Clockwork Heart New Birmingham

The flickering gaslight casts long, dancing shadows across the cobblestones. A chill wind whistles through the narrow alleyways of New Birmingham, carrying with it the scent of coal smoke and something else… something metallic and unsettling. You awaken with a jolt, your head throbbing. Rain plasters your threadbare coat to your skin. The last thing you remember is the clinking of glasses at the Crooked Cog Tavern, a poorly poured gin, and a conversation… about something important. Something… mechanical. Your pockets are empty, save for a tarnished cogwheel and a crumpled piece of parchment. The parchment bears a single, cryptic symbol: a clockwork heart pierced by a lightning bolt. Your name is Elias Thorne, though that feels more like a label than a truth. You are, or were, an inventor, tinkering with automatons and strange energies in your workshop above the clockmaker's shop. But the workshop is gone now, along with everything you owned. Reduced to ash, they say. A tragic accident. But something feels wrong. Deep down, you suspect this wasn't an accident. You feel… watched. Like gears within a much larger machine, inexorably grinding towards a destiny you don't understand. New Birmingham is a city on the cusp of revolution, fueled by the promise of automation. But beneath the glittering facade of progress, a darker current flows. Secret societies clash in the shadows, whispering of forbidden technologies and ancient conspiracies. The Clockwork Guild, the elite engineers who control the city's flow of power, wield immense influence, but their grip is threatened by the Order of the Silent Gear, a radical group who believe technology has corrupted humanity. You are caught in the middle, a forgotten piece in a dangerous game. The cogwheel in your pocket is the key, or perhaps the fuse. It's a breadcrumb in a trail that leads towards a truth that someone desperately wants to keep buried. The rain intensifies. A mechanical whirring echoes in the distance. Time is running out, Elias. What will you do? Where will you go? The fate of New Birmingham, and perhaps something far more significant, rests upon your rusty gears. The game begins now.