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?))
Akio Romaji stepped silently into the candlelit tent, the damp scent of rotted wood and moss trailing behind him. His crimson-gold eyes scanned the space beneath the shadow of his hood, never resting too long on any one thing—except the hag seated at the back. She looked up slowly, her gaze cutting through the gloom.
“What brings you to this dingy town?” she asked, then paused as recognition settled into her expression. “Ah… it’s you. I’ve been expecting you. Sit.”
Akio didn’t move at first. His hand lingered near his dagger, and his voice, when he finally spoke, was calm and cold.
“…You’ve been expecting me?”
He dropped to the cushion with assassin’s grace, never breaking eye contact.
“My story’s written in blood and silence. I’m not here for tales—I’m here for answers. People whisper you know things no one should. So tell me, witch… why does the name ‘Serynth’ keep turning up in the mouths of the dead?”
The hag let out a rasping laugh, her eyes cloudy but sharp. “Serynth,” she echoed, letting the name hang like smoke. “A place. A person. A broken promise. Depends who you ask.”
She pulled a waterlogged scroll from her robes and tossed it near his feet. “I saw you in the smoke weeks ago—blade drawn, eyes colder than death. But I saw what follows you too.”
Her voice dropped, low and grave. “You’re marked, assassin. That name doesn’t just come from the dead—it calls to you. And the longer you wait, the closer it gets.”
The candles flickered violently, then dimmed, leaving only her final words hanging in the thick silence.
“So… what will you do, Akio Romaji? Chase a ghost—or face what’s already hunting you?”
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