Tides of Death: Episode 00

__NOTOC__
==Recap: Nilrem Backstory==
Nilrem was born in the town Langoon, in one of the inner Island rings. When he was 12 years old, a Grand Inquisitor came to Ragoon, looking for spellcasters. After all the children between 12 and 18 are gathered, the inquisitor takes notice of Nilrem. Nilrem is confused, the inquisitor asks him about his magic potential. Nilrem is lead to a carriage by an entourage of the inquisitor.
They arrive on a Grand Inquisitor's ship where they give him an aptitude test. He scores incredibly well. The cleric brings out small statues of gods and asks Nilrem to pick one. He picks , cleric is upset. Cleric argues with him and shows him a statue of . Nilrem doesn't sway in his choice.
The Grand Inquisitor tells Nilrem they will bring him to his parents to spend more time there. He tells them what happened, and the parents are distressed. That night, they pack bags for him. His dad tells him that uncle will wait for him on the docks tonight and take him somewhere safe. Nilrem avoids guards by going through the sewers. On docks, he avoids another guardsman and meets uncle Tomman. He tells him it will take a month to leave Dardens and they will head west. Nilrem is left below deck with smuggling goods.
Tomman introduces Nilrem to his crew, and they set him to work.
===7 years on ship===
Over the next 7 years, Tomman's crew teaches him many skills. He takes interest in cartography. At 16, the first mate Cassey teaches him how to use a knife.
Nilrem figures out that his uncle is involved in some shady business.
His first close call with death is when uncle Tomman threw him into the sea to teach him how to swim. Unable to swim, he sinks deep into the ocean and manages to gather enough magic to create an air bubble for him. While he stuck under the water, he finds the source of air bubbles, and there is a singular golden coin. Cassey grabs him by the collar and swims him to the surface. He recognizes this gold coin is of Arcadian make. Nilrem shows it to Cassey, telling her where he found it. They spend the rest of the day searching the area and find a pouch of gold, but don't know what causes air bubbles.
Nilrem devises a way for people to catch another breath while in the ocean. They find a magic Ring of Waterbreathing. The crew asks Nilrem how he survived under the water for so long, he says he made an air bubble from other bubbles. The crew dismisses him, but uncle Tomman takes notice. He tells Nilrem they should leave him at Hillsborough to learn magic. Nilrem agrees.
He says goodbye to the crew, Cassey gifts him her dagger. In Hillsborough, he looks for a wizard's tower and quickly finds one. Wizard demands 500 a month for tuition. Nilrem returns to the docks, the ship is reseating in the distance, the docks have been cleared. There are 3 dead bodies, Cassey and 2 guardsmen. He says he knows Cassey and guards apprehend him. The wizard whose tower he visited, demands they release his apprentice. The wizard, , pulls him to his tower where he signs a contract of 15 year-long apprenticeships.
===Apprenticeship===
Marlin teaches Nilrem how to read in 6 months, teaches him the history of mages. Merlin says he is the only dimensionalist of note in Arcadia and teaches Nilrem a few easy spells. The wizard keeps Nilrems spellbook locked away so he doesn't run away, keeping him bound.
During the study, Nilrem comes over a paragraph about the Fountain of Youth. He is immediately interested and pours through the book. During the Age of Mist and Age of Heroes, some people lived for 500  years despite being human. During the Age of Might, a word of Fountain of Youth started gathering. After 200 years, there are not mentions but a few notes made.
When Merlin goes out in his sparrow form, Nilrem looks for a way to escape. He casts and finds a box in Merlin's bedroom, a wooden chest that is radiating strong magic. He looks for the key for the next month, notices 3 keys on Merlin's neck he never uses. Nilrem is certain Merlin has a secret room in the tower, that leaves 2 unidentified keys.
Sometimes, Merlin creates a portal and vanishes. Nilrem notices this window of opportunity and searches the tower. There is something on the ground floor that isn't what it appears to be. Nilrem searches the library and reads about Drexl the Bloodthirsty, a person who found a way to prolong his life without a fountain of youth, and it cost him his soul. He notices that post lichdom - Drexl shifted his motivations, he's given a certain amount of control to another person. Nilrem also reads about vampirism and other forms of life-extending.
About a year and a half, while he is picking up pearls for Merlin, Nilrem meets a bard that just got off of a ship from the Dardens. A bard sings about a wild island in the Dardens with a Fountain of Youth in the heart of it. He claims to have seen the fountain, and it's guarded by the giant lizard. Nilrem talks to the bard, but the bard doesn't know where exactly the island was.
Back in the tower, Nilrem tries to open the chest with a chisel, doesn't succeed, but manages to crack open the box that keeps his spellbook. Nirem runs away to Redport and meets the Captain John Winters.
