Editing Dark Tides:PlayerCharacters (section)

===Background===
I was born in Argyll on the west coast of Scotland. My father Calder is an alchemist and a man of letters. We moved to the Colonies because my mother Elsbeth came under a cloud (suspicion of witchcraft) and it was getting bad enough we feared she would be hanged by a mob.

We could have paid for passage , barely: but Father wanted to bring his alchemy gear and his books. We had to make a deal with the Spanish merchant who owned the ship. The four of us: Father, Mother, sister Fiona and myself, became his indentured servants for three years. In return he shipped us over to New Orleans with all our gear and gave us a small shop for Father's alchemical gear once we arrived.

He was a hot-tempered, vindictive man who beat all of us, sometimes when he was angry with somebody else he couldn't get at. His favored punishment for the sailors was a big wooden box he kept on deck; just large enough that a man could get into it If he knelt. The Master would deal with minor offenses by locking a sailor into the box. Sometimes for half a day. More often a full day or even two days running.
Father and I endured this punishment a dozen or so times a year each, for the three years of our service. About half that often Father would endure the box in place of Mother, to spare her the ordeal. I did the same service for Fiona.

He kept his part of the bargain, though. Father was able to set up shop in the New World. I picked up a little of the merchant's skill at haggling, so was able to help Father a little when he had to haggle with local merchants for supplies. I picked up enough Spanish from our master and his crew that I was able to become actually fluent in that language later on. Apart from that it proved fortunate that I had learned to speak French before we ever left home.

I had expected to be Father's apprentice till he died and then take over the shop: but such was not to be.