The Loud Typhoon

When they began to pull the ships together we were preparing for an army of pirates board, not just one.

- Captain Gregory Duo, 92 A.G.

  Layton James Maystone was born and raised in the desert southeast of Great Eethill, the desert widely known as Aethos. There he was recruited to be a salvager at a young age, exploring dangerous alien ruins and retrieving as much technology and magic as he could find. For his eleventh birthday, his father gave him a flintlock pistol which he had stolen from an Aekminur tradesman. Young Layton would practice his shooting any chance he got, learning how to make his own *ammunition and gunpowder as his family was far too poor to purchase their own. In his teens, Layton would escape the Ard Salvage Company and move to the city of Seaview on the Requian Coast.   Unfortunately for Layton, his scrappy clothes and poor hygiene had given him an awful reputation in the city. At this point in time, the coast was in the golden age of piracy, and Layton's appearance had given the people of the coast paranoia, believing him to be a thief or mercenary. Though most gave him dirty looks and fearful glances, his story truly began when he was approached by a group of guardsmen. The captain of the troop stepped up to Layton and told him that they got a report of his hands taking something that didn't belong to him and that they had to search his person to make sure he wasn't guilty. While searching him, the captain found his flintlock and without a moment's notice had pulled it away from Layton. The deadly weapon and Layton's appearance had solidified his false identity as a mercenary and the captain had begun to arrest the poor boy.   As he was being arrested he yelled out to the captain asking him for a duel. If Layton won, he'd be let free with his and the captain's arms. If the Captain won, he wouldn't need to place a prisoner in an already overflowing dungeon. The captain was always eager to show off his skills to what he considered his soldiers and agreed to the conditions. They placed their backs together and began to walk away from each other until they were thirteen paces apart. Once they heard the boots of the other stay still, they began to count in their heads. One second, two seconds, three seconds, the count to ten felt like years to the duelers and the audience cowering behind solid cover. Six seconds, seven seconds, eight seconds, Layton's trigger finger was getting twitchy, and a drop of sweat falls across the captain's forehead and hits his eyebrow.   Ten seconds. The movement of the duelists was a blur as they turned to each other, both releasing their weapons from their holsters. Layton fumbled with its latch and the captain swung out too hard, now needing to readjust his aim. They both held their breaths as they eventually pulled their triggers, sparks fell out of the weapons' pans, and the small now molten lead bearings glided through the air. A bearing pierced one's heart while the other destroyed Layton's earlobe. The captain fell dead on the muddy road of Seaview's docks, making a splash that painted dots on the nearby walls. Everyone stood silently as they watched Layton slowly walk to the captain's corpse, having to forcefully remove the flintlock from the captain's fingers, he felt them slowly lose their warmth.   Layton's path of tyranny began there. He enjoyed the thrill of molten lead flying around him in a chaotic, nearly unpredictable pattern. He would then go on to duel many others, with each win he would take his opponent's pistol as a prize. He would carry each one he collected on holsters scattered around his attire so he may quickly pull one out when needed. Eventually, he was recruited as a bosun by a group of pirates. He became notorious for boarding enemy ships on his lonesome and with the speed of a slippery seal made of sea stone, rapidly drawing, firing, and holstering his pistols causing a hurricane of lead to scatter across the ship and land in the heads or hearts of his victims. He was capable of taking down entire crews within seconds.