Can anyone tell me where the Tick-Tock Men - from the 'Lost Knowledge' Rumour Mythos Card - come from, and if they are an original creation purely for Eldritch Horror, for Arkham Horror, or are actually from a real story. The only reference I could find are Harlon Ellison's " 'Repent, Harliquen' said the Ticktockman' or, more likely, a form of Nyarlathotep known as the Tick Tock Man, singular, who appears to subvert any technologically advanced civilization. Apparently he does not need to be in a human form, and usually comes around circa the dawn of their Atomic Age.

If anyone has any theories or answers, please post.

He's been around for a while, a kind of steampunk version of Nyarlathotep. I think he originates in "I Dream of Wires" byScott David Aniolowski. There's also a character called Tick Tock Man in Stephen King's Dark Tower. He is a follower of Randall Flagg, who is King's aspect of Nyarlathotep.

I used him in Lovecraft Country Horror, as he seemed an appropriate Mask given that Aylesbury was meant to be an industrial city.

Jake, it's always impressive your knowledge of the Mythos literature The tick-tock man in The Wasteland seems a little different from the Eldritch Version. Maybe it's because they used the same art used for an Agency card coming with the Call of Cthulhu LCG, so that I'm more prone at thinking about some sort of black ops force working for the mythos rather than an actual incarnation of Nyarly.

C'mon, let's hope in a Nyarly-themed expansion!!!! :D :D

I agree that Jake's knowledge is impressive - if a tad frightening - but I'm leaning more towards Julia as while Nyarly tries to spread knowledge and with it destruction, 'cause we just ruin everything we learn (Like in the story 'N yarlathotep' where he is a sort of prophet) the Tick Tock Men remove clues and our ability to use them, implying a government cover up and global censorship.

If it weren't for the time period I'd say they were Delta Green, but they were the 80's/90's right? Doesn't their Rumor describe them as 'The Watches', as in, the people Trisha is working with?

Actually (And I am just writing anything that comes to me know) wasn't it the watches that were intercepted for the coded message about Nyarly from Forsaken Lore? The one that had a wizard an a month as its cipher phrase.

It reappears in 'Mountains of Madness' Expansion in an 'Old Journal' asset, the description being the decoded message.

' We have foreseen this. The messenger dwells in the distant past and wits for us in our future... ' ect.

Another 'Old Journal' has a similarly coded message in it about a ' prophesied future ', and that may lead us somewhere...but its unlikely to have anything to do with the Tick Tick Men. Wow, sorry about that tangent, MoM is just really cool.

Merry Christmas, and if anyone has an key for that code system I could try decoding the message from MoM