Story The Chronicles of Samantha Hatherford [ interactive ]

[ThePastelWitch]

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Samantha Hatherford

and Starminster Fortress

[div class=tag]Directory:

| 00 | 01 | 02 | 03 | 04 | 05 | 06 | 07 |
| 08 | 09 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 |
| 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 |

[div class=tag]How This Will Work:

1. The path the story takes will be up to you!
2. Vote on the choices given at the end of a chapter and whichever has the highest amount of votes, will be the choice Samantha makes.
3. Voting will be done by reactions on a post, to keep it honest so one person gets one vote and I'm not able to make a vote myself.
4. Comments are welcome, but please refrain from double posting.
5. All story posts will have a post format so they're easy to find. However, I will have a directory as well.
6. Her hair is long in the beginning (hence the face claims being different).
7. If at any point you have other suggestions or requests, feel free to PM me or post them here so others may weigh in on them.
8. Remember to stay on topic and civil in the comments. Please and thank you!

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[div class=tag]Once Upon a Time:

A little girl was born to a small nobleman who was far too preoccupied with status to care who he slept with or who he helped birth and to a young maid of the household who thought she loved the charismatic lord. The mother named her daughter Samantha Hatherford, keeping her maiden name while also naming her little girl after her own mother. Rather than submit her to the local orphanage, like some of the other children, the Lord decided to keep his first daughter on hand as a servant. Cheap labor was always better than outsourcing for someone with talent, right?

The little girl was given an education by her mother while she worked mostly in the stables with the horses, away from any curious nobles that visited the halls. Many of the men thought it strange for a girl to want to do manual labor and would either laugh at her any time she failed or refuse to give her any work. Sam grew to hate being born a woman and rather than deal with some of the remarks, she cut her hair short and avoided typical feminine skills.

It wasn't long until she began training in the ways of sword and shield, wanting desperately to leave her home and to become a knight under the King of Great Tree. She caught the eye of a traveling noble and when she was alone, he offered to bring her to his own garrison where she would get some formal training. She only agreed if he would also bring her mother, who was now becoming sickly with the amount of work her father put on the woman's shoulders. The nobleman agreed and without much resistance, Sam's father sold them off.

Sam's mother was well taken care of while she helped the lord's chefs prepare food and gather ingredients from town. Sam, on the other hand, found more opposition to being a woman wanting to wield a sword. However, one man stood by her side and pushed her to do her best. Elijah Keye was her commanding officer and a man only half a decade older than her. He was strong, strategic, and courageous. He was also the only man that ever made Samantha feel like a woman beneath her armor.

Years passed with the two growing closer and closer through training, the mending of wounds, minor missions, and even religion. Elijah taught her of the Gods and how each one gave him strength to do what needed to be done. When she found as much serenity with the Gods, he gifted her a charm representing Kyduur, the God of hope, promises, and deliverance, on her twentieth birthday. At that moment, she could no longer hide her feelings and confessed her admiration and adoration to the man. And while she expected him to reject her, he welcomed her into his arms and confessed all of the things he loved about her. The two cried tears of happiness as they shared their first kiss.

But the moment for happiness was only limited to a year for them. A fight was brewing to the east with the Orcs and the King requested soldiers from every northern noble house. Samantha tried to volunteer her services as to go with Elijah on his secretive mission, but the Lord wouldn't hear of it since he didn't want to potentially lose two of his finest soldiers to the royal army. Elijah reassured Samantha that everything would be fine and he would be back before the King knighted her himself. All she could was watch him ride off with a small accompaniment.

That was a year ago. After a month, his letters stopped coming and everyone was convinced that he had fallen. But Sam wouldn't believe it. She began training more and taking more missions that carried her closer to the King, in hopes of hearing rumors of Elijah's whereabouts. She prayed every day and never lost faith, for she knew that if she did, she might just lose him.

This is a story of Samantha attempting to find her long, lost love. But it is so much more than that. She finds herself stuck between Gods, mortals, and political uprising as well. And the world continues to keep turning, even when she wished it didn't.

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[div class=tag]Sam's IRL Origin:

Samantha was a Dungeons and Dragons (5e) character that I created to test my ability to play a standard melee class. Up until then, I had played mostly rogues, rangers, and druids. She was my first human character as well, seeing as the others were either elves, half elves, or tieflings. The reason being that the world we were going to be working in was more low fantasy than anything and most of our crew was human or dwarf to fit the setting. So that I wouldn't get "bored" with a generic human, I gave her a fun background and made her invested in the world.

Oddly enough, I found myself falling in love with her. She went on lots of adventures with the party. Sadly, she died in battle and I am still not over it. lol

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[div class=tag]Inexperienced Face Claim:

Knight Exemplar by Jason Chan

[div class=tag]Experienced Face Claim:

Cassandra Pentaghast from Dragon Age: Inquisition

[div class=tag]Title BBCode:

[color=#8a1513]@crucially[/color]

[div class=tag]Story BBCode:

[color=#8a1513]@christy[/color]

[div class=tag]My DM:[/div] Jourdan for helping me bring this character to life

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[ThePastelWitch]

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[div class=tag3]location

Norgrim - The Pickled Pint Tavern
[div class=tag3]weather

Cold, snowy
[div class=tag3]choice ♯

3
[div class=tag3]word ♯

1.147
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the

prologue

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Samantha sat quietly in a tavern in the small, snowy town of Norgrim, rereading the scroll she had brought with her while mentally checking all of the gear she had. A mission had been posted in her town of Vanderthelle, asking for abled hands to help with a covert mission from some rich nobleman. The amount of gold offered as a reward was large, even when split among five able bodies. But rather than bring her own accompaniment, Sam requested to travel alone and to work with strangers instead. Partially, it was because she had her own agenda she didn't want the rest of the garrison to hear about but it was also because she didn't want to travel with anyone that might underestimate her because she was a woman. And while that was still a possibility with the strangers, it was almost a guarantee with the men she trained and worked with already.

