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phael-the-trash-bin · 4 years

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Backstory: the Incident part 2

Warning: mentions of torture and character death

A meaty fist slammed against my face, waking me with a start. Oh gods, everything hurt so much. One of the guards started to unshackle me from the wall, and soon I was being dragged up the stairs to the top deck of the ship. “Where’s Jules?” I gasped, trying desperately to catch my breath. The guard wouldn’t answer, and I tried my hardest to squirm out of his grasp. The guard only gripped me tighter and forced me back to the office of Captain Nyx. I was shoved into a chair, my hands bound with rope once again, and Nyx came into the office, shaking his head at me.

“What am I going to do with you?” Nyx paced for a little bit before finally sitting at the desk.

“Where is Jules?” I demanded. Nyx raised an eyebrow.

“I don't exactly think you’re in a position to be asking questions,” He scoffed before folding his hands in front of him. “We will be sailing into Zonfranian waters tomorrow. You have one day to live if you continue to not cooperate with me. So I ask you, where will your ship go, what is your next smuggling shipment?”

I remembered what Jules had said about Nyx killing us no matter what we gave him, so I said only one thing: “Where. Is. Jules?”

Nyx sighed and got up from the desk, walking behind me and placing a hand on my shoulder. “Boy, believe it or not, I don’t get any pleasure from watching suffering, even of the likes of you.”

I scoffed. “Eat shit Nyx.”

“I ought to shoot the two of you here out on the sea and leave your bodies for your captain to find. But I find myself in the position of needing to make an example of you, by showing my people that actions have consequences.” Nyx gestured over to a guard who grabbed me roughly by my bound wrists and forced me up.

“Remember, one more day to cooperate.”

And with that, the guard whirled me around towards the exit and marched me back to the brig. A strong shove left me sprawled back in the confines of the brig cell, and as I lifted my head, I saw a silhouette of a sleeping figure in the cell next to mine. “Jules…” I breathed out. The figure lifted its head and I gasped at the sight before me. The entire left side of Jules’ face was filled with slashes looking like they came from a whip, and the same marks littered his chest and back. “Jules, what have they done to you?”

I crept as close to the metal bars separating us as I could, and Jules did the same until our foreheads were touching, nuzzling in the comfort of one another. “They said if I cooperated they would let you go, but I tried to tell them… look what they’ve already done, they should just kill us already. At least you’d be free of this,” Jules rambled on.

“At least we’re together,” I whispered. “At least we’ll always have each other.”

I don’t know how long we sat there, just savoring the heat of each other. Hours, maybe. It wasn’t until I turned around to try and reposition myself that I realized we may have hope after all. I scratched the palm of my hand after accidentally swiping it against a nail pointing diagonally out of the side of the ship, and realized that if it was sharp enough to scratch, it may be sharp enough to cut. I began rubbing the ropes binding my hands against the nail, and I prayed. Please let this work, please let this work.

After what felt like hours, I could feel the ropes start to loosen and give, until I was able to wriggle my hands out of the remaining rope. Wincing at the burns on my wrists, I turned to Jules and motioned to let me untie his rope. The ropes gave way after a great deal of effort on my part, and Jules began rubbing his sore wrists before reaching out and grabbing my hand. “Phäel , how are we going to get out of here? We’re unbound, but that doesn’t do much for us unless…” he trailed off, reaching to my head and plucking out a pin that had been holding my hair back. “Maybe we could use this to pick the locks!” Excitement crept into his whispers. And with that, he began to pick at the lock to his cell door.

After what seemed like an eternity, the lock to the door popped open and the cell door swung open with a quiet creak. Jules rushed out of his cell and immediately began working to open the door to my cell. Finally, we were both free! I grabbed his hand and motioned for him to follow me as we crept up the stairs of the brig. We were actually doing this, we were going to get out! I could feel Jules shivering from the night breeze, and gripped his hand tighter. Now we just had to find a lifeboat to escape on. We seemed to have lucked out, nobody was guarding the ship. Most of the navy men must have been asleep by now.

We snuck quietly along the deck, and almost made it to the lifeboat when a deep voice sent icy daggers of panic through my body.

“I’m disappointed to see you leaving so soon.”

It was Nyx.

I stood frozen in fear as Nyx raised his gun and pointed it directly at me. I couldn’t move. I felt Jules tugging on my arm but my feet stayed in place. Then everything seemed to move in slow motion. Nyx pulled the trigger and I closed my eyes, waiting for the impact. Waiting for death. But it never came. My eyes shot open as I felt a warm splattering of a sticky liquid hit my face and saw…

I saw…

Jules. No. No no no no no no no NO.

Jules’ eyes locked with mine before rolling back as his body crumpled to the floor.

