Our adventure began last night simple enough. My best mate had started a voyage and needed some help, so I joined her. We sailed our brig with reapers flag on, doing a merchants quest. Sure enough, several ships came our way, trying to grab our bacon and eggs. Two ships came at us, the first we turned away with a flurry of cannon fire, the second we simply out maneuvered to get to the outpost. We loaded our boat with more cages. Chickens and snakes to Ancient Spire we needed to deliver. No sooner than we left Galleons Grave then a Galleon sailed up to us. They had the angle, and nearly had us, but we once again were able to slip through. This crew were no fools, as they quickly anchor turned toward us and just as quickly were sailing once again. The chase lasted for quite some time. Neither ship getting a good angle for cannons, our brig unable to out run them. It was an epic stand off. Eventually, with a storm ahead my best mate just wanted to deliver the goods and switch servers, so we dropped the flag and ran through a storm with all lights off. It worked as we came out of the storm the Galleon had miscalculated our direction and were going the wrong way. We set off for Ancient, having a good lead, we were able to sell our goods before waving the Galleon goodbye.
Taking a short break, we started a new brig, again to try and get best mate's commendation for 30 quests with reapers on. However, shortly after spawning the skull cloud appeared, only a couple of islands over. The cloud was so large and calling us, that we didn't put a flag up, and didn't even decorate our ship. Surely no one was there yet as it just appeared. So we sailed towards it. But what was that just past the fort, a galleon. They didn't appear to be heading towards the fort, so we continued our approach, but with caution. We were not even in the zone yet when the Galleon turned and sailed directly towards us. My best mate just wasn't in the mode for PvP, so we sailed away, believing the galleon would turn and take on the skull fort. However, the galleon didn't turn. Instead it continued towards us. Soon we saw the text- we're friendly and lets for an alliance. I asked my best mate what she wanted to do, I was ok with whatever, as we hadn't wasted time stocking the ship, had no cages and nothing of value, a lost ship would not be the end of the world. With skepticism she said lets drop anchor and see what happens. So we dropped anchor. The galleon passed us, doing an anchor turn a little ways past us. While we were raising sails and preparing our ship, we saw it, a new alliance was formed. Maybe they were legit, but still nothing was assured. The galleon began to move heading our way. One of the "legends" on the other ship stood on the bow waving. The veered into our ship. Three "legends" jumping onto ours with guns ablaze. Both me and my mate just stood there, laughing that we had been duped.
Deciding she had enough, my mate logged off. I went to our new ship, and sure enough, thank you for adding us to your alliance galleon, for they had sailed to the skull fort, and our ship was at the island next to them. I sent a message to my best pirate assassin, simply stating, PvP on the Sea. A reply of "inv" came so fast I couldn't believe it. He joined, and we agreed, 4 "legit legends" we might need a third. So he contacted another friend of ours and told her we needed to avenge our mate. As she joined us, the skull cloud disappeared. Wow, must have been easiest fort ever I thought. As soon as she was on board we sailed off towards the galleon. Not caring if they see us or not. This was not about the loot, but about revenge. Sailing up we clearly did not catch them unaware as they unleashed a flurry of cannon fire, CCB and regular cannons flying over our heads. Our assassin went flying from a cannon to their ship as my third and I patched the ship and returned fire. I had set a perfect path around their ship with sails just right so we would not go too fast, but not be a sitting duck. Our assassin was able to board their ship and fight off one defender, then made his way to their crows nest. Apparently, while grabbing their stash from the vault, they had also grabbed some GP and left it on their deck. Our mates found more GB in the crows nest. Lighting it he dropped it and killed the cannons. Our ship continued to land deadly blows as our assassin went below deck on the enemy ship. Killing anyone that tried to patch any holes.
Their galleon sank and as it sank we dropped our alliance flag, hoping they would not respawn close by. We turned and slowly approached the loot that floated up. What a glorious sight it was, filled with not only loot from the fort, but also what appeared a hard days work. Possibly even and athena voyage of stuff. The crew of the galleon respawned at the fort, and began using the forts cannons against us. We fought back and after some time had subdued them all. Most of the floating treasures sank during the battle. But we did get the fort chest and two things of spices. Our assassin was on the island killing off the remainder of their crew. He took a look inside the vault, and saw they hadn't finished. There was still a lot let to be had. But, the galleon was coming in hot. So we decided to head to an outpost and cash in our rewards, and finish our revenge. The galleon came straight at us, ignoring the fort. They unleashed another flurry of cannon fire. CCB and regular cannons flying about. We returned fire to keep them at bay. Neither ship having the advantage and neither ship landing any serious blows. As we approached Golden Sands myself and my third mate jumped off with loot in hand. We sold the fort chest and one of the spices before the enemy could vanquish us.
