captain's log, full story

[morgan terror]

i repeat, do not comment on the story here. you can do so in my original captain's log topic.

i put up this topic to show what i'll be up to in my game. i started in a gunboat (giving it it's silly name) and use realistic sailing. most of this will be in telegraph style to shorten it. actual book-like style could occur as well sometimes. i'll keep updating this post once in a while. feel free to post in this topic. note: everything you read here actually happened. no kidding or gloryfication.

19:00 - set sail from douwesen after finishing some business. dungeon crawl, fixing the ship, etc. heading: redmond island, north by east. noticed the cannonball can be seen sitting in the bow cannon. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/w00t.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="" border="0" alt="w00t.gif" />

<img src="http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s208/morgan_terror/seadogs2_0006.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />

20:00 - leaving island behind. sighted war schooner off to port, sailing at roughly the same speed along with us. clowning around with the guns. discovered one port and starboard gun malfunctioning. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/unsure.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":?" border="0" alt="unsure.gif" />

21:00 - sighted large british convoy off to starboard. included corvette and chebec. beautiful sunset. war schooner dissapearing off in the distance, as well as the island. noticed lateen yard is bent in the middle. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/huh.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":huh" border="0" alt="huh.gif" />

22:00 - nightfall. picked up 24 cwt of sailcloth disguised as logs.

23:00 - doing nothing. discovered what the shimmers around the boat where: fishes. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="" border="0" alt="biggrin.gif" />

<img src="http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s208/morgan_terror/seadogs2_0017.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />

00:00 - midnight. spent some time watching a sack of whatever it was bobbing past, being unable to pick it up due to full hold.

01:00 - spent most of the hour trying to find some bloody ship with my spyglass. turned out to be some almost invisible lugger on the horizon.

02:00 - got the scare of my life when a shark jumped out of the water to snatch one of the fish right next to my boat. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/piratesing.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="" border="0" alt="piratesing.gif" />

03:00 - sighted lugger CT off to starboard.

04:00 - wind speed of 1.5 knots. going nowhere. being annoyed by the stupid fish overtaking me and swimming circles around me. sharks seemed to have joined the party.

05:00 - good news and bad news. good news: wind now blowing 21 knots. bad news: it's a headwind. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/mybad.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="" border="0" alt="mybad.gif" />

06:00 - dawn breakes with a nasty surprise. first, there's this pea soup i'm sailing through. second, there are two very fast pirate brigs on my tail, closing in fast. wind blowing from the stern.

07:00 - fog cleared. dumped literally everything overboard. got very lucky: managed to increase the distance when pirates got at 500 yards distance. didn't open fire. phew!

08:00 - fog's back in force. land sighted, but god knows how. feeling a little giddy this morning: hoisted black sail. picked up 5 survivors in a boat. sighted spanish light caravel and lugger.

<img src="http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s208/morgan_terror/seadogs2_0020.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />

09:00 - going nowhere again. fog didn't react to my blowing at it. sighted more cargo, but ignored it. bloody don nearly rammed me when i dozed off. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/dry.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="<_<" border="0" alt="dry.gif" />

10:00 - breakers on redmond shore sighted at the beginning of the hour. fog cleared straight after, quite literally. adjusted course to ENE. long way to redmond port though.

11:00 - headwind. tacking. considering going for devil's throat. course east, north, and anything in between. quite satisfied that i didn't end up at hispaniola or cayman like the last times. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/rolleyes.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="" border="0" alt="rolleyes.gif" />

12:00 - perfect wind. doing just over 8 knots consistently. very happy with speed. raced a shark. going for devil's throat, being very nervous.

13:00 - cost me two attempts and a few nails, but made it through the teeth. made landfall and crossed the jungles to the city. voyage took 4 real hours, with the occasional use of speed-up. don't think i'll ever attempt a cross-sea voyage in realistic sailing mode unless i'm really bored, cos that's at least three times the length.

<img src="http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s208/morgan_terror/seadogs2_0022.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />
<img src="http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s208/morgan_terror/seadogs2_0023.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />
<img src="http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s208/morgan_terror/seadogs2_0024.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />

 

[morgan terror]

just inside redmond city, day two. some guy named Robert Blewett (teehee <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile2.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=")" border="0" alt="smile2.gif" /> oi! ye blew it!) talked to me. usual yabber. chose to visit the dungeon.

<img src="http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s208/morgan_terror/dungeon.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />

discovered after my first fight that i was low on gunchowder. powder. either way, i soon ran out of it afterwards, but got more straight after the fight i used the last of it in. next, i got in a fight where i ran out again, and wen't up to level 3, training myself toughness, which was pretty handy, as i seemed to attracting swords like a magnet. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/duel_pa.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":ixi" border="0" alt="duel_pa.gif" /> apart from that, i'd been shot twice, and hadn't used any potions yet. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/guns.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":2guns" border="0" alt="guns.gif" />

my current stats are:

leadership 4, fully trained.
melee 4, base 3 (trained) +1 one point from a ruby.
sailing 2, trained.
accuracy and gunning 2, which is because i got it when i started a new game.
grappling, repair, defence, and commerce where all 1.
luck was 2 due to a lucky ring. goody.

now, you may wonder how i could have trained 6 points total. that's because i had 2 points you usually get from malcom to start off with. add the two points gained from the starting bonus and the two from the items and i have 10 points added at level 3. not bad eh? <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="" border="0" alt="smile.gif" />

i kept running out of ammo and gunch...powder all the time, but usually had one shot ready for each fight. this was when something interesting happened: i met 4 grubby bandits. one of them tried to shoot me at the exact same time at which i shot him. we both got shot, but he died, and i didn't. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile2.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=")" border="0" alt="smile2.gif" /> the pistol was still in his hand when he was lying on the floor, but i couldn't loot it for some reason. in the last fight before i got out i found some grapeshot, which wasn't much use, but i kept it in case i found a second. those blunderbusses pack quite a punch, although it takes twice the food. ammo.

after that, i wen't to the store to sell me loot and restock the tub. bought:

40 grape.
300 gunpowder (don't think i'd need more for that. sure hope not)
4 wheat.
2 rum.

good for at least 14 days, i think. transfer took 7 hours. it's 23:00 now, so it's off to the tavern to get some sleep.

next morning, hired some crew. maxed now, although i think i should know better than to do that. heck, how often am i going to use those cannons? well, better just call it a meat shield then. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/rolleyes.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="" border="0" alt="rolleyes.gif" /> i took the effort to go over my inventory:

average long pistol (equipped)
very shiny superior spyglass
even shinier ruby
5 small potions
thief knife
4 poison daggers (i really should start using them)
6 grenades (REALLY should have used those in the dungeon. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/boom.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":boom" border="0" alt="boom.gif" /> no, not for blowing myself up, although i did once. in fact, i didn't use them in fear of killing myself with my low health)
1 etherbottle (better not sniff that)
4 stones (starts juggling)
1 stinkpot (accidentally drops it while juggling. yech. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/sick.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":eww" border="0" alt="sick.gif" /> )
2 antidotes
3 blunderbusses (in case one of them explodes, which they tend to do. or more for the reason that you can't sell the bloody things)
1 unit of grapeshot
average dragon's tongue (equipped)(wonders which dragon they ripped it out of)
aye laddy, got da aver'ge highlander too!
5 bullets
3 gunpowder (really should find more of the stuff)

i found another potion in redmond, near the church. wen't to the docks to do the Rys Bloom mini-quest. hired him as an officer and gave him 3 potions (in addition to the one he had) as well as the highlander, taking his average schiavona to sell, which i didn't yet.

<img src="http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s208/morgan_terror/rystalk.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />

decided i should head back to the ship. excited the town, but got cought in a fight. Rys, the lazy bugger, didn't do anything, but nevermind. the fight gave me 2 mixtures, 2 elixers, a good sabre, and an average dagger. shot once, so that's two powder left. i can't help but wonder where the other two swords wen't. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/unsure.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":?" border="0" alt="unsure.gif" /> i'm sure i killed 4 of them. continued through the jungle. then i saw this:

<img src="http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s208/morgan_terror/shipgone.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />
"mister Rys, any idea why my ship is gone?"

yep, you guessed it, wrong beach. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/mybad.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="" border="0" alt="mybad.gif" /> all the worse considering that i specifically memorized the area where i entered the town from devil's throat, but ignored the memory all together. right, back we go. to top it all off, it started to rain. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/dry.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="<_<" border="0" alt="dry.gif" />

back in the jungle before the gates, i was robbed. killed the bastard. big mistake. all the others where after me now. well, let's just say that i shot once, got an average yataghan, 2 emerald pendants (one from the thief) a worn sabre and an avarage and good cutlass. shiney ones. checked my money afterwards. 32K. more than before the robbing, obviously, as i got my money back by killing the thief. i wondered what would have happened should i have done this in town.

found another antidote in the town and a potion. still raining when i got in the other jungle. finally arrived at the beach, where it stopped raining. jolly good.

<img src="http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s208/morgan_terror/foundship.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />

next stop, port au prince, hispaniola.

 

[morgan terror]

before setting sail, i spotted an antidote behind some rocks. strange that i didn't see it earlier. it was striking green and out in the open. anyway, i set sail at 13:14. the music fitted in pefectly, the bit where jack sinks into the harbor timing in exactly at the point where i hoisted the sail. and no, i didn't sink. first, i looked through the list of ships floating around in the area. there turned out to be a pirate sloop and tartane floating around somewhere near the island. i couldn't see them on the mini-map though. was a bit nervous about some shark which seemed particularely interested in me. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/unsure.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":?" border="0" alt="unsure.gif" /> anyway, i there was good wind, and i sailed through the teeth without much trouble. one side-effect of that wind where the waves. they where huge! i often dissapeared behind a wave alltogether.

yep, i was going for the sloop. it was risky, but i'd done it before, and i was near land anyway. i spotted it waaaaaaaaay off in the distance when i exited the bay.

<img src="http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s208/morgan_terror/seadogs2_0018.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />

as it didn't look like i was going to make it with the gun, i chose to close in a bit. BIG bit. and not getting smaller by the looks of it, as with this angle of the wind, they where actually going faster than i was. well, i wasn't going to dump the cargo overboard AGAIN. besides, i wasn't even sure if i would capture that ship, so if i didn't i'd have to make it to the other island without rations, and more importantly, without rum. and i didn't like the sound of that. by now i was starting to wonder if they where coming my way. i couldn't quite see it from here.

14:00 - yieeeeeeeeeeeeharrrrrrrr! <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/w00t.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="" border="0" alt="w00t.gif" /> 30 knot wind and going like a rocket-ship! <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/danse1.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="" border="0" alt="danse1.gif" /> with all this wind you'd think neptune ate too many beans. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile2.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=")" border="0" alt="smile2.gif" /> i can tell you one thing, surfing with a gunboat is FUN. i actually managed to surf on a wave for a full minute. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile2.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=")" border="0" alt="smile2.gif" /> i'm going one knot faster than them now, and they're definately not coming my way, i'm sure about that now. they are heading south. i'm heading WSW.

it was then that i spotted a flying fish! it was one of the regular fishies, but the waves where so big that it got lifted clean out of the water! <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/laugh.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":" border="0" alt="laugh.gif" /> now heading SW. by the looks of it, i'd probably overtake them in a week or so. as that didn't seem very appealing, i used sail-to.

15:00 - i ended up RIGHT where i wanted! the tartane was uncatchable, but i ended up right behind the sloop, going in the same direction. i took the oppurtunity to take some potshots at the thing.

<img src="http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s208/morgan_terror/seadogs2_0019.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />

the first was a miss though. BIG miss. i think i could have hit china with that one! however, the second and third hit where bang on target, costing him 10 crew! <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/w00t.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="" border="0" alt="w00t.gif" /> meanwhile, he was giving me hell too. cannonballs where literally flying round my ears, but due to some freak of chance, none hit me. here's his last two shots, which where a REALLY close call:

<img src="http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s208/morgan_terror/seadogs2_0023-1.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />

apart from that, it's an awesome screenshot.

now comes my favorite part of the chase. closing in on the enemy and making ready to board, trying to get speed, angle of approach and distance exactly right, trying to stay away from those guns. although i say so myself, i'm really good at it, and i can handle just about any boarding situation. suicidal or not.

<img src="http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s208/morgan_terror/seadogs2_0026.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />

the boarding that followed was a brutal one. Rys was killed immediately, and my two other crew didn't outlast him very long, leaving me to fight them on my own. great. well, let the picture speak for itself i'd say:

<img src="http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s208/morgan_terror/seadogs2_0027.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />

i was literally pulling up a pile of corpses around me, and due to toughness, i managed really well. in fact, due to some hasty slashing, i only had to fight two at a time. in the chests i found amongst other items an emerald. well, 1 more defence for me. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="" border="0" alt="smile.gif" /> some timing. anyway, by the looks of it, my two crew had both managed to kill one foe each before getting killed themselves. well, one sloop for me, and i'm happy. to top it all off 'one day' started playing when i wen't back to sailing mode. back on course now, heading west. checking the cargo hold i discovered a very nice treat indeed! turned out the ship had been stuffed with gold, chocolate, mahogany and ebony! sweet! my joy didn't last long though, as when the hour changed, the game crashed. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/modding.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="" border="0" alt="modding.gif" /> nothing to do about that, so back to the beach.

 

[morgan terror]

okay, on we go. fetched the antidote, and wen't back out again. to my amazement, the ships and wind where exactly the same! well, i immediately used sail-to this time. however, this time, i wasn't so lucky. i ended up battering into a headwind, with the sloop coming on fast in my direction off to portside. the tartane was off to starboard. seeing the the sloop was going to broadside me by sailing past my bow, i made ready to set up for a chase and wen't hard to starboard, taking the oppurtunity to fire two swivels on the sloop and the bow cannon on the tartane. i didn't see if they hit though. now, the sloop was about to fire, so i struck sail to avoid damage to it and hoped for the best. i didn't get it. i think just about every piece of lead hit me, and the ship was a big mess. well, sail back up, and on we go. the sloop now sailed past the tartane, and me after it in bedraggled persuit. then he hit me with his stern cannons. when did that guy learn to aim!? this was horrible! i sailed past the tartane and poked him with my two swivels, which left him with only 4 crew. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile2.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=")" border="0" alt="smile2.gif" /> i fired the bow cannon on the sloop, hitting HIM for a change.

14:00 - the battle rages on, and neptune's still chowing away those beans. apart from that, the wind is now coming from a sensible direction. then disaster struck. he shot me again, and to my horror, the bow cannon exploded! <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/piratesing.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="" border="0" alt="piratesing.gif" /> to make matters worse, i was on fire! but no, i did NOT sink, although a second shot caused ANOTHER fire! GAAH! how much can a gunboat take!? that scurvy bastard must have been laughing his ass off. 11% health left, and whittling away like it was nothing. i heard the cry to abandon ship, and abandon ship i did! onto the sloop! <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/laugh.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":" border="0" alt="laugh.gif" /> how's THAT for luck? the crew seemed to be more motivated to actually win this time, as they survived. heck, it was either fight or swim! <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/laugh.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":" border="0" alt="laugh.gif" /> Rys, of course, got himself slaughtered again, but we won the fight without that much trouble. i think only reason the gunboat didn't sink during the fight was because it was dangling on the grappling ropes. well, bye-bye bobber, and hello sloop!

back to sea, i managed to save a crewmember, which was actually impossible, as there hadn't been anyone in the gunboat. bloke now. somehow one of my cannons chose to explode for no apparant reason. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/blink.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":blink:" border="0" alt="blink.gif" /> after that forced boarding, my nerves where a bit shot, and i needed some relaxation. now, it just so happened there was a little harmless pirate tartane nearby. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/dev.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":d:" border="0" alt="dev.gif" /> *evil laughter* okay gents, RAMMING SPEEEEEEEED!

