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.
Or read in the app
More like this
The Painted Firmament
You've lived your whole life in a village with painted stars overhead—and now the painter is watching you.
The Unmade Mapmaker
You drew the world that made you — now erase the lies and find the real one.
The Last Dowsing
You are the last water-finder, and the desert's final hope lies in your hands—but the source you seek feeds on hope itself.
The Last Tide Caller
Your voice is the only thing standing between a dying convoy and the deep.
The False Cartographer
You're a fake surveyor in a deadly canyon, and one wrong line could expose your lies—or cost you everything.
The Cartographer's Gambit
Every line you draw becomes reality in the shifting wastes—choose your strokes carefully.