Your people are past the peak of their prime. Social & economical decay has begun to set in. The government seems to have become self-perpetuating and careless to the people's needs. Previously common civil liberties and services are disappearing.
Well-to-Do: These are the upper end of the middle or merchant class in Barbarian and Civilized cultures. They typically own larger homes, have a household servant (a cook and/or a maid), have private transportation, and sometimes travel abroad.
Get out of jail free. A magnanimous ruler pardons all prisoners. If the character, or his friends or relatives are in prison, they are set free with an admonition to "Sin no more."
While foraging or hunting for food, you have an encounter with a trapped predatory beast. Instead of slaying it, you free it. The freed beast disappears. Later, you are trapped by a falling log. The same beast reappears, aiding and freeing you.
Faction. A factional enemy could be a religous order, a merchants guild, an order of assasins, or an order of holy knights. It is a enemy that may have agents and spies taht act of their behalf. Could be on the run, part of a rival faction, or want to join