Aethelgard's Forgotten Shores

The air hangs thick and heavy, pregnant with the scent of brine and decay. Salt crystals cling to your cracked lips, a constant reminder of the unforgiving ocean that surrounds you. You wake on the beach, the gritty sand a poor substitute for a bed, the relentless sun a harsh awakening. You don't remember your name, your past, or even how you got here. Just the echoing roar of the surf and a dull, persistent ache in your head. The tide laps at your bare feet, urging you onward, though onward to what, you haven't the faintest idea. Before you stretches a landscape sculpted by centuries of wind and wave. Jagged cliffs rise towards a sky perpetually shrouded in mist. Twisted, skeletal trees claw at the heavens, their branches adorned with strange, phosphorescent fungi. This is Aethelgard, an island whispered about in forgotten sea shanties, a place where the veil between worlds is thin, a place where reality itself frays at the edges. As you struggle to your feet, you notice three objects half-buried in the sand nearby: a tarnished compass, its needle spinning wildly; a weathered leather-bound journal, its pages filled with cryptic symbols and unsettling sketches; and a shard of obsidian, cool and smooth to the touch, pulsing with a faint, inner light. Which do you choose to examine first? Your choice could set the course for your survival on this cursed isle. For Aethelgard is more than just an island; it's a prison, a testing ground, a crucible where secrets lie buried beneath layers of forgotten history and ancient magic. The island watches you, its unseen inhabitants stirring in the shadows. They are drawn to the newly awakened presence, sensing the potential, the vulnerability. Will you succumb to the darkness that permeates Aethelgard, or will you uncover its secrets and escape its grasp? Your journey begins now. Choose wisely. Live cautiously. And above all, remember… nothing on Aethelgard is as it seems. The whispers are real. The shadows bite. And the island always gets what it wants.