Our assassin got back on our ship just in time to save it from sinking. Heading back from the ghost ship, we set out again exchanging cannon fire with the enemy until we reached sanctuary where we sold the last spices. Our assassin taking every chance he could to try and board their ship, sometimes successfully, and others not so much. Having fun with our revenge, and streaming the events so my best mate could watch, we went back to the fort. Galleon still giving chase. My ship mates jumped off and grabbed some loot as I circled around. Killing the enemy pirates that went after them. I circled around and picked up my mates, all while continuing to keep some distance from the galleon. We set off again to golden, selling off some more treasures. Now it was just straight up PvP. We continued our dance with the other galleon. One last piece of treasure, we set off to sanctuary. I had my assassin accompany my third mate to the island as I exchanged cannon fire with the galleon. The waves were choppy and made hitting them quite a challenge. But land a few blows we did. The galleon sent three "legit legends" to the island to try and intercept my mates. But my mates easily sent them to Davy Jones locker. The galleon, with only one pirate onboard sank to our surprise, they must not have fixed their ship after a few of my shots connected.
We set off one last time and made sure all treasure that didn't sink was collected, sold and decided to start a galleon so my best mate could join back in, having her second wind after watching our calamity and revenge on the galleon.
On our new server, what did I see, a skull cloud so big I felt I could touch it. At galleons grave we were spawned, next to a skull fort with no one in site. So once again, we set off for the fort. This time we had no one approach, no one even in site. We finished the fort and sold our goods. Having heard sooo many complaints about how PvP is dead for so many reasons, I decided to break ranks with my normal and go on the hunt. Normally I am a don't confront, let them be the first to shoot, but having heard so much complaining I decided I needed to test this. So we checked the map and sure enough, a reaper flag. We set sail, and found it to be on a sloop. The sloop saw us and began to run, but in a defensive way. They planned on countering. They even switched flags to the Jolly Roger making sure we knew, they were ready for us. But along chase, after some cannon fire exchange we saw a squirrel in the form of a brig. Not quite feeling right about a galleon against what appeared to be a solo sloop, I turned towards the brig. The brig turned and ran. While chasing this brig, we saw another squirrel, a galleon. Now that was more of a challenge, so we sailed off to them. Having spotted us along the way, they dropped sail and our dance began. They didn't run, and were a decent challenge. They hit us with many CCB, and some well placed regular cannon fire. But we pushed on, and eventually, after quite the back and forth, we prevailed. Their ship sunk, their crew tried to board our ship. Dispatching each one we saw the treasure trove they carried. Several villainous, some chests and silks. Grabbing the loot we set off towards ancient spire to sell off. Along the way, my assassin saw the brig and shot himself towards them. I was tired by now, and ready to call it a night, so I continued towards ancient. We got to ancient just as our assassin boarded the brig. Once he was on board he saw they had a grog chest, some other loot, and a weeping chest on land. So, my mates convinced me to take one last ride. So, we set off, the brig crew finally spotting our assassin managed to get the drop on him and sent him back to our ship via the ghost ship. After another lengthy battle, once again CCB and regular cannon alike being exchanged, the brig sank. I am sure that weeping chest didn't help their cause. Grabbing the loot we went and sold. Having allowed my crew to feed their blood l**t, I wonder if this will be a new trend for us.
All in all, it was yet another adventure for me and my crew. So much fun and so much reward and I guess I just wanted to say that PvP is not dead. In fact I have been in more PvP over the past two weeks than at any other time. I would also like to point out to those that say CCB's have killed the game, they most certainly have not. Not a single battle I have had over the past week was decided by CCB use, and last night we saw a lot of them fly our way with many of them connecting.
For anyone that is wondering, my assassin plays on console. And during the revenge fight, he could tell who was on pc and who was on console, and dispatched them equally.
Thank you Rare and SoT for another adventure/memory for me and my crew.
