The vault isn’t guarded by a dragon. It’s guarded by how long you’re willing to stay down here.
Time as Substrate
Every meaningful action costs time, and time is the universal economy of a run. Picking a lock: 2 turns. Searching the records office: turns. Resting to shake Fatigue: turns. The Clock is always running — not as a doom timer on the screen, but as ambient arithmetic.
What Time Buys the Dungeon
- Wandering-monster risk. The default, ever-present cost of dawdling. Basic encounters carry ambient risk by design — no card needs to be drawn for the valley to notice you.
- Pressure clocks (secret, optional). Some runs carry an escalating Pressure — a flooding undercroft, a hunt closing in. You learn it exists when it fires, and the ledger proves afterward that it was fair.
The Design Bet
Exploration-under-the-clock is TPK’s core differentiator: a genuine crawl where route, thoroughness, and greed are the real decisions — not an encounter chain with hallways between fights. Every “should we check that side room?” is a wager against the Clock.
Open: save-checkpoint cadence tied to Clock beats — see Loose Threads.