The Story of Red Beard

[Red Beard]

Nollaig Quin was born on the Spanish controlled Canary Islands just off the west coast of Africa. His Irish father was "contracted" by the Spanish government to outfit and repair the Spanish Fleet as they deemed necessary due to his superior knowledge of the most up-to-date rigging techniques and repair methods known at the time. I use the word "contracted" loosely because it was more or less slave labor with a bit more pay to ensure the work was not sabotaged. His mother died shortly after birth due to unknown complications.

Just after Nollaig's third birthday, his father was forced to sail with the Spanish fleets to help quickly repair the damaged ships from their invasion fleets in the Caribbean. Nollaig was left to be attended by his nanny who was a practicing Vodouisant of the highest order. Though poor and a slave to the Spanish aristocrats of the Canary Islands, she looked after and raised Nollaig like he was her own, teaching him the ways of the old Fon-Ewes peoples of West Africa. A few years later, word reached the Island chain that an indescribable force of undead pirate hoards had descended on the Spanish Fleet and annihilated it, turning them all into undead servants of the infamous pirate Jolly Roger.

Nollaig vowed to not only to find and set his father's soul free, but to also hunt down this Jolly Roger and send him to the depths of the ocean for good. In order to do this his nanny knew she not only had to instruct him on the light of voodoo, but the dark and forbidden as well. On Nollaig's seventeenth birthday, he was deemed proficient in the voodoo arts and set off on his quest to avenge his fathers enslavement to the undead.

Nollaig and a small band of mercenaries set sail for the Caribbean with orders to meet his nanny's protege Tia Dalma and await further instruction for their encounter with the undead pirate and his minions. Upon entering the waters of the Caribbean, Jolly Roger and his undead hoards were laying in wait and ambushed the unprepared mercenaries, demolishing all and leaving no one to spare. Nollaig awoke, washed up on the shores of Cuba, realizing that he had lost everything. Yet he was sparred somehow, and knew that if he was to continue with his quest he would have to have no identity, so that not even death could find him. Having no name the natives of Cuba referred to him by his one and only identifying trait, "Red Beard".

After a few months of living off of the swamp alligators and sand crabs of Cuba, Red Beard had the fortunate luck of running into a scouting crew of pirates led by Cougar Bladerage. After a few hours of talking, Cougar thought it would be best if Red Beard met with the pirate named Jason Firewalker, who happened to be the leader of the prominent guild known as The Dark Archive, to discuss his situation. After careful consideration Jason Firewalker decided to offer Red Beard a permanent home and a substantial living in exchange for his expertise in the voodoo arts. As for Red Beard's father and Jolly Roger...the search continues.