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Lore

The year was 1697 that two men met for the first time right here in the Black Mongoose Inn. Riley Steeps was a wealthy man, weighted with family fortune he could not spend hastily enough. Always armed with steel and a fast temper, no one who knew Steeps dared speak against the man. He enjoyed his drink too if I recall my grandfather's accounts correctly -- Remind me to tell you the tale of Steeps and the gun merchant one of these days... Er, anyway, Jacques Belerose was a broad man with as much cunning as any sod before him. He was a cutthroat, as like to slip a knife between your shoulder blades as shake you by the hand. Within the first decade of conducting business together, these two built one of the largest smuggling chains the Caribbean has seen. What began as a single ship sailing between Port de Prince and Tortuga grew into a web of villainy that threatened to entangle the whole of the New World.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As time passed, the Governor knew Belerose was growing desperate. He'd lost well over half  his fleet, with more being tracked down by privateers each week. But he never expected to hear Belerose had returned to Port de Prince, AND handed himself in to the guard! That very afternoon Jacques Belerose was executed. But with his last words announced that he would return from the grave to claim revenge on Governor Steeps. Then he was hanged from the neck until dead.

 

Belerose' words were soon forgotten as the waters around Port de Prince finally knew peace. Then one morning in May of 1709 the Governor's youngest daughter drowned while swimming just north of town. The incident was treated as an accident, but whispers began to spread that the ghost of Jacques Belerose had returned to fulfill his dying curse… The Governor, though grieved, refused to believe that Belerose could have anything to do with his daughter’s death. A week later the Governor's wife, a native by birth, fell ill. She died the very same day the Governor's only son fell to his death from the window of his room. The governor, with the rest of Port de Prince, was now convinced this was no coincidence -- that Belerose or his agents must be behind these tragedies. Calling on the city guard the governor commanded they protect his remaining family. Aside from himself, the only remaining survivor was his oldest daughter.

 

With six slaves Governor Steeps journeyed to the island's center, cutting his way through thick jungle and wading through oozing swamps searching for a rumored Haitian Priest. Find him they did. The Governor told the mystic of his plight, asking if it was possible for Belerose to come back from the dead. The old man nodded his head and explained that he himself had brought Belerose back. Outraged, the Governor attacked but they say the mystic disappeared in a flash of light along with his home and the fire they’d been warming to. It took Steeps and his men almost a week to make it back to Port de Prince. While he'd been away, the Governor’s mansion burned to the ground with his beloved daughter inside. All he'd had in ruins, and knowing now who was to blame for his misfortune, the governor took a hundred men back into the jungle to hunt down the witch doctor responsible for bringing Belerose back to life. Neither he nor his men were ever heard from again.

 

Now, some reckon that natives ambushed and killed the men. Some think the Governor used the last of his wealth to buy a ship and sail off, becoming a rogue captain himself. Others insist Belerose finally had his revenge. If you ask me the old gov just had an awful run of bad luck, and that voodoo-man wanted to puff himself up... But one thing I do know, there are men twisted as Belerose who are known to be alive and well walking the streets as we speak. Many of them find their way here to the Black Mongoose. Take my warning captain. These men are death incarnate. They are the tendrils of evil and the arms of chaos. If you play dice with the devil and lose, it is they he calls upon to collect his due.

One night Steeps flew into a rage at Belerose, though no one knows what over. The following morning the city guard found Steeps' corpse lying twisted in the gutter, a dagger through his heart. Now Steeps may have been a violent, unpopular sort, but Port de Prince was his home and he was not without friends and allies. Steeps had a brother -- the Governor General of Port de Prince no less! Well he was outraged to hear of his brother’s death. He ordered the city guard to find Belerose and arrest him on charges of villainous activity and murder, but cunning Belerose had escaped to Tortuga with all the wealth he and Steeps amassed over the years. It was then the Governor declared a two-year war on Belerose. The city guard rounded up and executed any who were thought to be associated with the man, and the Governor even hired his own private navy to hunt down and destroy any of Belerose' ships, costing vast portions of his family’s wealth. Likewise, Belerose hired brutes and assassins to kill those closest to the Governor. An attempt was even made on the Governor's life, but failed.

 

Jolly Jacques

So you want to know how it all started? Well, pull up a seat stranger and buy us a round, I'll tell you the tale of the cursed captain Jacques Belerose...

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