Sunken City of Veridia

The salt spray stung your face, a constant, biting reminder of the life you'd chosen. Or, more accurately, the life that chose you. You are Elara, scavenger and survivor, clinging to the fringes of the Sunken City of Veridia. Veridia, once a jewel of the ocean, now lay submerged, choked by relentless tides and haunted by forgotten things. A catastrophic event, whispered about in hushed tones around sputtering oil lamps, had shattered the city centuries ago, leaving only fragments of its grandeur clinging precariously to the underwater reefs. You remember little of the world before the salt and rust. Born in the submerged ruins, you learned to navigate the treacherous currents, to identify the glint of salvage amidst the swaying kelp forests, and to hold your breath longer than any child your age. Your mother, a hardened woman with eyes that held the deep ocean's secrets, taught you everything she knew about survival. But she disappeared three years ago, taken by the currents or, more likely, by something far more sinister lurking in the deep shadows. Now you live alone, scrounging for scraps in the submerged city. You trade your finds at the Shifting Market, a ramshackle collection of floating platforms and submerged stalls held together by hope and desperation. Food is scarce, rival scavengers are cutthroat, and whispers of strange occurrences have grown louder. Today, the whispers have turned into screams. The water vibrates with an unsettling energy, and the air hangs thick with a metallic tang. An ancient, corroded artifact, fished up from the deepest trenches, has sent ripples through the already fragile ecosystem of Veridia. The scavengers are fighting over it, driven mad by its strange power. But you're not interested in power. You're interested in survival. You're interested in finding a way out of this decaying city, a way to escape the crushing weight of the ocean and the horrors it conceals. Tonight, you will make a choice. Will you risk your life to claim the artifact, hoping to harness its power and escape Veridia's grasp? Or will you flee deeper into the sunken ruins, searching for a hidden passage, a forgotten path to a world beyond the salt and rust? Your journey begins now. The fate of Veridia, and your own survival, hangs in the balance. Take a deep breath, Elara. The currents are calling. And something is waiting for you in the deep.