Captain Deanna Jones

Captain Deanna Jones is a scheming mastermind who commands the Black Mother ship. She has transformed a hundred squabbling bands of brigands and outlaws into a an amalgamation of plant hybrid people, as well as physical parts of her ship. However, none know her true identity or origin, for she wears many faces. Though she is most infamously encountered as a lithe masked woman garbed in swashbuckling attire with a wide-brimmed hat and jeweled rapier, Captain Deanna Jones adopts a variety of costumes, facial features, skin and hair colors, body shapes, ages, and genders depending on her mood and circumstances. As such, she typically confirms her identity by revealing some secret about whoever she is speaking with or demonstrating her uncanny ability to change appearance seemingly at-will.

Objectives of Captain Deanna Jones

This objective is only known to the most trusted associates of Captain Deanna Jones. Most of her crew don’t know they are working towards this goal. The expansion of the Blackthorn Grove, and the consumption (or corruption) of elven forest islands to the west. Every time she sets foot on land, she will plant a black seed, which will grow into a tree that will spread and become an extension of the Blackthorn Grove itself. The more she plants, the greater the influence and power both her and the grove obtain. Once she has obtained the power required, she will set her sails to the west to exact the corruption of the elven forest islands.

Characteristics

Traits. I am never caught unprepared, and have contingencies for my contingencies. I speak with rakish confidence while casually exposing everything I know about others, and flaunt my ability to be anybody or anywhere.

Ideals. I indulge in playing mind games and manipulating people with the promise of profit. Instead of spilling blood, I spill secrets. My enemies are worthless as corpses. When I have to steal lives, I spend them dearly first.

Bond. All are powerless to top the spread of the blackthorn grove. A favor, a secret, or a good contact can be just as valuable as money to the right person.

Flaws. Anyone who trusts me is a terrible fool. Double-crossing is my nature. I expect everyone to betray me, and I’ll relish the opportunity to defeat them when they try.

Who is Captain Deanna Jones?

Captain Deanna Jones’ birth name is Ivette. She was born in the colonies, on the island of Ethri to Madam Haylen, a notorious thief and charlatan, and an unknown father who was described as "large, hairy, and good with his hands" by her mother. When she became a pirate, the first ship's captain she served under began to call her "JJ," as a joke because many of the crew believed having a woman aboard was bad luck. She eventually expanded the name and adopted it as her pseudonym.

Madam Haylen was a thief and charlatan who had infamously posed as a seer to help a village on Ethri in exchange for coin. When she got bored, she would leave the village to steal from other people or con them into buying mystical charms like the Fertility Talisman. These trips could last weeks, and Haylen would often take her daughter with her to help. The young Ivette took to dishonesty quickly. But Madam Haylen grew disillusioned with the life of a fraud and eventually she converted to a priestess of Tero–God of light, love, and healing–to give meaning to her life. She sold Ivette into marriage with a business associate in Silvertree, Landon Beckington, when she refused to convert. While Ivette offers numerous interpretations of the bargain her mother struck when she was given away, she is noted as having told her first mate once that her mother gave her away in exchange for nothing more than the promise that she would be looked after. Landon took her to Silvertree and they were married three weeks later, just shy of Ivette's nineteenth birthday. As a result, Ivette has a poor opinion of her mother.

Landon was a rich man, buying Ivette many fine things and hiring a tutor to teach her to read and write, but the marriage was loveless, and she was treated as his "plaything." Though Ivette enjoyed the first few months of her life with Landon, she quickly became bored, and then angry when it became clear she was expected to act as "befitted the lady of the house". After a year, Ivette began to deliberately antagonize him, thinking he'd let her go. Around this time, she met Jamie in Silvertree, and promptly started an affair, based mostly on physical attraction and a desire to test her boundaries with Landon. Jamie also taught her the basics of sword play.

Realizing that his young wife was out of control, Landon resolved to get rid of her. According to his journal, he planned to "lend" her to certain business acquaintances who had expressed an interest. He was assassinated in his bed a week. Ivette provides differing accounts of the exact circumstances of his assassination to different parties. She may claim that she did not have Landon killed, although she was grateful for his death regardless, however she has also claimed that she directly ordered his assassination.

On the same night, she left the house with nothing but a jeweled rapier and a sack full of jewelry she used to bribe sailors into helping her commandeer the Green Mother, her husband's ship. They sailed to the pirate isles, where the sailors abandoned her. A day later, Ivette used her untested sword skills to duel a man she only referrers to as Bob, betting that if she could best him in single combat, he would have to help her hire a crew and find a job. Ivette won the duel, though she's unsure whether Bob let her win out of pity. She found herself a new crew and a new captain, as she knew she would be unable to captain her own ship and wanted to learn under someone who could. She later killed the captain over an insult and took back control of the Green Mother. There are rumors that she and Bob started a passionate love affair, though he disappeared never to be seen again a year after they met.

After she became a pirate, Ivette became extremely promiscuous, and soon became a raider—the self-proclaimed "Queen of the Sea." Sadly, her ship was caught in a storm and wrecked. That is when she discovered the Blackthorn Grove on a lowly island in the middle of nowhere. She eventually sacrificed herself to the tree in exchange for her ship and crew to be brought back. But she was not the same when after. Her heart gone, she was devoid of emotion, compassion, and regard for the life of others. Her ship, now the Black Mother, was raised from the see as a massive tree masted ship that grew seeds for her to plant around the world. So, she set her dark intentions on the destruction of her former husband’s homeland, and the place her mother now resided: the elven islands…