<img src="http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s208/morgan_terror/seadogs2_0033.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />

i can imagine the look on their faces. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile2.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=")" border="0" alt="smile2.gif" /> apparantly, they thought it was some use to surrender before they sunk. well, i chose to board them for the loot. for some reason the captain refused to join me. foolish bastard. well, i killed him and it yielded a staggering 772 gold! <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/rolleyes.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="" border="0" alt="rolleyes.gif" /> i wen't back to port with sail-to to save the game and repair and restock ship.

 

[morgan terror]

for all those who read this, i added two posts before this one a few minutes earlier.

having arrived at redmond, i noticed it was growing late. i wen't to the shipyard, which cost me 9439 gold of repairs (ouch!), and then wen't off to the store. there i sold the cargo, except the ebony which i couldn't sell here. i also sold some excess items, and the combined profit more than made up for the excessively expensive repairs.

one thing that should be noted here is that before i sold the cargo i saw that wierd cargo bug. it said i had had a full hold and an emergency sell had been made, which was even more wierd because the hold hadn't been full earlier. however, midnight passed when i sold the goods, and i avoided the crash if it would have occurred.

i bought a fine short pistol in the shop, which did more damage than my average long pistol, and has a shorter loading time to boot. i also bought some gunchowder and bullets because i had run out of chowder in the boarding fight. no, i didn't eat it.

i set sail at 6:24, renamed the ship the Shark and hoisted me trademark crimson sails! i feeled i owed it to the ship now i had a decent one. the crew seemed to like having a proper mast. there where up and down the thing like a yoyo. i headed south, towards my destination. however! i was now beginning to think that it was a bit wierd that if i wanted to go to hispaniola, i had to go back past devil's throat, where i had come from. oh, RIGHT, hispaniola is to the EAST of redmond! <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/mybad.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="" border="0" alt="mybad.gif" /> okay, hardaport it is. think of it! if the game hadn't crashed earlier i would have ended up at Cayman! <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/laugh.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":" border="0" alt="laugh.gif" /> well, wouldn't be the first time it happened. i once ended up at conceciao from oxbay instead of FDF. i always seem to confuse east and west for some reason. meanwhile, although there was little wind, (and the blasted fog AGAIN!) my ship was rocking a LOT. look at this!

<img src="http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s208/morgan_terror/seadogs2_0039.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />
<img src="http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s208/morgan_terror/seadogs2_0041.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />
"rock the boat, rock the boat over. don't tip the boat, don't tip the boat over."

i think the dude in the crow's nest got flinged all the way to douwesen. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/8q.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="" border="0" alt="8q.gif" /> i did steer at all in that picture. somehow the ship was in a funny mood.

07:00 - fog's gone, and the wind is good. sailing close-hauled as a result. i noticed something very funny with my looney crew:

when you speed up the game, your crew occasionally starts whirring around in circles like a demented ballerina! <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/laugh.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":" border="0" alt="laugh.gif" /> it gave me some good laughs along the way.

08:00 - neptune's out of gas. the sea was as flat as pea soup, even more so because i was SAILING through it. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/dry.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="<_<" border="0" alt="dry.gif" /> yep, the fog was back in force. as soon as i noticed that the island was dissapearing, PLONK, there it was.

spotted a liddle fiesh again. i wonder when i won't be able to see them anymore.

09:00 - neptune's back to his beans. the stinky wind brought some stinky french my way in a truly humongous war galleon. it's raining now, just like outside my room while i write this. pouring down in both cases. now the ships' rocking from back to front. that crew of mine must be getting pretty seasick by now. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/sick.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":eww" border="0" alt="sick.gif" />

10:00 - fog gone, and sharks back. i saw some stuff floating upwind, but i managed to get it anyway. i'm glad i did. it was 104 cwt of cinnamon! that's 54 units! (i checked the hold) i wondered if the frogs had dropped it. it was right in the path of the galleon.

11:00 - headwind, so i hove-to and waited for some decent wind. that was until the lookout with his hubble telescope strapped to the mast sighted land. and as he had two of them, he managed to see a french pinnace of war and a sloop of to starboard as well. well, hispaniola's hard to miss, so i started tacking. i'm literally pounding the waved now, and along with the waves, a shark! <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/laugh.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":" border="0" alt="laugh.gif" /> it swam underneath my bow just before i came crashing down off a wave. shark soup for dinner.

12:00 - awesome wind! 30 knots and a huge bow wave. i was heading NE now. however, the problem of not being able to see the land is that you don't exactly know where to go. for all i know was that if i was at the wrong island, i might just as well be heading away from land. i just presumed, against my better judgement, that i WAS at hispaniola, and headed east. if i would have continued NE i would probably have ended up at tortuga, or missed land altogether and would have bumped into turks. here's a new version of blind-man. plonk yourself in the middle of the ocean and guess the course!

i'm getting worried now. still no land. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/unsure.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":?" border="0" alt="unsure.gif" /> what if i'll miss the island? heck, i can expect anything from myself.

land. what land? right now it's just a big rock. i suspect it's the end of a cliff. if it is, it might be the eastern tip of the bay. on the other hand, it might be tortuga. heck, it could be isla muelle for all i know! it has roughly the same shape.

i'm bang on target. if i would have continued east from the start, i would have sailed straight into port. now i saw a lugger which appeared out of nowhere. just POOF, and it was there. i was beginning to think i was seeing things when a ketch appeared some distance behind it. this only got worse when my spyglass sighted an invisible fleut MM behind it, some 7000 yards away!

13:00 - the sea has turned strangely dark. it looks more like the european waters instead of tropical ones. i can now see the rock in the niddle of the bay. definately hispaniola bay now. i'm beginnind to suspect the fleut's behind the island.

it IS behind the island! some spyglass i have. meanwhile, the lowest bit of the back of the bay was coming into view, but i couldn't see the mountains behind it yet.

<img src="http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s208/morgan_terror/seadogs2_0045.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />

the fleut just surrendered to noone in particular. well, everyone has his own definition of fun.

14:00 - wind changed.... to exactly the same wind! well that's nuts. anyway, i can now see tortuga off in the distance. it was here that i discovered i sold my lucky ring. ah well, i'll find a new one. it was here that i entered the bay.

<img src="http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s208/morgan_terror/seadogs2_0047.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />

there where often at least 4 sharks in view. this place must be crawling with them! i wonder how deep that bay is. looks a long way down to me.

i had a good laugh when i saw two sharks swimming so close behind each other that it looked like the rear had bitten the tail of the other! <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/laugh.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":" border="0" alt="laugh.gif" /> i'm now almost past the rock in the bay.

15:00 - well, got past the rock, and are now careering at an alarming speed towards the docks. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/unsure.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":?" border="0" alt="unsure.gif" /> right, DROP ALL ANCHORS! <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/piratesing.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="" border="0" alt="piratesing.gif" /> as a result, i stopped almost on the spot, and i think everyone ended up on a big heap in the bow. after the crew had untangled themselves, we moored at the docks.

 

[morgan terror]

walking up the cliffside in the port i noticed for perhaps the first time how beautiful the port actually is. maybe it was the lighting at the time, but it looked nice, not being in a hurry, looking up at the gates. i seem to always have a greater appreciation for the scenery when not in a hurry.

in the town, i went to look for the store. my search took me behind the buildings to the left of the town gates, and turning round the corner, suddenly stood face to face with some guy. erm.... hello? it was a bit wierd to go round a corner and suddenly see someone looking straight at you. anyway, i walked on. when i wen't round the corner near the hill, i saw the same guy again, walking past on the streets! it may not look like much, but that one gave me the creeps. i stayed well out of his way for the rest of the time i was in town.

guess what? the store was the LAST building i tried! damned thing. anyway, i sold the cinnamon and ebony and made a pretty neat profit out of it. as there wasn't much else i was planning to do here, i chose to set sail for tortuga, the scene of one of my characteristic blunders. i left port at just over midnight.

blimey! this ship is nuts! i'm sure i've never seen a ship rock from back to front like THIS.

<img src="http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s208/morgan_terror/rockingback.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />

<img src="http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s208/morgan_terror/rockingforth.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />

come to think of it, this ship is rocking quite a lot. even in pretty light airs and calm seas, it's all over the place. i suspect the keel's not heavy enough. (as a matter of fact, the ship is such a shape that it fits perfectly on the waves, making it rock like a hobbyhorse in all possible directions) well, i set sail to the NW, resulting in rocking in the OTHER directions. doing 12 knots. although a rocker, t'is a fast ship.

1:00 - wind shifted from north to west. the rocking got even worse. if this would be a real ship, i'd never go out to sea without visiting the shipyard first. it'd flip over in the first decent squall. doing 7.3 knots. i'm going round the corner of the bay any moment now. peering over the side into the water with all this rocking makes you feel a little wierd..... <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/wacko.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":wacko:" border="0" alt="wacko.gif" /> all this rocking has another, very annoying side-effect: YOU try aiming a spyglass with all this wobblyness going on! first you're aiming at the sky, you adjust your view downwards, and just when you get your target into view, ZOOM, off it goes and you're looking at the sea. this goes on and on and on and drives you completely NUTS. sigh.... course NE. but wait! i'm not done with my camera adventures just yet. i discovered that looking straight up while doing the shippy-wobble-dance gives you the sensations of being a drunk astrologer, as the camera keeps spinning and flipping around, dependant on what the computer considers 'up' due to the damned rocking! bluh..... <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/wacko.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":wacko:" border="0" alt="wacko.gif" />

02:00 - wind north, blowing nicely. sailing at an angle of 45 degrees to the wind as a result, and bouncing all over the place! <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/bounce.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":b:" border="0" alt="bounce.gif" /> i keep getting launched off these waves! aiming the spyglass is now truly impossible. i long for a bigger ship. doing 8.2 knots nonetheless. one wierdness i noticed was that the boom was sticking through the ratlines. hmm....

i'm coming onto tortuga fast. it was pretty difficult to spot the bay entrance in the night, not to mention that it was impossible to hold still. i then noticed that a break in the shape of the island and the surf met, and it turned out to be the entrance. problem was, i'd have to go directly against the wind to get there.

now i saw something odd. there was a hole in the spanker which i was sure i had fixed. now how did that.... CANNONFIRE!!! <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/piratesing.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="" border="0" alt="piratesing.gif" /> GYAAH! i was being shelled by the fort here! as soon as i noticed the hole, cannonballs where everywhere, one hit the mast with a critical hit, a portside cannon exploded, three more cannonballs flew through the sails, and i chose to GET THE HELL OUT OF THERE! i had forgotten to hoist the pirate flag! <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/8q.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="" border="0" alt="8q.gif" /> santo domingo seemed REALLY good right now. cannonballs where splashing behind me into the water like machinegunfire from an airoplane. luckily, i escaped without too heavy damage. it remained with the damage from the initial surprise attack. sheesh.... hope that doesn't happen again! i'm lucky the fort already hit me over there. if it kept hitting the island and could only fire on me when i was in view (when i entered the bay itself), i really would have been skrewed.

note: this actually happens the way i describe it. i noticed the hole, and as soon as i started wondering how it got there, the cannonballs hit. that was a bit of a shock.

03:00 - looks like i'm out of range. thank goodness! the wind is now SSW, and i'm heading SE at 4 knots. well, you can't always have good wind, can you? i took some time to inspect the hull. couldn't see any holes. the ship's still rocking happily. speeding up the game, the crew once again started doing the funny whirly-dance, riverdance style. literally.

04:00 - looks like a lot of logbook entries here. well, let's get started. wind's NNE, and i'm going 9 knots, which i'm pretty happy with. passing a rock, i landed at a beach which i don't know the name of. heck, why not a little pillaging pause? i turned out to be a copy of the horrible rocky shore at redmond, and guess what i found in a corner? yep. a rock.

heading out into the jungle, i encountered 4 natives. beating them, i went up to level 4. i got a sailing bonus from the murkanchatku mask (or whatever it's called. i think that's a pretty good attempt) as i found out. now i've got 3 in sailing. doesn't really look like it's making that much of a difference yet though. i put one point in melee and accuracy and tought myself 'critical hit'.

more foes. shot a monkey (jack-speak please! <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile2.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=")" border="0" alt="smile2.gif" /> ), but i missed. bugger. and i'm out of ammo. killed a native, and then saw a monkey hiding in the jungles. then i saw another native right next to it. just looking around to be sure, i saw another monkey behind me! ehh..... tight situation..... and i HATE monkeys. right, careful now. i don't want to fight two monkeys at the same time. natives are weak, but those monkeys! well, i did a retreat, approached the monkey standing alone and killed it. then i went for the other two, and had the luck of killing the monkey before i had to fight the native. it turned out the native had two grenades!

i turned right and equipped the eight grenades i had. should come in handy. found a yataghan.

in the next part of the jungle, i found even more foes! blew up a monkey into little bits, then 3 more. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile2.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=")" border="0" alt="smile2.gif" /> <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/boom.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":boom" border="0" alt="boom.gif" /> i killed the last the regular way. yes, there where five of them. after this, i arrived at the outskirts of a city. going in, it turned out to be port au prince. good to know. i was bound to get hostile with the french sooner or later. i now knew where i was. the other path led to the fort. well, back to the jungle. more enemies, and dawn had shown it's face through the fresh forest rain. how poetical. onward!

i went left. the fort's soldiers where more than i could handle at the moment. in the next part of the jungle, i met more foes. god, how many of these guys ARE there!? anyway, it was just a monkey.

next up... more foes. ugh. this one was funny though. one of the bandits blew himself up with a blunderbuss! <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/laugh.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":" border="0" alt="laugh.gif" /> it exploded straight in his face. not killing him, but it helped. me. i got two grape, 2 powder, and 2 bullets. in the pouch, mind you. not my face. chose to wip out the good ol' blunderbuss again. wen't straight ahead. the beach was to the right.

here, i found the abandoned buccaneer camp. i wonder if someone will ever do anything with this town. anyway, i was treated with the most beautiful picture.

<img src="http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s208/morgan_terror/sunsetintown.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />

well, back to the ship, i suppose. out of the town and back into the jungle, happy music was playing, butterflies flying around, and no foes to be seen. made me happy too. until i found those bandits blocking my way. okay, i just so happen to have a really big gun here. didn't use it though, because i didn;t get the chance, but i made very short work of them, although i got shot once. got 1 powder. the bullet one of them had didn't fit in my inventory.

more foes up front. i used all my grapeshot, switched to my little pistol, used all shots for that one as WELL, and equipped my grenades. i sure gave them hell. hehe. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile2.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=")" border="0" alt="smile2.gif" />

back at the beach, i looked at the grass. it was awfully still. looked like there was no wind whatsoever. well, no choice but to go to sea and hope for the best. i turned out to be 08:42 in the morning, and ye good olde mornin' fog was back! the wind, which turned out to be nothing to worry about, was coming from the SE (which was not ideal at all), and i was doing 4.5 knots. not bad considering i was sailing 30 degrees to the wind. well, there was a 20 knot wind, and if there's enough wind, you'll go fast in almost any direction.

