The Backstory: The Wayfinder's Folly

Part 1: The Relic in Pretoria

The city of Pretoria, a Gnomish stronghold of steam and cogwork, was built on order. For Kyp Quicksteel, a brilliant young tactician, "order" was just another word for "predictable." He craved a true challenge, a scenario not found in his manuals.

He found his allies in the city's most ambitious (and restless) minds:

• Griselda "Griz" Gearwhistle: The engineer. Give her a spring, a boiler, and a handful of bolts, and she could build you a mountain climber... or a coffee maker. Usually both.
• Rorick "Rory" Rootcutter: The alchemist. A master of poultices, acids, and, most importantly, highly potent mushroom-based stews. He was the group's cautious, pragmatic core.
• Flickr "Flick" Flintknap: The scavenger. Lithe and shadow-quick, Flick could find a lost cog in a scrap heap or a silver coin in a troll's pocket.

It was Flick who started it all. While "reclaiming" materials from a condemned sub-basement beneath the Great Clocktower, his quick fingers found a loose pressure plate. Behind it was a small, lead-lined box. Inside was not gold, but a strange, heavy compass-like relic.

Kyp was mesmerized. It wasn't a compass; the needle spun uselessly. But etched into its bronze housing, in a forgotten Gnomish dialect, was a directive. It spoke of a "True North," a place beyond the charted maps and frozen seas. It claimed a "Land from the Past and Beyond," the cradle of Gnomish creation, was waiting for those brave enough to find it.

For Kyp, it was the ultimate strategic problem. For Griz, it was the ultimate engineering challenge. For Flick, it was the ultimate score. And for Rory, it was the ultimate headache... but he'd be cursed if he let his friends go alone.

Part 2: The Perilous Voyage of 'The Cogsworth'

Griz Gearwhistle poured her genius into their vessel. The Cogsworth was a marvel of salvaged parts and inspired design—steam-powered, paddle-wheeled, and utterly un-seaworthy by any standard but her own.

They launched under the cover of a steam-fog night and pushed north, farther than any Pretoria-gnome had ever sailed. The journey was a constant battle. Griz's custom-built engine was powerful but temperamental, a vertical nightmare of pipes and valves. She had, in a fit of "Gnomish efficiency," placed the primary steam-regulator valve high up on the main boiler, far from the splash of the bilge.

During a vicious squall, the regulator began to shriek, threatening to tear the ship apart. Griz, slick with grease and seawater, couldn't get a grip. "Rory, brace me!" she yelled. The stout alchemist wedged himself against the bulkhead. "Climb!" Griz scrambled onto his shoulders, her wrench extended... but she was still inches short.

"It's not working, Kyp!" she screamed.

Kyp, white-knuckled at the helm, scanned the deck. "Flick! On top! Now!"

Without hesitation, Flick Flintknap scaled Rory, then Griz, a three-gnome pyramid swaying wildly. He balanced on Griz's shoulders, grabbed a scorching hot pipe for balance, and kicked the valve shut with both feet. They collapsed in a heap, soaked and steaming, but alive.

Part 3: The Beast of the Splinter Lands

The true test came weeks later. They entered a dead-calm fog bank, so thick that Rory, attempting to test the water's properties, claimed it was "more like soup."

Flick, perched on the mast as lookout, suddenly hissed. "Kyp... shadow... under us."

They all saw it. A shape, impossibly vast, moving beneath The Cogsworth. The sea to their starboard side began to rise, not as a wave, but as a living mountain of flesh and coral. A single, colossal eye, blinking with ancient, horrifying intelligence, breached the surface and stared at them. It was a true Kraken, a beast from a time before gnomes.

Kyp Quicksteel, the tactician who had a plan for everything, was frozen. No manual had prepared him for this.

The beast simply... watched. Then, a mile away, a secondary tentacle rose from the fog and crashed down, sending a shockwave that cracked The Cogsworth's hull and snapped the main steam line. Griz screamed in fury—not in fear, but at the insult to her work. The monster hadn't even bothered to attack them directly. It had just... moved.

