Since I only had to do a few of the multi crew thrones and REALLY didn't feel like doing Marauder's Arch again I decided to hop on a sloop solo to find some other crew to help me. At the shipwright I decided on what color would work best for this voyage so I decided to go with the friendly bilgerat green, with the green fishy and the founders sails. I left on all the lights and raised the rainbow flag.
After sailing around a bit I noticed a sloop flying the rainbow flag as well and as I approached immediately got the "WE'RE FRIENDLY" message. Jack and Rick, a friendly bunch of young english pirates, we're doing thrones as well. After some advice to complete the throne they were attempting in a much easier way, we came to a mutual agreement to do some thrones together and both sailed off. After completing the throne at Smuggler's bay we had some discussion on where to go next. I told them that I only had the one around Plunder left and they still needed Shipwreck Bay, Plunder outpost and.... Marauders Arch.
After glancing at the map a bit, staring at the wind it became quite clear that Marauders Arch seemed the most logical choice. I told them about my experiences with @Sshteeve but eventually gave in. I told them that if they had the time, I'd help as long as they can help me do Plunder Outpost later. My plan to avoid Marauders Arch failed, but I hoped for the best...
Reaching Marauders Arch already predicted the opposite as there was a storm directly above it. The first couple of shots were miserably off because of the high waves, luckily the storm cleared after a few minutes. Another 15 minutes later I was the first one to reach the throne and luckily Rick managed to use the same cannon and succeeded to land a few tries later, I almost thought it might be faster than last time... Jack however could have been @Sshteeve's little brother and seemed to fail almost every shot :) Since the clouds were gone, the view from the cannon wasn't ideal to determine the bobbing so we had to give him the sign when to shoot. Due to a slight delay it always seemed just the wrong timing. It took Jack about 30-40 minutes but he did it eventually so we quickly continued our journey.
Unfortunately young Rick had to leave afterwards because of parental annoyances, but Jack said he'd stay for the rest. Shipwreck Bay was a breeze so my last throne seemed to be within my grasp. We sailed off but already noticed a galleon in the direction we were heading. As we came closer but we're still way far out of reach, the galleon that was flying the red flag started shooting. The cannonballs splashed in the water so far we could almost only see it when the spyglass. I told Jack to ignore them and just sail on, they didn't even seem to be heading our direction.
At Plunder Outpost I remembered getting up the big rock when me and @PersonalC0ffee we're bored and decided to see how far we could get up. I remember talking about the platform that just had to be a placeholder for something. Using my spyglass I quickly found a throne on the wooden platform and told Jack about it. He immediately dropped anchor although he was quite far behind me. I managed to shoot myself up in two tries and Jack, out of luck and banana's had some problems and some visits to the ferry.
From my throne I could oversee the sea and noticed the same galleon approaching my ship. They dropped anchor close to the rock, so I sent a few "WE'RE FRIENDLY" messages, but they didn't respond and I noticed one guy swimming over towards my ship. Jack just died and I couldn't see his ship anymore, so I sword lunged off the rock to keep my ship safe. The swimming guy was in front of me and I tried talking and messaging him but there was no response. On my ship he immediately headed into the hull and I followed him with blunderbuss in hand. After I removed the unwanted passenger from my ship I started talking and messaging the galleon. I told them we're doing the thrones and I don't allow uninvited people on my ship without communication, they're free to join but shouldn't mess with us.
The galleon raised anchor and slowly positioned themselves in firing range without any communication. I raised my anchor, angled the wheel and dropped the sails and noticed they were firing again. Lucky for me they had a blind cannoneer, so I decided to hop into the crowsnest to swap to the rainbow flag for the jolly roger and make them regret shooting at me. Up in the crowsnest I suddenly noticed Jack sailing back, so I used the speaking trumpet to tell him they're not friendly and that I raised the jolly roger. He replied he'd do the same and that he had a random 2nd crewmember that accidently took his ship for a spin while he was dead.
With both sloops heading towards the galleon, they fired in seamingly random directions and when we got close they suddenly dropped anchor. Unfortunately we both did the same and both sloops were out of range of the galleons cannons. After unloading some cannonballs on the people on deck, Jack hopped on board to kill of the remaining crew members. As we started shooting the galleon to sink it, we suddenly got attacked by a rainbow flying sloop. I suddenly realised what it might look like, two sloops both flying the jolly roger attacking a poor galleon crew. I quickly informed Jack and his crewmate to continue sinking the galleon as I pulled out my diplomacy trumpet and convived the sloop we were the good guys.
The sloop guy believed us and sailed on as the galleon went down for their aggression. We sailed back to Plunder Outpost and finally managed to do it after about 5 shots. Another exciting and interesting adventure on the Sea of Thieves.