==Recap: Saol Backstory==
Saol was in his early twenties when he arrived in Dardens with his brother. His brother had a dream of being a famous and successful ship captain, and Saol followed him. They stumble into the lawless part of Dardens. In the morning, they wake up with a sword to their throat. They had no possessions, but their captors couldn't let them go. Saol promises to get them some gold as ransom if they take them to Arcadia. They believe him, if he manages to get the money in 3 months, they will ransom his brother for 1000 gold, the price goes up 50% every 6 months. If any of this gets out to The White Prince, his brother will be dead.
One of the kidnappers, Nina, takes him to a different ship to Arcadia. Saol is agreeable and gets along well with Nina. She arms him with a rapier and they spar. At the end of the trip, Nina gifts him the rapier and leaves him on the dock.
The journey back is straightforward. He tells his family that was captured and he managed to escape. The father is mad he abandoned his brother and spars with him, teaches him the basics of handling a spear. His father was a veteran of the Hemdorkas Incursion.
===Demon Invasion===
A couple of years pass. Not long after Saol arrives, Kingdom or Eridon falls apart. When his father and siblings go to Anvil, it gets destroyed, demons have overtaken a city, along with the southern part of Eridon. Saol searches for a way to get him and his mother out of there. He heads to Clydesdale to meet the rest of his family. They accept his mother and will find her a job, but don't want anything to do with him. He begs them for a job, luckily, the head butler likes the position of power and he hires him as a water carrier.
Saol hates his job here. One night, he hears his mother sobbing about Bail. She begs him to find the brother. He promises her he will and leaves. He gets an apprenticeship with a local mortician because of the large influx of wounded. Saol gets loaned out to the barber. By the time daemons stop coming rapidly from Heatstroke, Saol is a capable healer.
Months go by, the time has taken a toll on his mother. He decides to steal some money in order to get his brother back. At one point, he gets 100 gold to pay for some materials, hires some thieves to stage his own death with a body from the morgue that looks like him, and Saol slips away with 40 gold and gets on a ship with John Winters.
===Escape from Eridon===
3 weeks into the voyage, the ship splits apart and sinks deep into the ocean. Saol dies.
He regains consciousness deep underwater. A pair of eyes appear in the darkness. He is able to breathe. Eyes, , tell him he is dead and they will save him. They need an agent in the waters above to enact their will, and Saol needs help to rescue his brother. A hand comes out of the darkness and reaches out to him and they shake hands.
Rho-ei tells him they will grant him near-limitless powers which he can use as he wishes. In exchange, Saol needs to take a few oaths:
* To disrupt the White Prince's activities everywhere. White Prince must be stopped.
* To never reveal who Rho-ei is to anyone: the name, the form, the interaction.
When he casts spells, he must call onto Rho-ei, he must have the symbol of Rho-ei, sand. If Saol fails to disrupt the White Prince, they will drown him. From time to time, they will call him and direct him to a specific path to be done. If he does well, he will be redirected to Beol. Rho-ei will find companions for him and they will wash up on the shore with him. When those companions notice Saol is lying, he will tell them he is the heir of the true ruler of this world.
When the Empire of the White Prince is no more, Rho-ei will have no more use for him. He drifts upwards and loses consciousness once more.
Saol goes unconscious, wakes up on the beach recognises John Winters, the first mate Archie, and one of the other passengers on the ship. He wakes up knowing omen-reading and starts omen-reading by spilling the sand and reads something is coming for him.
==Recap: John Winters and Archie B. Alder Backstory==
===John Winters===
John left home at a young age, he stumbled over Redport. It was the first time he saw a large walled city, the first time seeing the ocean. Guards let him in, John steals some food and spends a few days in Redport. From the roof of the building he was resting on, he sees a large ship and is immediately captivated. He starts sneaking around the sailors from that ship.
He approaches the Captain of the ship and offers to work for him. After inspecting John, Captain Greg decides that John will be working as a kitchen boy, and they go aboard The Sea Wench, and they sail out the harbor. In the kitchen, he works with Lady Six with six fingers.
On to voyage to Krublin and Tal'Ushar, Lady Six and John get along well. While the sailors leave to explore Tal'Ushar, John and Bones stay to watch the ship. Bones pours himself and John some rum. As time passes, Bones falls asleep in the drunker stupor. At that time, a bunch of kids throws a ball onto the ship. He takes their ball but notices 2 of the group are missing. John pulls that gangplank onto the ship, takes Bones's rapier, and threatens the kids while they are picking a lock to Captain's chambers. The kid tells him to keep an eye out. John is confused about what to do, the kid opens the door and takes a bag of gold, giving John 2 gold, and leaves before he can react.
