Category:The Island

Puerto Dorado - once known as Isla de Oro - is located in the Caribbean Sea, and its coordinates are a closely-guarded secret by its inhabitants. Approximately 90 square miles of various types of land compose the Isle, and there are many features that make it an ideally defensible location for a pirate republic, as well as some colorful tales of its past to add to its mystique and atmosphere.

The Fort
Originally built by the Royal Navy, the fort is situated right on the bay of the island, and is an imposing facade at an ideal location to defend all its inhabitants. The Council of Bones meets here to oversee the administration of Puerto Dorado, as well as to plan exceptionally large and complex raids on major targets throughout the Caribbean. During rare times of war with other enclaves, the Fort is large enough to hold all the Isle's residents, and has only ever been breached once, when the Council first took it from the British.

The Siren Caves
Fleet Admiral BC once called this cave in the high bluffs to the North his personal home/mango hoard, but since his departure, other tenants have taken over; namely, the family of sirens who once lived among the shipwrecks deposited by the Quacken at the Boneyard. A labyrinthine system of tunnels makes a wending path down into the rock, eventually opening onto a massive hollow, where the Quacken can sometimes be seen napping while he waits for the call of the Council. Of course, in order to see him, one has to get past the sirens, and they do not let just anyone pass through their new digs.

Monte Oro
The tales told of ancient natives who used to inhabit the isle abound, though there is no direct evidence of their existence. But that never stopped imaginations from constructing elaborate narratives about gods and their wars, and their human subjects echoing and influencing their actions from below. Monte Oro, of course, lies at the center of all of them.

This sharp, high mountain stands as a sentinel, southwest of the bay and the town. It is tall enough that a slim cap of ice can be seen on the very peak on clear days throughout the year. Despite its position, it does not appear to be a volcano of any kind, though logic suggests that it must be, as well as the legends of the Isle. They surround this peak as thickly as the clouds do up at the apex, and blur the truth as surely.

The popular ones speak of a great conflict between angry deities in the distant past, and the mountain is said to be a scar from that war. A people rose up out of the same ground that produced that mountain after one of the gods smote it with a spear made of stars, and they built a kingdom in that god’s honor. Or in defiance of him. The story diverges somewhat, but most tell of the remains of their civilization to be found near the top of the peak. It is most likely just something told to awe greenhorns, or to keep upstarts busy with exploring.

The Dead Forest
This strange patch of rotten trees and dead earth is rumored to be the former location of those natives who honored their god. The stories say that long ago, they angered that deity, so he destroyed their food resources and cursed them so nothing could ever grow in their previously fertile soil. The natives are long gone, and whatever ruins they might have had with them, so who it was or how to reverse the curse are both unknown. But some swear that there are ruins which were buried over time under the rot and decay of the former forest. With enough digging one would eventually find an entire city under that forest patch, but no one has ever survived excavating the cursed soil long enough to strike the proverbial gold. Everyone who has tried has vanished without a trace. People say they become a permanent part of the underground ruins, and are swallowed up by whatever hole they dig.

The Badlands
Consequently, the Badlands are believed to be the home of the rebellious natives, who scorned the gods and their wars. They built a great civilization of their own on top of a vast wetlands, constructing their city with canals, purification systems, even saltwater candies. They thrived for a long while in an atheistic society.

Naturally, this led them into conflict with their pious neighbors to the north, and in the war that followed, they found themselves the victims of a similar curse. It is said that as their water dried up, a mighty wind came down from Monte Oro and blasted their city for many days, driving the inhabitants underground and pulverizing their structures into fine dust. In time, nothing was left but the powdery remains of what they once were.

Only one clue to their existence is rumored to have survived, unsullied in the midst of this desert: a large statue of a human skull, whose eyes are said to be filled with pure gold. As in the Dead Forest, people who search for fortune here find only their doom. The Curse is said to remain on that gold, and those who touch it go blind. They are then left to wander the sands until a race of 'mole people', the descendants of those wetland natives, find them and either kill them or admit them to their subterranean society.