

Aye mate, there be two things worth dyin' fer: freedom, and rum. Lucky fer me, I’m got plenty a'both.
—Taryn "Pegneck" Combs
Orphaned at a young age, Taryn Combs was taken in by Rhansmarc the Cruel, the infamous pirate lord of the Black Banner, who used Taryn’s cunning and recklessness in raids in the Outer Rim. Taryn’s conscience—though perpetually numbed by rum—remained beneath the surface, until a botched raid left innocents slaughtered and Taryn rebelled, only to lose everything but his life in Rhansmarc’s brutal reprisal.
That life was spared, many say, by pure luck when he escaped hanging at the hands of the pirate lord. Thereafter known for his wooden prosthetic neck, which he fashioned himself after the hanging left him scarred, "Pegneck" wore his deformity as a badge of survival. “This neck’s sturdier than most men’s spines,” he’d often say.
With his mangled neck bound in a brace of iron, Taryn hit rock bottom, until he found himself rescued—and then redeemed—by Captain Veena of the Prim Rose. She saw in him not just a skilled fighter and navigator, but a man yearning for purpose.
Taryn became Veena’s most trusted lieutenant, his tactical genius helping to rebuild the fleet of the Good Ladies of Mariana Bay when she took command from her grandfather.