Book Three · The Walkthrough · 3

The Wheel

Link 3 · the Grand Turn, the acid works and the exchange

Hic sacerdos eum emit.

NewcomerStreamerSpoiler-light; deeper secrets sealedskeleton · circus, works and exchange built; foresight, the conduit and the two cinematics are new

5 standing

The wager roomIn-game, clean pixels, under the book's CRT

At a glance

Where: the circus on the Counting-House Green, the Assayer’s works, the exchange
Earns: kill: foresight TBD · spare: the cane-sword and Mister Dolour’s back way
Rules taught: acid; the conduits (the bat down the outfall grate)
Bosses: the Dream-reader (big top), the Assayer (etching pool), the Prince of Coin (wager room)
Cinematics: arrival, the parade; departure, the river runs clear TBD: both new
Calm: the river steps, clean
Length: circus 20 to 30 min, works 15 to 25, exchange about 15 TBD

Why you are here

The moment the first house falls, playbills go up on the shuttered counting-house door: THE GRAND TURN has come to the Counting-House Green. The ledger the priest gave you names the Prince’s paper. The circus comes to town after every funeral.

CLIP W3-01phase B: to capture

Cinematic 5, the parade (new): the flock high over the city, the wagons, cages and elephant filing onto the green, the big top rising, Wick’s line. About 17 s.

The route

The fairground. The midway, the games, the menagerie, the side-show tent, the big top’s door, the back-lot gate. The dead wagon is the checkpoint crypt.
The side tents. Mother Thrupp reads the debt, not the lines. Dame Constance keeps the books. Tam’s strongman tent. The hall of curiosities. Mister Dolour knows a back way.
The games of chance (optional). Each is a wager the house wrote. What you win or lose here changes the fight in the big top (below).
The back lot opens when the bell goes: the late fair, the years-pit, the bear’s stake, the weighing booth, the paper wagon with the troupe’s debts in a strongbox.
The big top. The show plays first and teaches every move of the fight. Then the Dream-reader.
The defaulters’ cart from the back lot runs down to the Assayer’s works.
The works. The works’ head (the rule taught), the vat hall and the great valve, the tall falls (terraces, ladders, drops), and the etching pool: the Assayer.
The outfall grate at the works’ foot is bars: the bat goes down it into the city’s old water-ways TBD: the conduit is new.
The exchange. The odds board hung, the opening bell’s circuit, the debt-ledger doors (buy, void or burn a debt to open them), the checkpoint crypt, the counting vault, and the wager room: the Prince of Coin.

SHOT W3-02phase B: to capture

The fairground’s midway with the big top behind, booths and board-men, Wick on the main lane. Map wc_fair.

SHOT W3-03phase B: to capture

The big top’s ring before the fight, the Seat of Sight high on its poles, the trapeze and the lion’s runway. Map wc_bigtop.

SCREEN 3-1The Grand TurnA screen from the build of October 2026. The guide’s own capture replaces it.In-game, the fairground (v16), play field

DAME CONSTANCE

Every act in this circus is paying off a debt. I know to the day when each one ends. None of them ends.

wc_constance_2

What the fair changes in the big top

What you did at the fair	In the big top
Burned the troupe’s paper (Constance’s key, the paper wagon)	the acts will not work for her: no knives, no drop. The easiest fight, the hardest to earn
Killed the Ringmaster	no whistle, no lion; but no act will ever take your side
Spared the Ringmaster (or beat his sharper at the shells)	once in phase 2 he calls the interval: six seconds of quiet
Rang Tam’s bell to the top three times	Tam lets go of the west pole at your word: 3 wounds
Stood Lark’s knife board without flinching	in phase 2 she throws at the Seat’s rope instead of at you
Spared Mother Thrupp and had your hand read	once per phase she calls the move the seer will name, a beat early

The bosses

The Dream-reader names your next move and drops the room on it. In phase 2 she climbs to the Seat of Sight: bring her down with hands she did not dream: the elephant on a king pole, the trapeze’s cleats, Tam, the Pellows, Lark. Panel.
The Assayer stands where the acid never runs. Make it run there: every valve stills one channel and sets its pair running. Mind the shift bell. Panel.
The Prince of Coin foresees your every verb. In phase 1 use what the board says you won’t. In phase 2 nothing of yours lands: make the room hit him during the call, when his back is turned. Panel.

CLIP W3-04phase B: to capture

The Dream-reader brought down: Patience driven into a king pole with Bend Will, the Seat’s ropes slackening, the seer thrown into the ring and struck. About 12 s.

SHOT W3-05phase B: to capture

The etching pool with a valve’s pair running and the Assayer standing in the green, Wick at a valve. Map aw_bite. Play field only.

SCREEN 3-2The wager roomThe Prince of Coin on his wheel, and the odds to read before the stroke.Press shot, live capture of the v83 build, CRT off, the play field only

CLIP W3-06phase B: to capture

The Prince’s call: the opening bell, his back turned at the board’s foot, the chandelier’s cleat struck, the chandelier falling on him. About 8 s.

SCREEN 3-3The etching poolThe weighbridge lowered, the race running. A screen from the build of October 2026.In-game, the works (v31), play field

After the Wheel

CLIP W3-07phase B: to capture

Cinematic 6, the river runs clear (new): the works’ valves wheeling shut, the green thinning down the falls to the river steps, a washerwoman lifting a white sheet from the water; the exchange’s board turning gold (kill) or its paper burning (spare). About 16 s.

Calm: the river steps, clean. Shutting the works clears the acid from the river. The washerwomen work again, and one of them looks at Wick too long.

Backtrack: the conduit

From the works’ outfall, the bat flies the city’s old water-ways under the streets: a loop joining the chandlery yard’s grate, the Pleasance’s water-gate, and one shut grate at the far end that opens later onto the King’s buttery cellar (Link 6) TBD: the conduit is a new small map.

SHOT W3-08phase B: to capture

The conduit as the bat, the shut grate to the King’s buttery at its far end. New map: capture once built.

Secrets

Sealed · After the first houseIn the WheelBreak the seal to read

The Prince’s box. Over the ring, a still of the Prince alone in his box, a slip in his hand.
The board’s own wager. At the foot of the great odds board hangs a slip no one will take: a fortune on his own death.
The tally bench. In the works, a debtor’s cache in a cleft behind the terrace: his own tally stick, every notch, and the day he came.
The animals are never fought. They are freed or used.

Sealed · Mid-gameNell, in the worksBreak the seal to read

A ward of the orphanage works the vats. She knew Wick as a boy, and she tells him where the green water goes. He does not hear what she means.

NELL

Wick? They said you were dead. They say that about all of us down here.

aw_nell_1

Stream notes

TIPFor streamers

The circus is the most colourful place in the game. The parade cinematic is a natural highlight.
The big top’s show teaches the fight. Let the chat watch it before you start.
Try a game of chance on stream; the barker’s lines are good.