Nyx reloaded his gun, but not before I let out a guttural scream and ran forward, slamming my body into Nyx and tackling him to the ground. I began punching as hard as I could, aiming for his nose, his eyes, anything. When Nyx seemed stunned enough to not react, I scampered back to Jules and began dragging his body to the lifeboat. I could hear Nyx calling for reinforcements, but all I could focus on untying the ropes holding the boat up. I could hear shots being fired as more navy men swarmed onto the top deck, but none of them hit their targets as the lifeboat began falling into the water.

I rowed for my life.

My arms were burning as I tried to escape. I saw in the distance the crew starting to arm one of the cannons, and I stopped trying to row. There was no point, there was no way we could escape, we…

We!

I turned and looked down desperately at Jules just in time to see him struggle to open his eyes. Thank Helm above he was alive!

“Jules, Jules, I’m here! It’s okay, we’ll get you to safety, you’ll be alright!”

Tears were streaming down Jules’ cheeks, mixing with the blood matting his hair and sticking along his face. Oh gods, there was so much blood. I held his head in my lap and grasped one of his trembling hands in my own. He weakly lifted his other hand to wipe away tears I hadn’t even noticed had started falling.

I lowered my head closer to his until our foreheads were touching, and I began to hear the sound of cannonballs crashing in the water around us. But I didn’t care. Because I was going to be with Jules forever after this. We would be okay, I tried to tell myself.

“Do you know my dear”, Jules sputtered, barely able to keep his eyes open. “I do believe I was a little in love with you”

And with that, he leaned forward and our lips met for only a second before his head fell back, eyes half open but lightless. He was gone, he was gone. But it was okay, I decided as I watched the cannonball soar closer and closer. I held Jules close to me and closed my eyes as I heard an ear splitting crack and felt a sharp pain, and then nothing.

Everything seemed to happen at once. I gasped for air, lungs heaving and trying to spit out the saltwater collected in them. I couldn’t open my eyes, all I could do was try to breathe. I felt bile coming up through my throat and I turned over just in time for my insides to start spewing out. As soon as I tried to move, I cried out in pain at the piercing sensation in my abdomen. I finally started to open my eyes only to find that I was alone. Alone but… alive. Oh no, please no no no no no no NO! I whirled my head around trying to find Jules, to see where he had gone, but he was nowhere to be seen. He was gone, he had left me behind. I began to scream. We were supposed to be together, we were supposed to go together, and he left me behind. I screamed and screamed until I felt like my throat would bleed any minute. Then I just layed there. On a piece of jagged driftwood. Alone.

A piece of wood from the shattered boat had embedded itself in my abdomen, and I couldn’t figure out how to remove it. I thought, maybe if I removed it I would bleed out faster... then I could see Jules again. I layed on my back and closed my eyes, the sun baking my skin as I waited for the inevitable, hoping, even, for the inevitable. But the inevitable never came.

Instead, I woke up in an infirmary. Except, it felt familiar. My eyes crept open only to find… I was on the scarlet spell. I was alive, on the ship. Maybe this all was a fever dream. I tried to sit up but the pain came from my abdomen again. I looked down to see blood seeping from a bandage wrapped around my stomach and chest. If that was real, then I was alive. Oh gods I was alive…. no, it wasn’t supposed to happen like this! I began to scream again, gasping for air as my lungs started to spasm. The familiar face of captain Daisi immediately came into view as she put her hands on the sides on my face and tried to calm me down but nothing would work. I couldn’t be alive, I shouldn’t be alive. “Where is Jules?!” I gasped, Daisi hanging her head for a moment. “No, no no no no, why did you save me, why couldn’t you have let me die?!” I was sobbing now, and Daisi leaned forward, wrapping her strong arms around me to try and steady my trembling form.

I cried and cried for what felt like hours, I shouldn’t have survived. I didn’t want to survive! I felt anger and betrayal and terror and so many emotions I couldn’t comprehend. Eventually the doctor on board forced a potion down my throat, and my eyes immediately felt heavy. Daisi let go of me and laid me back on the cot, my limbs felt too heavy to try to fight it. I drifted back off to darkness, praying, for the first time in a long time, for the strength to keep moving, even without him, even with the memories of what had happened. I prayed, and I slept. And I lived.

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phael-the-trash-bin · 4 years

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Phäel’s character backstory, as approved by our DM:

Phäel was born the second youngest of 7 children to a human mother, Francis Vermir, and an elven father, Gailier Neer, in the village of Hilthron in the northern region of Gadra. Phäel never got to know his father after he abandoned the family when Phäel was only 3. His mother suffered a breakdown when Gailier left, and was distant as the siblings grew up, finally leaving her children when the oldest, Mikhäl, turned 18, and Phäel was only 10. In a fit of anger over the loss of their mother and the strict ruling of their oldest sister, Phäel and his brother Larceir, who was the 4th child, ran away from their home and found themselves as wanderers along the open road. They survived by doing odd jobs in the many villages they visited.

