Crimson Wastes Veridia

The rain tastes like rust. Not the metallic tang of blood, but the stale, earthy tang of old metal, a flavor that clings to the back of your throat and coats everything you see. You can feel it in the air, thick and heavy, pressing down on you like a shroud. Above, the bruised sky hangs low, choked with perpetual twilight. You are Kaelen, a Wanderer. One of the last. Before the Great Fracture, Wanderers were scholars, cartographers, archivists, tasked with preserving knowledge and connecting the scattered settlements across the Crimson Wastes. Now, Wanderers are scavengers, message runners, and relics of a forgotten age, clinging to the edges of a dying world. You awaken in the crumbling shell of what was once a library, its shelves now mostly bare. Dust motes dance in the shafts of weak light filtering through cracked windows. A single, flickering lantern casts long, distorted shadows, painting the scene in a macabre chiaroscuro. You remember nothing of the past week, only a burning ache in your temples and a gnawing hunger. Your satchel, miraculously intact, contains the essentials: a waterskin, a tattered map of the surrounding territories, a rusted blade, and your Wanderer's Mark – a small, intricately carved compass, its needle stubbornly pointing north, even when north means nothing anymore. A crumpled parchment lies near your hand. Scrawled in a frantic hand, barely legible through the grime, is a single word: *Veridia*. And underneath it, a hastily drawn symbol: a stylized tree, its branches reaching towards a single, impossibly bright star. The rain outside intensifies, drumming against the shattered panes. A low growl echoes from the darkened corners of the library. You are not alone. The Crimson Wastes call. Veridia beckons. And the past, shrouded in amnesia and whispers of a catastrophic event, hunts you with unseen claws. Your journey begins now. Will you uncover the truth behind the Great Fracture? Or will you become another lost soul, swallowed by the rust and the rain? Your time starts now. Choose wisely.