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?))
standing soaked at the entrance, Yves takes a moment to observe his surroundings. the floating candles casting strange shadows along the patchwork repaired tent. He clenches his jaw before quietly responding.
" You've been expecting me? strange, ive found that I am a stranger to most. that or to be avoided entirely."
He broods a moment before lowering himself on the cushion, His cloak still damp. he sits stiff, posture guarded from the obscure environment.
" I never used put much stock into witches or visions, but something is different here...this town. it carries a strange air, it feels familiar. like a memory scraped from my mind."
" Ive lost something important, That's all i know. 7 moons ago i awoke in a strange town with no memory of who I was but my name, or what i think is my name. that and a reputation it seems most people want to avoid. i've searched for truth but the more i learn of this land the more i understand people don't want truth. they want comfort. And comfort rots faster than corpses in the sun."
"now i go from broken town to broken town. searching for what i've forgotten. a place free of rot."
Under the flickering candles his gaze meets the eyes of the hag.
"now if you were truly expecting me, tell me what is this place?? Why cant I remember?" Yves demands sternly.
The old hag raises her hands and begins to trace sigils in smoke with her bony fingers, the candles in the tent flicker and illuminate brighter. Blinding flashes begin to infest yves' vision. The sigils burning into his eyes.
"you carry something heavy with you, something on your soul - A coffin." The old hag mutters.
"What are you doing to me?!" yves exclaims while shielding his face.
"helping you remember."
A swarm of memories enter yves' mind, a searing sensation accompanying them.
"Now Tell me your story." the old hag said once more.
"tell me who you carry."
as the pain subsides, yves opens his eyes and looks up at the hag, his eyes full of understanding.
"His name was Bruno, He was my brother... We were raised in the clergy. a church where it seems like the more we prayed the more the roof leaked. I was a raised to be a man of god, memorizing texts and copying scripts until my fingers bled. They called it devotion, but I considered it obedience.
A plague came, it seemed to have started with my brother. Like a fire it burned rivers down his skin leaving blackened skin behind and a slipping mind. slowly it spread through the village but I remained untainted. People began to notice and blamed me and my brother for the disease, a lack of faith as they understood it. i tried to get my brother help but they stopped me from leaving, they.. did something to me..."
"I cant remember, i sitll cant remember, please you have to help me again."
The hag stood up and once more began carving sigils in the air.
"ive done all i can, the rest is for you to find"
Before yves could speak another word, a blood red flash blankted his being.
He awoke in the dark, the town he had found completly gone. all that was left was the sound of the creatures that reside in the swamp.
leaving him with questions as to what had just occurred. But now knowing what he is to look for next.
