The Surveyor's Folly
You map the canyons, but the vault you uncover maps your doom.
You are the realm's most renowned surveyor, hired to map a labyrinth of desert canyons. But the job turns deadly when you discover the canyons conceal the vault of a lost civilization—and your employer is the war criminal who sacked it, ready to kill anyone who unveils the truth. With every line you draw, you edge closer to a treasure that could redeem or destroy you, and a past that haunts your every step. Choose: expose the truth and face the wrath of a killer, or bury the secret and live with the weight of history.
The story begins
The sun hammered the canyon rim, bleaching the sandstone to bone-white, and you felt the weight of the map case against your hip like a confession. Dust devils spun in the distance, dancing over a trail you'd already memorized from a hundred yards out—a trail that didn't match the parchment in your hand.
Voss stood beside you, his smile a blade wrapped in silk. "You see it, Surveyor? The way the shadows bend there, past the third pillar?"
You saw it. A seam in the rock, too regular to be natural. And carved beside it, half-erased by wind, a spiral of glyphs you recognized from a dead tongue. Your stomach turned. The last time you'd read that script, your map had led an army into a slaughter.
"Promising," you said, keeping your voice flat.
Mira, the guide, spat into the dust. "Promising roads lead to graves."
Voss laughed—warm, easy, utterly wrong. "Mira, we're all going to die eventually. The question is whether we die rich."
He handed you a waterskin, his fingers brushing yours just long enough to remind you he was watching. The canyon below breathed a dry, hot sigh.
What happens next is up to you.
Or read in the app
More like this
The Gardener's Map
You found the map that proves your paradise is a prison—now decide what lies beyond the walls.
The Gauntlet of Thirst
You've been banished for failing your village—now win the race that can save it, or die of thirst trying.
The Glacial Ledger
You inherit a key that opens a frozen vault—and a debt that will follow you to the ends of the earth.
The Last Wind-Knitter
You are the last wind-knitter, and the tyrant who owns the sky demands a storm that will end your city.
The Scripted Horizon
You keep the light burning on an island that isn't real—now the shipwrecked sailor wants you to sail into the unknown.
The Glitchborn Reward
You wake in a world that was never yours—now escape the simulation, or become its prize.