< { So… the story is true. The City of the Mad, King Jean’s Tragedy, the treasures buried beneath the ruins—it all exists. But you aren’t here for riches. You’re here for a curse.

Conduits are beings created by the Archmage Alrtas nearly 7,000 years ago. They are the physical essence of a property. Alrtas feared his own anxiety, so he removed it from himself and gave it form: a being called a Conduit. To contain it, he used his greatest fear—the unstoppable passage of time—and bound it to an ordinary stopwatch.

The stopwatch became its Anchor. Both Anchor and Conduit are indestructible, but if the Conduit touches its Anchor, or the holder commands it to return, it is sealed inside. Few knew of this failsafe.

Least of all King Jean.

-[ King Jean’s Tragedy is often dismissed as a children’s fable, but anyone who studies magic knows it as a warning against paranoia.

Jean was once a beloved hero: a beast slayer, demon conqueror, and ruler loved by his people. After obtaining Alrtas’ stopwatch, he began hearing a voice warning him of danger. At first, it protected him from threats he never knew existed.

But protection became paranoia.

Within four years, the confident young king became a fearful, isolated man. He shut everyone out, feared the innocent, disbanded his guards, banned weapons, and outlawed the teaching of magic.

Then a hydra attacked the city.

For once, Jean ignored the voice’s warnings and charged into battle, dying bravely. But without soldiers, weapons, or magic to defend them, his people were slaughtered.

The hero who once protected his kingdom had become the reason it could not protect itself. ]-

{ You walk through the ruins of the forgotten city, far underground. While everyone above celebrates this supposed age of peace and prosperity, you can feel something is wrong. The water, the earth, the air—something has changed.

You came here to prove the stories of Conduits are real, fearing history may be repeating itself.

You find the ruined castle and enter the old armory. There, hanging around the neck of a grotesque cat-like statue, is the stopwatch.

You reach for it.

| The statue freaking moved the second you touched the pendant. |