If I don't make it back to town before night on the first quest, bogeymen rip me to shreds. :/ I wish there was the option to travel alone.
Most recently, I started as a peasant fully intending to die on the first quest and charged recklessly alone into a bandit camp, and killed everyone there by beating them with a silver short sword, no armor. Made it back to town, and got a random clothier and peasant to join my party. Many missions, battles, and deaths later, the three party members who survived were me, the clothier, and the peasant, and all of us became known as legendary heroes.
The peasant who came up from nothing would go on to slay two hill titans and a dragon with his strange band, covered in scars, missing a finger and a tooth. The clothier fought one handed, and the peasant had a permanently smashed foot. Eventually, was quested to travel halfway across the world and kill a zombie dragon. Got to the lair, and the dragon introduced itself and killed one of my party members. The weird thing is, I couldn't find it. I looked through the whole lair, all the surrounding terrain, and while the quest was still active, the beast simply vanished.
Disappointed, began wandering back towards civilization, deciding the fates were telling me to retire. Woke up to a goblin pikeman stabbing me in the brain.