In the aftermath of a previous catastrophe, an ambitious Scholar's experiments with a dangerous artifact called the Iron Crown go catastrophically wrong, reshaping the world itself and driving civilization to the brink of collapse while opening a gateway for otherworldly horrors to seep into reality. Trapped in a nightmarish loop of repeating events, the Scholar receives an unexpected visitation from his former mentor, the Academic, who offers him a glimmer of salvation: a flame of Hope that might undo the devastation if carried to a foreboding Mountain at the world's edge, where the Crown awaits. Burdened by the weight of his own culpability, the Scholar must assemble a ragtag company of scarred survivors and lead them across a desolate, nightmarish landscape plagued by madness and eldritch terrors, all while confronting the guilt that haunts him and the possibility of redemption through sacrifice.