Sailing the Seas Once More, The Redemption Arc

Reflections on the first 31 days

It has been a month since I had returned to the Sea. I had high hopes, my initial writings starting with optimism and joy, with encounters that made me think "This isn't so bad. I can work with this". Now all I am left with is a feeling of melancholy and discontent.

What had brought this sudden feeling that you may wonder, dear reader? I suppose my last outing had left me feeling disappointed to such a degree that it made me begin questioning my purpose for being here. An escalated sentiment I am sure, but this is accounting for when I had finished my voyaging for the rest of the day, so it is not unexpected of me to escalate things somewhat. As Anya often tells me, I am true royalty when it comes to dramatics.

I expressed an interest in taking part in naval warfare out in the open sea, but as time went on and I had gotten more of a taste for it, I had found it severely lacking. Ironic, since I had some time spent battling within the Sea Dogs Arena, but it has a very different feeling fighting out at sea with not as many high stakes being involved, and being wailaid by marauders and you yourself having no living chance in combating them, only to lose your ship and whatever cargo within.

It has been exhausting, truly, and genuinely disheartening when a single marauder is capable of effortlessly striking you down and sinking your ship, and then calling it a "Good fight" after the fact.

And so remains the burning question: "Why do I still care?" A question that has no real easy answer as my mind is without a doubt the most confusing and complicated puzzle box wrapped within an enigma, making others perceive me as a raving lunatic. I am aware of this quite well.

I suppose I still have the intended goal of fulfilling my obligations. I am still four paces from earning the highest honor within the Merchant Alliance, and I've an interest in fulfilling that goal. After that? Hard to tell, as I have found myself no longer motivated to sail the Sea of Thieves.

Why do I still write this entry full of melancholy, when I am aware that none would truly care if I were to sail back to the Old World and hopefully stay gone for good?

Though as Mr. Minto had told me in his ever cheerful demeanor, I am comparable to that of a short stout bearded man of ancient fables, noting my absolute determination on aspects. In this case, my absolute determination to enjoy sailing these open waters. And yet, I still want away...

I will most likely write some further logs unrelated to my experiences out at sea, and I also wish to share the images taken during my time. Soon as I find out how...

Aye, ‘tis hard to suffer loss, particularly a loss ye feel helpless to prevent. But mark ye well, ‘tis customary among gentlemen to be gracious in victory as well as defeat, and whilst ye foe perhaps chose poorly in phrasing, his intended respect was clear. Such gentlemen pirates be rarer than hen’s teeth upon the Sea.

‘Twould be a shame to see ye sail for calmer shores, but a sailor must spend his limited time in pursuits that best suit his demeanor and ideals of happiness. May the horizon bring ye full sails and calm waters.

@sn0kanon said in Sailing the Seas Once More, The Redemption Arc:

‘Twould be a shame to see ye sail for calmer shores, but a sailor must spend his limited time in pursuits that best suit his demeanor and ideals of happiness. May the horizon bring ye full sails and calm waters.

I am genuinely not sure if this is genuine or not, but uhh.... Thanks.

Sorry, I'm still in a bit if a melancholy mood thinking about the game.

@kalgert This is genuine, just trying on my Pirate Role-Playing suit. As you can see, it is off the rack, not custom-tailored 😁

Oh, I have no problem with the Roleplay bit, I'm just in that mood where I act all suspicious-like about the nice things someone says :p

It'll pass, don't worry, just need a bit if time I think.

@kalgert No worries; been there, done that myself.

Sidelog: The Search for Crewmates

When I made my return to the Sea of Thieves, I did so with the understanding that venturing forth by myself would be a fairly unwise tactic. Abd thus, one of my goals was to find as many sailors as I could, recruit them to my cause and form a network that would allow me to set out with some assurance that I will not suffer alone if it came down to naval warfare against anyone.

Alas. That goal had not been fulfilled. While I have sailed with Anya and Mr. Minto, I still ordained it to be necessary to have a wider connection. Especially since Anya wishes to sail only when she has the voice for it, while Minto and I have schedules that do not intersect, making it difficult to arrange when we could set out.

I have shared in my entries that I have indeed met a fair amount of souls that I had an amicable interaction with, such as the one sailor who I have met soon upon my return. Unfortunately, he and his crew had not called upon me ever since we parted ways.

