HumbleBear

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?))

I falter, momentarily stepping back from the tent, not knowing what to make of this stranger. With caution, I step back inside after a moment, eyeing the hag and glancing around the tent distrustfully, and slowly sit on a cushion at the opposite side of the tent. "Why would you hold interest in my 'story?'"

"I am interested in all that pass through here," she replies, "But you more so than the rest. I've been waiting for you to arrive." Despite not knowing this odd woman, I don't feel threatened or as though telling her details of my life could somehow result in a problem.

"Well..." I pause, not knowing where to begin. "....I come from Haelun'or. My father was a blacksmith. I know little about my mother, she died of a disease when I was nine. My father disappeared when I was thirteen, and no one knows what became of him. After a few years, I left that city to get away from the memories and try to have a fresh start. I never really stay in one place, I've wandered around different parts of the world ever since I left Haelun'or. That's how I got here." The old hag nodded, then closed her eyes, and the tent went dark. When Gaelen woke up, he was on the ground where the tent had once been, with nothing in sight except for the shacks and cabins around it.