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?))
Bel offers a soft smile as he takes a seat in the aforementioned cushion. "My name is Bel Serpentine, as you already know. I would hate to bore you with the details of my long and arduous journey here, so I'll spare you with a summary."
As Bel adjusts himself into a more comfortable position on the cushion, the stone embedded within his chest begins to push against the buttons of his shirt almost making them burst. "My father, may he rot in hell, had three children with my mother Aia Serpentine. The family was dysfunctional at best, and abusive at worst. All my fathers fault of course, after he attempted to brand my brother completely just so he could have a chance at gaining some kind of magic. Naturally it didnt work and my mother took him and ran away leaving me and my sister alone with father." Bel rubs his wrists in a sense of anxiety, like telling the story were somehow going to make him relieve his past. "Steorra and I took opposite approaches towards father after Mother left. While I began a rebellious phase, Father had managed to turn her into the perfect child. Obedient, quiet, and usually the smartest person in the room. I ran away from him before she disappeared, and have no leads as to where she is at now. By the time that. . ." Bel's voice trails off for a moment. He swallows the lump that began forming in his throat before continuing, his voice growing steadily shakier. ". . . By the time Father found me. I was locked up, beaten, starved, whatever you can think of that man doing to me, he did. Father still clang to his delusions about magic being stored inside his sons, and one day while I was locked up he placed this in my sternum with no known way to remove it." Bel opens up a few of the buttons on his shirt, revealing the bright quartz stone that seems to glow in the candlelight. "Shortly after, the procedure he performed on me made me terribly ill. Its the reason I'm as scrawny as I am today, but the guilt he faced after seeing me in such poor shape led him to turn himself in to be executed for his crimes. Or so I like to think, at least. Deep down I know that he only did it because he knew he was caught and hoped for an easier sentence by turning himself in."
Bel allows an awkward pause to fill the room as he struggles to rebutton his shirt over the stone. "And that's part of why I came looking for you. The miraculous Baba Yaga. If anyone can fix me, its you. On top of your skills in divination being invaluable to finding the rest of my family."
Bel stands, his expression and tone of voice shifting to be serious. "And im prepared to pay whatever price you ask of me to make that happen."
(Just a note, the skin upload wont work? I've tried a couple file types and downloading the skin/screenshotting it but nothing. If it doesnt show, its one of the female skins with white hair instead of red.)
