"Your story is much like mine."

The speaker is a tall, somewhat skinny, young male Oeridian wizard
of little experience, and several drinks. This last is to be blamed
on the rumor sweeping the city of of a "zone of innocence" discovered
in the Greyhawk ruins. Just what that actually meant varies with the
speaker, but many of the young and ambitious deem it to mean they
have a chance to get rich. And of course, they do not feel it is
necessary to actually get these riches before spending them, nor to
deny their new-found friends, their life story.

"Like you, I had adventuring parents who never came back from an
adventure. From what I am told, their biggest success led to their
great disaster. They managed to rescue one of the great men of the
City, and as a reward, he included them in an expedition that could
have set them up for life.
"Nobody knows just what went wrong. The few survivors came back
much later babbling about a great fire, but too confused to say what
role it played, much less if my parents perished in it. But that was
the last anybody heard of them, all too long ago.
"And like you, I discovered the life of the orphan can be harsh.
I did have a roof over my head, but I and my siblings became slaves
as a result.
"I know. I know. There are no slaves in the city. Suffice it to
say, there are loopholes in that law, at least when one's so-called
guardian is a powerful wizardess with connections to the powerful,
and one is an orphan without 2 copper to rub together. I talk with
those who claim to know the law, and they say I will need to pay a so-
called "debt" to her if I am to get free.
"She has not been a kind mistress. I grant her that she did
encourage me to study hard at magic, in order to be a more useful
slave of course, but this brand on my foot came from her orders.
"This rumor may be the only way I can free myself, and my brother
and sister. I will be investigating it as soon as I can."