09:00 - the rain is gone. wind is coming from the south, and i'm doing a sweet 11.7 knots! i passed the notorious sandbank at cape francos which wrecked my bermuda sloop once. give that place a wide berth! although it may not look like it, it's sandy shores go a long way out to sea in one particular area. i chose to moor there. meanwhile, the fog was gone. at the beach, i found a maltese knight sword. seriously, you really should make a visit to cape francos. it doesn't really lead to anything important to you, but it's a wonderful place to explore. going into the jungles, i found a cutlass. tsk tsk, those bandits should look after their swords better. i turned right and found.... an aztec temple! well, it was a great hack-and-slash fest all the way to the top. i got a lucky idol, plus 1 luck. i also found lots of pyrite, so that's plus 1 cannon skill as well. i'm also beginning to find highlanders on foes. too bad it was so foggy. i would have loved to have a good view up here, especially with the good music that was playing at the moment. i wen't back, allllllll the way down, and turned right. to my surprise, i found the entrance to a cave! it was guarded by a monkey. phooey. said boo and it died. now, this cave is very interesting. it leads to a cavern with loads of mysterious corpses in it. you can actually loot these, and doing so, i found two stones, two powder, grenades, and bullets, (i equipped my pistol afterwards) and then turned left. this will lead you to a great cliff path. the usual exit is blocked. it leads to nothing. i think that needs a little work, like another secret to explore. there is another exit though. there's a hidden hole in the cliff face, which leads to another cave with more corpses, where you can also find a sword. i found a dragon's tongue. i wonder what tragedy killed them all. it would be interesting to know more. anyway, that cave leads back to the cave where you started, and so i exited the cave complex from there. i also found two grapeshot, one powder and one stone in the cave, after which i equipped the blunderbuss again, for which i had one shot. in the last cave before the jungle, i found 3 powder, a grenade, and 2 stones. well worth my while, i'd think.

back in the jungle, i found more unlucky foes. some coincidence i just had my whole arsenal resupplied. muahahahaha! well, they sure spoiled my fun. they turned out to be three hidden monkeys, and do you have any idea how difficult it is to find three blasted monkeys in a dense jungle!? <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/modding.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="" border="0" alt="modding.gif" /> well, after that monkey-hunt, i wen't right and back to the good old sea.

13:07 - wind's coming from the east, doing 5.7 knots, heading south. there seems to be some very light fog on the horizon. it's obscuring the shores. nice touch.

14:00 - ahhh. don't you just love the sea? you just sit back and relax, watching the land go by, admiring the scenery. sure, there's a darker side to it, but it can be beautiful when it's in a good mood. however, as i have found out myself all too often, the sea doesn't take mistakes or neglection lightly. expect a penalty of sorts when you do.

i had now sailed halfway along the magnificent east coast of hispaniola. wind was coming from the SSW, and i was doing 5.5 knots. truly, the east coast of the island is amazing. this is one of the finest views of it's beauty:

<img src="http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s208/morgan_terror/eastcoast.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />

now imagine it during a sunset. it would look wonderful.

14:42 - right, enough of the slacking, time to get this tub into gear. i attmepted to tack round the next corner of the island, but failed because i attempted it too soon. well, back to the old course it was. try again later.

15:00 - magnificent! wind's coming from the NW, i almost literally spinned round the corner, and am doing.... 5.7 knots. bummer. well, it's still not bad with the damage to the sails and a 12 knot wind in realistic sailing. heading SW now. meanwhile, i THINK i've sighted the valley contained that pyramid:

<img src="http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s208/morgan_terror/sunset.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />

16:00 - wind shifted to WNW and freshened up a bit. now doing 7.4 knots. the town should be round that cliff, i think. i remember fighting a battle in the old Crimson Blood once. i was fighting a schooner and fleut, both pirates. the schooner surrendered really close to the cliffs, and i had quite an effort boarding it afterwards. the fleut was a stubborn one. however, that arse of a captain smashed his ship underneath the cliffs, staying afloat, but knocking every spar he had off his ship. he was short work afterwards.

i'm round the corner. don't see the town just yet though. i realised just yet how immense this island is. i can't even see the western cliffs from here! tacked again.

the town's apparantly round the next cliff. i sure hope it is. i'm sure it's around here somewhere.

yep, i can see the fort leering round the corner. looks like i'm nearly there.

17:00 - a huge mountain appeared on the horizon. LITERALLY huge! it's freakin' mount everest over there! evening fell a little too soon in my opinion. wind's south, i'm doing 6.5 knots. the sun's looking nice from here.

sailing straight for the port, NNE. come to think of it, i think the other way round would have been shorter, but this was more of a scenic route. it was a strange voyage. i was never becalmed, never had a direct headwind, and never encountered anything.

weeeee, i'm surfing again! i'm having the feeling like the ship's going to flip forwards. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/unsure.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":?" border="0" alt="unsure.gif" /> moored at 17:30. end of entry. next stop? how about isla muelle?

 

[morgan terror]

this will probably be one of the most significant chapters in this entire story. be prepared for a twist of fate.

well, i entered the town of santo domingo, where i met a beggar asking for money. i gave it to him, and he gave me an item in return. i'd rather have had reputation, but still. it was here that i saw this famous sign:

<img src="http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s208/morgan_terror/sign.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />

for those who don't know, it's a tribute to incredible hat and hook for their work on the build mod, and is well-deserved.

i found the store fairly quickly. funny. the description of chrysoberyl said it was extremely rare and that it was near impossible to find. i had 7 of them. i kept two for the bonus. i sold the 9 leather i got from the skinless monkeys (how the hell do you get a hide from something that DOESN'T HAVE A HIDE!?) i was now thinking about stealing one of the swords hanging from the wall.... too bad i couldn't.

well, off to the shipyard. look at that, an easy find! there's a huge sign saying shipyard hanging outside! but nooooo, it's not a shipyard, it's just the house of some guy who thought it was funny to fool captains looking for one. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/dry.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="<_<" border="0" alt="dry.gif" /> the REAL shipyard is up the stairs of a house. some guy was walking underneath them while i stood up there. i would have spat on his head if i could. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile2.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=")" border="0" alt="smile2.gif" /> in the shipyard, i discovered that the sloop was of pirate design! sweet!

well, off to the governor for a pirate hunting mission. i would be payed 1300 gold to sink the 'blessing'. meh, why not you greedy bastard. anyway, my total cash was now 87880. outside, it was pouring with rain. along my way to the harbor, someone offered me a treasure map, but i ignored him. i had more important business. the sea awaits!

i set sail at 20:38. time flies dunnit? guess what? the pirate was at port au prince! on the other frigging side of the friggin island! damnit! <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/mybad.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="" border="0" alt="mybad.gif" /> well, i was NOT going all the way back there, so i used sail to. it was a cutter, like i expected. i reached him at midnight, and was battering into a light headwind straight away with the pirate off to port. i gave him a good rake on the stern, turned hard to port, and shot him against the tip of the bowsprit with the bow chasers. i struck the spanker for safety measures. i continued turning to port, and fired another volley at it, but missed it completely. my stern cannons both hit him, however, he wasn't returning fire for some reason. strange. well, i didn't mind! <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="" border="0" alt="smile.gif" />

i need more speed or he'll overtake me! right, spanker's back up, and i kept fireing and missing him. looks like the fort thought it'd join in the fun. i don't know when it happened, but the fort shot off the bowsprit at some point. closing in for the kill. time to finish him off. i fired the bow cannons, two very nice hits i might add, causing a fire. the enemy surrendered, and began sinking straight after. oh damn. i'm coming little cutter! wait for me!

phew. i boarded it just as it hit 1% hp, and it yielded a tidy sum. it's now 01:00, and i sailed-to back to port.

<img src="http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s208/morgan_terror/cuttersdemise.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />

02:38 - i moored at santo domingo, and had a rest in the tavern. there i met two swarthy-looking officers, but neither of them where of any use to me. shame. i wen't to the gov next to collect my reward. i also bought a letter of marque, which is always a good idea. or so i thought..... anyway, i became level 5. looking at my stats, i discovered i recieved 1 extra sailing and grappling from the two chrysoberyl. i put 1 point in leadership and sailing, making my stats (including bonuses):

5 leadership
5 melee
5 sailing skill
3 accuracy
3 cannon skill
2 grappling
1 repair
2 defence
1 commerce
2 luck

i also learnt myself professional fencing by fighting my shadow. now i noticed i had neutral reputation. now when did that happen!? meh, i'd get it back in no time. something really pleasant i noticed was that i had a worn scrapper pistol! sweet! i was going to fix that one in conceciao. southward to isla muelle it is!

11:07 - there's a pirate lugger CT2 and yacht sailing around. i'm not going for them unless i bump into them. wind is blowing to the south, and hard. i'm going 8.5 knots straight for the target. one day's playing now. nice. i'm looking forward to the voyage, despite the rain. the skies are grey, but bright. the turning rate is surprisingly good! that 5 sailing skill sure made a difference. i noticed something else: altough there's a lot of wind, i'm hardly rocking. sure, i'm rocking, but in a very slow and smooth motion.

12:00 - woah.... looks like the ship wanted to catch up on it's rock-less hour! it's all over the place! with the wind coming from the SW, i'm doing 4.1 knots and truly bashing on the waves. the music is making me all sentimental. it really made me think 'adieu, hispaniola!' as it dissapeared in the distance. it was a nice island. above it where big, white, fluffy clouds. there's wasn't much wind dispite the bashing and rocking, and ahead where some wide whispers of clouds. looking back, i noticed that the sides of the island blended in perfectly with the slightly foggy horizon. it looked pretty nice, as if the island was dissapearing into the fog. now i noticed something strange.... there was the sound of rain.... but no rain!

13:00 - jezus! look at this fog! i've never seen anything like it! it's even worse than that murk in the morning! there's a massive headwind from SWSW (that is a correct notation. not many people know that there are in fact 32 wind directions and not 16). i'm doing 6.1 knots and the rocking is the worst i've ever seen. actually, it was quite exciting. my experience was partially spoiled by some ugly guy who kept walking in front of my view all the time, and he kept taking turns with some other guy for the rest of the voyage to walk on exactly the same area the WHOLE FRIGGIN' TIME!!! i mean, bug off! i want to enjoy the view here! ugh... well, i switched to seaview. placing the camera as high as i could, i felt as if i was god watching over my ship. funny feeling.

<img src="http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s208/morgan_terror/fog.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />

this shows how thick the fog was. you can hardly see the ship. with a manowar, i doubt i could see the deck. meanwhile, the waves where so huge that the stem of the ship occasionally almost completely dissapeared in a wave!

14:00 - the ship handles like a dream. i picked up 216 cwt of silk along the way (54 units). nice find! the hold's nearly full now as a result. the loot from the cutter was:

3 tobacco
24 clothing
16 leather
6 planks and sailcloth

wind's WNW, and the ship now refuses to go above 6.5 knots, despite the good wind. meanwhile, that freaky fog has gone.

i noticed silk and tobacco are contraband at isla muelle.... hmm.... is it worth the risk? i've got only 2 luck, after all. something to think about, that's for sure.

i think i'll change all my sailing music to something like this. it's wondeful hearing 'one day' while sailing, and i can think of a few others that would be nice. the island's gone. it must have dissapeared during the fog.

15:00 - there's better wind, but from the same direction. my speed upped to 7.6 knots, which is about how fast i'll go with this full hold. i sighted a dutch convoy of a fleut of war, a sloop, and a chebec.

<img src="http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s208/morgan_terror/thedutch.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />

techincally, i'm now allowed to attack them, although i'm not flying the spanish flag. i later noticed the chebec was gaff-rigged. then this happened:

<img src="http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s208/morgan_terror/uniqueship.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />

they collided with each other. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile2.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=")" border="0" alt="smile2.gif" /> i hoisted the spanish falg to see if it would have any effect, but it didn't. i'm kinda glad it didn't. i'm not sure i would have survived the confrontation, but i would have escaped easily. now, what started out as funny, became magnificent. the chebec and sloop started racing each other, and it was wonderful seeing the chebec ploughing through the waves with it's long shape, slowly outrunning the sloop. then to my utmost surprise, the sloop fully gave up the chase, and surrendered! hah! <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/w00t.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="" border="0" alt="w00t.gif" /> never seen that before.

sigh.... i long for a bigger ship. i have an irrational urge to just walk on a quarterdeck or poop deck!

screw this. suicide or not, hostile or not, mentally ill you may find me, but i'm going for it! look out dutchies, here i come!

lol! the chebec seems to be a bad sport. it started shooting the sloop! <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/laugh.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":" border="0" alt="laugh.gif" />

what!? the fleut surrendered too! this is brightening up! i tried seeing if i could get the fleut without a fight. the chebec was just sailing off to the horizon. i fired twice, and.... WTF!? SPAIN hostile!? are you freakin' mad!? i'm doing this FOR spain for crying out loud! to make matters worse, i was horror of the high seas! now i really don't know what to do. join the dutch? i still could. i hate to admit it but i was thinking of joining the french. but what use would that be? if i'd go to oxbay, they'd be hostile to me. well, i boarded the fleut and hired the captain as my officer, and put him in command of the shark. pleasant surprise! the hold was filled to the brim with ebony! 454 units of it!

i'm really confused about my nationality now. spain? england? for spain i'd have to bribe first. england would become hostile in the future. the dutch where now wary, so no LOM. the portugese wheren't at war with anyone, so that's a no-go. the only option seemed france. but i would become hostile with those too! i really was lost now. well, i'd just go on and see where the sea took me. isla muelle, as it turned out.... and a MASSIVE pirate fleet! <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/piratesing.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="" border="0" alt="piratesing.gif" /> good grief! a caravel, a chebec, and a frigate! and i had a full hold and damaged sails! worse yet, only chain on board, and going half the speed of them.... if i would shoot at the frigate with chain, i might just make it. i ordered the shark to run for it. there was thick fog, so no manual aiming. it's just one of those days.....

fine. so i'm a coward. i used sail to and escaped to the port under a false flag. what do i care? i rested at the tavern and wen't to the store.

shit! i forgot! he won't talk to me! aw, maaaaan.... i might just as well turn pirate! well, i chose to go for my last option: the smuggler. oyster beach it is. well, in true one-of-those-days-fashion, i got caught. but not without making more than 200.000 gold in profit first, hehe. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile2.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=")" border="0" alt="smile2.gif" />

those where a LOT of soldiers. one of the smugglers actually survived. this isn't over yet. there's the ship waiting for me now. i've got a damaged ship which sails like a barge, a full hold, an undercrewed sloop with an incompetent officer.... what am i waiting for? let's rumble! kamikaze and cowabunga! this day will be remembered as the day that Morgan Terror turned pirate!