Part 4: The Shore of No Return

The Cogsworth was dying. Griz's frantic patches and Rory's alchemical sealants could only do so much. They drifted for days, leaky and cold, before the sound of surf and the crunch of rock announced their journey's end.

They crashed onto a beach of volcanic black sand, under a sickly, swirling green sky. The ship was a wreck.

"The supplies!" Rory yelled, wading into the wreckage. He hauled their provision-chest to shore and cracked it open. His face fell. "It's a loss. The preservation draughts... they broke. The biscuits, the fungi... all soaked in seawater and engine oil."

Flick, ever the scavenger, was already moving. "I'll find something. There has to be something." He scaled the rocky cliffs bordering the beach to get a better look. He froze at the top.

His voice was a strained whisper. "Kyp... you need to see this."

Kyp and Griz scrambled up to join him. They looked out not on a Gnomish paradise, but on a nightmare. The jungle before them was a pulsating mass of towering, bioluminescent fungi and trees that looked like exposed bone. And from that jungle, a symphony of chittering, clicking, and skittering echoed out.

They were not alone.

Kyp Quicksteel looked at his three companions. They were shipwrecked, starving, and surrounded. His mind, once frozen by the Kraken, was now terribly clear. This was the ultimate scenario.

"Griz," he said, his voice low and sharp. "Salvage every weapon and scrap of metal. Rory, see if you can make a poison or a bomb from that sludge. Flick, find us a choke-point. That relic didn't lead us to our past."

He drew his own cog-axe, its tactical weight a small comfort.

"It led us to our last stand."

(To be continued in Gnome's Last Stand...)

Act 1, Scene 1: The Swarm

As Kyp Quicksteel’s last word—"stand"—hangs in the air, the jungle itself seems to inhale. The symphony of skittering and chittering stops, replaced by an oppressive, sudden silence.

Then, a new sound: a wet, rolling hiss. From the pulsating fungal forest, a sickly, cold fog rolls in, thick with the smell of ozone and damp rot. It smothers the beach in seconds.

"Back-to-back! Sound off!" Kyp barks, his cog-axe held high.

"Griz! Here!"
"Rory! Got my vials!"
"Flick! Right behind you!"

They stand as a tiny, four-gnome island in a sea of white. The fog is so dense they can barely see their own feet. Then, as one, the mists are pulled back, as if a great curtain was drawn.

The world is revealed. And it is teeming.

"By the First Cog..." Griz whispers.

The black sand beach is no longer empty. It is a writhing, squirming carpet of things. Small, bioluminescent creatures—some like mushroom caps scuttling on dozens of insectile legs, others like pale rodents with glowing purple eyes and carapaces of moss—are staring at them.

A single, high-pitched shriek rises, and the entire swarm surges forward.

[GAMEPLAY START: THE FIRST WAVE]

This is not a battle; it is an extermination. The gnomes fight for their lives, a blur of motion. Kyp's axe cleaves through fungal armor. Griz’s wrench smashes chitinous bodies into glowing paste. Rory’s vials of alchemical acid sizzle, clearing small circles in the horde. Flick is everywhere, his knives a silver flash, stunning one creature and disabling another.

Hours pass. The gnomes are exhausted, their arms burning, their armor slick with ichor. They've fought their way from the wreck to the relative safety of the cliff wall.

"They just... keep... coming!" Kyp yells, smashing another glowing-eyed rat.

"This is getting inefficient!" Griz shouts back.

Then, just as the wave seems endless—just as thousands of the creatures have fallen—a new, deafening shriek echoes from the deep jungle. It's a command.

Instantly, every single creature stops. The entire swarm turns as one and scuttles, terrified, back into the fungal depths, disappearing in seconds. The beach is littered with their steaming, glowing remains.

Act 1, Scene 2: The Compass

The gnomes collapse against the cliff wall, breathing heavily.

"My satchel," Rory groans, checking his supplies. "My entire acid-flask reserve... gone. On vermin."

Flick, however, is frantically patting his pockets, his face pale with panic. "No, no, no... my knives, my picks... where is it?" He crawls on the beach, shoving aside bug-carcasses. "The relic! The bronze disk! I've lost it!"

