Willis

Willis hails from Germany, and was raised in Old Berlin sometime in the 16th century. He was raised almost entirely by his mother, with his father making his family’s living as an eminent explorer, spending long stretches abroad in the highlands to map them and catalog their various features. Despite his absence, young Willis was impressed upon with the value and necessity of documenting observations and experiences by his father’s vocation. To this day, he keeps a satchel with a small leatherbound journal on him at all times.

In addition to this, he carries another book which was given to him by his father during one of his rare furloughs at home. Written in a language that neither could read or decipher, he keeps it both as a memento of his erstwhile father, who nonetheless was a positive influence on his young life, and in the hopes of one day finding a scholar who can translate the volume for him.

When he came of working age, he was hired at a local tavern, where he worked loyally and laboriously for many years. One day, the owner announced his retirement, and due to the young man’s tireless and reliable employment, he granted the ownership of the place to Willis. With his newfound fortune, he finally had the means to propose to his sweetheart, a lovely French noblewoman whom he loved truly and dearly. They were married soon thereafter, and there he remained, keeping the place as prosperous as his predecessor, sometimes more so.

However, aged as his tavern was, and due to the location in which it found itself during a time of political unrest, it soon became a secret haven for revolutionaries and other shady characters, which ultimately drew the attention of law enforcement. When he became aware of this, he was not shy or quiet about chasing these characters from his establishment. He was committed to keeping it legitimate and upstanding, and wholly outside of the current conflict, which he considered silly and wasteful, practical as he was. This, of course, made him some very disgruntled enemies.

They exacted their vengeance on a cool and clear night in high summer, right at his closing hour. A large gang of thugs, working for the neighborhood’s tax collector, broke in noisily and ignored his protestations that he was no longer serving for the evening, and they subdued and beat him senseless. As such, he was not conscious to bear witness to his wife coming down from upstairs and screaming in horror at what they were doing, and thereafter being shoved back up into her bedroom and barricaded in, as the ruffians set fire to the building. She was unable to escape before she was overcome by the smoke, and perished in the blaze.

Meanwhile, Willis was hauled, still unconscious, onto a rowboat, and two of the thugs rowed some ways out to sea, while one wrote a very nasty letter in the back of his journal. Completing the missive, he stuffed the journal back into his satchel, leaving the mysterious book there as well, and unceremoniously dumped him and his bookbag into the ocean.

He drifted for a time he knew not how long, nor did he reckon how he stayed afloat to survive to the morning, and was borne by mysterious currents to the shores of the Isla de Oro. Iron Chest Johnson was the first to happen upon his limp and pitiful form lying on the beach, and he heaved the lad into his eponymous chest and comported him to Thatch’s Tavern, where Yarrbot nursed him carefully back to health. When he woke, he began raving that he needed to find his wife, and was long in calming down long enough to explain to the Council whence he came, and the events that led to his marooning on the Isle. Upon learning that he was among pirates, he took it as good fortune, and agreed to serve alongside them and learn the ways of skallywaggery.

Soon, Captain Camz granted him a place in the crew of the Quacken’s Wrath, and he remains faithful to this day, growing his skills and patiently awaiting the day that he can exact revenge upon the taxmen who brutally assaulted him, and reunite with his wife, unknowing as he is. His journal is filled to the brim with notes on everything he has learned since arriving at the Isle, and he can often be seen carefully reading the note left for him in the back of it, though he will not share its contents with any, no matter how they ask or demand. But he also considers it good fortune that he was welcomed aboard the ship helmed by the Isle’s resident scholar, and awaits his chance to show to his Captain the other book he carries at all times, in hopes that the learned sage might know something of its origins, or what it says within.

* Isla de Oro Wiki
* The Island
* The Town
* The Council of Bones
* The Fleet
* The Captains
* The Officers
* The Nightwatch
* NPCs
* The Library
* The Hall of Legends