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.)