"Flick, we don't have time for—" Kyp begins, but Griz cuts him off.

"Wait. What is that?"

Flick stops. From beneath a pile of viscous, fungal goo, a faint, rhythmic pulse of crimson light is glowing.

He shoves the carcass aside. There, on the black sand, is the relic. It is no longer a dull, inert piece of bronze. It is alive. The central needle, once spinning uselessly, is now rigid. One half glows a deep, angry red. The entire artifact is warm to the touch.

Flick picks it up. As he stands, the red needle stays locked, pointing past him, directly inland toward the island's dark, mountainous center.

"It's active," Griz says, her engineer's mind racing. "This island... the energy... it must be powering it."

Kyp takes it from Flick. He walks left. The needle stays pointed inland. He walks right. It stays pointed inland.

"It's a compass," Kyp says, his tactical mind clicking into place. "It's showing us the 'True North' from the inscription."

Rory peers at the glowing red needle. "Kyp, that's the exact same direction the bugs fled. Tactically, that's a death trap. They're running from something."

"Or to something," Kyp counters. He looks at the glowing red point, then at his exhausted team. "That's the objective. That's where we're going."

Act 1, Scene 3: The Hunt

Following the relic's crimson glow, they leave the beach and enter the oppressive jungle. The air is thick and wet. The chittering of the small creatures is gone, replaced by a new sound: the thud of heavy paws on damp earth, and a wet, slavering growl that seems to echo from the trees.

Flick, scouting ahead, drops from a canopy of fungi. "Hostiles. Big. Pack of them."

They emerge from the gloom, and the gnomes' hearts sink. They are loping, powerful beasts with the hunched, muscular build of hyenas, but covered in slick, reptilian scales. Cold, lizard-like eyes track them in the dark, and acidic drool sizzles as it hits the fungal floor.

[GAMEPLAY START: THE SECOND WAVE]

This is a true fight. A large, scarred "alpha" directs the pack. Smaller, faster "skulkers" try to flank them. The gnomes must work together.

"Griz, the alpha! Draw its attention!" Kyp commands.

"Rory, their eyes! Blind the fast ones!"

"Flick, the one on the left! Hamstring it!"

The battle is brutal and desperate, but the gnomes are victorious. They stand over the massive, steaming carcasses of the hyena-lizards, bruised and bleeding but alive.

"Well," Rory says, catching his breath. "At least these are useful."

He pulls out his field kit and examines the alpha's body. "Griz, this hide! It's as tough as our boiler-plating. And this sinew... we can use this to bind our weapons."

Griz is already examining a flat, serrated shoulder-bone. "This is better than a shield. This is armor."

Flick, naturally, has already found a small, pulsating sac near the creature's throat. He pokes it.

"Don't touch that!" Rory snaps, nudging him aside. He sniffs it. "It's a powerful coagulant. A healing salve. Potent. And the marrow in these bones... Kyp, it's food."

For the next hour, the gnomes are not tacticians or engineers. They are butchers. They harvest the carcasses, gathering everything: tough hides for armor, sharp claws for arrowheads, thick bones for shields and club-heads, healing salves, and protein-rich food.

They are no longer four shipwrecked, starving gnomes. They are armed, armored, and supplied.

Kyp Quicksteel sheathes his newly-bound cog-axe. He looks at his team, now clad in grotesque, effective new gear. He holds up the relic. Its red light pulses steadily, a heartbeat leading them deeper into the island's dark, dangerous heart.

"Right," Kyp says, a grim smile on his face. "Let's see what else this island has for us."

(To be continued...)

Game Mechanics Definition

Game Mode: Gnome Scouting Runs

This is a progressive, roguelite-style game mode featuring permadeath. The player's goal is to successfully navigate a series of hazardous boards, gathering resources and completing objectives to earn "Progression Gems," which are used for permanent, account-wide upgrades.

