Origin of the ship's name

{Warning: Long Read!}

The Gold Grimace, for those who wish to hear the tale, is a pirate ship that was once captained by the ugliest and most hideous swashbuckler to ever fare the seas. The ship was originally called the Rusted Helm, and it was captained by Yorrick Sodfinger.

Of diminutive stature, mute from a grisly injury he had sustained long ago in a tavern fight and a portly, shrunken face that many said made an Ogre look dashing by comparison. Nevertheless, at one point anyways, Sodfinger had the loyalty of his crew. For theirs was a ship quickly growing in notoriety for the many successful raids they had perpetrated along the Tilean coast. Even without his ability to speak, he was effective at communicating his captaining ability through a series of hand gestures on maps and various grunts.

One day, they had conducted a raid on a small Tilean coastal village. There wasn't much of monetary value to take but food was a plenty and the pirates got to pillaging and ransacking. Most of the town residents were held at either sword or gunpoint in the town square while the pirates loaded up their bounty onto the ship.

Suddenly one brave (or foolish) soul looked up and saw Sodfinger's face. An elderly man and he said: "I'd recognize that ugly face of yours anywhere Yorrick, you were that little runt that lived next to us many moons ago!" The Rusted Helm's crew looked at each other in confusion while the other villagers began to murmur amongst one another. Sodfinger's eyes darted toward the man while he continued: "Ha, you make for a sorry pirate too. Robbing dirt poor villagers for a few sacks of food. How can any crew be expected to follow you with a mug like that?!?"

Sodfinger's gaze went white hot, more of the villagers recognized him and the crowd began to laugh with even a few of his pirate crew joining it. Within a flash Sodfinger drew his sword, ran up and gutted the man. Everyone went silent and as the man was dying, Sodfinger looked him in the eye and flashed a fierce grimace. Teeth bared and a low growl he emitted.

When he pulled the now dead man off of his sword, he held that grimace and growled loudly at the rest of the crowd. Villagers and crew alike gasped at what they saw, for what resided in the man's mouth was an entire set of teeth that were fashioned in pure gold. They gleamed in the sun to an almost blinding effect, that it could be said to have been Nehekharan gold.

How Sodfinger came to have teeth like that is held to many stories and tall tales. But until that moment his crew had no knowledge of their existence. Sodfinger never spoke, always ate alone and didn't give any more expression than he felt was necessary. So it was a pretty well received fact among them that this village held a bitter past for him to suddenly react the way he did. Nevertheless it was only the jeering man to die that day as the crew of the Rusted Helm finished their pillage and left the village and it's residents behind.

After that day, stories began to form about the ship that continued to raid the Tilean coast. Few called it the Rusted Helm anymore and the stories that circulated of it referred to it as "The Gold Grimace". Some of the crew began to refer to it as such in private. Private meaning never in front of Sodfinger.

More to come, stay tuned!