The Mortal Compound Quest That Broke the System

The Hollow Throne has found something unbelievable: a mortal-made compound that can halt the Weeping Thorn’s spreading corruption. To get more of it, they summon one skilled craftsperson from every village. Thrium Cloudstem wants nothing to do with the summons, but he’s chosen anyway—and forced to swallow a strange twin‑berry meant to grant him a clean, official class. It doesn’t work. The berry glitches, binding Thrium to the role of Artificer on paper, but secretly fusing him with a wandering runic shard. The mistake—quietly called the “twin‑berry error”—makes his creations powerful in ways no Artificer should ever manage. But there’s a cost. Every invention demands something from him in return: a memory, a piece of his name, a favor owed to a patron, or fragments of himself he can’t easily replace. Cast out to the mortal realm with nothing but a starter bracelet and a pack of supplies, Thrium has to build constructs and conjure artifacts just to get close to the rare compound the Throne wants. Along the way he’s pulled into fae court scheming, manipulated by a mortal alchemist who thinks he can profit from Thrium’s talent, and challenged by the moral weight of using materials that were never meant to exist in the first place. As Thrium’s constructs grow minds of their own and the courts angle for control of the compound, he starts to see the truth the Hollow Throne has been hiding. They aren’t just fighting corruption—they’re preparing for someone to repair the Hollow Throne… or sit upon it. And that someone might be him. Now Thrium has to choose: sacrifice pieces of himself to save the realm, or refuse the throne’s bargain and watch everything fall apart.