[Completed]Bucelt's Bay [Lair App]

[Traveller 2168]

Lair PRO MC Name: Traveller

 

Lair Name: Bucelt’s Bay

 

Proposed Lair Locations (Highlight 3 on the map): 

EDIT: Originally, our locations were in the south at tiles 108, 109 and 106 but due to feedback we have decided to move our proposed locations to 55 (most preferable), 51,53. The app has been updated accordingly.

 

Lair Lore (could link to an existing creature or other lore) (1000 words minimum):

 

 

 

Ainsley Cutler was a disheveled seaman who came from a small town within the borders of the western side of Almaris. His family was made up of lowly fishermen who made little to no coin on their small wooden ships. Tired of this life, he set out to the bustling ‘Heart of Almaris’, Providence. Which was located inside the Orenian Empire.

On his way there he would run out of foodstuffs, turning his pockets inside out, revealing nothing but crumbs and dust. Desperate for something to fill his vacant stomach, he was forced to take his red handkerchief from his pocket and wrap it around his face, taking his well-kept cutlass from his belt and doing a road-side robbery on a poor passing lad for some bread.

Whilst shoving the loaf into his gob, wiping the crumbs away from his cracked and dry lips, he would stow the remains of the bread into his dusty green overcoat’s deep pockets, he’d realised how easy it was to intimidate the lad into getting what he wanted. He’d sit there and ponder for a moment before coming to a conclusion that he could band together some men, and get what he wanted on a larger scale.

Soon after, Ainsley was located inside the tavern in Providence, talking with an ISA lad that went by the name Henry Bates. They ended up discussing over a pint and Henry would come up with the idea of creating a safe haven for bandits, pirates and criminals alike. Ainsley was delighted by the idea and knew such a place to establish this haven. Ainsley would place his mug down on the table, and tell Henry the legend of Oswald Bucelt, legendary seaman and folklore of Ainsley’s village and surrounding lands. He went on to explain how Bucelt was a pirate - who robbed people on the sea and on land, getting his mina whichever way he could, stealing valuables, ships or even attempting to hold important figureheads for ransom. Eventually, Bucelt’s time was running out. He was cornered and his gang was being captured one by one.

The scenario would panic Bucelt, causing him to go into hiding. In case he got out of the situation alive, he would travel through the lush green forests of the west to his favourite spot, a clearing in the trees facing the open ocean. The air tasted salty as it blew into his face, his dirty beard and ragged hair flowing in the wind which was howling through the trees. He took his most prized possessions from his worn sack he had thrown over his back, which included his legendary cutlass, handle embezzled with jewels, and a golden skull he had retrieved from a sunken ship that belonged to a great nation. His shaky hands placed these valuable treasures in an undisclosed location within the bay, the most common theory being behind the waterfall located there.

On his capture, he would be hung up in the town center of the nearest nation and his body supposedly tossed back into the ocean, where it belonged. Rumours would spread of this pirate’s legendary endeavours, eventually reaching the ears of young Ainsley, who was always fascinated by the seamen he would see with swords on the horizon on their what seemed to be tiny boats and he aspired to be like them one day.

On the completion of the tale, Henry perked up and immediately agreed to go and scout the backwoods out with the storyteller. Before the journey was to begin, the men had to make some preparations for the journey. They had planned to perform some criminal activities within Providence in order to earn some mina to acquire some supplies to make the trip.

The two would band together to make various plans. By the end of the Saint’s month they had stolen goods from far across Almaris, preying on various people and their fear, soon reselling them to make some coin and amassing a small fortune to their names. Many started to take note of this phenomenon, and shortly after an attempted mugging , the pair were entrapped with guards closing in, and their victims screams filling in the streets, Henry turned towards his counterpart, suggested to Ainsley that they squat in the local slums, he nodded towards the blonde lad, trailing behind as they approached their new haven for the time being. Soon, the duo began stashing and shoveling all their goods into the various barrels located in their new totally legitimate home to keep for resale.

One morning, Ainsley had decided to leave the slums earlier than usual. He was currently laying low from a recent escapade in the large city, so he would take a trip to Haense. In the afternoon, he arrived and approached a woman, with one of his usual schemes, impersonating a newspaper journalist and claiming to be creating an article based on crime in Haense. The townsfolk caught onto his act almost immediately, which resulted in Ainsley being thrown in jail by the closest guard. After multiple failed bribes by Ainsley, he was given some pity by the guard and thrown in the local mine to retrieve some materials to pay for his sentence.