When passing through the coastal village of Mothras one day, Phäel and Larceir were taken captive by a band of pirates and managed to bargain their lives for Larceir’s skills as a swordsman, which he had been teaching to Phäel. Seeing the potential in the 2 siblings, the ship’s captain Asari Daisi decided to keep them on board the ‘Scarlet Spell’ as powder monkeys with a promise of promotion if they could survive the year.

Phäel had a strong moral code from growing up in a religious household that Larceir had abandoned, and therefore did not approve of being a part of a pirate’s crew, but his loyalty to his brother and fear of being alone kept him aboard the ship. Soon after joining the pirate crew, Phäel met a human boy, Jules Ilyak, who would become his best friend. Jules was also a powder monkey, although with much more experience, and was given the task of showing the half elf brothers the ropes around the ship. Taking an immediate liking to Phäel , the two after only a couple of weeks became inseparable. After Phäel’s first year on the ship, he was promoted to artilleryman along with his brother.

Although tempted many times to abandon the ‘Scarlet Spell’, Phäel one day witnessed the execution of a man who had attempted to leave during a raid, and a fear of Captain Daisi was instilled in him that would never leave him and would ultimately keep him on the ship for the next 10 years of his life.

Under Jules’ suggestion, Daisi began to give Phäel private sword fighting lessons in hopes of developing his skills. Larceir, who had originally taught Phäel how to fight, did not receive the same special treatment by the captain and grew jealous of his brother and his skills, although he was careful not to show his growing resentment. That same year, Larceir was promoted to gunner on the ship.

On a chilly fall day when Phäel was 16, the ‘Scarlet Spell’ was intercepted by a Zofranian Royal Naval ship, and a battle between the two ships commenced. Phäel, who was attempting to help Jules fight off the Royal Navymen trying to board the ship, was captured along with Jules and taken prisoner. Captain Nyx of the Zofranian Navy tortured the two boys for information on a smuggling ring taking supplies out of Zofrana, but the boys couldn’t tell Nyx anything because they didn’t know any information. Nyx, in torturing Phäel, made a deep gash along his face that would create a long jagged scar marking Phäel for the rest of his life. Nyx told the boys that they would be docking in Zofrana within the next day and that they would be hung for their crimes. The night after having the brand of piracy burned onto his chest, just before arriving in Zofrana, Phäel managed to pick the lock on his and Jules’ cells, making their escape into the night. Nyx caught them however, and tried to shoot Phäel, but not before Jules jumped in the way, taking a bullet to the head and saving his best friend. Phäel grabbed Jules’ body and managed to cut a lifeboat loose and escape from the ship. Phäel held Jules as he was dying, and Jules managed to stay alive long enough to tell Phäel that he loved him, then died in Phäel’s arms. The Zofranian ship shot down the lifeboat, knocking Phäel unconscious. When he woke up, Jules’ body was gone and Phäel was floating upon a splintered piece of driftwood. After floating for about 2 days, he was picked back up by the ‘Scarlet Spell’ by complete coincidence, starving and dehydrated, but very much alive.

Larceir was secretly bitter that his brother had survived, and began ignoring him on the ship, which Phäel noticed amidst the trauma of the incident aboard the Zofranian ship. A couple of months later, Phäel was made a junior officer while Larceir is already boatswain of the ship. Phäel has nightmares almost every night about what Nyx had done, and Daisi takes pity on him and teaches him how to control his emotions and channel those into his fighting. Phäel feels for the first time that he has something akin to a motherly figure.

One unsuspecting day after the grueling years progressing through the ranks, Phäel was conducting his crewmates as boatswain of the ship when his brother, who had taken the role of quartermaster, announced that the captain had fallen ill and that he would be in charge of the ship until her recovery.

Phäel had his concerns that his brother was not fit to be in the captain’s position because of the changes he had seen since they were kids. Larceir was no longer the loving brother he once had, but now felt cruel, with no regard for other lives. He had no idea if the life as a pirate or the contained anger he had since he was young was the culprit, but Phäel had a feeling things were about to take a turn for the worse with his brother in charge. If only he wasn’t such a coward, Phäel thought, he would escape on the next trip to shore. If only it were so easy.

Normally sailing courses were voted on as a crew, but as Phäel awoke one morning, he found the ship sailing unannounced to the coastal village of Wrunstead, cannons at the ready, and he realized with horror what his brother was about to do. Wrunstead had been the village that their mother grew up in, and Larceir had come to take his revenge on their absent mother. As the ship docked in the harbor, Larceir came to his Phäel and handed him his sword, slender and sharp. “Take this and fight with me, help me destroyed them the way she destroyed what we could have been.”

