Vaal was born in the cramped hold of a merchant vessel, his mother a Tiefling deckhand who died bringing him into the world during a storm that nearly capsized the ship. The superstitious crew wanted to throw the 'devil's child' overboard, but the ship's elderly herbalist—a half-elf monk named Sera—intervened. She raised Vaal in the art of healing and meditation, teaching him that fire could warm as easily as it could burn. When Vaal was seventeen, Sera fell gravely ill with a wasting disease no poultice could cure. In desperation, Vaal climbed the mast during a lightning storm and meditated for three days straight, begging any deity who would listen for the power to save her. On the third night, a vision came—a golden dragon wreathed in healing light. When he descended, his breath had changed; he could exhale life itself. Sera lived another decade, long enough to see Vaal open his first floating garden.
Now Vaal sails from port to port aboard the *Tidecaller*, his stone planter lashed to the deck like a beloved anchor. He tends rare orchids from Chult, frost-lilies from Icewind Dale, and moonvines from the Feywild—each one a living pharmacy. Between voyages, he haunts the dockside gambling halls, cheerfully losing his coin on the most pathetic contenders while spinning tales of miracle cures and impossible comebacks. The sailors say his garden smells like hope, and that anyone who eats one of his herb-crusted biscuits will have good luck for a week. Vaal doesn't correct them—he believes it's true.