Cenwyn Roberts

Cenwyn Roberts is an ancient creature, a spirit of the Fae who has wandered the world for centuries. Ever a lover of mischief, he spent most of his time canvassing back and forth across the whole of England, amusing himself with petty thefts and general rabble-rousing. But his troublemaking one day drew the attention of a certain Royal Navy Admiral, who had a predilection for sorcery and the occult. He correctly surmised that a trickster spirit was about, and so he crafted for himself a device to capture and enslave that spirit. He took an old pocketwatch, and muttered profane incantations over it, along with Cenwyn’s name. Cenwyn heard it as a reverberation through his entire being, and was incontrovertibly compelled toward the Admiral’s estate, to serve his whim.

He arrived before the Admiral in a fury, but quite unable to lash out at his new master. The Admiral, knowing this, smiled, and set Cenwyn to several degrading tasks. He endured this for years serving aboard the Admiral’s flagship, seemingly without hope of freedom. But salvation came gradually in the form of the Admiral’s son, a young Lieutenant aboard the same ship. He came down to speak with Cenwyn, fascinated at his Fae nature and his tales of the past. The young man lamented Cenwyn’s captivity, and Cenwyn very craftily played into his pity, until one day the lad swore to set him free. Cenwyn then told him about the pocketwatch, and that all the lad need do was to acquire it and put it into his hands, and he would be able to escape. The young man did just that, sneaking into his father’s cabin while he snored, and slipping the timepiece from its constant place in his waistcoat.

The Lieutenant returned, and immediately handed the pocketwatch over to Cenwyn, and his relief was visible. His chains broken, he stopped long enough to bless the young man, and thank him for his compassion, and then he quietly (as only a Fae can be) snuck out of the hold, stopping by the Admiral’s quarters to pull one last bit of mischief over on the hated tyrant. Swiping his official coat and hat of office, he donned them and hopped overboard, loosing one of the rowboats and paddling away from the Navy vessel with silent grace. As he pulled, a great wind picked up, and began to chop at the sea about him. The boat was simply too small to weather the waves hurled against it, and in short order, it was broken, and sunk. With no pieces large enough for Cenwyn to float atop, he sank into the deep with the rubble.

He was, of course, an immortal Fae spirit, so he was in no danger of drowning, but the sea was nonetheless an unfamiliar environment to him. He sank to the bottom of the sea, and began to walk, in near-pitch blackness, toward another unfamiliar tug, though this one was not as sharp or demanding. It was a subconscious invitation, and, having no other idea where to go, decided to explore it. He wandered for what must have been a full day, maybe two, when all of a sudden his environment did go entirely void black, and the sea floor fell out from beneath him. He found himself falling again, having no way to know which direction was which but for the water rushing upward from his feet.

Then a pale light appeared, growing steadily in size though not in brightness, and he landed in the center of it. Looking about with curiosity, he jumped at a voice that welcomed him with a raspy chuckle. Cenwyn spun, and laid his eyes on a being that he knew very well, even though he had never actually met him. A Fae knows a primordial god when they are in their presence, and Cenwyn sank to his knees, calling the deity by very old names. But the sea god merely chuckled again, and identified himself to Cenwyn as Davy Jones. Then he got straight to business, offering to the spirit the Deal, and Cenwyn at first balked. He had just escaped slavery; he was not keen on entering back into it, even in the service of an Old One. But even to a Fae, perhaps especially to one, Davy’s will is undeniable. He promised such gifts, and such leeway on his leash, that Cenwyn eventually accepted.

Whisked away from the pool of light, he hurtled through absolute darkness for a time, until he saw the daylight glowing above him, and he found himself washed up on an unfamiliar shore. He rose, and caught sight of his body, and was appalled at his state. Cursing Davy Jones, his ire subsided almost immediately when he realized that he had maintained his natural powers; the skeletal form seemed to be optional. Switching between them for a time, he defaulted to the new skeleton when he saw a whole gang of them making their way steadily toward him. Jane Barnaby addressed him by name, which somewhat alarmed him, but he came to learn that serving under the Dread Captain were the terms of his service. He would be a pirate in the Nightwatch, aboard the Graveyard Galleon, and that suited him just fine.

Piracy turned out to be a grand and entertaining life for the ancient Fae, so the irritation of his inability to leave the Isle only chafes at brief times. For the most part, he enjoys his new existence, and is not above keeping himself amused by wreaking his practised havoc against his own crewmates just for a laugh. More often than not, they laugh right along with him.

* Isla de Oro Wiki
* The Island
* The Town
* The Council of Bones
* The Fleet
* The Captains
* The Officers
* The Nightwatch
* NPCs
* The Library
* The Hall of Legends