The man who I assisted in vanquishing a Sea Fort woth? He too did not call upon me. The sailor who I joined forces with to assist him in scavenging a shipwreck? Never heard from him again. Countless more who I encountered and parted ways with in a favorable manner did not deem it necessary to call upon me, while my hails go by unanswered. Though in all truth, my scheduling would make it very difficult to sail with any of them.

I suppose I could offer my services within the Open Crew, but my experiences there have been most foul. Asking in a tavern within an outskirts however... I have tried a handful of times bearing no fruit. Perhaps I should try again.

At the end of the day, I must say... I am lonely, drifting in the ocean all alone.

@kalgert

Kinda ruining that beatiful writing but...

Solo sloop is the way to go.

@thorumsu Solo Sloop hasn't been very cheerful either. The last outing still makes me feel sad thinking about it :p

Day ??, 18th October

Today I decided I would try sailing again, and I must admit that I had my reservations in doing so, as my previous excursion was still of a sore wound. But I still wish to fulfill my intended goal of reaching the highest honor with the Merchants Alliance, so I gritted my teeth and kept myself ready for disappointment.

Fortunately, it did not come. There was a shape of a ship visible on the map, a representative of the Reaper's Flame, but the cursed marauders were far from where I was currently destined towards in my search for a shipwreck. The search went off without a hitch as well, though I am rather disappointed that the Merchant at the Plunder Outpist did not regard me with more positivity upon my offloading of the lost goods.

I then decided I would do some lighter voyaging as the Merchant's representative, taking up shipment delivery routes that, surprisingly, also went on without confrontation with any marauders. Most curious, and most certainly welcome.

I then decided I would pay visits to two locations: The Shrine of Tribute and the Gold Fortress, or how it is called. My visits to these locations were brief, as I was only interested in commodities that the Merchants would be interested in. So if any seafarers ended up finding their way to these locations, abandoned of their guardians and stuffed to the brim with treasure, you may consider thanking me.

I am happy that this excursion of the day did leave me considerably closer to my end goal. There is an observation I have sitting on my mind as I pen this entry. Many seafarers around the Tavern Floor reprive their tales of marauders from foreign dimensions travelling through portals, invading our form of reality. I listen to them, cradling my feathered companion within my tunic, as they scorn these invaders and declaring how their presence make the Sea of Thieves no longer full of mystery and intrigue.

As they finish their tale, I cannot help but ask myself whether or not they too come from a foreign land themselves, as I have found the Sea to already be rather predictable in its nature, as seafarers often turn out to be marauders in nature, turning their cannons against one another rather than meet and greet one another. It is true that I have had encounters that did not end in warfare, it is nonetheless a rarity for that to happen... And it usually happens when I am the one who makes the approach.

I am also left wondering how does one claim this power over travelling through portals into other dimensions. Perhaps it could come useful in times of being chased by marauders.

(The part about cradling my parrot got me reminiscing about my own parrot. Lovebirds are special for having the habit of getting themselves into confined spaces. I miss the days where he'd climb into my shirt and poke out of my collar or make his way to the sleeves, I even miss the unease if he would pinch me in the tender chest area. I miss him and I hope he was happy with me and my family. It makes me sad, but I should take Butters' words to mind about the beautiful sadness: https://youtu.be/mZOM6hOnEBE )

Anyway, enough of that drama, gotta get home and work on some stuff.

I miss him and I hope he was happy with me and my family. It makes me sad, but I should take Butters' words to mind about the beautiful sadness: https://youtu.be/mZOM6hOnEBE )

First off, great South Park reference, haven't watched it in awhile but forgot how good it was. Second, I think seeing our pets realize their own personalities and watching them express their own identity as individuals is proof enough that they're happy. For people or animals, hard to express your true self if you're not in a place where you feel safe and happy.

So not really a story entry, but something I think people might get a giggle out of at my expense.

I literally just alt-F4'd when a Reaper was closing up on me as I was holding some Merchant's Cargo. Didn't want to deal with that headache.
My one regret is not throwing stuff overboard as I was sailing up to the spot, to at least spite the guys with some soggy fabric.

October 22nd-23rd

It has been trying, but I finally may know a sense of... Peace, if one could call it. Stay a while and read on, dear reader, for this entry shall perhaps be the longest.

