[hider=Ilumen Conceal]
One day, five cold, frigid winters ago, you entertained a guest. Brick, the merciful cleric who you would consider the only father you've ever had, introduced you to her. In your isolation you've had the pleasure to hear very few names. Most were overheard while you picked food from people's houses or stole their livestock's feed, so only three names had been given to you personally. Brick, Ilumen, and five years ago, Arianna. 

Halflings weren't something you've ever seen yourself, but you had read of them before, so the moment where you first saw her and mistook her for a child was shortly passed. The woman was the curious sort, sending you a barrage of questions the entire night. Questions about your species, your relationship with Brick, how you'd come to live in the wilderness and questions of how you'd been able to feed yourself all of these years. Through all of this she kept the fire warm and kept the food flowing steadily. Before she eventually left, she asked you one last question: Would you like to go on an adventure? You were hesitant, caught off guard, but after a moment of consideration you agreed. What kind of respect could you earn while hiding in the frozen wastes?

A week ago, Brick marched back to you again, bearing provisions for you. Among the food was a letter that bore the name you had last heard five years past. It was a call to adventure. You were tasked with taking a ferry to the mainland and meeting Arianna in a tavern called the Frozen Ogre in a week's time. The letter also contained enough coin to pay for the ferry and a night in the inn. The next day you set out to port clothed in a concealing cloak, Brick's farewell gift to you to bid you safe travels, and you sailed to adventure. [/hider]
[hider=Merrillka Kovascu]
Not very many have received your care and [i]lived[/i] to tell the tale. One such 'lucky' (of course, you didn't see it this way) individual was a tiny wizard who actually had the manners to introduce herself to you. Arianna Evendale. Like many before her, she asked questions; but unlike many before her, these questions were about what death is like, what kind of duties someone in your position has, if she could eat if she was dead and if she could pet Wray-Wray. The latter being something she did do, much do her dismay. Foxes like to bite. 

Eventually she noticed you interact with something in the physical plane and she became ecstatic. More questions came, now squarely about you. Where you came from, who you used to be, how you're able to interact with things if you're dead, if the living can see you, et cetera. She explained herself, saying she was an adventurer who had become fatally ensnared in a bed of plunging spikes. She was the genuinely inquisitive sort, to the point where she risked her life in a lich tomb just to uncover someone's secrets. Seeing you as an entity capable of acting within the mortal plane gave her an idea that maybe you could also be an adventurer. After some time, her form stated to fade, like the others that had come to limbo and retreated back to their lives. Before she was revived, she told you that she'd send word whenever she had an adventure waiting for you as a means of occupying your weary soul. Then she vanished. 

Quite recently she sent word. Another spirit came under your care. It was a man who had been standing on a ledge and contemplating jumping when suddenly, just when he had made up his mind not to, a gust of wind pushed him over. While going through the motions of consoling this man as he was essentially grieving his own death, a force seemed to come over him. He was somehow possessed. The man relayed a message that Arianna Evendale requested your assistance on an adventure and that she wished for you to meet her at the Frozen Ogre in the Summerless Isles. While an interesting trick, you refused, and the man's wits came back to him. A day later, a woman came under your care bearing the same message. And then another. And then another... Eventually you agreed with much frustration, and you and your troupe of lost souls set forth to the frigid lands to the north. Not that the cold really bothered you anymore. [/hider]
[hider=Mayu Elsar]
Many different kinds of faces came through the tavern in your time, and not just due to the time you've spent here. Middleton, while a modestly sized town, was host to many travelers. Some were fishers or whalers, taking advantage of the deeply populated seas of the isles. Some were simply passing through as Middleton set on the safest path between two large cities, Versalais in the forests of the South and Frostkiln in the mountains to the East. But many were adventurers, treasure hunters, prospectors and anyone intending to profit from them. You never really cared as to why, just some cobweb filled, frozen ruins that've all been picked clean by now, but they gave the tavern good business. Better yet, the kind of business that keeps the days interesting. 

One of these faces has been hanging around the tavern and sleeping in the inn for a month now. A short one with baggy robes, a fancy cane and a shield as big or bigger than they were. You couldn't really place if they were a he or a she until eventually they felt the need to chat. This Arianna girl was either drunk or thick because she had no clue that you were messing with her the whole time. Whichever didn't matter, because people get thirsty when they're talking about their life stories. Which this halfling had [i]plenty[/i] of. You could hardly tell if she was telling the truth or if she was full of shit but either way, the amount of tall tales she had was impressive. 

Arianna was interesting, if annoying. She was at least entertaining enough not to punch in the face for how much she talked. Hell, she even entertained some of the patrons with her parlor tricks. After a while of her being there, you figured that she was trying to assemble a party of adventurers of her own, with no luck. Now, what were you really supposed to do? She was such a pitiable thing. You felt that horrible tinge in the back of your mind like Daddy's saying 'good girl' from ages away when you agreed to help her out. [/hider]

Morning came and the sun was already held highly aloft, as it almost never ceases to be present in the sky. What ultimately woke Arianna was not the light, but the smell of the kitchens downstairs preparing the inn's breakfast. In her excitement, she scurried on downstairs, taking only her staff and nearly forgetting her cloak. 

For now, as it was still early, there were few patrons sat in the tavern at the bottom floor. The facilities were moderately sized and spacious, especially for one of Arianna's height. The inner walls were layed with wooden boards as opposed to the stacked logs on the outside of the building. The floors were made with boards of assorted ages and types as they needed to be replaced more often due to drunken foolery. The furniture was especially mismatched, being so commonly replaced that the owner simply purchased any chairs and tables that were available at the time. The bar was long and lined with stools high enough for a Dwarf to comfortably sit upon. One of these stools had a small block of wood underneath it, making it effectively taller. Arianna claimed this seat as her own, peering into the kitchens that were visible just beyond through a little window opening in the wall and inhaling the scent happily.