TESSERAKILN BANK
CUTS0
LIFT0
CLOCK0:00
TIDE 2.00RISES IN26s
THE BRICKMAKERS OF KILN BANK
Kiln Bank
A1open ground
- GROUND0
- COURSE0
- WATERdry
- LIGHTopen
- QUAY—
- COST1 cut · 0 lift
Pick a plot and lay a tessera.
A SURVEY IN COURSES OF HEIGHT
Tessera
Every plot you lay costs one cut and one lift for every course it stands on. Water only ever runs downhill, so ground low enough to be cheap is ground low enough to flood — and anything you raise to hold it back throws a shadow on the street behind it. Sign four commissions before the clock runs out.
ARROWS move & set the course
SPACE lay a plot
K swap plot for bank
R reclaim
C plan view
[ ] the sun
No commission signed yet.
SURVEY HELD
Paused
The clock is stopped. Nothing about the ground has changed.
HOW THE GROUND WORKS
Three failures, one budget
- WATER
- Every water body holds a level. It fills a plot when the plot sits below that level, and it only reaches plots it can reach by crossing ground lower than itself. A sea at two and a quarter backs up into anything below it; a channel at two does not touch a plain at two.
- LIGHT
- The sun is in the east. A plot is in shadow if anything standing toward the sun is taller than it by more than the sun climbs over the gap. At 30° a two course step throws three plots of shadow. Raising the sun shortens every shadow on the map — and the client will not sign a survey taken below their minimum.
- QUAY
- Plots only count if you can walk to them from the quay stone through other plots. Bridges count. Banks do not.
- THE BUDGET
- One cut lays a plot. One lift raises it one course, and a plot costs one lift for every course it stands on, whatever the ground did before. A bank holds ground without spending a cut, but it still costs lift and it still throws shadow.
- THE SUN COSTS
- Every degree you move the sun is taken off the survey clock. The client sets the minimum; the ceiling is the hour you were given.
COMMISSION SIGNED