<img src="http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s208/morgan_terror/shipsatthebeach.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />

it's a sloop and a bermuda sloop! well, as things couldn't possibly get worse anyway, i gave it all i had. and how! <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/laugh.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":" border="0" alt="laugh.gif" /> it was GREAT! smoke was literally EVERYWHERE, and we all put up a fight like never seen before! my fleut seemed indistructible, my cannons sucked, and i was sending a colossal amount of cannonballs at them. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile2.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=")" border="0" alt="smile2.gif" /> my sloop was a firey little thing, really giving those dons a tremendously hard time. it gave me the chance how fighting me looked from above from a different perspective. pretty neat sharky! well, as it didn't look like any of us was going to sink anything, i chose the next best option: squash em. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile2.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=")" border="0" alt="smile2.gif" /> i headed full speed for the bermuda sloop, ignoring anything those two dons where fireing at me.

<img src="http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s208/morgan_terror/rammingcourse.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />

i actually managed to board him! he became my officer, and turned out to be a good navigator and carpenter. just what i needed. i scuttled the bermuda sloop. meanwhile, the sloop that was left was a feisty little devil. it managed to broadside the both of us at the same time in a very spectacular manner, and ran away against the wind where i couldn't follow him with my square-rigger. the shark was too full of cargo to give chase. i landed again at oyster beach, to plan what i was going to do next.

well. looks like i've turned pirate! now i understand how fate can decide for you. without ever intending it, i was forced into piracy. well, best to make the best out of it. i all bedamned, i shall!

 

[morgan terror]

starting off at where i moored at oyster beach, i chose to go to town first. let's just hope that i wasn't going back out chased by an angry mob. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/unsure.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":?" border="0" alt="unsure.gif" /> it was pretty likely. well, it would sure be funny, so i wouldn't really mind. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/rolleyes.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="" border="0" alt="rolleyes.gif" /> i think i'll join the english after all. they seem to give me the best chance. however: ebony is smuggled at all english colonies. with my low luck, i can't risk a scuffle with my last possible help. so, better get some more luck then! i wen't back over the bridge, fighting the usual bandits along the way. i remember the first time i crossed this bridge. i was dead scared that the rickety thing would collapse. i was extremely hesitant, and didn't even THINK about running across. well, i did get to the other side, of course. but it's funny i remembered it just yet. after the rumble, i equipped my pistol again. i gave a good highlander i found on one of the bandits to my fresh spanish officer. turned out he had two of them himself!

entering the town later on, i couldn't help but notice the appearance of the officer was extremely confusing. i got fooled by it several times. one particularily funny situation was when i was running away from my own officer, thinking the fort's commander was running after me! <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/laugh.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":" border="0" alt="laugh.gif" /> i stayed in the tavern, where i joined Clair Larrouse in her quest. for some reason this has always been one of my favorite comrades in arms. she always seems to put up one hell of a fight in any ship, and has always greatly satisfied the needs i place in a fellow captain. apart from that, her privateer vessel was most welcome, although i couldn't swap ships with her just yet. after this, i went to the store. Mendes didn't accept. by the looks of the dialogue, he didn't like the aggressive tone i talked in about letting the french smell some powder! well, better luck next time. now, it was off to the richest part of town with the church and governor's mansion. i stole the dual-barrel pistol from the house next to the mansion. heck, now i'm called horror of the high seas, i might as well act like it! i can't use the pistol just yet, but i'll soon change that. i had a good laugh when i talked to the admiral in the mansion. according to him, my reputation 'stinks'. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile2.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=")" border="0" alt="smile2.gif" /> well, bad luck for you mate! one pleasant surprise was that the governors do in fact talk to me. i couldn't do anything here because i was hostile with spain, but i was confident i could join england without problems.

outside, i met silehard. as a beggar. umm.... well, i guess he needed those ten coins after paying such handsome rewards to all those buccaneers. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/dunno.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="" border="0" alt="dunno.gif" /> nevermind him, off to the ship. along the way met the regular foes, of course. i'm going to Quebradas Costillas now. no doubt those pirates will like a fellow brother amongst them. out at sea, i had a pleasant surprise! the sloop of the caustguard was right next to the ship! aaaand.... i was still going nowhere. dagnabbit. well, i sicked Clair on him and hoped for the best. it surrendered at 12:24 without much ceremony. funny. Clair soaring towards him must have been pretty frightening. here's a really nice shot when she rocketed past my fleut. what a ship!

<img src="http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s208/morgan_terror/crimsoneaglestakeflight.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />

meanwhile, i'm doing a staggering.... wait for it..... 2.3 knots! <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/w00t.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="" border="0" alt="w00t.gif" /> horrifying. i've never been this slow. i trasnferred as much goods as possible to the Shark, and filled it up with crew.

13:00 - yes, i have reached the sloop! this is just plain rediculous. it'll take all week to get to QC at this rate. now i've discovered i can't board. luckily, it was because of the flag i was flying, and changing it quickly solved it.

after the boarding, i discovered that my ship had taken damage for no reason at all. i've seen it a lot after boardings, and it greatly annoys me. i've put so much time and effort into NOT damaging my ship, and discover some stinky mod causes damage after all! i also noticed my sails had turned into a darker shade of red, something which i've noticed several times before. it always happens after boarding. i was heading SW, and changed back to the old flag. i couldn't help but noticed that although this was a fleut of war, there where still quite a few empty gunports. something that was a bit annoying was that i kept getting slapped by the flag on the stern, and would have probably been tangled up in the bloody thing. i used sail-to to get to Clair, who was very far ahead. it was now 20:00 as a result, i was being halted by a headwind, and as icing on the cake, it was pouring with rain. thanks a lot for my luck! i spotted a portugese fleet, and by now i discovered something really wierd: i'm doing my fastest speed yet.... against the wind! yep, this ship can sail it's fastest... backwards.

i'm getting really worried at the fact that those portugese buggers are heading straight at me....

those guys are nuts! they're sailing around me in circles! their galleon hit their brig, after which the clumsy idiot nearly had a go at Clair too. the brig nearly sailed backwards into the shark, and i told my other two ship to sail away. this area was getting too dangerous for my liking. i had a race going backwards with the galleon at 21:00, which was kinda fun, and which i won. the damned wind was STILL blowing from the front! now, a french fleet joined in the fun. it was a huge mayhem of crashing and banging ship all around me, with me enjoying the chaos in the middle and staying out of harm's way. i must say, i felt like i was driving in a mini in the middle of a traffic jam of 4X4's. help!

22:00 - phew! i'm out of that mess! i swapped ships with the shark so i would at least be going at a reasonable speed in the right direction. now the wierdest thing yet happened: i had the sloop with all it's stats.... disguised as the fleut! <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/blink.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":blink:" border="0" alt="blink.gif" /> the only thing that hadn't swapped where the sail percentages. erm.... right. let's just ignore this shall we? i can't help but wonder what would happen if i'd fire. anyway, the fleut is acting extremely wierd now. it has inherited the sloop's rocking! this is frightening! that poop deck must be swinging meters from side to side! <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/piratesing.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="" border="0" alt="piratesing.gif" /> i'm just a little slower than Clair.

23:00 - the ship's are still wonky. wind is blowing SW, and i'm doing 6 knots. by now i noticed that the privateer is sailing at an absolutely impossible angle to the wind. it's doing 30 degrees while 70 or 55 would be it's maximum possible angle to the wind in reality. on a sidenote, there seems to be a lot of wind lately, although i'm hardly getting any benefit lately. i wish i'd get a north wind for a change!

00:00 - finally! the wind's blowing from the east, but seems to have died down at the same time, though still fairly strong. doing 5 knots, which is not bad for a heavy-loaded sloop. all around me, ships keep surrendering for no reason at all. guess it's becoming a new trend.

01:00 - wind ESE. not bad, but could be better. i sighted a huge fleet of dons now, which seemed to have fixed my ship bug at the same time. doing 4 knots. meh. i want speed! come on you floating slug! the fleet consist of a xebec BR, a light firgate, and a super frigate. not bad!

i'm angry at myself for being in this rediculous situation. it's never gone so bad with my character before in this game. well, i'd get over it, sooner or later. note to self: NEVER... meddle... with... surrendered... ships... EVER... AGAIN! <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/modding.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="" border="0" alt="modding.gif" />

my crew's doing the whirlie again, this time with a new variation to it: in a triangle!

02:00 - that's better! wind from the SE and doing 8.5 knots. i spotted some cargo. hehe. haha. HAHAHAHAAAAA. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/24.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="" border="0" alt="24.gif" /> let me think about this for a mo... NO! heck, my hold is crammed full of stuff i don't want, it's pitchblack, and i probably sailed past the bloody thing already anyway. the crew continue to have the disco fever, now with a linedance variation to it. there's literally 5 of them spinning madly in a line. it made them pretty tired, as they all whiped their heads afterwards.

03:00 - east wind. interesting that it seems to have steadied up around here. it's all over the place most of the time. we sighted land, and for probably the first time, i could actually see it myself straight away. let's just hope it's the right place, though it looks like the north coast of QC, like it should be. good. full speed ahead mister Hermanson! rum awaits! 7.5 knots those winds brought us. not bad, not bad at all! i hoisted the pirate flag. i didn't really feel like an argument with them right now with my weakened fleet, even though i had Clair with me. i'm considering a serious redo here. clean slate.

the ship's acting funny again. it's bouncing like a mad thing, which looked especially funny when a crewman left the crowsnest when it bounced down, making it look like he fell out. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile2.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=")" border="0" alt="smile2.gif" /> the port's on the west side, so SSSW it is. (SWSW was in fact the wrong notation. this is the correct one)

04:00 - wind's right on the stern. i sighted a humongous enemy fleet, so i rushed for the port and moored there immediately. i don't know exactly how big it was, but it was very close, and it contained four ships, of which one was a warship.

i found another stone in port. i don't even use the stupid things. maybe i should start trading them for gems or something. in town, i saved good Artois as usual (hope he doesn't get himself killed before i get the loot like he usually does) and rested in the tavern. coming out, i saw this:

<img src="http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s208/morgan_terror/morganwitharmor.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />

fancy huh?

i found an ether bottle outside. then i went to the store and sold ALL the cargo i didn't need. enough of this nonsense, begone you junk! sure the ebony went too! (i must be mad) it took 18 friggin' hours. going out, i met bandits on the street. what a coincidence in a pirate's nest. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/rolleyes.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="" border="0" alt="rolleyes.gif" /> Artois killed one with his little gun. i like him already! <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile2.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=")" border="0" alt="smile2.gif" /> after that, i entered the shipyard. it's surprisingly big inside! <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/unsure.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":?" border="0" alt="unsure.gif" /> i sold the piece of shit called fleut which brought me so much bad luck, as well as the Shark. i'll miss it. well, not it's rocking. funny that it never saw any real action except the occasional blunder. then, i bought a new ship alltogether: a pirate designed fast schooner which could do 19.27 knots! WTF!? <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/w00t.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="" border="0" alt="w00t.gif" /> <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/w00t.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="" border="0" alt="w00t.gif" /> <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/w00t.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="" border="0" alt="w00t.gif" /> what does the rocket on the back need!? that's the fastest ship i've ever seen! i'm going to attempt a new record in this one. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile2.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=")" border="0" alt="smile2.gif" /> it cost me a bit more than 74.000, which was a fair price. what surprised me was that it was actually weaker than the shark. strange. i restocked the ship and named it the Seablade. i wen't off to port next. i shouldn't forget to buy new cannons before i leave.

 

[morgan terror]

sorry if this is a bit late, but photobucket was being a bit of a bitch.

i wen't immediatly back to the shipyard to buy some 9lbs long guns. they cost me 25235, leaving me with 114220. after that, i wen't off to the house in the jungle. going there, i sighted one of those wacky potato monks! i never knew there wa sone of them here. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/unsure.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":?" border="0" alt="unsure.gif" /> i found an elixer outside the house, and then looted the house itself. i tried sliding through the bed for fun. i was pretty surprised when i sank through the thing into the room below! anyway, back to port. there's a pirate bermuda sloop and chebec for me there, and i'd hate to keep them waiting. right, i was in a bit of a swashbuckling mood now, so up goes the portugese flag and out go the guns! no, not overboard.

14:18 - eh.... okay, maybe i was a little over-confident. those buggers formed a neat blockade right in front of my nose. well, the wind's on the stern, so let's do this.... nelson-style! i hoisted all sail, and wen't straight at them. to my surpirse, i kept gaining speed for a VERY long time! it just kept going up and up and up. i was beginning to wonder if it would ever stop at all, but it did. duh. a volley from the sloop didn't do any harm, and a volley from Clair on the Cheri didn't either. i fired the bow cannons for good measure, but the range was simply too great at the moment. oh, very funny! yeah, you run away! bunch of bloody lilly-livers! well, there goes my rake. but, hahaha, it just so happens i have the fastest ship in the carribean!

<img src="http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s208/morgan_terror/setupandfire.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />

i got the chance to get a very good set up, as you see here. and no, it's not a fire starting, that's the first shot of a volley i fired on the chebec, of which one ball hit their hull. maybe more of them hit their sails, i don't know. after that, i wen't off to chase the sloop and fired the bow cannons, which both hit their stern right in the middle at the same time when he fired.

<img src="http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s208/morgan_terror/chasesmoke-1.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />

after that, i hit him once more, and then prepared for boarding. i must say, that sloop is pretty fast. he was no match for me though. one very annoying thing i noticed was that he was swinging from side to side as i closed in, making the actual setup for boarding pretty troublesome.