My journey started in the morning hours, sailing the sea looking for shipwrecks as per usual in my quest to attain the highest honor with the Merchants Alliance (At this point in time I am one pace away from attaining it), but it was a very unrewarding sail for this time.

In fact it was most confusing. The final clue had me nestled on a small island with an outpost none too far, and a squabble of gulls none too far away. However there was an aura around that area that urged me to keep my distance.

Speaking of keeping a distance, there was a Brigantine docked by the outpost, and as a result I turned tail and went in the opposite direction far from them. I was lost in a crossroads and I had no direction as to where to go, so I journeyed to the Dagger Tooth Outpost and sold whatever I had collected during my search for the lost merchant ship. Upon my return the ship was gone. And yet the shipwreck was nowhere to be seen. I suspected that it sunk further down with the visit of this mysterious Brigantine.

Instead I decided I would pay a visit to the Reaper's Hideout after... Collecting a mysterious chest from this wreckage I spotted earlier. What is the purpose of such a chest that permeates such a profound evil? What kind of treasure does it hold within? It fills me with many questions. None the less I sold any surplus items that I had with me, along with a key I found. I did not wish to sell it to the Alliance as I did intend to sail with Mr. Minto. He was quite eager to join me on the last leg of my journey.

And so, the evening came, and we had a chance to set sail in search of lost shipwrecks once again. It was a delightful time where we could share in tales from the Old World and make jokes. Our first discovery of a wreck went off without a hitch, the second one started excellently, but then... Disaster struck, with two marauders donning the Reaper robes wailaid upon us. Needless to say we were defeated and we lost the entire cargo that we collected from the shipwreck.

I am not ashamed to admit that I was distraught, furious and filled with vengeance. Minto on the other hand kept a smile to his face. I shall admit that his endearing optimism managed to calm me somewhat, yet the surge of emotion has left me rather nauseous, and it was not the combination of grog and high waves that caused it. We did end up seeing the same Sloop of marauders be struck down by a fleet of Brigantines though, which brought me some joy.

As a result of our failed voyage but being so very close to our goal of me earning the highest honor within the Merchant Alliance, we set off for the Devil's Roar in hopes of finding a cargo delivery task.

What we instead found was the debauched Sloop with the marauders who decided to once again give chase at us. This time we were more prepared, trying to employ tricks that would cause the pursuers to be halted. One delightful sight was seeing them crash into some rocks, but it did not stop them for long though. We sailed past an outpost, at which I jumped off the ship to sell off a sapphire we found, and one of the marauders sent himself flying towards my location, to which we then crossed swords. I find myself fortunate that he was unable to strike me down.

They pursued us relentlessly though, and we could not quite shake them off. One of them employed the same trick as before, but we were able to repell him this time. We then sailed past the outpost at the Devil's Roar and I made landfall there. I ended up having a stand against these two marauders actually, giving Mr. Minto a chance to gain some distance. I was able to strike down one of them, keep them distracted, and yet I did fsll eventually, they had found themselves successfully distracted in the end, and we could move on to our task.

We learned however thst the cargo delivery would take us much longer than necessary, so Minto decided an ideal plan would be to trade commodities between the Outposts. At the Devil's Roar we bought the entire stock if minerals and sailed off to the nearby Ancient Spire outpost and sold everything we had bought. And it was enough to earn the highest honor with the Merchants Alliance.

It is done. My trials have come to an end. Before I could take my leave, Mr. Minto urged me to accomoany him to the tavern, and he would then show me a secret. There he instructed me to play a song, that revealed a passageway. And down that passageway lead us to the Athena's Fortune, what I am told is the ship of legend within the Sea of Thieves. He gave me a whole tour of the hideout and then we sat down and enjoyed the ghostly spirits playing their songs. He made special mention of Merrick being among the spirits, and all I could say in response is "I don't know who he is!". Such is the case when the Sea had events happening within my absence.

And so, my journey has come to an end. I am sure there are more adventures to be had, but if I shall be honest, dear reader, I am tired. This evening alone has given me perspective on things, which may very well overshadow my time spent after my return to the Sea. Is this truly what I should expect from here on out? Still the same trials and tribulations when it comes to sailing the Sea of Thieves? I shall not lie and say that there was perhaps some mild excitement in crossing swords against a band of marauders, but in truth, I simply do not take a fancy to it. I am still firm in my belief that there is more to this ocean than the promise of warfare upon the waves against one another in this desire for battle that is often found when you see a ship.