John wakes Bones up. Bones catches the thieves, grabs the stolen goods and kids jump into the water. Bones spins a different tale about the happenings on the ship. When the sailors and Captain return, John gives the captain the gold pouch with missing coins and says he caught the thieves red-handed. The Captain brings John in and counts the coins, sees they are 2 short. John plays dumb and suggests they fell out when Bones took the bag from the thieves. Captain tells John to fetch Bones.
John tries to put gold into his pocket but doesn't succeed. The Captain talks to them, John still pretends he didn't take the coins. Since they are 2 coins down and Bones failed to defend the ship, it will be taken from Bones’ pay, and he gets flagellated by the crew, including John. Bones thinks John stole the coins but says nothing.
===Archie B. Alder===
Archie was separated from his parents at a young age, he has hazy memories of his family or what transpired. He was alone in Clydesdale, looking for scraps, when a young woman, Amber, offers him biscuits and takes him in. Amber offers him to be an assistant in exchange for food and a place to stay. She has a plan to make a lot of money, to rob the noble family by breaking a hole in the wall on the staircase that separates the noble house and the slump she lives in. They need to do it quietly and slowly enough so that nobody notices, and promises Archie 30% of the share.
With Archies help, she robs some people in the tavern. He runs away from the tavern and Amber makes more biscuits. after a couple of days, they've made a large enough hole to crawl through.
She needs him to intimidate anyone that comes their way and gives him a sword. They crawl into the house, Amber seems strangely familiar with the place. They enter a room, takes a locked box, and start picking the lock. They hear footsteps upstairs, Amber sends him there to intimidate the person, and when she is done she will give him a sign it's time to go. Archie threatens the man of the house, the man throws the candle at him and runs. Nobleman approaches the window and calls for the guards. Archie runs after him, attacks him but misses. The door downstairs is busted open, Amber hasn't called for him yet, and he is quickly outnumbered by guards.
Amber has left long before the guards came. Archie is questioned, he says nothing. Amber doesn't come for him. A few days pass, and he is taken to a judge. The punishment would be his hand, but he is young and the judge takes pity on him. He gets sentenced to a lifetime of indentured servitude to the family they stole from, Rone. His first job is to brick up the entire entrance from downstairs. Archie accepts his faith.
The Rone family is not happy with him. 2 years later, he is introduced to and handed to the man who brings Archie to work as a rower in a boat, and his pay will be sent to Rone family.
===Meeting===
After a mutiny on The Sea Wench, John leaves before things become too bloody. Archie worked his way up from rower to sailor. John is hired and brought aboard. John and Archie meet, exchange a short conversation. Archie is not very interested in talking, while John gets along well with the crew. John learns Archie is indentured for 53 years. John talks to him about it, Archie says he got fucked over. John tells a tale about how he stole a potion from a mage in Shirebrook and drank some dwarves under the table. The sailors don't believe him but are amused.
===A year passes===
Archie and John clean the deck together and talk for a bit. John asks about his predicament again. Archie seems satisfied with a purpose, but he made a mistake and he needs to pay for it. He tells John he wronged a noble family. John sees smoke in Shirebrook. Archie notifies the captain, they stop and float closer to Shirebrook. It is charred and ruined remains of the town they visited before. They head towards Redport instead.
John invites Archie for a drink in Report, tells him the tale of his first encounter with a ship. Archie notices Lord Rone in Redport. Lord Rone doesn't recognise him. John notices and finds where the Lord Rone is staying. John sees they are playing cards, he buys the same deck in town. He tells Archie, and John tries to find a way to release Archie from his sentence. Archie has nothing to lose and accepts.
John cleans himself up and tries to get let in The Golden Pillowcove. He doesn't manage to cheat the guard but pays him to get in. He walks over to the table of Lord Rone, introduces as John Winters, and offers a game of poker. John says he is a merchant and offers his shipment of Cinnamon and Nutmeg and convinces Lord Rone to trade Archie's servitude. They play a game, John checks the reflection of the cards in the coffee mug while he deals them and manages to win. Lorn Rone gets the servant to get Archie's contract. Archie slaps him in the face because he left his sight and thanks to him. They spend the rest of the day dealing with bureaucracy.
John notifies the Captain of the news, gets the papers of his ownership, and gives them to Archie. Archie rips them. 
Archie is overwhelmed, despite the contract being torn, he is indentured to John. They decide to leave this ship and find a new one together. John goes to notify the captain.  The Captain has a problem and needs Archie. He caught a brigand sneaking on his ship and needs Archie to get the brigand to talk and offers him a few silver. John nods to Archie, a few silver is a few silver. Archie tortures the guy into talking, he was hired to get on this boat looking for a bag with the magical item. They get paid and leave the ship.
Category:Tides of Death Episodes