"Apologies. I noticed the parchment in your hand. Are you also here for the mission posted by Lord Kestral?" Sam looked towards the source of the calm voice and saw a peculiar sight indeed. An Aarakocra, or a bird like humanoid, stood before her in simple, white robes. His feathers were of a deep blue and while he looked young (or so she assumed since she hadn't seen one before), his eyes seemed to speak of trying experiences in his past. She nodded and offered her hand to him. He grasped it as quickly as she offered it. "Ah. Then you wouldn't mind if I joined you, I assume?" She shook her head before lowering her vocal register slightly. "That's fine by me."

The Aarokocra seated himself before pulling out a tome. The same scroll she had with her rested under the cover, a little less beat up as if he merely read it once or twice and committed the rest to memory. "Why do you sit in a tavern with your helmet on?" He kept his eyes on the tome pages while speaking, as if he didn't see eye contact as necessary. She noticed the symbol of Yasha, the Queen Goddess over life, fertility, and light itself. She found herself smiling at finding another like-minded individual. Perhaps Yasha herself found it necessary to bring one of her devout towards someone as loyal as Sam.

"I'm not a fan of having someone underestimate me to due to my appearance. So I keep my face hidden until necessary." She lightly touched the helmet, wishing she could unravel the tight bun she had but knew it better to keep it up. She didn't like her hair because it was something the men used to make fun of while she trained. But Elijah, her lost love, admired its beauty and she feared he wouldn't recognize her if she cut it. But ever since she started the search, it had grown longer than he had first seen it. And it was becoming a pain to hide.

The Aarakocra cleared his throat. "Well I'm sure your face isn't as horrid as you make it seem. My name is Jay. My parents were always a little too simple on names." Were?

"Sam. Sam Hatherford. And while my face hasn't been called horrid, it definitely seems to get reactions I could do without." She chuckled just as a dwarf walked towards the table.

"Aye. Are you two here for Lord Kestral?" Sam looked at the dwarf up and down. His midback, graying red hair and beard were dreaded and his armor looked sturdy but also cut to allow maximum movement. A pint of ale rested in his hand, even though the sun was still at the highest point in the sky. She nodded to his question and he seated himself next to them, completely disregarding any sort of permission he may or may not have had. "Good. For a second there, I thought I would have to do it alone." He drank from his pint before smirking at Jay.

"Burn my beard! This is the first time ol' Havric has seen an Aarakocra. I thought your kind kept to the mountains."

Jay looked slightly peeved as he thumbed through his tome. Sam watched him grasp the rosary beads around his neck before responding. "We typically do. But I'm here for an important reason."

"Something tells me that isn't the mission," Havric said with a smirk. Sam had heard that the dwarves were more talkative, especially with drink, but the ones she fought with weren't this open or inquisitive with strangers. "What other aim do you have?"

Before Jay could speak, a young half-elf seated himself next to the dwarf. "He's here to learn about the undead. Right?"

Sam's blood went cold. Undead? Those were just children's stories. There was no way something like that existed. And more importantly, why would an Aarakocra leave its tribe in the mountains just to learn something?

Jay slammed his book down and glared at the half-elf. Havric, however, seemed to no longer care about him and looked towards the newcomer. "Who are you? What do you want?" Sam hadn't noticed at first, but she now saw that the dwarf was gripping his axe as a reflex. At least he was a trained fighter, though many would be if they traveled all of the way to Norgrim.

The half-elf smirked and tousled his, short blonde locks. "The name is Gaius. I'm out to get some adventuring glory, gold, and possibly ladies." He pretend to pull back the string on an invisible bow before aiming it at Sam and firing. "Using whatever sneaky ways I have." She now glared at him as well and was ready to challenge whatever he was insinuating, but Jay cut him off.

"Sneaky is correct. How long have you been following me?" The Aarakocra gripped his beads harder and it was only when she saw the glow and heard the light hum did she realize he was a magic user. And by the look of his garb and accessories, he was probably a cleric or healer of some kind.

"Oh, y'know. Since you asked the guard at the gate about this tavern, if he's seen a Lord Kestral, and if there was a library or educational source in town." He then fished around in his pocket and pulled out a small, leather bound journal and handed it to Jay. "You also 'dropped' this and I saw it was notes on the undead." Gaius chuckled before looking towards Sam, his own way of cutting off Jay. Or perhaps he was going for a fight.

"And you. I see how you disguise your voice and refuse to remove your helmet. Care to show us your face, Miss Hatherford?"

That was it. This Gaius was being beyond invasive and seeing as her blood was beginning to boil from agitation, she needed to do something.
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C H O I C E S
- Sam will simply deny this allegation
- Sam will challenge Gaius to a duel
- Sam will avoid it entirely and back Jay up

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[div class=link]coded by christy.

https://www.rpnation.com/threads/𝗰𝗵𝗿𝗶𝘀𝘁𝘆-⧾-𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗹𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻′𝘀-𝗰𝗿𝗶𝘀𝗽𝘆-𝗰𝗼𝗱𝗲𝘀.454487/post-9951524[/div]

@christy