Aetherium Seeker Briarwood

The flickering gaslight casts elongated shadows across the cobblestone street. A chill wind whips through the narrow alley, carrying with it the stench of coal smoke and something… else. Something metallic and faintly… floral? You pull your collar higher, a familiar tremor running down your spine. You've felt this before. Always before. They call you the Aetherium Seeker. Not for wealth, not for fame, but because you are… sensitive. You can perceive the echoes, the residue of Aetherium, a volatile substance that seeped into the fabric of reality after the Great Convergence. It twists things, corrupts them, imbues them with impossible energies. And you, cursed or blessed, are drawn to it. Tonight, the signal is deafening. It pulses from the heart of Old Briarwood, a district riddled with whispered legends and abandoned factories. The constables won't go there. They've learned their lesson. Said something about shadows that move on their own and automatons with eyes that glow too brightly. Foolish men. They only see the symptoms. You see the disease. The letter crumpled in your pocket burns with the weight of its simple request: "Find my brother. He vanished in Briarwood a week ago. They say he was researching… anomalies." The writer, a desperate woman named Eliza Croft, offered you everything she had. It wasn't much, but it was enough to pique your interest. More importantly, it provided a legitimate reason to delve into the festering wound that is Briarwood. Your gloved hand rests on the worn handle of your Aetherium Detector, a contraption cobbled together from scavenged clockwork and salvaged radio parts. It hums with barely controlled energy, its needle vibrating wildly. You adjust the focus lens, your gaze fixed on the shadowed entrance to the alley. Tonight, you're not just looking for a missing man. You're hunting a disruption in the very fabric of reality. You're diving into a nightmare, armed only with your wits, your strange abilities, and the faint hope that you can stem the tide of Aetherium's influence before it consumes everything. Take a deep breath, Aetherium Seeker. Briarwood awaits. And it's hungry.