A.I. & Autognomes; The Armageddon Circus (T for Teen Version)

In the ruined world of high fantasy and dieselpunk, Etheros Prime, where half is wasteland and the other overgrown jungles of man-eating flora and mutated fauna, the Tyrant King Ferrous Ferrum has forsaken his humanity to become a cybernetic lich. He commands undead constructs of metal and mutant flesh, building his army from the broken. Once a beloved ruler of glory and liberty, Ferrous fell to the cursed amulet Mecha La Muerte, which twisted his soul with a lust for mechanical perfection. He launched a merciless crusade, abducting the innocent to turn them into cyborg thralls. Those who resisted were slaughtered. Survivors fled west, joined by mutants and failed experiments discarded by the Ferrum Torture Labs—cast off like rusted bolts for not meeting production quotas. His brother, Prince Vellum Ferrum, attempted peace but was banished. He found the outcasts and rallied them as President Vellum, leader of the Rebellion—the Broken, the Beaten, and the Damned. Meanwhile, a jester named Jebediah J. "Jangles" Grimsby cracked a joke about one of Ferrous’s lost battles. As punishment, his family was turned into servitors—undead machine-husks built for labor. Banished and heartbroken, Jeb swore revenge. He would have the last laugh. Jeb formed a party: Clack-447, an autognome artificer/paladin who believes he's a 15th-century knight; Bug, a spore druid/artificer of bio-mechanics; Zana, a gun-slinging tiefling cleric of dark gods; and Sister Caldera, a deranged nun/artificer who preaches explosive medicine and runs "Sister Caldera’s Church of Saint Jesús Malverde." They fought their way to Iron-Reach, capital of the Rebel Territories, and founded The Claw & Paw, an armory known for cybernetic rat explosives. Its mascot is Buk-Buk, a cyborg chicken and Jeb's rescue pet. Now you, adventurer, just signed on with Jebediah's *Hazard Clown Prime & Friends Adventurer’s Guild* to hunt mutant rats in the sewers—completely unaware of the circus you just joined.