It's a simple tale really, A man wanting to get the Order Curse (for fully completing the Cursed Rogue tale) but RNG and player interaction being fully against him.
*I go to plunder outpost after successfully defeating Briggsy for the fourth time, I refresh the quest and get Snake Island and Crook's Hollow as my destinations for the Key and the Chest. I got to Crook's Hollow so that the travel distance back to plunder is shorter (from Snake Island) and get the chest no problem.
However upon my approach to Snake Island I catch the ire of a new galleon (white sails and later donning the Reaper flag) and began to chase me. I feel like they were new to the game as their cannon shots were wide and their steering not that great. But they were tenacious; they never stopped their pursuit even when they were against the wind the majority of the time.
So I carried on sailing past both the island and the ship and used the harpoon to swing me around and towards thieves’ haven and against the wind. I began to make distance and hoped they'd just leave me alone - that's when the first of the PvE RNGs occurred. A skeleton ship emerged right next to me and fired its curse, and not just any curse, a Rigging Ball curse. So I had two relentless pursuers one of which repeatedly raised my sail so the Galleon behind could keep pace with me. Again with some harpooning I managed to lure the skeleton galleon close enough to the island it beaches itself, however the player galleon tried to cut me off by going the opposite way around the island. With a lift of my sails they missed me and I shot for Snake Island.
I got to the island but they were gaining (steadily) so I had to be quick, luckily the skeletons are easy for being in sloop so I quickly dealt with the captain and stole the key. I got back to my ship just in time to drop the sails and dodge a ramming action from the galleon, which beached itself for the time being on the eastern island of the three. After almost hitting the archway (because of dodging the skeletons that spawned on the canons I swung around and was making my way back to plunder outpost to grab the enchanted compass and hope that Olivia could kindly hurry up her magic. That’s when the RNG hit again.
Both our ships were in the open waters between Snake Island and Plunder Outpost. I jumped off to board their ship and give my ship some time to widen the gap; I miss however due to the ship hull pushing me underwater so I try again, only this time they dropped anchor. That was strange? When I returned to my ship I realised quickly why they had dropped anchor, a kraken came for a snackin’. Out of the two boats it chose mine and I was not equipped to deal with it after fighting off the Skeleton Galleon and it’s rigging-raising balls, so in my rage I did the only thing I could. Open the chest take the two items of Briggsy and throw one over board and swam as far as I could before quitting the server to try again.*
TL:DR? Aggressive player interaction is not fun when you’re doing a Tall Tale, nor is it fun when all the PvE creatures spawn to attack you along the way.
Silver lining to the story: *I managed to complete all the Cursed Rogue commendations after such a frustrating time so I now have my Order Curse (just want some Order-specific clothing to go along with it). And I made some friends; a brig was doing the same quest and at first I was cautious but they made it easier by hot-micing so I managed to turn my skull in without them knowing I was on the island. So I decided to vent some frustration and mess with them. I casually walk past one fishing and steal their supplies, she chased me off like a merchant trying to defend their fruit stand from thieves and I mermaided back only to repeat it again a second time.
The second time I hung out on the roof of the equipment shop and listened to her explain what happened to the other (I assume he was afk) and how she valiantly “defended” their brig. As they went to go and hand in the briggsy items for the compass I ran onto their ship, stole their items and then unanchored their ship and dropped a sail down. What I didn’t know was that their wheel was turned inland so it immediately crashed. While they panicked I returned to my ship I revealed myself like some Saturday-morning villain and was immediately fired upon (poorly) so I fired back with peace balls and generally messed them around.
As they came out to fight me in the open waters the RNG was favourable to me for once and a crested queen (the pink Meg) came to attack them, rather violently in fact and with my annoyance they sadly sunk, but not before our fishing pirate managed to climb onto my ship (which I allowed). We had a long fight but she actually managed to best me, who she was ecstatic about (apparently her first kill) which then they became too adorable to ignore.
When I returned to life she was gone but her voice wasn’t, I was anchored and they had returned to their newly re-spawned ship and she was talking about how fun that was for her and how happy she was to kill me. I sent her some messages and she replied but wouldn’t tell me where they were. So I made a guess; I knew they were going for briggsy so I went up to krakens fall, crooked masts and shipwreck bay to see if I could see their masts – no luck. But I returned to Plunder Outpost just as they came back from the shores of plenty and approached them.
They were really happy to find a friendly pirate (especially one that fought them first) and after some talking I find out one is a legend and the lady pirate was knew to the game, they both wore matching parrot outfits and we made friends (but the emote wasn’t working so we did it the old fashioned way). I hope to sail with them some time.*