<img src="http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s208/morgan_terror/chase-1.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />

in the end, i managed, although i nearly overshot the target, which would have been very bad news.

the boarding was utterly rediculous. i have no idea how, but my crew seemed to have picked up on my swashbuckling mood, and was literally ploughing through the enemy! gunsmoke was all over the place, and the pirates where dead before you could say ouch. i noticed that one of my crew even had a musket. i have no idea where they got all those weapons from, but who cares!? on the next deck, i saw this:

<img src="http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s208/morgan_terror/clone.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />

seems like i'm a little self-conflicted. in fact, there was another me behind the mast. and yes, that is Artois over there. he was doing pretty well, actually. here, i found another ingredient. good. in the next deck, (yes, this sloop is WAY bigger on the inside) i tried to reach my foe, but he got shot. twice. then sliced in half. and then trampled on. anyway, i'm sure he was pretty dead.

after the boarding, i noticed that my ship got that mysterious damage again. damnit! if this keeps up i'll sink myself! well, let's go after that chebec! i gave the sloop to one of my officers. the sloop was called the adventure galley. it wasn't a bad name, so i kept it.

woah.... look at this:

<img src="http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s208/morgan_terror/up.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />
<img src="http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s208/morgan_terror/down-1.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />

*barf* <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/sick.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":eww" border="0" alt="sick.gif" /> i think we where being bounced all over the place there. the rocking wasn't nearly as bad as this whe i chased the sloop. (i later discovered that this ship only rocks like this with the wind on the quarter, that is, straight on it's side. this is because it's such a long and narrow ship. however, this trait also means it rocks very little when sailing with the wind.) as i discovered by using my spyglass (which was hell to use with all this bouncing about) i was a far better sailer than him. his ship wasn't nearly as good as sailing at this angle to the wind than i was, so he was slower. he might have stood a chance when sailing with the wind, but not like this. well, his loss, my gain!

after a while, we started to come up more into the wind, and started beating against it. the chebec was now doing 4 knots or so, i was way faster. here i discovered that the sails on this thing are very realistically angled to the wind. the squaresails could use some more bracing, but it's pretty well done.

oh, darn. just my luck, as usual. he fired his stern cannons, setting me on fire (what's this ship made of, wood or something? <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/rolleyes.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="" border="0" alt="rolleyes.gif" /> ) and blew a hole in my perfectly new sails. it was a lucky shot. he shot the clew clean off. of course, this didn't have any effect in the game, but i would have been in trouble in reality.

boarding was fairly straight-forward. well, s-shaped, actually. still, he surrendered when i got to the cabin, yielding a neat 30+K of gold.

off to guadeloupe, going south-west. i don't actually have any business there though, so i might just head on to Falaise de Fleur after that. to my surprise, i was doing 17.8 knots! that's nuts. the quickest i've gone so far was 12. right? anyway, it's quick, and no surprise. here i discovered another fluke of this ship's handling: when you're going to port, and want to go to starboard for whatever reason, it first stops going to port, but takes a very long time to actually start going to starboard. i should keep an eye on this. it could prove to be problematic in battles. something else is a bit fishy: the sloop seems to have gone missing. if that officer's ran off with the thing i'll be hunting that bugger down to the other side of the archipelago if nessesary! my reputation has now increased to bloody terror. hmm. not exactly good either. i'll have to make it two-thirds round the archipelago without using a shipyard if this keeps up. maybe i'll make a cross-archipelago voyage to tortuga once i get to oxbay. however.... i'd have to go to the worldmap after that. guess it would be a quick stop on the worldmap to trigger the movie clip and then back to the island to moor at a beach or greenford. still, that's a pretty long way off for now. i now discovered i was level 6. okay, +1 to leadership and accuracy, making them 6 and 4 respectively. why not leave them and hire a gunner? because i want to be independant of my officers. they die. i won't, and if i do, it won't matter anymore anyway. i trained myself to be a gunman and equipped the dual-barrel pistol. although it's weaker than the fine short pistol and has a longer combined loading time, i prefer it's accuracy and the ability to fire two shots quickly after each other.

although the sail configuration of this ship is pretty good, the rigging itself is rather sloppy. there's a whole load of ropes missing or misaligned. there's almost no clewlines, the fore clewline of one of the jibs is attached to the mast top instead of the bowsprit, and their aft-most clewlines are missing alltogether. also, it's missing a complete topsail yard! that definately needs to be improved.

17:00 - wind's NNE, and i'm doing a sad 7 knots. i couldn't have dreamed of these speeds in that fleut. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/rolleyes.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="" border="0" alt="rolleyes.gif" /> here, i sighted a BIG spanish fleet. no way that i'm going to hoist my personal flag. hah. hey, the sloop's back! no idea where it had been, but it was there again. there's heavy rain, and after the encounter, the wind picked up a little, making me go 8.1 knots. here i noticed that the Cheri has a very narrow profile in comparison to the bermuda sloop. but on the other hand, that sloop is HUGE. it's mast is taller than a corvette!

we are staying together fairly well, but the others are lagging behind a bit. i would have furled the main gaff if i could. here i discovered a funny trick with the rain. if you place the camera as high as you can, and then swish downwards as fast as possible, the rain will be gone for a short while. i'm keeping up well with the sharks, who keeping playing around the ship, if that's the right word.

18:00 - weeee! wind's NNW, and i'm doing 18.8 knots! i spotted something big off in the distance. i wen't off to investigate, and it turned out to be a lifeboat, which i ran over at 15 knots.

<img src="http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s208/morgan_terror/lifeboat-1.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />

i notced my spanish officer had an ability point left, so i thought him quick reload. meanwhile, it's growing dark, and in the setting sun, i had the chance of making this beautiful screenshot:

<img src="http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s208/morgan_terror/sun.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />

i sure hope to avoid hazards at these speeds. i think just about anything would rip the keel straight off. one thing that made me a bit nervous was that the ship started to lean to one side at one point, and started to lean over further and further until i started to wonder if i'd fall over. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/unsure.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":?" border="0" alt="unsure.gif" /> it hovered at a wierd angle for a while, and then swooshed back to the other side. the ship did this on a few other occasions as well, and it always made me nervous.

19:00 - i sighted guadeloupe, and saw that there where two pirate chebecs prowling around. just as i went to get my spyglass, one was sunk by the fort, and the other straight after. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile2.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=")" border="0" alt="smile2.gif" /> well, that's one problem solved. i'm doing 10 knots on an eastern wind, and i raced a packet brig along with a schooner, beating them hands-down. the hole in the sail had been repaired now. i checked my realtions, and they where appearing to be brightening up a bit. only spain was hostile, and the dutch where at -50, but that could still be fixed, i think. i'm going to sail on to FDF, so onward it is.

20:00 - there's a good NW by N wind blowing me along at 15.5 knots. here, i sighted some brits, a total of three ships, of which two warships.

apparently, the bay's on the other side of the island. not that it matters.

21:00 - sweet bajeezus! there's a perfect NW wind, and i'm doing 23 KNOTS! <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/piratesing.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="" border="0" alt="piratesing.gif" /> that's a new realistic sailing speed record!

<img src="http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s208/morgan_terror/speedrecord.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />

i know it doesn't say 23, but i topped it a few seconds after. i saw a spanish brig you see here. looking back, i saw the island was gone already after 30 minutes!

22:00 - as usual for this hour, night fell, along with the wind. still, i'm gracefully gliding along at 3.1 knots over a glass-like sea. ah, the lookout sighted land. wait.... LAND!? wow.... i just sailed from guadeloupe to Falaise in one hour. it must have counted the time it took to get past the island. apparently, my other two ships wheren't too impressed with my speed, and they struck all sail. it was here that i had a bit of a freaky flying dutchman-like encounter. i suddenly saw a white square some distance away which hadn't been there before. it was the gaff of a brig. brigs aren't that good with the wind on the quarter, but to my surprise, it seemed to go awefully fast. it swooshed past me at an impossibly high speed, and kinda made me fell uneasy. well, i've always had a tendency to over-fantasise, but still. let's just hope that that ghost-ship wouldn't bring any bad luck. the freaky thing was that that brig was exactly the same as the one i raced at guadeloupe.

23:00 - decent WNW wind now, doing 10.1 knots, and rocking heavily. i can see the shore now, pretty miraculous considering how dark it is. i don't see the island very well, but i can see the white outline of the breakers. now... where am i? i glance at the map showed me that i was heading for the side of one of the islands, so i had to make the choice to either take the left entrance furthest from the port, or the right which had a very narrow entrance. of course, there was also the future wind to consider. i went for the left, so that's south. i gained a little speed doing so. by the looks of it, this ship doesn't like 15 knot winds. it starts rocking the most at that speed.

it's midnight, and i'm now 32 days out. there's a perfect wind, i'm going nice and fast, and GYAAH! DRIFTWOOD, DEAD AHEAD! talk about timing! okay, i wen't full in the portside anchors at a frightening angle, and only very narrowly avoided the thing. it would have sunk me for sure.

<img src="http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s208/morgan_terror/log.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />

i'm not at my closest or worst angle here, but i didn't exactly have the time to make a good screenshot either. the thing gave me a good scare.

later, i sailed very closely past a big galleon, which was kinda fun. it reminds me of the occasion when i surfed the bow-wave of a brigantine with a gunboat. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile2.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=")" border="0" alt="smile2.gif" /> i found the bay entrance at 00:30, and glided into port under bare poles at 00:42.

(more tomorrow)

 

[morgan terror]

well, here i was. there's loads to do around here, but i usually only come here two or three times despite that. first, i'll waddle myself towards the tavern, i guess. along my way there, i found a good brazo de colon! sweet! damage: 15/27, pierce: 31%, block: 26%. it way better in everything in comparison to my slimy dragon's tongue, so i equipped it. it's pretty darned big! the thing's nearly dragging over the floor. this thing belongs in lord of the rings, not the caribbean. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/rolleyes.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="" border="0" alt="rolleyes.gif" /> anyway, it's big and painful. i gave my other sword to Artois, and re-equipped him with ammo and such.

in the tavern, i tried talking to baldy-wine coffer (i KNOW that's not his name), but no go. one thing i noticed was that his first greeting was russian, but i'm pretty sure that's an installation bug. man, i'm being so awfully impolite to everyone that it's actually starting to bother me. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/rolleyes.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="" border="0" alt="rolleyes.gif" /> so long, baldy!

after resting in the tavern, i wen't off to see cardone, the merchant. luckily, i could help him despite my reputation. (by the way, what's the deal with the locals saying he's crazy? i never found someone actually saying that) does anyone actually know what happens if you keep on asking about higher payment? does he give you more, or do you negatioate with the head of the guard about you doing the job instead? i'd really like to know this. anyway, off to da gov. i could help him out as well, which is good. one thing i noticed was this:

<img src="http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s208/morgan_terror/painting.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />

see that painting on the wall? is that me or him? no idea why he'd have a painting of me on the wall, so i guess it's him. well, i'm going to fix the ship first, cos i need an intact ship to fight that beast out there. oh... right. i can't, can i? see, that's exactly why i hate this bad reputation. after this, i started the fred bob, blacque family, and smuggled goods missions. (you are supposed to be able to get the goods for yourself somehow, but i haven't yet figured out how. any pointers?)

after visiting the harbour master, i wen't off to find fred bob. i had a bit of a snigger when the guard he was talking to told him to cut down on the rum. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile2.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=")" border="0" alt="smile2.gif" /> i just continued with all the quests, not mentioning anything here because of spoilers (and because i'm just lazy), but it wouldn't have mattered anyway, because the game crashed just before i finished. now, it may seem like i remained calm and took this in my stride. NOT. it was damned annoying! the only noteworthy thing that happened was this:

if you go to the tavern for the street merchant quest, and then talk to the merchant again, you'll get an extra quest option which also helps you in the smuggled goods quest. try it! be sure not to have finished the smuggled goods quest first though, otherwise it's no good.

i did all quest over again, of course. after that, i was still bloody terror. ugh. okay, back to good old tactic of increasing reputation. annoy everyone by keep talking to them, triggering all sorts of events that make you gain it. i managed to become known as 'swindler' this way, but it didn't make it possible to use the shipyard now though. guess i had to be one step higher. one important thing that happened was that although i had now lost my gigantic sword, i found an even better one! it was an average vagrant, 13/25, 25%, 40%. something else is of course that i got a letter from fred bob, which triggers another quest. off to sea, to get my ship.

15:38 - there was a great wind blowing, and i got catapulted out of port as soon as i hoisted the sails. as always, the pirate corvette was fleeing, making my job a whole lot easier. i still think that's a bit lame. it shouldn't flee in my opinion. it makes it too easy to get a good ship really early on. what's more, it is pretty darned useless to flee when you're chased by the fastest sailing ship in excistance. i was bouncing after him, and looked back to see my other two ships come gliding out of port in a pretty cool-looking fashion. the bermuda lurched heavily to one side as it swung around to follow me, righted itself, overhauled it's spanker, and was quickly follow by the Cheri who swooped round the corner as well. now there where three fast ships hunting him.

16:00 - just as i prepared to tack, the wind changed to prefectly match the direction i wanted to go! awesome! a toast on neptune and his beans!

there's no way i'm going to fire on my own ship. he thought differently about the matter of shooting though, and kept shooting his stern chasers at me. the first volley was a miss, but the second was all too accurate, one ball tearing through my gaffs and the other slamming a hole in the deck just in front of the cabin. just for the record, that was the exact same place where <i>I</i> was standing. it's pretty frightening to see a cannonball heading straight for your face! i veered a little off to one side, giving me two advantages:

1: i got out of his range and no longer risked my hat being shot off.

2: he would try to aim his stern chasers at me, thus turning up into the wind a bit more, in which case i was an even better sailer, giving a huge speed advantage.

uh-oh. i'm going too fast! <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/piratesing.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="" border="0" alt="piratesing.gif" /> luckily, just before i sailed into his broadside, he boarded me. thanks a lot! then i realised i had once again forgotten to make Artois stay on board. to make matters worse, he had about twice the crew, and this was reflected in the fight all too well! to top things off that incredible french dumbass was fighting in the front lines. RIGHT up front. to my utmost amazement, foes fell like flies, and noone died on our side! seriously, what has the cook been feeding those guys, dope or something!? well, i don't mind!

on the next deck, i discovered that there where so many foes that i was fighting two of them <i>inside each other</i>. that was a bit annoying. it was like fighting someone with two swords. here i found my third ingredient to the mysterious concoction, so there's only one more i need!

in the end there was an absolutely HUGE battle in the cabin, with more foes there than i had ever seen a cabin while boarding. their side: at least 6 or 8. our side: 3. me, Artois, and the spanish dude. help? well, i had my fair share of blood and killed all of them on my side of the cabin, but i couldn't reach Artois who was blocked from me behind the desk. fortunately, mister spaniard helped him out before he got overrun. thanks for saving me 50 grand mate!

i placed the officer on the Seablade and took the corvette for myself (of course). now i had four ships. i really should get rid of that sloop. too bad i got a corvette before i reached greenford. otherwise i would have had the pleasure to FINALLY sail a privateer, or a brig type in any case. think of it: since the stock game, i haven't sailed a SINGLE brig! well, that tubby 16-gun brig doesn't really count.

i visited the governor and go one of my many rewards. and no, i didn't buy a LoM. i would have been mad doing so, being so close to becoming hostile with them. i might have if not for the main quest. anyway, i was up a level, as well as Artois. i put one point in melee and cannons for myself (now 6 and 4) and two in sailing for Artois (now 7). maybe one in melee and sailing would have been better. i trained with Artois, him getting basic defence and my professional gunman, probably by shooting at him. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile2.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=")" border="0" alt="smile2.gif" /> which reminds me: i found a brace of small pistols earlier, which i equipped of course. one annoying thing i noticed was that my relation with france drops for no reason. meh. i sold all unneeded stuff i had at a merchant and bought some battle armor. then, i went back to port.

 

[morgan terror]

okay, prepare yourselves, this one's a biggie. maybe i'll split it in two. there's 17 screenshots in here, so you'll probably not see them at first with all those other ones on this page. *takes deep breath* okay....

to start with, we left for oxbay island at 22:09, and by now i'm beginning to wonder if i'll always have to sail at these horrible times. i'm looking forward to the morning fog already, curse it. anyway, wind's from the south-south-west, which is BAD, as that's roughly the direction i want to go, which is west. actually, i nearly went east. i can still sail out of the bay now, but it's going to be tricky to get round the corner. apart from that, there's little wind to boot, and i'm doing only 3 knots. on a lighter note, i went into full charactical swing, renaming the ship the Crimson Blood and hoisting my emblemed sails (although you can't see them on the screenshot yet).

