The Gilded Puppet
You staged every discovery—until a real map falls into your hands, and the wilderness you faked becomes your only way out.
As a celebrated explorer, your expeditions are carefully choreographed by a wealthy patron who turns every 'find' into a headline. Then a real map surfaces, revealing that the savage wastes you charted are a lie—a gilded cage of your own making. To escape, you must survive the actual wilderness, track down the treasure the map promises, and outwit the patron who wants it back. The catch: every step deeper into the unknown proves your past glory was built on sand.
The story begins
The ink was still wet on the map when the knock came—three sharp raps, the Patron’s signature. You’d been staring at the parchment for hours, tracing the jagged line through the Savage Wastes, a route that shouldn’t exist. Every chart you’d ever "discovered" had been drawn in his study, over brandy, with a steady hand and a lie. But this… this was different. The paper smelled of smoke and pine, the ink a deep, unsettling red.
You rolled it tight, shoved it into the lining of your coat just as the door swung open. The Patron stepped in, silhouetted against the gaslight, his smile thin as a knife’s edge.
“Still awake, my dear explorer?” His eyes flicked to the desk, to the blank sheet you’d left there. “I trust the evening’s work went well.”
You forced a smile, your heart a trapped bird against your ribs. The map burned against your chest.
“It did. A new route through the Ember Hills. Quite dull, really.”
He stepped closer, close enough to smell the cologne—bergamot and something older, like rot. “Dull is safe,” he said softly. “And you are very, very safe with me.”
What happens next is up to you.
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