Your character has just arrived in a swampy, dim town. As they look around, their gaze is met with shacks and cabins. It smells of rotted wood and wet moss. They duck and step into a tattered tent, illuminated by a series of candles suspended in the air. At the back of the tent, an old hag raises her head, “What brings you to this dingy town? She begins, then pauses to study your face—”Ah, it’s you. I’ve been expecting you. Sit,” she gestures at a cushion, “Tell me your story.”
((How do you respond?))
Edvard takes a deep breath as he prepares to recount his long tale. "I grew up a farmer on the outskirts of the capital of the Empire of Man. My family worked for a noble lord, providing our yield to him every year. My childhood was spent as a farmhand on our land, helping my father and my brothers in the cultivation of grain. Ours was a humble living, but a happy one. Our lord kept us and the rest of the fief safe and I knew nothing but tranquility and peace."
"But how did you arrive here? We're a long way from the capital and it's the midst of the harvesting season. What happened to your farm?", says the hag./
Edvard's expression become strained. Distress and anger are visible on his face "One day orcish raiders came and and razed everything I had known. I remember seeing our fields trampled by their mutated limbs, the nearby town lit ablaze, and the sky dimmed with smoke. They slaughtered all who they could find, cutting them down where they stood while looting and ransacking. I watched as my own family was butchered and chopped to be eaten. I ran that day. I ran into the woods and turned my back on all those who I might have been able to help. Had I been more brave that day I would be dead and you and I would not be talking."
The guilt and regret momentarily seize him. Edvard stops and takes deep breaths, calming himself dawn, before continuing. "I ran and ran until I arrived at the gates of the capital itself, where hundreds of other refugees had formed a large mob. It was a time of war and I had lost everything. Upon entering the city, I found competition for food and work fierce and spent most of my time roaming the streets as a beggar, fighting to stay alive. It was during those years that I transformed from a boy into a man and realized my talents for fighting. I soon after decided to leave the capital and search for a lord who I could serve as a levy. The old house my family had served was wiped out during the wars with the orcs, so I travelled across the country. Eventually, I found the var Rutherns. I was shown a kindness I had scarcely seen during my days in the capital and I soon found myself under their service. My talents for rugged street fighting translated into the disciplined lifestyle of a soldier, and I now carry out my missions given by lord Ruthern. That is my story."
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