At the beginning of the journey on our brigantine, we agree on the following conditions:
- Cannon shots at other player ships may only be fired with bewitched cannonballs once a reapers flag has been hoisted.
- As soon as we have collected enough bewitched balls, we set the reapers flag and start an order from Athena.
- The cashing of treasures is omitted until the end of the journey, after which the reapers flag is allowed to be withdrawn.
Preparation
First, we have to collected at least a two-digit number from each type of bewitched ball. We head for all nearby outposts, plunder every visible wreck and empty every visible fort. The evening appears promising, on the horizon we see other ships: a brigantine, a galleon we see, a sloop we suspect. As we arm ourselves, we get into skirmishes with a galleon attacking us. We sail away, avoiding all avoidable encounters in order not to overstretch the preparation time. What is dragging on, ballast balls are obviously rare this evening. But since they won't help us much either, we will refrain from looking for more of these balls. The minimum quantity of other balls is finally fulfilled, we hoist the flag and start the orders of Athena. We load the cannons with one purple and one green ball on each side. An attacker may see what awaits him, we think.
The main journey
The tension is great. On the map we see another fast moving ship sailing right under the same flag. Something is happening here, we think. After half of Athena's orders are finished, we notice all other ships tend to avoid us. Whichever direction we go, the other ships vanish. How to proceed? We decide to continue with Athena's orders, until they are completed. To our disappointment, nothing further happens. We consult each other. On the horizon there were always ships to be seen, Athena's orders are done. We decide to risk everything and are now looking for contacts on our part.
Interludes
First, we attack the galleon that initially attacked us. It would be a big coincidence if this was another galleon, as not many ships sail in full parrot dress and rainbow flag. We reach it fast, hit first with an anchor ball. The galleon sinks spontaneously. We are stunned. A swimming sailor insults us, we would have spoiled the game he played with his two children. We express our regret. While we watch him being surrounded by sharks and two chests rising to the surface, we sing a lullaby. When the shark finally begins his meal, we friendly wish to have a good bedtime story, because of the kids. The chests turn out to be shipwreckers. Well, we are now in the mood to take it.
We set course for the other ship with the reapers flag. As soon as it perceives that we are aligning our course, it flees. It keeps the distance, so we know it has to be a brigantine, too. Hunting it, we first turn an almost complete round over the map. Finally we go to the middle of the map, drive from here ever larger arches towards the outsite, waiting for the other ship to stand in a favourable wind direction for us. The ship is now denied further escape, as the corner of the map is the last direction it could sail to, so that it would have to face us. But it obviously prefers submitting suicide in the red sea.
The Final
The evening has progressed. The expected exciting situations have failed to materialise. In sight, a fort calls for robbery by means of a cloudy skull. We fulfill this wish, further undisturbed by other ships, which still pass by on the horizon. We load our ship with loot and leave. The course is set, the direction is free. A brigantine anchors far, far away. We drink a grog or two and discuss the quite miraculous behaviour of those other players. Meanwhile, our light sailor climbs the crow's nest, because, he mentions, the blasting barrels were too widely spreaded and an easy a target for any sniper. At least any sniper would be an event, but whose ship the sniper should come from, we murmur, while in the crow's nest, the sailor prooves we don't need any others to experience an event. Suddenly: a scream, followed by powerful and multiple detonations. We meet again on the ferry of the damned, our light sailor dares to tell the following: he had lit one of the blasting barrels in high spirits and, instead of extinguishing it, had accidentally dropped it with the fuse still burning, right into a large number of gunpowder barrels, including the powerful fortress one. However, since he had placed the explosive barrels so tightly, he was no longer able to grab exactly this barrel. One by one, he lifted only unlit barrels, until the whole mess blew up. We regret that keelhauling was not introduced as a game mechanic and try to save the ship. But we arrive just in time to sink. Also our rowboat was destroyed. Unfortunate coincidence. We order the light sailor to fetch a new ship. Meanwhile we try to keep the treasures above water and to defend ourselves against sharks. Fortunately, we have a box of fruits swimming with us, next to our treasures. But faster than the sharks, the brigantine rushes to us, you remember it? Whether coincidence, revenge or greed for our flotsam is left open, but it is the brigantine which fled from us into the red sea. While we have to let ourselves be mocked and shot at, we receive news that our light sailor has been sunk by the Kraken. So, again we meet on the ferry of the damned. We immediately start a salvage trip, continuing under the reaper flag, but when we arrive at the scene of our disaster, we only find the box of fruit.
Laughing about our misfortune and stultifying the light sailor, we take another sip of grog. Together, we sing
"Das kann doch einen Seemann nicht erschüttern,
keine Angst, keine Angst, Rosmarie!" None of us is recalling the rest of this lyrics. As the light sailor mentions, this was a song from world war 2, a perseverance song of propaganda, we tell him to shut the f* up, sink the brigantine on the spot and go to bed...
