Captain Eugene Reynolds

Captain Reynolds is an inventor turned smuggler who uses his skills to avoid paying taxes and fund his experimental ship. Obsessed with the advancement of magitek, he studies whatever he can get his hands on when not coming up with new inventions of his own. Saying he has a heart of gold would be a stretch, but Reynolds respects the honorable laws of the sea and does what he can to help those in need. He is currently traveling with the Venture Boys, his crew for the Venture II, as he tries to build the capital necessary to turn his new ship into a flying vessel like his old one.
Table of Contents

History

A New Adventure

Through various black market dealings, he was able to get a hold of a damaged spelljammer furnace hold. While he didn't 100% understand the device, he fixed it up well enough to turn his ship, the Venture, into an airship. Unfortunately and unbeknownst to Reynolds, the furnace's energy signature attracted the Argus Pirates. They attacked the Venture with their flagship, the Jeweled Eye, while Reynolds was making his first test flight. The pirates harpooned the Venture and sent down Gunkers to fight the crew and passengers. Reynolds was able to use his secret weapon, a cannon powered by a fire elemental, to heavily damage the Jeweled Eye and force them away, but it unfortunately detonated and took down the Venture as well.
Reynolds survived the crash landing onto a jungle island while the crew and passengers jumped overboard once the ship had fallen low enough. Believing his companions dead, he made his way towards the sea. There he found a few Sea Devils building a makeshift fishing raft. When they attempted to capture him, Reynolds effortlessly dispatched the pirates and began fixing up the raft. He learned his companions had survived when they stumbled out of the jungle. They mentioned having found civilians on the island that they left behind and Reynolds berated them for abandoning civilians on a pirate-infested island. He remained behind to build additional rafts while the party went back to deal with the pirates and assist the civilians.
Once their mission was complete, he sailed with his crew to the next nearest island. While the Venture Boys helped the villagers with a local problem, he made arrangements for them to get passage on a soon-to-arrive merchant sloop. Once onboard, he helped out the sloop's crew to start learning what kind of work the group could pick up at the next port.

New Ship & Old Debts

Arriving in Nassau Town, Captain Reynolds was quick to find work the group could use to get their hands on a new ship. While the Venture Boys set out on their first job, Reynolds continued to line up work while purchasing the rights to an old wreck crashed on the nearby rocks. Through a combination of the crew's funding, Gibby's magic, and his own ingenuity, Reynolds soon had the Venture II up and running just in time to combat a pirate frigate. After the crew sank the invading Sea Devil vessel, they collected a modest reward and spent a night merrymaking in town before heading home to the trade city of Aliisyos.
Upon arriving and finding Jimmy sick, Reynolds sent the crew ahead on a rowboat to find a doctor for Jimmy. He later met them at a café where he instructed the crew to get some R&R while he prepared for their next journey. That journey ended up being a trip to Hopewell Harbor to deliver supplies to an orphanage Reynolds had been supporting for several years. On arrival, the crew wasn't allowed in town due to an ongoing murder investigation. The Venture Boys were hired to assist with the investigation while Reynolds stayed on the ship with the rest of the crew. When Mathayas and Arachnor confronted them at the docks on their return, Reynolds could be seen on the deck of the ship with an unusually serious look on his face and a hand on one of his holstered pistols.
Shortly afterwards, Captain Xendros attacked the Venture II while Reynolds was at the wheel. He froze when she boarded the ship and the party didn't even notice him on the ground, injured and hyperventilating until the fighting was over. Xaeyruudh and Althea took him to his cabin so he could recover, Xaeyruudh staying to watch over him. The next day, Althea confronted the Captain over his behavior. Reynolds told her that when he was younger, he lost some people very dear to him at the hands of a tiefling pirate. Seeing Xendros brought those memories crashing down on him and he froze. He had spent years readying himself so this would never happen again, and he failed. With a bit of a pep talk from Althea, Reynolds resolved to better himself no matter the cost. He refused to let his crew down again.