<img src="http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s208/morgan_terror/exitingconceciao.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />

right after this moment the Seablade and the Cheri came wobbling round the corner. i was wondering where those two had been. all in all, i'm quite happy that my ship, a square-rigger, can sail at this angle to the wind. it should. it's way better than that stinkin' fleut, in any case.

23:00 - heheeey, the wind's from the east! awesome! right now it's on the beam, but it's going to be almost perfect after i round that corner. the rocking doesn't look so bad. but as a matter of fact, it is. i think it's even worse than with the sloop, but due to the sheer size of the vessel, it doesn't look as bad. i was doing 10.7 knots after i rounded the corner and had the wind on the stern, causing the gaff to do a bit odd. it was swinging all over the place. that should be fixed. anyway, i got another nice and spooky screen:

<img src="http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s208/morgan_terror/moonabove.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />

hehehe. i remember there was a certain sky why you could see eyes in the clouds, but i don't remember at which time it was or where. i'll keep a lookout for those eyes next time. meanwhile, i now realise that it would have been quicker if i would have exited the bay from the other side. however, that end is very narrow, and although i could fit my ship through, i'm not too sure if my officers could. the ship now has a gentle sway, backwards and forwards, which is accustomed to big ships. now i noticed something funny: with the light coming from the front, the gunports light up with a red gleam. now that i thought of it, i checked which guns i had on board: 18 lbs long guns. not bad. i'll fit some bigger ones later. at the moment, i'm keeping good pace with the Adventure Galley and the Seablade, but the Cheri is lagging behind. maybe due to cargo.

midnight - by now i have noticed that this ship handles differently from the Seablade. it's far more responsive, and swings round with ease, making S-shaped courses like it's a cutter. that's one of the reasons why i like this ship, as well as it's speed. the wind's from the north, and i'm doing 6.7 knots. i'll have to get used to these slower speeds, but they don't seem too bad. the other ships are faster than me. i'm beginning to suspect that the privateer is functioning as a fore-to-aft rigger, which would make it an even better ship than it already is, although that's actually not right.

i sighted a portugese convoy. looking through my spyglass at the Cheri, it looked kinda funny how it danced before the view. this was because my ship was rocking, and that ship was rocking, making the view go all wonky in all possible degrees. the Seablade would love this wind. the ship looks extremely narrow from here. i now passed a fleut fairly close by, and dumped some of the stuff i didn't want. it didn't matter much for the speed. that fleut wasn't the portugese. they where really far away, barely visible. i want that lookout's spyglass. i think i could look into the conceciao's governor's daughter's window from here. ahem. anyway, the island's starting to dissapear now.

01:00 - don't you just hate having to work at this time? i don't think the governor will be too pleased if i fall with my face into my food at dinner. the wind's still the same, although it picked up a little in strength, making me do 7.6 knots. how boring, nothing happens in this hour. however, one interesting thing i noticed was that, although maybe coincidental, the ships behind me where sailing in a way that they wouldn't take the wind out of each other's sails. by now this night sky is beginning to bore me. we need more variation in them.

02:00 - OI! you there, get out of my cabin! bloody skallywag. hey, there's another one! would you get out already!? sheesh. for some reason those crewmembers keep walking in and out of my cabin. meanwhile, the wind is still coming from the same friggin' side! i'm glad it's not a headwind. that would be something.

i'm now thinking it would be nice to have time-specific music, like a different sailing soundtrack playing during the night than during day. could be interesting.

ah, i sighted oxbay! along with ANOTHER gaff-rigged pirate chebec! bloody hell, how many of those things ARE there around here? i got transported to the oxbay canyon for the Claire Larrouse quest, which is one of my favorites, probably because it's one of the last quests i discovered. however, i know that there are two or more quests still out there which i have never done before, or not entirely. anyway, onward to the hack-and-slash fest! Claire almost literally mowed right through those soldiers, and i shot two of them, followed by some swacks i gave them. as i'm not going to give any spoilers, i'll just say that i was going to go through the town, and then into the jungle on the other side. in the town, i discovered that Claire has the same hat as i do. funny. i wonder how they made that model. it's barbossa with a different face (i think she would look mighty wierd with a beard), but the same hat and rest of him. it's just wierd. oh: take a look at the animations for the character. female animations on a male model look REALLY wierd. for instance, in a certain stance, it looks like her back got dislodged from her hips. speaking of silly things, try giving the Clair skin to Fred Bob and then talking to him/her. you'll probably fall off your chair laughing. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile2.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=")" border="0" alt="smile2.gif" /> be sure to turn on the sound, otherwise it's not so funny. okay enough of the wierd stuff, lets go out of the town at the other side. here i noticed that the wierd stuff wasn't quite done yet. Claire's sword is located WAY too high. the thing's stuck up under her armpit! anyway, i met no less than 5 monkeys here! jeez! you can overdo it you know. i shot one of them twice, as one shot didn't kill the drafty beast, and shot another one once which demised because of it. it still don't get how i can get a ton of leather from a beast that HASN'T HAVE A SKIN. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/8q.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="" border="0" alt="8q.gif" />

in the next area of jungle, i met the ones i had been looking for. i killed em, and Claire said that we should now head for a nearby bay. um... anything more precise than that, by any chance? nope. well, i just did eenie-meenie-mini-mo at the intersection and ended up at the wrong place. back we went, and this time i got it right. i'm surprisingly lucky. i didn't meet anyone twice in a row. that's a once-in-a-game occurence, especially at night. i got to gray rock bay, and completed the quest there, letting Claire stay with me. still, keeping the deal still knocked a few points off my reputation, but that could soon be fixed. now comes a huge list of what the results of this quest where, but i'll keep it short.

morgan terror: up two levels. +1 melee, sailing, leadership, and cannons. learned fast reload and pre-reloading. (no idea how that works. how do you load a cannon for a second time before you fire it? sounds like a messy business as a result to me)

captain of the Adventure Galley, the bermuda sloop (this is a hired pirate captain of a ship i captured. i think the either sloop or the tartane. i think it was the bermuda sloop): up two levels. +2 to sailing, +1 to accuracy and cannons, learned him increased ship and sail damage.

Claire Larrouse: up two levels, +2 accuracy and cannon skill, and also learned increased ship and sails damage.

captain of the Seablade, the spanish dude from the smuggler hunter (hehe, asshole): one level up, +2 sailing skill, learned speed increase.

Artois Voysey, navigator (i'm just wating until he confesses the location of the treasure, and then i'll send him on a suicide mission <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/dev.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":d:" border="0" alt="dev.gif" /> ): +2 sailing skill, learned advanced defence.

 

[morgan terror]

read the post before this, which is part of the new entry, first.

i went back out to sea at 3:52. as i needed to trigger the main quest, i wen't to a quick stop to the worldmap, (i was pleased to notice that this was also noted in the quest log) and triggered the movie clip by letting the day pass. one significant thing i should note is that my crew indeed didn't ask for payment! i'll experiment with this some more. going back to regular sea at some time before 09:00, i was attacked in the bay by a pirate barque and a chebec! the wind was blowing almost directly out of the bay, so i had that on my side. well, i chose to just let em have it, and sent all of us into the fray. the problem was that the Seablade was badly undercrewed, so it would most likely be useless. the bermuda fired it's bow guns at the chebec, i fired a broadside at it which was largely a miss, and it... sunk!? um... okay... well, that barque sure was in some shit now! <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile2.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=")" border="0" alt="smile2.gif" /> it turned out i was wrong. despite the fact that they where trying to run away at first, the barque now seemed to realise that it was done for anyway, and just ran headlong into battle. i heard some racket behind me which truned out to be Claire fireing on the poor little ship, the barque fired a broadside at the bermuda, and i fired my now cannons at the barque in return. cannonballs really where all over the place.

<img src="http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s208/morgan_terror/yachtbattle1.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />

i swung the ship hard to starboard, fireing a broadside at the barque, the barque letting loose another broadside at the sloop and fireing at me with it's bow cannons. what kind of guns does that thing have, gatling guns!? it's got a rediculous rate of fire! saying that, it fired at the sloop AGAIN, and i now went hard to port, as i was in danger of sailing past the thing alltogether.

<img src="http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s208/morgan_terror/yachtbattle2.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />

that little pesk just kept on fireing from all sides, giving me some iron too. i got broadsided, they fired the bow cannons on the sloop, the sloop fired a broadside back at them, Claire followed suit, and i fired my bow chasers, destroying one of their cannons and finally sinking it amidst the hailing cannonballs. that thing put up some fight. the debris flying off when it had broadsided me wen't amazingly high. in fact, a piece of the bow rail wen't flying over the quarterdeck, landing in the sea behind the ship. the battle ended at 8:34. i tried to go back into the bay, but the wind wasn't exactly helping a lot.

09:00 - right, there's a decent wind, so, to the rescue! dagnabbit, this just won't do. i was too late to save two crewmembers, but i rescued four of them nonetheless. now i should go to greenford to fix the ships.

<img src="http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s208/morgan_terror/exitinggrayrockbay.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />

10:00 - it's good to see the sun again for a change. i'm heading for the passage between the rock that gives the bay it's name and the island, which i kow i can do because i've done it many times before. the wind's good enough, blowing from the WSW, and although it's only blowing me along at 2.3 knots, we're at least moving.

i now noticed that that incompetent, moronic, idiotical officer knocked the bowspirt off the sloop in a collision with the Cheri! you just can't get decent help these days, can you? great men, you just knocked the value of the ship down by ten percent! ugh. if there's one thing that needs changing it's giving officers a brain.

11:00 - i left the bay. the town should be just round the corner, and the wind's blowing straight from behind.

<img src="http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s208/morgan_terror/beforegreenford.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />

here i noticed another trait of this ship. as is made clear by this screenshot, you can see that some of the forward sails can't catch any wind, so it looses some speed. as i turned round the corner, the speed picked up a little to 7.6 knots. something that i hadn't accounted for, however, was that i couldn't enter the bay with this wind. luckily, the hour was about to change, and the next hour gave me the right wind to moor at 12:10, just in time for lunch.

in port i met some beggar who said he was a good quartermaster. to my surprise, he was, but i prefer to get my officers by different means. i also met someone else who gave me a few lessons in sailing. good. one thing that surprised me that it was suddenly growing dark. now how was that possible? nevermind, i've seen wierder things in this game. i sold some stuff at a stall and bought a gunpowder flask. i'm going off to the abbey now i'm here to boost my reputation a bit. on the way i noticed that there was another mansion in the area which i had never seen before. i did some exploring there, although it was the same as all the other mansions. after this i wen't into the notorious abbey. i'm not going into the crypt, but i'll murder those guys in the church itself. something that's fun to do here is staying within the area of the door, so you have the camera from the side (if you confirgured it to be like this in the buildsettings). it makes the swordfights look really cool, far better than from behind. anyways, after the slaughter i was still swindler. okay, out, and back in. this time i wasn't so lucky. i figured i could make a quick dash to the corner to get a better defensive position. NOT. three guys after me which count as 6! anyway, after all this i went up a level, +1 melee and accuracy, and learned basic ship defence. to my horror the corpses dissapeared before i could claim my reputation bonus, as there seems to be a time limit to how long they stay on the ground, which is a nuisance. back out.

outside i met a beggar, gave him some money, and tadaaa! up to rascal! i have a whole list of things to do now i have the reputation for it. first to the shipyard, where i sold the sloop and the schooner (i'll miss that thing)and bought some 24-pounders for myself. long guns, of course. they where bloody expensive, i tell you that. then it was off to the store, and then i had a rest in the tavern. i checked the stats of my ship and the Cheri, and then seemed to be evenly matched in speed and agility. i went to port, where i got shot by someone with a friggin' blunderbuss! <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/ko.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="" border="0" alt="ko.gif" /> ow! well, gives me something to do on the voyage.

<img src="http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s208/morgan_terror/shipsatgreenford.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />

no, i'm not done yet. almost though, looking at the pages of notes left to go through.

i departed at 12:32. seems almost as if i had been in town for 22 minutes. there's a westerly wind, which is a problem. this ship doesn't tack very well. the Cheri is keeping perfect pace. we're both going slow. i'm having trouble getting out of the bay, so i hope the wid's going to be better in a few minutes.

13:00 - it turned out to be a NNW-er. well, it's managable. i'm doing 3.3 knots and the wind's doing a little dodgy, going in and out of the sails all the time. here i spotted a sloop peering in between the rocks.

<img src="http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s208/morgan_terror/sloop.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />

it turned out that it would become a point of interest for a while. the Cheri is a beter sailer with this wind. i noticed here that she always seemed to be flying the french flag. very smart you arse, that's an english fort over there!

<img src="http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s208/morgan_terror/leavingoxbay.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />

the sloop seems to be sailing into the bay now.

14:00 - wind's the friggin' same. darnit. now the sloop's coming our way. what's that thing up to?

15:00 - ladiedadieda, stupid friggin' wind is once again the same, and we're still going friggin' NOWHERE! <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/modding.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="" border="0" alt="modding.gif" /> still, it's picked up in strength a LOT, making me do 6 knots. it's raining now, causing a rainbow:

<img src="http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s208/morgan_terror/rainbow.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />

i'm not sure if i've seen one in the game before. now the sloop's going south. wierdo. i tried to see how far away i could still recognise that it was a sloop. 1800 yards, as it turns out, without using a spyglass. the island's dissapearing now. that was a loooooooooong hour.

16:00 - yep, i can still see it through the spyglass, 2740 yards away. ubelievably enough, the wind's STILL... THE... SAME! seriously, how often does THAT happen!?

ooh, pirates! a sloop, a yacht, and a lugger VML. and why shouldn't i sink em? i tacked and went straight at em, going north. oi oi oi, where do you think you're going!? Claire, come back here! bloody deserter. she followed me later on. we both broadsided the yacht, mainly because it was first within range. those pirates where going a bit too fast for my liking. the yacht returned fire to both of us, and now we where on a collision course!

<img src="http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s208/morgan_terror/battle1.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />

well, in that case, i'd have the upper hand anyway, so i didn't really care. i boarded him, and he surrendered straight away. i took the silver on board and scuttled it, now being on collision course with the LUGGER! it didn't some to that though. i broadsided him right on the nose, destroying four out of 12 cannons, sinking him straight away. i came about, fireing the stern on the remaining sloop and then my other broadside at him as i continued to turn to starboard.

<img src="http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s208/morgan_terror/battle2.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />

that little pesk shot some holes through my sails straight afterwards, and was now heading straight for the Cheri, their bows facing each other. i could foresee i horrible accident here. they extremely narrowly avoided each other after the sloop had fire it's bow at Claire. however, Claire gave it an excellent rake at point-blank range, destroying a cannon and doing considerable damage, and i fired the bow cannons at the sloop after that. we exchanged broadsides, in which i lost a portside cannon, which was still fixeable. that was good, cos i didn't want to replace a brand new cannon which was bloody expensive on top of it.

<img src="http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s208/morgan_terror/battle3.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />

Claire and the sloop exchanged fire, i fired the bow cannons again, as well as Claire. now the sloop hit Clair at point-blank range. i fired another broadside, and Claire set the sloop on fire withe the stern guns. then that bugger was in trouble, because it turned up into the wind, after which it sunk, and i reset the course.

