Gurglot Evarell
My
mother, Marka Evarell was a human explorer traveling with a group of svirfneblin
on an expedition to repair the ruined city of Blingdenstone
The
tiny fishing village never felt like home to me, and everyone seemed to mock me
because of my appearance. Even my mother
gave the impression that she resented me (years later, I stumbled across Jarsif
in The Big Fat Knucklehead tavern and he related the details of my birth that
my mother had never told me). As soon as
I was old enough, I settled in the much larger city of Easthaven
One
night I found myself at The Big Fat Knucklehead when two sailors suddenly burst
through the tavern doors. They were in
the middle of a “friendly” brawl that ended when one man clocked the other and
he ended up sprawled at my feet. I
helped him up and soon learned that his name was Malador and he was first mate
to the man who had just dealt him the “fatal” blow, Captain Derrick Gaftner.
The
three of us closed down the tavern and I ended the night by signing on to
Derrick’s crew on The Singing Siren. Until then I had gotten by mending nets, but
I had always longed to trod the boards of a sailing ship.
Malador
and I became fast friends and at first Captain Gaftner seemed firm but fair, if
a little hotheaded, but that was to slowly change. Malador taught me so much about the sea and seafaring;
he also told me he was a devout follower of Umberlee. He wore a medallion with
two crashing waves: The symbol of
Umberlee around his neck. Many times, over the years he had been at death’s
door and had prayed to Umberlee and she saved him. There was a certain barbarian gnome who had
set his hair on fire, peed in his mouth and left him for dead on the deck of a
burning ship. Once again he had reached
out to the B*#ch Queen of the Sea (even her most devout followers call her
this. In fact, she almost expects to be
addressed this way) and was saved.
There
had always been a rivalry between the towns of Caer – Dineval and Caer –
Konig. Captain Gaftner called Caer –
Dineval his home; so it’s no surprise that when the fishermen of Easthaven and Caer
– Konig seemed to team up to drain the lac of it’s main source, the
Knucklehead trout, the Captain decided we would stage raids on the two cities
biggest ships. At first I got a kick out
of sticking it to my former home town, but soon we started raiding ships from
all three towns. The final straw came
when Gaftner commissioned a battering ram for the prow of the ship and changed its
name to The Howling Fiend.
We
would use the ram on any ship we set our sights on no matter where it came
from. We had officially become a pirate
ship.
The
mood on the ship completely changed after that and I would probably have left
on my own even without what happened next.
I was high up on the riggings trying to secure a line when the wind blew
the line (and the sail it was attached to) out into the middle of the lac. I lost my balance and fell all the way to the
deck, hitting my head hard. I looked up
and saw Gaftner standing over me. I
raised my hand hoping he would help me to my feet, but instead he grabbed me
and shoved me into a barrel. Before I knew
it he was hammering the lid shut. He
threw the barrel overboard.
I descended
deeper and deeper into the darkness.
I
called out to Umberlee.
When
I woke up I was in sumptuous bedroom. A
tapestry with those same crashing waves was draped from the ceiling. Malador was standing by my bed. He told me these were now my quarters at the Temple of Umberlee
Today
even after all this time I’m still uncomfortable with tight spaces but I’m
finally ready to go out into the world.
My training is done and I will soon take my oath as a Paladin of
Umberlee.