After this, he was thrown out of the freezing region, and he would return to his usual surroundings of Oren’s capital. He took a walk of shame to the gate, seeming exhausted, tired and more disheveled than usual. Following a short talk with Henry about his eventful day, the two walked out of the main gates of Providence, keeping a distance apart from each other so Henry wasn’t associated with the wanted man, considering he was still a soldier in the ISA. Ainsley would almost get caught a few times and would have to hide his identity by sheltering his face with his grimy and weathered hands.

After an exhausting journey, the duo arrived at the fabled Bucelt’s Bay. They laid their eyes upon the waterfall from the story, Henry immediately went to search for the treasures, but Ainsley stopped him abruptly with a hand on his shoulder. “Don’t lad, they could curse ye in several different ways.” he’d mutter, in reference to the artifacts. Henry nodded and they turned their gaze towards the wreckage of a ship located a short walk away from where they were standing. Ainsley stated that it must’ve been the supposed ship owned by Bucelt. 

As the sun set upon the twinkling, bustling olive leaves above their heads, the two men were using the broken hull of the ship as shelter, sparking two planks ripped from the wreckage to create a fire. They set up their poor-quality sleeping bags and scrambled some biscuits and fruit left in the barrels on board the wreck to eat. The plume of smoke could be seen for miles around in the starry night’s sky if one looked hard enough.

The following weeks were the picture of the two men bareback with rays of boiling sunlight assaulting their backs and using the tools they had brought to dig out tunnels underneath the shipwreck on which they started to make a living inside. The tunnels were intended for fellow criminals to go into hiding, or alternatively, store their valuables which they had claimed from their many… legitimate businesses. After the foundations of the tunnels were laid out, making them usable, the duo would sit down on the dirt and mud, resting under the shelter of the wreck. They clinked their two pint glasses together and took a joyous swig to celebrate the future of Bucelt’s Bay.

 

Lair Build and Infrastructure (photos required):  https://imgur.com/a/R3YMMfM

 

Why can you not accomplish the niche of this lair’s roleplay in an existing settlement or nation? (We expect a substantial answer for this, not just ‘I don’t like them’): On LOTC there is a severe lack of crime RP, and banditry is almost non-existent. This can mainly be accredited to the larger map and strict crack-downs imposed by most nations on the issue of thievery. With it fading out of existence it feels like a part of LOTC’s charm goes along with it. The hope of this project and lair is to rejuvenate the once bountiful magic of thievery and no rules go. The lair is meant for a place for like minded scoundrels to meet up and coordinate a devious plan rather than doing it via discord and to have a place to stash the ill-gotten gains.

What does this lair add to the greater world around them?: This lair would give rise to a genre of RP that in my opinion isn’t too common or is extremely hard to find on the server. The aim of Bucelt’s Bay is to eventually evolve into a crime-ridden settlement to give home to Almaris’ worst and most devious along with petty thieves. This would allow people to form gangs easier or plan out heists, robberies and the like IRP rather than OOC through Discord. This would raise the threat of common and more proficient criminals on the server once more, hopefully allowing more crime-oriented RP and events in nation capitals, on the roads, etc. The theming of the lair is heavily centered around buildings, ideologies and moral codes located in various pirate havens in real life from the Golden Age of Piracy, although the lair welcomes all types of criminals. The only other location that would allow this type of style and vibe from the server is Freeport, although it is long since abandoned and is now a permanent event site for the foreseeable future.

[The King Of The Moon 5122]

Speaking from experience as the former PRO of Freeport when it was at its most active, the marine niche is very very hard to capitalise on for the longterm due to how painfully under-represented ships are in minecraft as a medium.

Whilst I fully support the culture you're going for, I think you're going to find the feat of promoting anything longterm even more herculean if you stick with the location you've currently selected. A big problem with Freeport (being in one of the tiles you selected) was that due to the terrain and road layout of the southern continent (very clearly an afterthought for the WT when designing this map) as well as its distance from the southhub fast travel, our community was CONSTANTLY doomed to tread water when not saturated with events to keep activity numbers up. Even when we had enough activity to consider progressing to nation status this fact was glaring enough to deter us, and eventually was the main reason for abandoning the settlement. The reality is that a 5~ minute walk required to access a lair/ settlement/ nation will always doom its activity, especially with a niche like maritime RP that is often unsustainable. 

In light of that I'd strongly recommend you look to place your lair elsewhere if you have any plans for building activity and expanding into a proper settlement in future. My personal recommendation would be in some of the tiles surrounding westhub, which since being released from Elvenesse are now prime real estate. 

I'd also like to wish you the best of luck with your project!

[WestCarolina 1779]

Unfortunately, this application has been denied. If you would like further information please contact me on Discord.

Carol#7747

[WestCarolina 1779]

Lair application completed. It will be sorted according and a World Team member will contact you on it's status.