17:00 - the wind's now from the north, and i'm going west, doing 7.7 knots. i sighted something, but i couldn't find out what it was., as i couldn't find it. unforrtunately, i couldn't reach the wreckage from the battle because it was drifting upwind, annoyingly close by. by now it's once again growing dark. i checked my current stats, which where as follows:

leadership: 7
melee: 8
sailing: 7
accuracy: 5
cannons: 5
grappling: 2
repair: 1
defence: 2
commerce: 1
luck: 3 (this was due to the fact that i had gotten a cross from one of the maltese knights. didn't do him any good)

the ship's rocking very slowly from side to side, which is a bit odd considering ym experience with sinds like this. Claire has less sail damage than i do. our current ship condition is 98/98 for Claire and 98/95 for me. an inspection of the damage revealed 7 holes in the portside, most of them being at the stern. one of them's occasionally below the waterline. there's a chunk out of the starboard bulwarks, and there's a few holes in the main course and the jib. Claire's got a hole in her ship's gaff, by the looks of it.

18:00 - there's an excellent wind blowing from the perfect angle for this ship, and i'm doing 13.3 knots. i sighted a spanish schooner MM and spotted another hole in the starboard bulwarks. Claire's falling behind now. the ship's gently swaying.

<img src="http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s208/morgan_terror/sun2.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />

last time i got a shot like this i was sailing in a fast schooner. seems like a huge difference now.

19:00 - there's a good wind from the east, and i sighted conceciao. i also saw a fleet of dutch ships.

<img src="http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s208/morgan_terror/dutchinsight.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />

there's also a pirate schooner MM and a sloop at the island. don't know if i'll meet them, i can't see them yet. something that surprises me is that i can actually already see the island. (there's no way i'm typing that name more than nessesary) strangely enough, the first dutch ship seemed way fatser than the other two. those two must be pretty deeply loaded by the looks of it, especially because the slowest chebec has exactly the same damage statistics as the faster one. i'm overtaking all of them at 9.1 knots, which was a fun race, passing them very closely.

<img src="http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s208/morgan_terror/racingthedutch.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />

here i noticed a hole in the main course had been fixed now, leaving one. meanwhile, the gaff's starting to freak me out. it's keeps swaying to and away from my head, seemingly hesitating wether to swack me or not. sometimes it swoops and an alarming speed towards my head but then stops just in time and backs off as if it decided to wait for a better time when i wasn't watching.

20:00 - oh, darn. just before i go into port there's a headwind. it's very dark, but not night just yet. i'm going to try to tack into port.

20:36 - tacked.

21:00 - completed second tack, but the wind changed to a more fair kind, and i docked at 21:18.

here, Artois dissapeared like he should. well, actually, he didn't. he just stood there for a while, and then started to walk up the stairs to the town. thinking this was some realistic change in the quest, i watched him with interest. then he came back down. seems like he was now functioning like any other citizen. i just igonred him and went on into the town. along the way i had the chance to learn another trick or two about sailing, so i did. in the town, i was a bit surprised to find Artois' sword on a crate. riiiiiiiight.... i went to the tavern to have a snooze, where i got the option to say this:

<img src="http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s208/morgan_terror/morganremark.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />

now THAT's a morgan-remark. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile2.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=")" border="0" alt="smile2.gif" /> i just followed the events in Artois' quest, and then had a rest in the tavern. after that i bought a letter of marque at the gov, and stole his stuff just for good measure. instead of repairing the ships, i bought some stuff to repair them myself at sea, and sold the silver. i had a surprise outside. i met the captain of the yacht i had sunk yesterday! same name, same clothes, same guy! he didn't seem to recognise me though. anyway, i was off to port. next stop: douwesen.

but i'll have mercy on you and myself and quite writing for now.

 

[morgan terror]

for those who where expecting a post like the last, i have to dissapoint you, as this one is fairly short. but on the other hand, i've been the only one who has started something like this and actually continued it after the first post. i've seen the starts of at least 5 topics like this. but enough of this, on to me adventures.

i set sail from conceciao towards douwesen at 13:51. i don't remember what the wind was, but it didn't matter, as by the time i had taken a look around, it had changed anyway, blowing from the WSW, me having to go north. ish. that doesn't sound very good, especially for someone who's definition of dead reckoning is 'land is....err....thataway! somewhereabouts. possibly.' ANYWAY, i'm doing 7.1 knots in what i hope is more or less the right direction.

my spyglass never ceases to amaze me. it can look through rocks! and apparantly, there's a schooner behind the big rock called island. oh. i see that i've just made a bit of an oaf of myself, as my log now notes that i was on course halfway through the hour. ahem. must have been due to the fact that i can't sail through the island. it was here that i sighted leviathan rock.

<img src="http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s208/morgan_terror/beach.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />

strange. i never noticed that huge gap between the mountains before.

15:00 - oh, goody, a headwind! bummer. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/dry.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="<_<" border="0" alt="dry.gif" /> well, as the wind is coming from the NNW, i'll just be stubborn and go NNE. HA! that'll teach him. knowing my luck it'll probably be blowing in my face again the next hour.

GAHH! *goes bouncing round the deck amidst the crew which also seems to have taken up this peculiar new dance* the... ship... is... bouncing... all... over... the... $!$!%$#!%$!$... $@!$%!$!$!%^$#@... $#@!... PLACE! ...........help! %$#%!$~!^@!

meanwhile, i overtook a fish.

we seem to have a bit of a problem with the cannons. the innards have gone all soggy. wonder what kind of a POOF that'll give. hey, it's raining. shows what of an attention i'm able to give while i'm $%!%!$@!$ bouncing all over the place. meanwhile, due to my face coming into contact with the deck so frequently, i had the most oppurtune chance to observe that the deck planks are rediculously long. must have been some tree to make a deckplank as long as the entire ship.

what the.... is all this lolloping starting to affect my head or what? the sun's in the east! i'm sure it wasn't there before. i'll be keeping an eye on that bugger.

despite my rediculous bouncy situation, there's a beautiful side to this as well. a rainbow arcs exactly over the ship when looking from the bow. is it me or is the weather particularily miserable lately?

you might be surprised to know that all that text sprouted from 6 lines in my logbook.

16:00 - neptune's having a laugh with me. now the wind has flopped back to it's previous direction. meanwhile, he's arranged a nice distraction for me: pirates, off to starboard. and not just the usual rabble. they where a schooner and a war galleon, a genuine threat. and, of course, i swung the ship round immediatly and charged at them with my eyes closed. sort of. i fired the bow cannons, as they had come within range of them after a while (who's complaining of too short battle opening distances? open yer eyes!). then i swung up into the wind, tacking as i went. this is usefull to do in realistic sailing mode, as it allows you to swing almost a full circle afterwards without problems, provided you have a square-rigger. while doing this, the enemy fired their bow cannons at me, but i returned fire at them twice with my full broadside. then, turning on, i fired my stern (stern CANNONS, mind you) and Claire gave them a good broadside. the galleon got the chance to fire it's bow cannons as well, and then the battle heated up as i now fired my other broadside at the same time as the enemy schooner fired on me with HIS broadside. for some reason i have a genuine fear for the broadside of a schooner. that little nippy thing has got an aweful lot of guns for such a small ship, and it's hard to hit. luckily, i came through the iron hail unscathed. the schooner and the galleon when now splitting up, the schooner going ahead of me, the galleon going behind me. i couldn't keep an eye on Claire as i had more than enough on my hands at the moment. writing and running a sloop of war in battle at the same time isn't exactly relaxing, especially with a pen that refuses to work properly. i went for the schooner, because of the risk that it might get away. even as i was turning it it's direction, i realised this was a mistake. if you have the battle pictured properly in your mind, you might know why. the schooner was in front. the galleon was at an angle of 90 degrees to the schooner more or less behind me and off to the side. now, if the smaller ship is running away, and the bigger is going past your stern, it's NOT a good idea to keep on going! i should have turned round to go for the galleon and take a hit from the stern of the schooner, sustaining little or no damage, though maybe having the risk of the schooner escaping. instead, i got broadsided by the both of them, and, well, that hurts. due to some freak of chance most of the shot passed astern and above me, ripping the gaff to ribbons and tearing holes in the other lower sails. there was surprisingly little damage to the hull and upper sails. after that narrow escape i thought it best to just let that schooner have it, and out came the chainshot. and, in true insanely lucky morgan-terror-style, my bow cannons poked it's main mast over! (REALLY need a woot smiley here) back to the balls to finish him off. and, as those bow cannons wouldn't be of much use, i tacked once again, allowing for a broadside at the both of those buggers. i only just managed to shoot the galleon at maximum range, and, lo and behold, i knocked out both the schooner's stern guns! <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/laugh.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":" border="0" alt="laugh.gif" /> i hardly even dared hope for that to happen. as that schooner apparently thought this was all very unfair, he gave up the struggle and surrendered. i fired a round of chainshot at the galleon, ripping the topgallants clean off. back to balls. those gunners must be going nuts. hope they don't cut corners and just stuff both in at once.

the wind changed, and for the better. now, i could concetrate a bit more on that galleon. apparently, while i was having fun with that schooner, Claire had been bravely battling the brute behind me. i was just in time to see Claire set it on fire!

the galleon was now taking heavy fire from the both of us, which didn't seem to inflict much. must of the hits landed on the bow, and i'm very surprised that it never lost it's bowsprit. the galleon seemed to be hesitating wether to run or not, and i'm not sure if it ever did, but it swung round sharply, and gave Claire a devastating broadside at pretty close range, inflicting some major damage at first glance. after the battle, it turned out not to be so bad as it looked. Claire had been very lucky. any other small ship would have sunk. (i know this, i got the full load of a galleon's broadside on top of me once when in a schooner)

<img src="http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s208/morgan_terror/galleon.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />

this was to be it's final deathstruggle, as it surrendered shortly thereafter. i boarded it straight away, and i'm going to keep this ship. i know from experience that war galleons are good ships, though maybe not the fastest in the world. the ship likely being pirate designed greatly contributes to this. i temporarily gave the ship to my spanish officer. should make him feel right at home. i took the 90 silver on board for my flagship. strangely enough, all pirate captains seem to be named the same. this bug has been noticed before though, and i think it was fixed later on.

after this struggle, a glance at the clock showed me it was 18:12, and time to attend to that schooner. i quickly boarded it, and hired the captain as an officer. i scuttled the ship afterwards.

<img src="http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s208/morgan_terror/schoonersink.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />

as usual, i held an inspection of the damage. one remarkable occurance was that a cannonball had seemingly shot straight through the quarterdeck rail and into the deck, which is odd, as the cannonballs usually don't do that. there where two half holes as a result. the holes in the sails where luckily only in the lower ones, leaving most of the important sails undamaged, except the gaff, which is indeed very important, and the jib. i don't mind much about the courses, which didn't have that much damage anyway.

the wind is WNW, surprise surprise. exactly where it had been coming from in the first place. seriously, something fishy is going on here, and it's not in the ocean. i'm doing a bit of a dissapointing 2.6 knots, and that's most certainly not due to the sails. meanwhile, the spaniard was completely ignoring everything and everyone, so i gave him a poke to wake him up. it's a bit depressing that although i've already been busy for quite some time, the island is still within view. i checked the galleon's stats in the ship list. 14 knots. not bad at all.

19:00 - the wind is now from the south for a change, and it's still bloody raining. i'm doing 7.8 knots, and the galleon gave me a bit of a surprise when i saw it was doing 7.1 knots! keep in mind that his sail damage was actually WORSE than mine. his speed dropped a bit after he was following me in a straight line, but what i saw was pretty good nonetheless. i think i'll take that ship as my flagship once i get to douwesen. the Cheri is going the same speed as me. by now, it's been raining for so long, that i'm even starting to think it's raining outside. OUTSIDE.

20:00 - flip-flop-flippidy-flop-wind's-all-over-the-place. now it's NNW. wacko seagod. as this wind wasn't going to bring me anywhere anytime soon, it was a welcome distraction when i saw a lifeboat adrift.

<img src="http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s208/morgan_terror/lifeboat.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />

no, he's not going to sit on them. i had big surprise when i discovered that there had been 36 people in it. how.... fit.... boat.... stack.... huh? <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/blink.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":blink:" border="0" alt="blink.gif" /> by now, i'm a bit worried about the not entirely unimportant fact of where the hell i'm actually going. the course has been so extravangantly wobbly that i haven't the faintest clue where i actually am. meh, i'll just point my ship roughly in the right direction and see where i end up.

21:00 - the wind seems to have decided on being of questionably logic for the rest of the day, so i think i'll just ignore it. let's just say that i'm going in the right direction. at least, what i think is the right direction.

well waddyaknow, we actually ended up somewhere! and it's the right island to boot! of course, you know me. it can't be as good as this. sure enough, i'm sailing through that good ol' murk again. i can hardly even see the galleon right behind me. and that thing's pretty hard to miss. correction, it's gone. for some odd reason i can clearly see that there's land ahead of me, at a far greater distance. my ship seems to have largely been repaired, apart from one remaining hole in the gaff and a scratch here and there on the hull. beats me how they have used the whole friggin' 50 TONS OF SAILCLOTH to patch up a few holes. seesh. same goes for the planks. what did they do, nail those holes shut five layers thick? as i thought this voyage had taken way too long already, i used sail to to get to the docks and moored. 51 days out.

okay, so it DID turn out to be a very long post.

 

[morgan terror]

the new entry will be split into two posts, because of it's sheer length, and mainly because one post can only hold 15 screenshots. prepare yourselves, this one will contain no less than 24 screenshots. yes, it's sick.

to start off with, my arrival in douwesen port was greeted by a bandit. to make matters short, fred bob shot him, artois wacked him, he wacked back, and fred sliced him in half. ouch. for some reason, none of us recieved the looted items, which is annoying, because, looking at artois' health, he had a pretty good sword. i told my officers to go on shore leave and headed off into the night-covered town.

in town, i was surprised to find a hatchet in a place i'd never noticed i could pick up an item before. the object being big and obvious was a good hint. afterwards, i headed into the dungeon for another hack-and-slash session. nothing of importance happened there, but here's the summary:

1: i killed 15 people, despite the fact that we had no reason to attack each other whatsoever.

2: i got shot 3 times, twice with grapeshot. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/ko.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="" border="0" alt="ko.gif" /> they regretted it. the one instance where i got shot with a regular pistol, the pistol was used by someone with a <u>HOOK</u>.

3: i shot other foes 4 times. actually, i think it was six times, because i ran out of ammo. one bloke i shot twice, mainly because he wasn't moving but just standing in the tunnel, simply inviting to be shot twice.

4: i killed my alter ego once, along with catalina the pirate.