Phäel was hit with an unusual stroke of bravery and decided that he couldn’t let this happen, and as the crew swam to shore, Phäel broke off and hurried to help the citizens of the village who were trying to escape. Then he realized as he saw a group of children escaping a small building that the village had an orphanage, and knew he had to help them. There was no way he would allow his brother to harm children.

As Phäel hurried the children out of the building, he could hear a cannonball hit the floor above and began to feel the heat on his skin: the floor above had caught on fire. Panicked, he ran up the stairs and searched for any children that may have been left behind when a fiery beam fell on top of Phäel, rendering him unconscious.

A bright light hit Phäel’s eyes as he opened them slowly and saw a bright, glowing, many-winged figure floating in front of him, telling him that he had already begun to see his purpose, that he must be a protector to those who cannot protect themselves.

Phäel woke up in a daze in a medical center of the now singed and burning village of Wrunstead, which had managed to fight off the band of pirates. Still in shock from the fire, Phäel had lifted his left arm to run it through his hair, when he realised that he had no left arm, only a stump ending just above where his elbow had been. The lead healer told Phäel that his arm had been caught under a pile of wood and rubble and had to be amputated in order for the rest of him to escape the fire. Phäel was thanked by the village leader but was generally mistrusted by a majority of the village’s citizens because of his status as a once-pirate. He stayed in the village during his recovery from his injuries, and while staying there discovered a temple dedicated to the same god of the religion he grew up learning about and practicing, Helm. Here he was able to reconnect with parts of his old life and rekindle the faith that had been wavering during his years upon the sea. In this temple he swore his oath of devotion to Helm, and promised to become the protector that the world needed.

Once fully recovered Phäel set off on the road again, truly alone for the first time in his life, but also for the first time with a purpose: finding the mysterious glowing entity that had appeared before him and told him of his destiny. With his dominant arm still intact, Phäel began to start offering his services as a swordsman for hire to protect shipments travelling from port to port. In these ports he would ask around about any religious orders that worshiped a multi-winged being. Phäel found that port taverns were excellent places to find out secrets, so he hung around many a tavern out of hopes of finding out any information he could. On one special occasion in the city of Arkalai in eastern Penrith, he found more than just information, he found a friend.

The tiny gnome had approached him and offered to buy him a drink. Suspicious, Phäel accepted and took a seat next to the gnome, who’s name he found out to be Nima Nungel. Nima was a tinkerer who specialized in electric mechanics, and told Phäel that she could make him an arm to replace the one he had lost. Phäel knew nothing comes for free, so he asked what her price would be, and Nima responded that she needed help on a hunt. She had heard from some of the sailors Phäel had just been working with about his exceptional skills as a swordsman, and wanted his help with hunting a rogue giant which had been terrorizing the smaller towns around Arkalai. Phäel accepted her offer, wanting to help the town but worried also about the type of tinkerer Nima was. He had heard about the dangers of trying to harness electricity, and, although Nima seemed like a genuinely nice person, he wasn’t sure about her practices. However, he was even more unsure about whether he could live the rest of his life as a paladin without his arm.

They set off for the hunt, and Phäel, for the first time in a long time, felt the comfort of having something like a friend. Nima was enjoyable to be around, and after 3 days of travel around woods and forests, they were able to find and slay the giant. True to her word, Nima started immediately to work on the mechanical arm. Phäel decided to stay in town for a week or so while Nima worked, and took up a few odd jobs on the docks to try to earn some gold to be able to pay Nima back, although she had insisted that his help on the hunt had been enough.

When the arm was completed, Phäel was shocked at the complexity of the whirling gears and intricate pieces that he could control just by moving the muscles in the top of his arm the slightest bit. Small bits of stretched metal wired their way throughout the curving edges of the forearm and, although he couldn’t quite understand it, the arm worked perfectly. Phäel, out of his thankfulness, tried to give Nima the gold pieces he had earned, but Nima told him to use the money to buy some proper armor instead to hide the arm, not wanting Phäel to be attacked by those who did not trust that sort of technology. With hopes of seeing each other again some day, Phäel and Nima went their separate ways, and Phäel continued on his journey to search for the creature of his vision.

While in the port of Uasha in Southern Raclax, he heard of worshippers of a similar entity to the one from his vision with a small tribe in a forest area just north of a place called the Invisible Tides in Zofrana. Phäel felt hesitation going back to Zofranian waters, but knew he couldn’t avoid an entire country because of one person. He secured passage on a cargo ship, offering protective services, and set off to find this religious band. Phäel heard from some of the sailors he was sailing with that there was a festival taking place on the day they would be docking into the Invisible Tides, so he decided he would stay in town for a day or two to enjoy the festivities before setting off.

And thus began the adventure....

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