1. Pre-Run Setup

1. Character Selection

The player chooses one of three Gnomish Scout archetypes:

• Vanguard (Melee): A durable scout with higher base Health and Armor. Specializes in short-range or adjacent-tile encounters.
• Rift-Walker (Magic): A clever scout who uses volatile magic. Can attack from a distance and bypass certain physical obstacles or enemy armor.
• Pathfinder (Ranged): A precision scout with high damage but lower health. Can hit distant targets and has a better chance to disarm traps.

2. Difficulty Selection

The player chooses the run's difficulty (e.g., Easy, Normal, Hard, Chaos). This impacts enemy health/damage, trap lethality, the number of hazards, and the reward multiplier for Progression Gems.

3. Splinterlands Boost

The player selects one Splinterlands card from their collection to "attune" to. This card provides a small, passive buff for the entirety of that run.

• Example: Equipping a Goblin Mech might grant +1 Armor.
• Example: Equipping a Wood Nymph might heal 1 HP after every 3rd board.
• Example: Equipping a Creeping Ooze might slow one enemy on the first encounter of each board.

2. Core Gameplay: The Path Draw

1. The Board

The player is presented with a 2D, grid-based game board. The board shows the Gnome's Start Point and one or more Exit Points.

2. Board Nodes

The grid is populated with various interactive nodes:

• Hazard Terrains: (e.g., Water, Lava, Thorny Vines, Spider Webs). These are "risks." Drawing a path through them will inflict a "consequence" (e.g., 1 Health damage, a "Slow" debuff for the next encounter).
• Reward Nodes: (e.g., Gem Caches, Treasure Chests, a lost Splinterlands Card). These are the "rewards" that justify braving the hazards.
• Encounter Nodes: (Enemy patrols, creatures). Landing on this triggers a combat event.
• Event Nodes: (e.g., Fountains, Shrines, Traps). These can be good, bad, or a choice.

3. Drawing the Path

The player must physically draw a single, continuous line from the Start Point to a valid Exit Point.

4. Risk vs. Reward

This is the core strategic choice. The player can see all nodes.

• Choice A: Draw a short, safe path directly to the exit, securing minimal rewards.
• Choice B: Draw a long, winding path that goes through a Water hazard (Risk) to collect a Gem Cache (Reward) and a Splinterlands Card (Reward) before heading to the exit.

5. Path Lock-In

Once the player is satisfied with their path, they lock it in. The Gnome then begins to move along the drawn path automatically, node by node, triggering each event in sequence.

3. Board Types & Objectives

Not all boards are simple "get to the exit" runs.

• Scavenger Board: The standard run. The goal is resource accumulation. Get to the exit with as much loot as possible.
• Puzzle Board: The Exit is locked. The player must draw a path that activates specific nodes in a certain order (e.g., "Hit the Blue Switch, then the Red Switch") or gathers specific key items (e.g., "Collect all 3 Cog pieces") before the Exit will open.
• Trap Board: The board is filled with disarmed and armed traps. The player must navigate to the exit while minimizing trap damage. Some traps may only be revealed after the path is drawn.
• Mission Board: The player is given a specific target (e.g., "Find the Lost Journal"). The Journal is a unique node on the board.
  • Failure State: If the player draws a path to the Exit without first crossing the "Lost Journal" node, they fail the board's objective.
  • Consequence: Failing the objective means the player is forced to "Redo" the board. This resets the board (possibly with a new layout) and applies a penalty, such as a loss of Health or a "fatigue" debuff.

4. Permadeath & Permanent Progression

Permadeath

If the Gnome's Health drops to 0 at any point during the run (from traps, hazards, or combat), the run is over.

• The player loses all non-permanent rewards from that run (like Splinterlands Cards found) and a percentage of the Progression Gems they gathered on that run.

Progression Gems (Permanent Currency)

Any gems secured by successfully exiting a board (or the portion remaining after a failed run) are added to the player's permanent bank.

The Gnomish Workshop (Hub Menu)

Between runs, the player can spend their Progression Gems in the Workshop on permanent, account-wide upgrades that apply to all Gnomish Scouts on all future runs.

• Buy Health: Permanently increase the starting Health of all scouts by +1.
• Buy Damage: Permanently increase the base Damage of all scouts by +1.
• Buy Shields: Permanently increase the starting Armor of all scouts by +1.