Story time.
I finished the Hungering Deep at the end of the first week of the event. Having seen some of the posts on here about people having trouble completing it, I decided that my play sessions for the following week would be devoted to helping others summon and defeat Megs.
So I would hang out at Sharkbait Cove for awhile, sail over to T6 and wait there, rinse and repeat. Sadly, my sessions so far have yielded nothing. Probably partly because I usually play outside of the main play times, so server population is low. However, the other day I DID have an encounter of note that led to some interesting self reflection.
I'd sailed over to T6, anchored and climbed the crow's nest to look out for any potential Meg fighters. Low and behold, within less than a minute, here comes a galleon.
"Ah, perhaps my chance to aid a fellow pirate has arrived," I thought. Examining the ship through my spyglass I saw plain black sails and.... a megalodon figurehead.
Well, it COULD have been one pirate who'd unlocked the figurehead helping out three who didn't. Alas, as I figured, this was not the case. The ship pulled up and shot a few cannonballs at me before another pirate boarded my sloop.
I watched from the crow's nest until the boarder climbed up after me, sword drawn. I dove off and made the lengthy swim to Devil's Ridge where I climbed to a vantage point to watch.
They sailed my sloop over a bit before stopping to presumably loot the supplies onboard; after which they sunk it. Now usually I'd just shrug, hop my mermaid and forget it. But I was in a mischievous mood that day.
I called out to them with the speaking trumpet (I think I said 'ahoy' and threw in a 'rolling on deck' as well), which brought them sailing over to the island. I got myself a good lookout spot with a ready escape route and watched as one or two of them started searching for me.
As they got closer, I leapt off a cliff to the water below and grabbed the mermaid. Now again, usually I'd just sail on, but apparantly Loki was still whispering in my ear, so back to T6 I sailed, picking up a gunpowder barrel on the way.
My new friends were still there, having sailed over toward Thieves Haven to investigate a shipwreck. What followed was a fifteen or so minute game of "keep away" in which I'd sail close enough to get them to start chasing me and then scamper off, using the surrounding rocks and of course Haven's cave to keep just out of range of them.
They'd always break off when I ran and then back again I'd go to pester them again. It got to the point where one potential boarder actually called out to ME with the trumpet, asking 'friend or foe".
"Sorry mate, that ship has sailed," I thought as I continued to buzz about their heads like an annoying fly. Eventually it was time for me to quit. I sailed close again, dropped anchor and climbed to the crow's nest where I'd stored my boom barrel.
Again I watched as they raised my anchor and drove my sloop into the nearby island. They jumped up onto the cloth roof of the sloop to look up at me in the nest. I waved to them twice before one waved back. Feeling that this was a fitting finale, I turned around and blew myself to smithereens with the gunpowder.
All in all it was a heckuva fun time and probably one of my favorite chases I've had in SoT. But it DID leave me thinking...
I never fired a shot at them, had no intention of even trying to kill any of them, and really wasn't even trying to be that annoying. If anything, the emotion I was most hoping to create was confusion. Just leave them going, "what was up with THAT?"
But I was still kinda pestering them for my own amusement. Low-level threatening them with my constant presence, even if the danger was all in their heads.
My question is; did I just catch a glimpse into the mind of a griefer? Even though my methods were quite tame in comparison, was my joy akin to what they feel? Was I flirting with the Dark Side?