Reynold's Past Comes Calling

Several adventures later, the Venture II sailed to the town of Fidanza after Xaeyruudh heard about a merchant company looking to recover a stolen ship from pirates. Reynolds resupplied the ship while leaving the details of the job to Althea, Vinnie, and Erica. He didn't ask who they were working for until they were already a day back out at sea and became enraged when he learned the job was for the Sonavella family. He referred to their entire family as "devils in humanoid skins" but the party had already made a verbal contract with Candelaria Sonavella. Reynolds locked himself in his cabin for the remainder of the trip to the island of Fellcay, refusing to speak on the matter further despite the obvious bad blood between himself and the Sonavellas.
While the party was away looking for the stolen ship, crew members began to die mysteriously in their sleep. He tried to keep the information from Gibby, but the young deity figured it out despite Reynolds best efforts and became dismayed. Reynolds evacuated them to the island's shore just in time to see the party's magical familiar Mr. Quackers leading Father Costa out of the jungle. The pair had ruled out the possibility of plague just as the party returned and deduced that the culprit was likely a night hag, which they drove off after setting a trap for it. After the party collected payment from Lady Sonavella, Reynolds set course for Soeurs Noires to collect materials he needed for the Venture II's magic cannon.
When the group attended a magic item auction, Reynolds spotted Falzar Sonavella and reached for his empty holster as rage briefly clouded his mind. Remembering they'd had to turn their weapons in at the entrance, he put N64 between himself and Sonavella's group while trying to hide his face with his hat. But when his adversaries were departing and the tiefling David stopped to talk to N64, Falzar recognized Reynolds and called him out by his real name, Malcolm Flynn. Falzar openly mocked the Captain, telling the Venture Boys how Reynolds was once an up-and-coming merchant who lost everything, both his business and his wife & daughter, when pirates attacked his ship.
Falzar's tone and the way he told the story sounded rather suspicious to the party. The suspicions were confirmed when Reynolds leaned forward and told Falzar they both knew it wasn't pirates. David chuckled at the remark, retorting that Reynolds would be foolish to make such a claim against such a powerful man without some kind of proof. Reynolds very nearly reached his breaking point as Althea took his arm and led him away from the confrontation before it erupted into violence. Shortly afterward, Vinnie told Reynolds he'd overheard Falzar and David talking about a treasure ship they owned getting lost in the Sorrow Shoals. Reynolds very quickly resolved that finding this ship was their next course of action, eager to do anything he could to hurt the Sonavellas.

Reynolds Comes on Adventures

Captain Reynolds joined the party personally when they went looking for the lost treasure ship, letting his crew do most of the talking and decision making but lending his pistols and sword where they were needed. He helped them battle sirens and a sea serpent in a quest that ended with them recovering most of the lost treasure, which turned out to be crates filled with raw unprocessed mithril ore.
Returning to the ship, he and the crew found that Gibby had made himself sick binging on magic candy. Gibby requested they visit his birthplace so that the kuo-toa could pray away his tummy ache. Deciding some R&R in a small fishing village sounded good, Reynolds set a course. Unfortunately, these plans were interrupted as the Venture II approached the island just as it came under a full-scale assault by the Argus Pirates.
Reynolds joined the other ships officers in repelling the invaders and saving the villagers, attacking Gunkers and other enemies with sword and pistol. He even engaged an immolith demon, though his non-magical weapons were of little use against it. After the beach village was secured, he moved in-land on the road with Gibby and Xaeyruudh while the Venture Boys took a direct path through the forest.
Their group defeated Vrak, Arachnor, and their many minions in the process of saving the kuo-toa village while the Venture Boys dealt with the Argus Pirates' leader, Captain Elgar. He was dismayed when only Althea and Bakris returned, reporting that N64 and Erica had been killed in the battle while Vinnie had run off somewhere afterward. When N36 contacted their group of survivors to taunt them, Reynolds intellectually debated whether or not he would be chasing the wicked warforged into the stars. But in his heart, his decision was already made. Reynolds wouldn't leave people behind and if anyone was taken from him, he wouldn't leave them unavenged.