Aethelred's Mechanical Requiem

The air hangs thick and heavy, smelling of brine, rot, and something indefinably…metallic. You taste it on the back of your tongue, a phantom ache against your teeth. You're sprawled on a slick, algae-covered rock, the rough texture scraping against your cheek. Opening your eyes is an effort, like lifting lead weights. Above, the sky is a bruised purple, bleeding into a churning, oily ocean. The waves crash against jagged cliffs, a relentless symphony of impending doom. You can feel the spray on your face, cold and unwelcome. You don't remember how you got here. The last thing you recall is…nothing. A gaping void where memory should be. Your head throbs, a dull, insistent pain that pulses in time with the relentless crashing of the waves. Panic claws at your throat. You try to sit up, but your limbs feel heavy, unresponsive. A strange, clicking sound echoes in your ears, a mechanical rhythm that seems to resonate from deep within your own body. Looking down, you see it – your hands. They're not quite right. The skin is too smooth, too pale. Where your fingernails should be, there are metallic plates, gleaming faintly in the dim light. Fear gives way to a cold, creeping dread. You are not what you were. Or perhaps you never were. This is the Isle of Aethelred. A place whispered about in forgotten texts, a graveyard for forgotten gods and failed experiments. A place where the boundaries between flesh and machine, life and death, blur and twist into monstrous new forms. Your purpose here is unknown. Your memories are gone. But one thing is certain: you are not alone. The Isle is teeming with…things. Grotesque amalgamations of metal and bone, creatures driven by corrupted programming and primal hunger. You will need to scavenge, to learn, to adapt. You will need to uncover the secrets of Aethelred if you hope to survive. But be warned: the truth is often more terrifying than the monsters that stalk the shadows. The ocean roars again, a guttural promise of the horrors to come. The game has begun. Your existence hangs in the balance. What will you become?