But my idea is to make her from one of the noble families in a large port/trading city, being the only child to carry on their family name/business/etc. Her mother falls ill when she is somewhat young, and cannot have anymore children. Her father tends to spend a lot of time caring for this mother, and a lot of pressure falls onto her.
One day, her mother mysteriously vanishes. Her father spends most of his time getting people together to discover what has happened to her. Several months later, however, she sees three men enter their home and kill her father. She hides herself, and can hear the men running through the house trying to find something. She realizes that she may be the thing they are looking for, and sneaks out when she finds an opening. She uses the size of the city to her advantage for several hours to try to collect herself and create distance between herself and the men.
As soon as she feels they may have given up, she makes her way back towards the guard's tower near her home. When she enters the building, she feels as if time stopped. Right in front of her are the men who had killed her father! One of the captains who she thought was her father's friend was speaking "…ing idiots! You missed the most important target! She's young and couldn't have gotten to fa.."
She needed to hear this, but knew she couldn't stick around. She cut her hair, and went by a different name. For several weeks moving from inn to inn and shelter to shelter, claiming to be a young orphan who was an apprentice under a different woman each time. Feeling like she had nowhere to turn to and a growing rumble in her stomach, she was afraid. She also hears that the city believes that her father killed her and then himself. She knew she couldn't trust anyone in this city, and knew she had to get out. She realizes that her family is gone, and notices insert <other noble family from other side of city or neighboring city> starts taking over some of the duties her family was responsible for in town.
She connects the dots together, realizing that that family may be involved in her father's death, as he had won a recent election over them. Going off the only lead she has, her fear turns into ambition and thirst for revenge. She goes off to the area the other noble family is from, and comes across the answer to her problems.
She was only 14, but had still heard of how popular the business was. From the outside, you'd think this would be a palace. All types of men came to this place, and maybe the people here knew more of the other noble family that had a lot of power in this area. She was accepted by <owner of the "dancers"> almost immediately, and she quickly became his favorite. He showered her in clothes, robes, jewels, and wigs until her own hair grew back out.
She performed well, and many clients came just to see and be with her. She put on the act well, and learned many of their secrets. Sure, there were many normal traders, merchants, and travelers looking for a short escape from their lives; but there were also many thieves, slavers, smugglers and the like. However, not much had ever come up about the nobles. There was a hushed tone when you spoke of them. Not even her boss would say much on the subject. She had been there for so long and felt like she had wasted all her time trying to get information.
That was, however, until the night a young off-duty guard came in to see her. He began complaining about work at one point, realizing she may finally get some information on the family. Convincing him to keep drinking with her, he begins to spill (some type of secret of the family, not sure yet)
She begins to formulate a plan. Several nights after she sees the young guard, she is performing as usual. Her hearts stops when she sees a man come in, one of the men who killed her father. He begins to look straight at her. Trying to keep her cool and keep going, she sees her boss come up to the man and bring him into the back room.
As soon as it is her fellow dancer's turn, she runs back to try to listen in to their conversation. The man who killed her father offers a large sum of money to buy her
Knowing how much she makes this business, however, her boss pauses, then declines. Meeting her boss a while later in her dressing room, she decides to confront him
"I overheard you master, and I want you to take his offer. Take the cash and I will let him take me"
"But sweet Rose, I will make more than his offer if you stay. Besides, he will not treat you as well as I do.. who bought you those robes, those jewels, your hair? He won't treat you nearly as well. You'll make more money here as will I. He won't appreciate you like I do"
He tries to grab her waist and kiss her, and she shoves him off. He gets angry and grabs her by the throat, threatening her.
She grabs the pin from her hair, and stabs him in the neck. He lets her go and begins bleeding while falling to the ground.
Realizing how well he is known in the town, she grabs what she can and makes a run for the main section of the building. The man who killed her father is gone, but she knows he and others may soon be back looking for her. The guards may come looking after her for what she has done to her boss as well. Getting away as far as she can, she changes her appearance and makes up a new name and story for herself again. However, knowing what she knows now of the family, she knows she must travel somewhere because of the secret she learned. And from there runs into the party.
Overall goal: To kill the men that killed her father and possibly the leaders of the other noble family, as well as possibly find her mother.
Sam's last text:
Her mother was an elf who may have been rescued from slavery, her father being a human from a large merchant family. Mom suddenly disappears, dad is killed shortly after by man with tattoo on head. She runs out, hoping to find help, but overhears guards talking about finding her. She runs and is taken in by an older woman who runs an inn.
A month or so later, a man approaches the old woman calling him her "uncle" and that he knows what happened to her father. She wants to listen, but she has never seen this man before. She doesn't know, but this man was hired to kill her and is largely involved with whoever is hunting these families down. The thing is, he owns an incredibly large and successful brothel, and once he sees her, he realizes he can use her for his own gain. She "dances" for him for some time, becoming very popular and meeting many types of people. One night, she's with a man who is a soldier. She believes she recognizes him, but can't quite place him. He's higher up in the ranks and he paid a good amount to be seen specifically by her. She manages to swipe a few items off him, the only important one being a very tiny parchment with a list of names.
Several nights later she is performing for a large crowd, and sees the tattooed man come in and stare at her. She is filled with rage, but must keep performing to save face.
She then sees her pimp/"uncle" approach him and take him into a separate room. Once she is done and another dancer takes her place, she tries to follow, but sees her pimp uncle beaten.
He says that he can't lose her, she's his best girl, and that he loves her or some other gross shit. He tells her the man wants to buy her, but he won't let her go. She realizes she must follow this man to discover what exactly is going on, and insists she must go with the client. Her pimp grabs her and refuses to let her leave, and threatens that she is nothing without him. She ends up killing him with her needle.
Scared and knowing how much trouble she will be in for killing a very large man, she takes what she can and runs.
I may go with her being from selgaunt, and being from one of those families then.
Several nights later she is performing for a large crowd, and sees the t…
So essentially, goal is finding who killed her father and is trying to eliminate large merchant families, and finding out if her mother is still alive and involved in this in anyway. (Maybe trying to save these other merchant family member as well to the best of her ability)
And on top of that, making sure no one spots her as the dancer "Rose" who killed her pimp.
So I guess she'll have her real, noble merchant name, her dancer name "Rose". And she will tell the party her name is "Prim"
