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?))
"Oh, well..." Isalis stammered as he looked between the hag and the outside of the tent, where he left his animals. He debated leaving the tent and abandoning speaking to the woman in favor of his animals, but after some thought, he figured it wouldn't hurt to have a very quick conversation.
With hesitance, he sat on the cushion the old woman gestured to, "Well, in full honesty, I do not have much of a story to tell," He said, glancing around at the candles for a moment before looking back at the crone, "For some years now, I have been traveling with me and my goats, trying to find a better home for us. A safer home. Though really, anywhere would be safer than..." He trailed off, suspecting that he spoke too much. He figured he should avoid saying anything that could incriminate him…
“It was not always about me and my animals, though. I started my travels long before they came into my care. I started traveling when I was fifteen years old, after my home village was destroyed in a raid. I could have stayed, but… I guess I knew that staying would do me no good, so I left,
“For a long time, I traveled with no purpose besides survival. And to survive, you need money,” He looked down at his own hands with shame. “In the earlier years of my travels, I have done some things I am not proud of to make a quick sum of money… I was acquainted with the wrong people and have made some poor… illegal choices,
He looked back up at the hag, waving his hands in front of him as he quickly tried to defend himself for what he just said, “Nothing crazy, obviously! I mean, honestly, I was more of an accomplice if anything. It is not like I was a murderer or anything!” He paused, taking a deep breath and continuing on like normal, “But, you know, one thing led to another, and my lucky streak of not getting caught eventually ended… And for a short while, I was on the run,
“But then I met a man who had a farm, who took me in. And I stayed with him for maybe a year or so. And I learned a lot from him. Life was… slow, but it was nice. Much nicer than a life of crime,” He said with a laugh, “And at some point, I wanted to travel again. And he said he had some animals he could no longer take care of: his goats. So I took them with me,
He turned his head to look out the exit of the tent, where he left his animals, “They are nice to travel with. For the first time, I am not just living for myself, you know?” He turned back to the old hag, “What I do is also for them. They are my motivators now, not just my own survival,” He trailed off before looking back down at his hands, now with embarrassment, “I apologize, though. I have rambled on too much…”
