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?))
"...," she remained still, the presence of the old woman had startled her and yet she felt a force, that compelled her to speak.
"I... do not remember..,"
It was a half truth, that she had become used to tell. Avoiding confrontation had always seemed like the easier option for her. Yet this time, she felt something eery about the elderly woman. Her gaze seemingly pierced through her soul, with all her strength, Nestadis tried to fight the urge to speak. So strung up in her mind, she hadn't even noticed that she had already sat down next to this strange character.
As if her lips began to move on their own, she muttered:
"Syhaera.., is where I belong..."
"A small, hidden away village on the edge of Marmali'nor."
Fearful and taken aback by her speech, Nestadis quickly stood up and gazed with fear in her eyes towards that elderly woman. Yet there was no hostility or malice in her eyes. A thought sprung up in her mind, could that woman possibly be more than what she seemed? It reminded her of events in her past, events to which she had no answer to and yet desperately longed for one. Nestadis had always been good at judging people's intentions and felt complete sincerity from her strange new companion.
So she opened up, hoping to find comfort to her woes:
"My mother was a curuni, a renowned healer, within our community,"
"I was given the gift of sight, to pierce beyond the veil and see what others do not perceive. I was meant to follow in her footsteps"
Her eyes suddenly tensed up, her gaze sinking down. She had hoped to forget what would come next and yet she finally felt that for once, her listener would understand her.
"One day a sickness had befallen my kind, with seemingly no cure, my mother rushed through the glade to convene with her siblings with the hope of saving those we loved and live with."
"We waited for her return. At first it was days, those turned into weeks, then months. To no avail."
The memories became vivid in her mind, she paused. How could she describe something to which no word exists?
"I.. can't describe it other than rot, corruption..., so vile, that it seemed even the earth beneath our feet had turned against us."
"..It ...It felt like the end. Bodies once elven, now twisted."
"I had to do something.., I was the only one left with any druidic knowledge"
"I searched and searched for a solution within any scripture I could find."
She paused, her gaze sunken.
"I found nothing. Nothing was of any relevance, ..the curse, ..the malaise was just too strong."
"I remember visions, every night, always turning me towards our old library."
As she progressed throughout her story, she felt her memories becoming more fickle. As if, they had been sealed away or had simply vanished from existence. Only one fragment remained vivid within her mind:
"I recall a tome, ancient. I only remember it's smell. It smelled like fear, anguish and yet I opened it. What other choice did I have?"
Nestadis's eyes stared at her newfound friend, as if looking for understanding.
"..."
When confronted with only silence, she regained her composure.
"I don't know what happened thereafter."
"I see my mother on horseback carrying me, galloping far away from our village. I remember seeing a mix of pride and worry in her eyes, then.. a deep slumber. Only to wake up somewhere in a place I had never been."
"A dusty road, no woods in sight. Ever since then, I've been walking from place to place. I don't know where to go."
Nestadis sighs, pauses a moment for a thought. Then simply shrugs it off to then finally order a beer.
