Kennedy Laurent

## ***BACKSTORY***

Arabella Torres was born a bastard child to her mother, Maria Torres, and grew up in a wealthy estate in Havana, Cuba. Her legal father was a notorious merchant by the name of Alonso Ramos, but her true sire was a pirate captain who had loved her mother dearly. The infidelity of Arabella’s mother caused Ramos to harbor much resentment towards the young girl when she was first brought squalling into the world during a terrible thunderstorm. This circumstance of her birth only added to the merchant’s aversion to her, being a very superstitious man who firmly believed the old washerwomen’s tales that ‘storm children’ were fated to sow destruction wherever they were to be found.

Despite this, he had a reputation to maintain, so Arabella grew up in privilege, which gave her access to higher education. However, Arabella did not have much interest in school; instead, her favorite activity was to draw and paint with her mother. They were very close, in contrast to the nonexistent relationship between Arabella and her father, who kept his distance from his erstwhile family in favor of his occupation.

Sadly, Arabella’s time with her mother was cut short.  When she was eight, Havana experienced a disastrous outbreak of yellow fever.  While Arabella and Alonso were spared, Maria Torres’s life was claimed by the illness.  Her death only caused Alonso to despise Arabella even further.  He would take his anger out on her in cruel ways, which only worsened the poor girl’s emotional and mental state after the traumatic loss.  A year after the death of Maria, Alonso remarried, much to the displeasure of Arabella.

Before she died, Maria revealed the circumstances surrounding Arabella’s birth to her daughter. Determined to find the mysterious captain, she ran away at the age of thirteen, and managed to stow away on a merchant ship that was just leaving port. Mere hours into the ship’s voyage, it was soon descended upon by a band of pirates. The merchant ship was quickly taken over, and Arabella’s hiding spot was discovered.

She was brought kicking and screaming to Captain Laurent of the ship The Marauder. The captain, amused by the fighting spirit in the girl, demanded her name and an explanation as to why a girl would be stowing away like a rat on a merchant ship. Arabella angrily responded that she was looking for her unknown father. Humoring her, Laurent decided to press her on the details of the story, which Arabella was happy to (somewhat indignantly) relay to the captain.  He noticeably stiffened at mention of her mother’s name, and quietly asked about Maria Torres’ well-being. Time slowed when Arabella divulged that her mother’s life was taken by the illness that swept Havana. With tears coming to his eyes, and his voice barely louder than a whisper, Captain Laurent revealed that he was, in fact, her true father.

After a joyous and incredulous reunion, Arabella was immediately placed in her father’s crew. Despite being the daughter of the captain, she did not receive any special privileges, which suited her just fine, and she quickly fit in with the rest of the crew. She worked as a deckhand aboard the Marauder, until at the age of twenty she was promoted to Marksman. Not once did Arabella regret fleeing from her old life. Her newfound love was the sea, and her life with her true father, a man of passion and vision beyond gold and social elevation.

At twenty-three, Arabella met a blacksmith by the name of Kennedy Smith in a settlement of the Inagua Islands. They both quickly fell in love, and had intended to marry. However, Arabella soon found the call of the sea and adventure more powerful than her love for a man. A major argument ensued, which resulted in Arabella storming off to rejoin her father’s crew for a three-month voyage, leaving her fiance behind.

While on the return leg of the trip, Arabella caught word in a small port town that a feared Royal Navy captain had been sailing about the Inagua Islands, taking hostages from all the towns and villages and ransoming them to provide information on pirate activity in the area. Captain Laurent and his crew made ready for battle upon leaving port, and eventually came across the redcoat invaders. They engaged each other on sight, the two ships raining destruction upon each other, while the ocean grew rougher due to a sudden thunderstorm. At last, the pirate crew of The Marauder was finally able to board and overthrow His Majesty’s sailors, and they piled aboard to take the ship.

Arabella and her crewmates discovered the frightened prisoners belowdecks, and took them back onto the Marauder. Amongst the group was a man with a familiar face, which she quickly realized was the face of Kennedy, her abandoned fiance. A tearful reunion occurred, and passions reignited, and along the trip back to the Inagua Isles to return the hostages to their homes, the two decided to renew their wedding plans. They mentioned this to Captain Laurent, who joyously gave his blessing, and agreed to perform the ceremony while they were in port. As he recited their vows, however, a commotion was heard in the back of the assemblage, and a flintlock shot rang out. One of their prisoners had broken loose and managed to get his hands on a flintlock, firing it off and diving overboard before he could be subdued.

Unfortunately, he had done what damage he could, the pistol shot striking her almost-husband fatally. Arabella could hear nothing but her own heartbeat in her ears as she cried for medical assistance. It was all in vain, as she recognized the familiar feeling of him growing heavier in her grasp. She fell to the deck and cradled her lover’s head in her lap, while he bled out, staining her coat. She could do nothing but watch as he painfully gasped for air, and after a final wheeze, he was gone from the mortal realm. A cry of anguish and rage was ripped from Arabella’s throat as she held the dead body of the man she loved.

When she turned with vengeance to visit upon her fiance’s murderer, she learned that he had escaped, disappearing into the crowd at the docks. Outraged at the news, Arabella drew her cutlass on the spot, and cut her hair short. She then donned the identity of Kennedy Laurent, accepting the mantles of both her lost and found father, as well as that of her lost love. With this new rebirth, Kennedy left the crew of the Marauder, and took to the seas alone in a small ship of her own, made by members of her father’s crew in her departed fiance’s honor. More than intimate with the rage she needed to exorcise, Captain Laurent let his daughter go on her quest, demanding first only a promise that she would return to him one day when her vengeance was satisfied.

