volticslayer

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?))

Eying up the hag, perplexed by her unusual knowledge of me I sit down making no sudden movements. In a polite and confused tone, I reply "You seem unusually knowledgeable, for a stranger how do you know of me?" She eyes me up as if starring through me straight towards the barely illuminated void of the swam that lay behind us, as if asking the hour she repeats her question "What brings you to this dingy town?" I sigh knowing I would have better luck prying a dwarf away from a gemstone then to get a straightforward answer from this hag. Instead, I decide the only way to get some answers is to play along "I recently lost a great battle fighting against another tribe, they removed my beard in shame and did not do me the dignity of ending me instead I returned to my clan honourless and was banished." I take a break to regain my breath and look at the hags' eyes though as I looked deeper it seemed as if her wrinkles started to fade and her youth returned, then she spoke "So?" I was snapped back to reality and her appearance became as grotesque as once before, though her thinning patience was plain to see. I decided to resume where I left off "My intentions are to grow the Emberveil name in these strange lands to redeem myself."

As if finishing a book, the hag waved her hand as if to dismiss me. Slightly annoyed by the fact this lady was still an enigma, I sighed resigning in defeat and getting up to leave with no answers as to this mysterious stranger's origin. Then as I walked away the stagnant stench of swamp water filling my nose with every step, she calmly said with a callous tone "There is an inn in the town centre marked with the Sigl of a dead ox, if you have the coin if not there is a perfectly good fire in the centre of town you can sleep nearby for warmth." As I turned around to thank her My eyes widened in shock as the table, I was just sat out ceased to exist my head spun looking for her location. I sighed and said to myself "This land is stranger than I thought!"  And slowly cozied up near the fire at the centre of town."
"Oh, I just, uh…" you stutter, tensing up. You eye the crone, then back outside the tent. For a moment, the air thickens with anticipation, until…