Editing LEGACY MAD CITY (section)

=Nightmares: Paradox Square=

==Castellan of the Iron Keep - Pain 4==
The Castellan is responsible for the Keeping of the Iron Keep itself, its running, its defense, its upkeep, and the needs of its Lord and its Guests. 

The Castellan himself appears as a stocky man in a smart black uniform of military cut, practical and severe. His face is swarthy and dark. So is his other face. And the third one too. Each face is strong and severe and set side by side in a triangle around his head. He has no beards, nor hair, nor ears, though he seems able to hear just fine.

He controls access to the rooms and corridors of the Iron Keep absolutely.

Unlike many of the Nighmares that the One Eyed Jack surrounds himself with, the Castellan speaks just fine. Deferentially to his betters and special Guests. Barked orders to most others.

====The Doorkeepers - Pain 3 (5 when encountered in Pairs)====
The Doorkeepers of the Iron Keep always appear in pairs (Pain 5) and if defeated will vanish in pairs. Guests of the Keep will typically see only two Doorkeepers at any given time, standing one on each side of the nearest door, weaponless, their brown skin covered only by a crimson sarong, no shoes on their feet. Observers will perceive each Doorkeeper's face as identical to their own but with eyes as black and empty as the promise of death. Doorkeepers never move away from their doors. They do not traverse hallways or move into the rooms they guard. They can, however, use any doorway as a portal to any other doorway within the Iron Keep.

Only when attacked by a Guest or summoned by the Castellan do they move into a room or hallway to fight. [It is in these instances that their Pain rating might be calculated at the individual level (Pain 3) or individually folded into the Castellan's rating]. Otherwise, their only function seems to be to stand aflank their particular doorway or in front of it, granting or barring entry.

Doorkeepers never speak.

====The Willow Women - Pain 1 (6 during a Forced Gaze)====
The Willow Women answer to the Castellan during the Twelve Hours of the Watch. They are the maids, cooks, and servants of the Iron Keep. But they serve the Slain God during the Thirteenth Hour. 

Lithe and flexible and tall, the Willow Women are fair skinned with extremely long limbs and hands and feet and toes and fingers and their hair drops down all about them in a curtain of fine pale braids, like the hanging branches of the willow tree, hiding their faces and most of their form. The Willow Women will not willingly move aside their braids and look directly on a Guest of the Iron Keep or a Supplicant of the Grove and tend to keep their heads down and their faces hidden, but if someone were to part those pale braids, stark black eyes with no color or whites would stare back. Anyone caught in that naked gaze faces Pain 6 in a confrontation that cannot be avoided. In this special encounter all 6s rolled for Pain count towards Madness instead when determining dominance.

Not only do the Willow Women never speak, they have no mouths to do so.

==The Chainforger - Pain 8 (2 when Communicating Telepathically)==
Rarely seen, the Chainforger seems to double as the Iron Keep's Gaoler and Armorer. Fleshless, the Chainforger is made entirely of intermeshed and interlocking plates and chains of blackest iron. Human in shape, the Chainforger is faceless, but flesh and blood eyes of every shape and color wink from within every link of chain in and on his body.

Guests who catch a glimpse of the Chainforger are probably already bound for his special care.

Legend has it that if one were to peel back the great iron plate over his heart a pair of Raven eyes would stare back.

Though the Chainforger shares the Court's general moratorium against speech, when he wishes to communicate, he can make his voice heard in anyone's mind like rust being scraped off of old iron. Pain 2 to communicate in this fashion. It cannot be blocked out.

====The Eyeless - Locals====
The Eyeless Occupy the cells beneath the Black Keep. They are denizens of the Mad City, rather  than actual Nightmares, and so have no Pain rating, but in their own ways can cause trouble if they think it will inch them closer to freedom. As their name implies, these men and women have no eyes, but sallow amber flames flicker in their empty sockets.

==The Slain God - Pain 9 (+ Special)==
Hanging below the iron disk in his iron Grove, the Slain God stares out through three silver eyes set at equal intervals around his spearlike head, with intelligence, compassion, and no small amount of madness. Excepting the Willow Women (and, it is rumored, Inklings) no Nightmare may enter the Grove of the Slain God. They are physically hurled away if they assay to cross between any of the three iron trees. But Denizens of the Mad City and the Awakened are always able to enter. 

What Denizens petition the Slain God for, no one knows, only that they drop a single item - it may be any item: a broken doll, a rock, a scrap of parchment with faded ink - into the well beneath the Slain God, stand still facing one of his eyes for a long moment, and then walk away.

Awakened who approach the Slain God as Supplicants have to offer more. It is said the Slain God is able to seek ''that which would remain unfound,'' but his price to pass this vision to one of the Awakened is a steep one. The Awakened must look into one of the Slain God's eyes; the eye of the Present, the eye of the Past, or the eye of the Future and see what is to be seen. One Madness die must be added to the roll (permanent madness is never enough), but the player can choose to add up to the full six. This roll is against a Pain rating of 9 if the character has no Exhaustion dice in his pool. Each Exhaustion die in the pool, however, represents one more Pain die added to the Slain God's rating.

Whether the character 'wins' or 'loses' this roll, they see the vision the Slain God imparts. If they win, they understand the vision immediately. If not, they must ponder the vision to prize its meaning free. In the event of a lost roll, the player, not the GM, chooses the consequence the character must bear.


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