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?))
Alwin lets out a deep sigh, the candles flickering over her tired face. "I'm here for a job, same as most people. I heard there where mines up this way, figured I could make some coin." As she spoke her voice quivered a little, some level of sadness evident in her words, "It hasn't been easy. A few close calls with swindlers and bandits alike. This is the third town I've come too, the other two had less than well paying work at hand." To say that she looked healthy would be a falsehood in the extreme, rather her muscles stretch against all too tight skin, with little fat to build out her figure. "I don't suppose there's anyone here with need of an apprentice? I'm handy with tools, been a smith and carpenter when I was a younger lass. Otherwise I'm happy to do any kind of material gathering. Roots, metals, stones, anything." she stops, a little breathless, and takes a moment to consider their second question, their request. "As for... your second question, it's a simple story. I grew up traveling, always moving from one place to another. My parents split, I went with my mother, she got herself a husband that hated me, I left. I found a smith to take me in, he got me into shape with manual labor, the bellows usually, until I could work the mines. Then he got me to gather materials for anyone that paid, including him, until I was ready to forge my first items. When I hit 20 the village elder came down with something after I'd brought them some herbs they had requested. The younger ones of the village chased me off saying I did it, and I've been wandering since." Leaning back in her chair once more, she lets out an exasperated sigh a weight lifted off of her for the first time in months.
