building, showing off their skills and near unnatural agility and flexibility. It is a sight to behold, a sight to draw attention away from the dark happenings in THE TOWN lately. For a while at least, people are getting lively again, laughing and twisting their heads. Coins falling into the collection box by the boat on the dock as thanks.
[Ace of Clubs]
A young man is walking along a major street and the hubbub of the troupe above his head. He is smiling, for today for once, his job is joyful and not darkened by the cloud of the strange cult that had been stalking the people of late. He is wearing the star of the sheriff on his chest, a mark of authority seldomly granted to somebody so young. He hears somebody call for him by name, a young and lovely voice. A woman. He turns around, but the last thing he sees before the world gets dark by the strange twin bladed dagger thrust into his eyes is a darkly hooded figure and a lock of shockingly red hair flowing out beneath the hood.
[Queen of Diamonds]
THE HERO is standing above the body of the sheriff. He had saved one woman from distress, but it was still not enough. He sighed. He had to do better. Had to find out the source of this upheaval before innocents would be getting hurt like this.
Slowly, deliberately, he drew a harmonica from beneath his colourful poncho and started playing a slow and sorrowful melody. The notes, picked up by the wind, engulf the town, stop people in their tracks. Then everything rewinds, including the HERO, while the music still plays. People walk backwards, vegetables that fell from a stall's table on the marketplace fly up and land gracefully in the baskets where they belong. Days go by, a week. Two.
Suddenly it stops and an old fisherman drags THE HERO, unconscious, to his cottage by the beach.
[CYCLE RESETS]
[Part Two here: https://daydreamingmoose.bearblog.dev/the-hourglass-sings-23/]