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?)) Example: (delete this)
"Expecting me?" Erik raises a brow. "I'm only here for a stop," he declares, with a flat expression to boot. The question piques curiosity regardless of Erik's choice, however, as his eyes scan the floating candles with lips pursing in a straight line. His hand hangs off the hilt of his sheathed sword & it's clear to him he entered the wrong tent - or perhaps the right one.
"I suppose there's no harm in asking, though..." he starts, turning his attention back to the old hag. "I'm looking for a woman - one like me," his appearance takes the spotlight, a man travelling outside of a Highlander kingdom without company. "Older." He clarifies. If it weren't for their unfamiliarity, he'd have revealed he was looking for a relative.
Erik soon finds somewhere to sit, the chair croaking at the man's weight while he slouches & lets his fingers intertwine. "If you were expecting me, I'd be hoping it was because you know what I'm looking for."
((Mostly free writing as a backstory, wouldn't normally be written in actual roleplay))
The truth of his story lies in his past; a young boy whose father enjoyed his time participating in elden conquests against small towns in rough lands, gathering many enemies, and a mother who shaded away the boy's fate in following his father's footsteps. The only issue was - his mother was reliant on his father to get by, as such, they were eventually separated in a freak incident at the small tavern they'd taken shelter in.
Years gone by, the boy grew to be a laborer. The time between until now has been spent searching for his family; but who's to say the young man isn't only looking for a skeleton, a hollow shell of what was once his only family, scorned by many due to his father's misgivings against the men & women across the Norlandic kingdom.
