Since you've been gone, some unfortunate things occurred

{# Shortly after you left, #}
{%data_block clause_1%}
they began to wonder if they could do your job better than you.
they started to think hard about what they really wanted out of life.
they became obsessed with your return, and became impatient.
they developed a short temper.
{%end%}

{# They got curious about #}
{%data_block clause_2%}
a secret they weren’t supposed to know about.
getting into politics.
an odd book a stranger "randomly" gave them.
a person they swear they’d seen before but cannot place.
gems, and how to manipulate their innate properties.
you, so they scried.
{%end%}

{# An unfortunate side effect of this was #}
{%data_block clause_3%}
they lost touch with their loved ones as they associated more and more with a bad crowd.
they became fixated on one detail about it; obsessing to the point of ignoring all else.
they drew the attention of someone who would do anything to get what they wanted.
a local group having a problem with their actions and began harassing them.
that they grew to be a leader, but one who will never be able to live up to their underlings' expectations.
quicker aging.
losing their sense of taste.
the paranoia that they are always being followed.
{%end%}

{# Which led to them meeting #}
{%data_block clause_4%}
a horrid monster that has a taste for them.
a ghost who haunts them.
a charlatan who took them for all they had.
two folk they swore they've never met but both claim to know them and can recall specific memories they vaguely remember.
a tea shop owner who is becoming fixated with them.
a cryptid.
a formless who shapeshifted into them.
an elf, frozen in time.
a dwarf whose lower jaw and chest cavity are filled with magical energy.
a pet mimic that eats copper pieces.
{%end%}

{# Disaster struck when #}
{%data_block clause_5%}
they started hearing voices no one else could.
something (teeth, fingernails, a patch of skin, etc.) fall out whenever they perform certain common task.
a demon tore through reality and burned their hometown to the ground.
a bounty hunter came for them.
A powerful mage broke into their home and kidnapped them, believing they knew something critical.
they found and solved a strange puzzle box.
their ancestors began visiting them in dreams.
their neighbors randomly asked them very specific questions.
the regent visited town.
their mother caught wind of what they were doing.
their father caught wind of what they were doing.
you returned.
{%end%}

{# Now... #}
{%data_block clause_6%}
they're in a dungeon, unaware of how they got there or how to escape.
the mayor of their hometown believes they're plotting an evil scheme and is rallying people to kill them.
everything went sideways when they turned out to be a sleeper agent for the antagonist.
they are the prisoner/forced advisor to a warlord who came through their town and captured them.
they're in massive debt from their actions, and the collectors have come to collect.
every animal they come across is hostile toward them.
the city's biggest mobster has mistaken them for someone else and is being way too chummy.
every time they pass a fortune teller, the fortunate teller looks horrified or confesses something horrible is coming their way.
their family has disowned them, their friends no longer accept them, and the party is the only people they can turn to.
the people they fear most are coming for them.
they can no longer remember anything that happened before last week.
a deity wants their head.
they have ten days to resurrect their lover.
their face is gone; they cannot speak, smell, or see. (but they don't need to eat anymore!)
they can only speak in lies.
they're in prison on 10,000 bail.
they're occupying someone else's body.
they have hemophilia.
they're cursed to only speak in rhymes until a specific goal is met.
they see an hourglass in the corner of their vision, and they fear what will happen when the sand runs out.
{%end%}

Shortly after you left, {{clause_1}} They got curious about {{clause_2}}

An unfortunate side effect of this was {{clause_3}} Which led to them meeting {{clause_4}}

Disaster struck when {{clause_5}} Now... {{clause_6}}