Oresnya's Plotnotes

[Oresnya Cacao]

This will be where I gather all of Oresnya's plot notes, including ideas for NPCs, flashbacks, and travel plans.

[Oresnya Cacao]

The Tragedy of The Bonnie Dot

The tragedy of The Bonnie Dot began as most such stories do, with happiness, contentment, and love, for without much had, little can be lost, and loss is at the heart of all great sorrows, loss of love being the greatest.

The Dot family was one full of love and laughter. While they were not rich, they did not want for all the things they needed. Childhood sweethearts, Hanna and Josef had been happily married since early adulthood, but their greatest joy came from their three children.

Firstborn was Zekariah. While his was not an unpleasant face to look at, it was also not a handsome one, and this was perhaps his greatest boon. His looks, even as a child, never garnered him any special attention or free gifts, and so what Zek wanted, he had to convince others to let him have. Quickly, this skill developed, but as his siblings came into the world, Zek realized he could use that gift to make things better for his sister and brother.

Next came Dorothy Dot. Without a doubt, she was the pride of the Dot family. Every handsome and beautiful trait her father and mother had was passed on to her, and any joy they possessed, Dottie tripled it in no time flat and returned it to those who it had come from. She was whimsical and lackadaisical, never aspiring to reach her full potential, but her presence made people happy nonetheless.

The last child was Gregery. Of all the Dot children, he was the most ambitious. Though not as persuasive as his older brother, Gregery had a charm about him that often won people over to his point of view, and that point of view centered on him getting rich. Gregery was not afraid to use his siblings to reach those means. Zek was always looking out for his younger siblings, and Gregery was sure that he used his brother’s presence and persuasive skills to advance his position. Where Zek’s words failed, Dottie’s did not. Unkept promises and faithless suggestions in the right ears made men of power think they had a chance with Dot as long as they supported her brothers. Dottie played along, not minding the attentions and trinkets lavished upon her, flirting enough to make the whole thing fun and games for her while stringing along those who needed to be strung along.

Eventually, Gregery’s ambitions led him to the sea. If there were ever anyone to challenge the Svefra for mastery of the ocean, it was the people of Zeltiva. While the Svefra were born to the waters and blessed by Laviku, the Zeltivans had studied the ocean and its currents and the many long traditions of shipbuilding, and their efforts had made them equals in different ways to the blessed people of the Suvan. In the idea of captaining his own ship, Gregery saw the easiest route to the power he sought to have. Convincing Zek to join him was an easy task.

Zek had always had a fondness for the ocean, a sense of a calling far beyond the shores, but his dedication to his family had always held him on land. Now, with his brother expressing the same desire, he found his anchor on land somewhat diminished. The two found work on a ship with an old captain who had been inviting them to join him on the open waters for years. While Gregery used every opportunity to better his standing, Zek had no such desire for leadership. He was happy where he was, instead ceasing every chance to enjoy the feeling of the sunshine and of the unhindered wind, something even the Bonesnapper couldn’t compare to. Though Gregery was more ambitious, Zek’s steady and relentless work and his overall joy of and love for the ocean gained him the attention of the captain.

Both saved their meager wages for years on end, but finally they accumulated enough money and favors to buy a boat and hire a crew. The only problem was neither could agree on where the ship should travel. Gregery was drawn to the Suvan Sea and the Svefra that roamed its waters, but Zek always found himself called home. His sister was always on his mind, and the long time spent away from Zeltiva was only made bearable by the joy on her face when he returned. An argument broke between them. To call it an argument was a falsity. Gregery ranted, and Zek, being a man who cared for his siblings the way he did, caved and gave his brother the ship and the crew they had hired. The one thing he refused to do though was sail with his brother. It wasn’t animosity, rather just love for his sister, and so the two parted ways, Gregery with his new ship freshly christened The Bonnie Dot (for the beauty of the sister in question) and Zek returning to the work that had got them this far. Without his brother’s distractions, another year down the road, Zek accumulated enough wealth and favors that, with the help of a loan, he had a ship of his own. Since his sister’s name had already been used, he named his ship The Puddleskimmer and slowly accumulated a crew to make him proud, ones he trusted to follow him and ones he trusted himself to follow if ever his own knowledge and experience was not enough to guide them. Zek stayed close to home, making runs along the eastern coast of Mizahar in the Sebakem Ocean, never venturing into the Suvan Sea or the Ahger Ocean.

But Gregery took his success and ran with it, making his living on the Suvan Sea. The Bonnie Dot’s run on the Suvan was impressive. Zek had chosen her crew well, and she was a good ship. Though Gregery’s focus had been on gain of money and power, he had learned a good many things in their time at sea. He knew how to work the currents and the winds and use them to make a voyage as efficient as possible. Frequently, he made deliveries far more quickly than anyone expected them and, in doing so, made a good name and a more than comfortable living for his crew.

It wasn’t the speed of their voyages, however, that garnered them their greatest fame. A half-dozen sinking ships. Six crews. That was how many lives The Bonnie Dot saved in her short thirteen months at sea. Gregery and his crew became heroes, finding themselves the toast of many taverns ashore and the guests on many Svefra vessels while at sea. But being around that kind of bad luck for that long tends to wear off. One day, thirteen months after her christening, The Bonnie Dot disappeared at sea.

It took a while before another ship found her, and what they found was haunting. She had struck something off the shore of Taldera, but it wasn’t rocks. In fact, she was too far out from shore for them to have struck anything on the sea bed. Whatever had happened to her was not a natural event. Some say it was a patch of wild Djed, some say the djed had hunted them. It was hard not to agree with those who said so.

Though there was nothing to keep her afloat, she lay unmoved by the tides, half-submerged and never sinking. The hull itself was collapsed in on itself and twisted, as if the whole boat had been wrung out like a wet rag. Sailors were caught in her twisted planks and tangled sails and lines, but most didn’t appear to have drowned. A few bodies had been washed to shore, but most were still aboard their beloved ship. And The Bonnie Dot remained where she was when her captain died, refusing to give up his body to the waters, refusing to let herself be claimed by the briny sea.