BlackenedFlower

You’ve just arrived in a swampy, dim town. As you look around, your gaze is met with shacks and cabins. It smells of rotted wood and wet moss. You 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?))

"Oop!" Elara jumps as she's spoken to suddenly, eyes widening. She steps tentatively into the tent completely, a sheepish smile on her face once she's visibly calmed. "Sorry! O-Okay." The halfling hops her way forwards, taking off her heavy backpack to climb onto the cushion and sit. "I didn't know I was... expected! I'm Elara Sweetpebble, the traveling chronicler!" She clears her throat, her diminutive size particularly apparent as she shifts on the cushion made for much larger people. "I was born in a small farming hamlet. My mom is a scholar, she taught me to read, and my father runs the local inn there! It's really nice, just... small, and small villages can get boring. I grew up with a nice, simple life that I'm really thankful for, I just started getting a little... antsy to leave. I read every book my family kept, I learned to brew and cook and even garden a little, and when I was little I really liked helping out the other people in my village. I've always been interested in adventure, even if I'm not the greatest fighter. I want to see all the beauty of the world, big and small, and write about it! The... Sweetpebble Scouting Survey series, if you've heard of it. Probably not, but that's why I'm writing! Even little towns like this... cozy, and deserving of a few pages! Who built it, are there families still here, any spooky stories...? It's questions like that that I like to ask of every place I go. I'm a bard, if you could call literature my instrument! The great human and elven and dwarven cities of the world are places I've only read about, and it's places like that I'd love to go. Meet real heroes, hear the great tales, and write books about their adventures! Actually, w-would you mind answering a few questions yourself, miss?"