And I return to the same question that has been asked of me many times: Why do I still care? Perhaps I have my answer now. Perhaps it was my search for the goal of Pirate Legend that drove me to persist. That sense of finality, a sense of completion that would allow me to say "I have done the primary thing, I can rest easy now", and rest easy I think I shall be able to.

It is funny. At some point of writing this journal a rather ambitious thought occured to me: Perhaps Umbra would find my journal and choose to immortalize my entries, perhaps put this journal under a table for any curious soul to read of my exploits and journey across these waters. Then I realized how juvenile the thought is, knowing that I am nothing more than a bilgerat in the grand design of the Sea of Thieves.

I do not believe I shall be making any further entries into this journal, let alone set sail for the foreseeable future. I had noticed thst my dreams have also become peaceful and I no longer hesr the call as I did before. Perhaps... I have found peace, my redemption? Thst is for you to decide, dear reader, and may your sails be pleasant.

What follows after this entry is a series of drawings depicting multiple events with no particular order within.

(I still wanna post some screenshots before I do actually abandon this thread because I really do feel like I can relax and not have the game weigh so heavily on my mind now that I got Pirate Legend with Minto accompanying me. If I really do stop posting here, then I hope you all enjoyed the read.)

@kalgert Congratulations on making Pirate Legend; maybe it’s a lot easier than it used to be (dunno, I wasn’t there) but I at least was still proud of the accomplishment and you have a right to be as well. Thanks for taking the time close out this chapter of your story so nicely, whether it be the final chapter or not. I quite enjoyed it.

@sn0kanon Thank you for the congratulation. A lot of people say it is easier, can't really say much on that since I don't pay much attention to all of that, all I know is that it took me around 50-60 hours of total playtime, give or take, to get my reputations from around 30 to 50. So no small grind I have to say.

I do feel relieved about getting to Pirate Legend though, makes me think I can finally put this game down now that I have that sense of completion out of it. Who knows, maybe I'll dip in to see what Season 8 has to offer, but I don't think I'll be giving such a huge investment like I did for this season.

@kalgert

Well... Returning to the outside world eh? Not unexpected. Some people just love the rules of the outside world. Maybe you can come back someday, maybe not. The whole journey was about redemption and maybe... This was it.

I am still suprised that you never tried the A Pirates Life Tales though. Great story missions where other players can't mess with you.

But maybe the redemption was facing other players and not escaping further...

I just hope you finally found some closure.

Maybe you can even watch a pirate movie and finally enjoy it without any problems.

@thorumsu said in Sailing the Seas Once More, The Redemption Arc:

@kalgert

Well... Returning to the outside world eh? Not unexpected. Some people just love the rules of the outside world. Maybe you can come back someday, maybe not. The whole journey was about redemption and maybe... This was it.

I am still suprised that you never tried the A Pirates Life Tales though. Great story missions where other players can't mess with you.

But maybe the redemption was facing other players and not escaping further...

I just hope you finally found some closure.

Maybe you can even watch a pirate movie and finally enjoy it without any problems.

There exists a possibility I will try out the PvP stuff once it comes out, maybe it'll be the thing to make me get invested into the game. I played Arena often when it was around, so here's hoping the whole on-demand action will scratch that itch (If it also comes with making the on-foot combat less of an RNG situation :p)

I did think about the Pirates Life stuff, but something kept me from wanting to get invested into that. Either it was my desire to get to Pirate Legend and get a sense of completion from that, or if it was the Disney influence that made me want to avoid it. It's also very possible that I just don't like someone impersonating Johnny Depp, but that's a whole other kettle of fish.

I have found that facing other players was a tedious chore that left me disappointed moreso than filled with euphoria :D At least no one can claim that I didn't try getting myself into some combat scenarios with other crews, even if I didn't really enjoy it.

But yeah, hopefully I can finally feel some peace and be able to watch Pirates of the Caribbean without feeling depressed brooding about Sea of Thieves. I still wish I could've played with more players I could potentially get along with outside of Minto and my gal, would probably give me some extra perspectives.