She sailed the ocean for a time, alone, looking for the bastard redcoat who had taken the life of the man she loved. A legend grew up around her in short order: a lone sailor, aboard a tiny ship, short of hair and wroth with fury, taking and sinking any English military vessel she came across, no matter how much larger or more formidable. Sometimes, in the quiet wee hours in taverns across the Caribbean, sailors would fearfully whisper stories about Kennedy Laurent’s hunt for the runaway redcoat, claiming that whenever a thunderstorm happened upon an unsuspecting Navy vessel, she was not far behind, in bloodstained coat and terrible visage, visiting incredible fury upon her doomed prey.

These tales were somewhat overblown by rumor, of course; she did indeed sink a few British cutters all on her own, but shortly after her quest had set out, she was found and beset by a Royal Navy frigate, the Eagle, which sorely outclassed her and forced her to run for dear life. Fortune smiled on her, as her father’s ship spotted her belabored situation and came to her rescue. Together they turned the tide against the ships, and took the frigate for themselves. Captain Laurent granted to his daughter a compliment of his own sailors in order to aid her, now that she had a more formidable vessel at her command.

Thusly equipped, they set out and became the true terrors behind the legends, until Kennedy and her crew came one day upon Isla de Oro, and pulled into Puerto Dorado for what was intended to be a brief shore leave. In her time ashore, however, the wonders and the camaraderie of the pirates of the Council won her over, and when her shipmates were ready to sail, she sent them along without her, requesting that they find and inform her father of what had transpired. They left shortly thereafter, and she soon joined the crew of the Liberated Latebra, rising through the ranks to eventually become its Captain.

Joining the pirates of Puerto Dorado has not quenched the vengeful fires in her heart by any means, however. She works in service to the Council, but always keeps an ear to the sea for news of her nemesis, still out on the sea, and likely terrified for his life at the legends of the fell bride-to-be, driven to chase him to the ends of the earth until her lover is avenged, and justice done.

## ***APPEARANCE AND GEAR***

* Kennedy often passes for a man among those not looking closely. Standing six foot six, sporting a muscular build which tends more toward boyish than feminine, with close-cropped golden brown hair, the effect is often more pronounced by the menace she exudes subconsciously about her. But those she comes to call friends soon see past that, and remark upon her as being more lovely than most can see with strangers’ eyes.

* She is not often seen without the coat she was wearing when her first husband was murdered, a tawny leather affair that still bears his blood stains upon the lapels, and she will not suffer them to be removed by any means. They serve as a badge; a reminder of her roots, and her unending quest. It has numerous pockets on the inside and four out, two on either side. She keeps these pockets stuffed with a myriad of items that she has found useful to maintain a supply of on her travels, including bandages, extra ammunition, and even fireworks on occasion. Her uncanny preparedness has led some to theorize that the coat is magical in nature, and provides anything she needs on the moment from some mysterious void. Kennedy will neither confirm nor deny these rumors.

* In battle, she wields a set of twin rapiers that were gifted to her by Captain Laurent on her seventeenth birthday, simple steel but well-made and well-maintained. A concealed dagger hangs beneath her coat on her right hip, and is balanced by a single flintlock on the left. Like her swords, they are meticulously maintained and counted among the deadliest weapons on the Isle, despite their lack of any enchantment.

## ***PERSONALITY AND ABILITIES***

* Lovingly called a “loose-cannon” by her husband, Raum Laurent, she keeps this aspect of her character veiled beneath her calm and mature façade. Upon first meeting her, Kennedy is welcoming yet simultaneously intimidating, using her height to her advantage when she can as if to warn newcomers to the island to not trifle with her. It takes time for her to warm up to others, but once an individual is able to get past her cold, guarded exterior, they are met with unwavering loyalty. However, if one were to be foolish enough to cross or cause harm to those she greatly cares about, then they are sure to meet their maker. Kennedy cares more about the safety of those close to her heart than her own well-being, which causes her to disregard her own life and safety in order to protect her makeshift “family.”

* A lover of good jokes, drinks, company, and mischief, Kennedy appreciates the things that make life worth living. This can be attributed to the Laurent family motto: “*La vie est faite pour être vécue. Profites-en tant que tu peux” (Life is meant to be lived. Enjoy it while you can).* Learned from her time aboard the Marauder from her father, Kennedy is nonetheless serious when she needs to be, or when the situation around her calls for it.

* Kennedy has no notable powers or special abilities, at least that she knows of consciously; she is as common a human being as they come, as far as she is concerned. However, the cry she unleashed at the murder of her first husband was of such anguish and rage that it drew the attention of a Sin Wraith, a silent and invisible entity that has bound itself symbiotically to her soul. The demon feeds upon her anguish and hatred, and in return grants her uncommon strength, which she stubbornly attributes to her hard work as a sailor aboard the Marauder. But she easily renders her foes unconscious with a single blow, and breaks bones with the slightest tensing of her grip, to such a degree that her shipmates are certain of some kind of arcane power at play, yet are wholly unable to explain. The price of this gift, however, is that she cannot be magically healed by any known means. So while she is singularly able to literally crush her foes, she is also singularly able to be injured by them, so she must maintain tight control of her battle rage at all times.

* 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