Clockwork Heart New Birmingham

The flickering gaslight casts long, dancing shadows across the cobblestones. A chill wind whispers through the narrow alleyways of New Birmingham, carrying with it the scent of coal smoke, brine, and something… else. Something metallic and unsettling. You grip the worn leather of your journal, the hastily scribbled notes within a desperate attempt to make sense of the chaos that has engulfed your life. Just three weeks ago, you were Professor Alistair Finch, renowned scholar of esoteric automatons at the prestigious New Birmingham University. You lectured, you researched, you lived a life of quiet academic fulfillment. Now? Now you're hunted. Branded a heretic. A danger to the very fabric of New Birmingham society. It all started with the Clockwork Heart. A recently unearthed artifact, discovered during the excavation for the new pneumatic railway line. It pulsed with an unnatural energy, humming with a power that defied all known laws of physics. You were granted exclusive access to study it, a privilege you now deeply regret. The moment you touched it, you saw things. Visions. Nightmares. Glimpses of a future where New Birmingham is twisted into a grotesque parody of itself, a city ruled by cold, unfeeling machines and shrouded in perpetual twilight. You tried to warn the authorities, the esteemed members of the Cogsmith Guild, but they dismissed you as delusional. Worse, they accused you of tampering with the Heart, of perverting its sacred purpose. Now, the clockwork enforcers are searching for you. Their gears grind, their brass bodies gleaming under the gaslight, their only purpose to bring you to "justice." But you know the truth. The Clockwork Heart is not a blessing, it's a curse. A Pandora's Box of technological terror, and you are the only one who can stop it. You've found refuge, for now, in the dingy backroom of "The Rusty Cog," a notorious pub frequented by smugglers, inventors, and other misfits. They may not be the most savory bunch, but they offer a degree of anonymity. Tonight, you'll need their help. You have a lead, a rumor of a hidden workshop where a reclusive inventor once dabbled in similar forbidden technologies. Find him. Uncover his secrets. And pray you can find a way to silence the Clockwork Heart before it consumes New Birmingham, and everything you hold dear. Your escape starts now. Every tick of the clock is against you.