March 27, 1943

Philip Coffin wandered the streets of Cross for 63 years.

In 1883, at the age of 10, Philip Coffin was taken out of school and given the Watchman’s Clock after his father was beaten to death on Olive Street.

Philip accepted his new responsibility easily, and put on the traditional black of the Coffins.

Around Cross there are dozens of keys that must be used to wind the Watchman’s Clock. Each night, before his shift began, Philip would learn in which order the keys needed to be used, and at which time.

Through the use of his clock, Philip kept back the monsters that roamed the dark. He served as a conduit for the magic within the keys, bridging the distance between life and death for the entire town at times.

By 1943, Philip was growing tired, and he knew his time was short.

The patterns for the keys was changing rapidly, sometimes in the middle of his shift.

Philip had never married.

There were no children for him to pass his legacy of guardianship onto.

On March 27, 1943, Philip stumbled.

Some people on Washington Street heard a commotion close to two in the morning, but it sounded like nothing more than a pair of feral cats fighting over trash.

When dawn graced the town, a boy delivering papers found the Watchman’s Clock, and a splatter of blood on the wall of 54 Washington Street.

Nothing more was ever found of Philip.

The Watchman’s Clock is currently on display in the library of the Cross Branch of Miskatonic University and any interested in the position of town watchman is invited to apply.

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