I'm also looking forward to figuring out how I went from being "freed prisoner #23" to one of the party. It might be just out of sheer usefulness - Gamil can act as the ship's blacksmith, doctor, brewmaster, Gamil can swing an axe and shoot a crossbow etc etc.
I'll be putting up an IC thread and intro post soon. We are going to be picking up immediately after a battle, and Gamil will be there. It shouldn't be too hard to distinguish himself from the other slaves.