5: i got myself a grapeshot pistol with ammo, which i equipped, and loads of other stuff. i actually found two grapeshot pistols, but one of them had mysteriously dissapeared from my inventory for no apparent reason.

back outside, walking along as if nothing ever happened, which, relatively speaking, never did, i met two guys selling maps which i completely ignored as usual (though i must admit that those treasure hunting quests are great fun), and some guy who gave me 1 point in grappling, i went to the tavern to have a sleep there. by myself. confusing sentence? it should be. in the chest in the room i found a rusty dagger. cheap junk, but i thought i'd take it anyway. after that, i went to the store to restock, and sold all my junk there, of which i have no idea why that shopkeeper bought all of it, but what the heck. i also sold all my silver, fruit, leather, oil, and copra. considering that i never bought any of all this, it leads me to wonder how the heck that got in my hold in the first place. all kinds of stuff seems to wander in there. going back outside, i noticed that a thick fogbank had plonked out of the sky. morning fog, as usual. i tried exchanging good between the Cheri and the Crimson Blood, but the menu didn't work. probably because the ship used to be a privateer vessel. i sold the Cheri (note to self: fetch some ice against that sore cheek from that slap), repaired the ships, took the galleon for myself, and gave the Crimson Blood to Claire Larrouse, of which i'm not too sure if it was such a good idea. i'm very likely not going to sell that ship. unless special circumstances occur, i'm going to keep it until it goes down with man and mouse in splinters. i released the captain of the galleon from my hold, boosting my reputation up to neutral. (that's the main reason why i switched it back to the stock game system, and i later discovered it seems to fix the stuck on boarding bug) now, off to the jungle to get me loot.

in the jungle (the mighty one) i met the usual boring three bandits, which i killed without much adieu, and thew headed into the douwesen cave, under the waterfall. i'm truly sorry if someone didn't know about this cave yet. i remember being thrilled when i first discovered it. unfortunately, it wasn't during the quest, and the only thing it gained me was a certain item you'll doubtlessly find once you get there yourself. beware: the cave is deadly. i met 7 bandits and 2 monkeys in that cave, though i had surprisingly little difficulty with them. the first time i ever tried getting through took me at least three tries. only once have i gotten through without taking a single hit, going to AND from the beach, as well as on the beach itself. i suspect that using obstructing corpses made a very big difference in difficulty. anyway, i shot twice during that battle. it didn't yield any items of importance. now, finally at the beach, i had to fight five more bandits. one of them is off to the left, between the rocks. the other four are off to the right, each one of them a small distance from the others. it is critical here to act fast. because they are standing fairly close together, and you've got no defensive postion whatsoever, you run a very big risk of having to fight three or all four of them at once. therefor, shoot one of them and kill him off quickly. a second will arrive a bit earlier than the last two, which might give you the chance to kill him first. the remaining two shouldn't be a problem. the fifth on the other side is easy meat, though be warned: these bandits aren't the regular bandits. they are from the highwaymen type, the same kind as the four guys standing in a group on a road, and just as tough as soldiers. they are almost always equipped with a gun, nearly always shoot you, and attack you all at once if they can. in my case, i TRIED to shoot one, and although i hit him, i got shot myself twice in quick succesion straight afterwards. i won though, of course, and wen't to collect my loot from that awesome shipwrecked frigate.

<img src="http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s208/morgan_terror/shipwreck.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />

the weather makes it look almost as if the ship only recently stranded there. speaking of the weather, it has been decidedly miserable lately. almost every day i see these clouded skies, it's raining, it's foggy, or just plain crap in general. this weather pattern would continue for the next few days. you should really take a good look at that wreck while you're there. it's a most interesting scene which you will only see for a very short time in the game, and the location isn't used anywhere else in build 13. you should be able to see the remnants of some of the unfortunate crew buried beneath the sand. i can't help but wonder what else lies under the sand. i bet a whole lot more of the loot lies there. anyway, i should be going back.

i word of caution, especially to low-level players: as you might have already guessed, you leaving the cave resulted in the bandits being respawned inside. yes, you'll have to fight them again, and now there's a really good reason to survive. this time, i didn't meet any monkeys, but those 9 bandits where more than enough. i got shot with a blunderbuss, AGAIN, and went back out. during this endeavour, i gained a level, and trained myself two points in melee skill, raising it to ten. i also learned advanced ship defence somehow from swordfighting, which is, nonetheless, a very important skill, and should be learnt right after you learn to shoot and fight. one of my officers also gained a level, and i gave him 1 accuracy and cannon skill, along with increased crew damage.

"increased crew damage: shooting a lot of hard stuff at people is likely to hurt them more than when you use beachballs"

the spaniard also gained a level, and learned 1 sailing, reasing it to ten, 1 repair skill, and manuevrability.

outside the cave, i got an interesting surprise!

<img src="http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s208/morgan_terror/asassin.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />

an assasin! not exactly an impressive foe after killing 24 others like him, but this is still the first time i have ever seen something like this. probably because i used to have such a bad reputation. there where two more bandits around, one of them shooting me with grapeshot A friggin' GAIN (that hurts, you know!), which i of course killed, and then entered the town. first, i fixed my sword up at the blacksmith. really shiney now. was pretty cheap too. i sold even more junk to him, fetched my officers, and returned to port, where it was still raining as usual.

<img src="http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s208/morgan_terror/douwesenport.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />

it is raining on that screenshot, right?

i left port at 17:28, enjoying the sight of my pretty evil-looking new galleon, heading for cayman. boy, if i knew beforehand what i was getting myself into. i am not sure if i'll actually arrive at cayman, and that is not funnily or sinisterily meant. getting to cayman from douwesen is tricky. i've never managed to do it. you always have to go to redmond or khael roa first, and then go to cayman via that island. i'll try again, but chances are i won't end up at the right island. for the moment however, i'm not going anywhere. the wind is blowing from almost the worst angle imaginable.

<img src="http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s208/morgan_terror/douwesenportsea.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />

although i could of course sit around and wait, i thought i might just as well go on a little exploring trip through my ship. in the hold, i found lots of stuff which isn't supposed to be there, one of the items being smoky quartz. now, i'm pretty sure that that description used to be longer, and i know for sure that although it gives a bonus to your skills, it gives a penalty as well, so i'm going to sell it as quick as i can. going back on deck, i noticed the obvious fact that my ship is HUGE.

<img src="http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s208/morgan_terror/onthepoop.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />

i mean, look at the size of the thing! that's a long way down. i could spit on Claire's head if i wanted to. and if the Crimson Blood would be alongside. anyway, there's still more than enough time, so i'm heading off to the crew's quarters. the crew was talking my ears off the moment i got there. they where being hilarious. one of my crew suspected the other was a pirate, for instance. i think he missed something when signing the articles. for the first time, i'm going to take some crew ashore with me. two of them, i don't need more. i'll explore some more fun options once i get a decent amount of piratical attire from the tailors. or i'll just dress them all up as me and play 'multiple morgans'. i'd love to see the look on those guard's faces. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="" border="0" alt="smile.gif" />) it seems that one of the screenshots i took has been lost. this is unfortunate, as it shows that the cabins with closed doors actually have a cabin behind them. one of them even has a chest, which is accesable during the night. the room, not the chest. you can also just slide through the door and rob the guy's stuff anyway. going back to sea, i noticed the hour was nearly over, so i though i'd just sit and wait, and listen to the music.

18:00 - oh boy. here come the endless notes with the time shown before them. weather is genuine crap, with heavy rain, thick fog (though not the worst i've seen) and still a headwind. i'm off to my cabin to sulk. meanwhile, i've noticed the ship actually has bronze cannons instead of iron ones.

nice place i've got here! artois also seems to have found his way in here somehow. i'm sure i locked the door. he seems to belong here though. maybe because he looks like a butler. as it turns out, the weapons locker is VERY well stocked! look at this!

<img src="http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s208/morgan_terror/weaponslocker.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />

all these amazing guns and they're armed with CUTLASSES! wierd. it seems almost like they loot the guns, but not the swords. in any case, those guns must have come from somewhere. i didn't put them here. artois? anyway, there was a musket in there too. i took it for myself, of course, and put any other weapons i had in there, including a sword or two. anything's better than a cutlass. except maybe the hatchet, axe and dagger. (seriously, why ARE those two axes in there? they've got no use whatsoever! sure, they're got really high pierce rating, but that's no good if you'll get chopped to bits because of the complete absence of blocking rate) that musket is bloody huge. i've used them before. they've got a very nice consistent damage, but take a lot of gunchowder. powder! ahem. i also put my collection of blunderbusses in there, but after several visions of my crew shooting each other more than actually hitting the enemy, i thought it better to take them back out.

funny things i noticed where a large pile of empty bottles at one end of my bed, as well as a scroll on a desk with lots of what seemed like autographs on it. maybe from the developers?

<img src="http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s208/morgan_terror/autographs.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />

can anyone see what it says? i also found lots of stuff in my personal ship's chest, including a sapphire. it should give me 1 commerce, though that might have changed. going back to the sea, i saw that it was now 18:21. meh, i'll just sit here and chill. aimlessly gazing about, i noticed a strange double rainbow. the second one was very faint, and i noticed that they moved a bit from side to side as i moved the camera. strangely enough, despite the fact that there was a rainbow, there was no sun. i saw a friendly ship up ahead on the map. turned out to be a portugese pinnace. it was here that i noticed that my flags where gone! (actually, i later discovered that the war galleon only has one flag, and i couldn't see that one from here) i also saw that my crew is walking with their feet inside the quarterdeck, which you can see on the earlier screenshot of me standing on the poop.

19:00 - that's it. i've had enough. this bloody headwind is going to keep me here all day if i don't do something about it, and all of us puffing at it didn't work. i'm going to close-haul the ship, and scrape past that fort my any means nessesary. on the bright side, the fog and rain is gone. however, that pinnace seems to be in trouble. it is, very slowly, inching it's way towards the rocks. backwards. there's artificial intelligence for you.

<img src="http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s208/morgan_terror/pinnace.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />

the galleon, meanwhile, is sitting steady on the waves. it's surprisingly stable for such a colossus. (actually, it wasn't. it was just rocking far slower than any other ship before, as i noticed by the wierd angle of the mast on the feet-in-deck screenshot) the Crimson Blood, on the other hand, is rattling Claire's teeth out. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="" border="0" alt="biggrin.gif" /> it's galloping like a wild horse! i checked the name of my ship. as it was called the octopus, i though i'd rename it after it's bigger brother, the Kraken. i hoisted sails, and behold! i was going forwards! no. wait. no i wasn't. NOW i'm going forwards! problem is, this is going to be a VERY tight scrape.

<img src="http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s208/morgan_terror/headingfortherocks.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />

as i wasn't too sure about this, so i trimmed slightly to the left. it was still doubtful, but now it looked like i could get away with it. however, by now the hour had progressed so far, that i just struck sail and waited a minute or two.

(will be continued once i finish the second part of this entry)

 

[morgan terror]

for those who read this post first, read the post before this one first. it is part of the same entry.

20:00 - the wind has turned towards ENE (blowing towards that point), saving us both from splintery sogginess. that pinnace had a very close call. to be honest, i would have rather seen it smash onto the rocks. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="" border="0" alt="biggrin.gif" /> we're snailing forward at 4.4 knots, the Crimson Blood and the pinnace at roughly the same speeds. getting this ship into the right direction and away from this cliff is like backing out a truck. despite us being so slow, it doesn't really look slow. more graceful, actually. the pinnace is deeply loaded. it's going really slow. at the end of the hour, the pinnace turned towards the east, and we left the harbor.

21:00 - the wind's coming from the NNE now, bugger and more bugger. i might as well go to khael roa, so i'm going as north as i can with this wind. Claire's giving me a good laugh by letting herself getting left behind by a clumsy galleon while in a pirate corvette. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/razz.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="" border="0" alt="razz.gif" /> i sure hope i get better wind later. i don't like going the wrong way. if i miss khael roa, god knows where i'll end up. there's no land over there! it's strange that the galleon is a class 3 vessel. the war galleon could almost match with a frigate.

<img src="http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s208/morgan_terror/galleonsunset.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />

holding this picture upside down gives it an uncanny resemblance to a certain movie. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/icon_wink.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="" border="0" alt="icon_wink.gif" />

22:00 - finally same good wind, from WSW, which is almost the perfect angle for this ship. by now, it's night, and it came with a surprise. a native raft! it is the first time i've ever seen one, though i already knew it excisted. well, seen is a too big word. i can't see the bloody thing! why do i always meet small things in the bleedin' DARK? due to some freak of luck and a lot of peering through my spyglas i found a tiny shiny speck on the ocean. it really is very difficult to spot. imagine trying to find the golden idol, in a rough sea, in the dark, at at least 1000 yards. it's not easy. here's a pic of it close up:

<img src="http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s208/morgan_terror/nativeraft.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />

it's still hardly visible. and no, that's not a native, it's just an idol. this is a ceremonial burial raft. at least, that's what it said. unfortunately, it had already been plundered a long time ago. and to top things off, i've wasted half an hour of the best wind i'd have on the voyage. to start off, i had the first two hours headwind. then i wen't the wrong way. now i wen't BACK. and now i'm back on my heading, or at least going in the right direction, while i've gone slightly to the east. it's getting dodgy. but it got worse. anyway, for now, i was going 7.8 knots.

23:00 - yep, it started already. wind from the north, so i'm forced to go either west or east. as going west would risk me falling off the edge of the map, i went east. now i'm heading for the middle of the archipelago. as a matter of fact, i have no idea where i'm going to end up now.

i sighted a dutch fleet. among them was a schooner. seeing it cut through the sea makes me long for the old Seablade.

midnight - the word has a certain tone to it, don't you think? it's been a busy day. of course, this heel isn't over. the bleedin' wind is still from the north. it's like trying to beat round The Cape the wrong way round. i sighted some portugese now. i have the suspicion that they're laughing at me for some reason. i turned around, now going west. with a bit of luck i'll end up at roughly the same spot as i started. peering out from under the mainsail i had a bit of a shock when i noticed i was going straight for the Crimson Blood. Claire managed to avoid me, but then starting sailing straight at the portugese schooner! oh dear. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/laugh.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":" border="0" alt="laugh.gif" />

<img src="http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s208/morgan_terror/nearmiss.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />

we managed to squeeze past each other. this wasn't the end of the comical intermezzo though, although i had wriggled myself a way out of it.

<img src="http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s208/morgan_terror/nearmissb.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />

the schooner sailed on, trying to regroup with the other ships, thus nearly colliding with a lugger which passed just off it's stern. as a result of the evasive maneuvre, it got nearly run over by the the Crimson Blood AGAIN, who was turning around to follow me. they only just missed each other, and i think the schooner's bowsprit passed over the deck of the Crimson Blood. after this i lost sight of the ship. it was too dark to see it.

01:00 - well, i'm going back north at 6.8 knots. now i'm really lost. but i figure i'll end up somewhere anyway. i sighted some (stinky) french along the way. i was quite happy to find those 'eyes' in the sky again. they're a very curious thing which you can see on this screenshot.

oh no! <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/sad.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="" border="0" alt="sad.gif" /> it's gone! it looks like there's another screenshot is gone as well. that makes three. don't worry, i'll keep a lookout for those eyes. you should be able to see them somewhere in the NE or NNE, i think. or maybe the SSW. i remember the hull being just visible to the left of the screenshot. they should be in some of the lowest clouds, just above the horizon.

meanwhile, the screenshot isn't the only thing gone. the island is too.

02:00 - i'm back on my original course, though i doubt it's still the right direction after so many wobbles and zigzags. sighted some spaniards. i aslo noted that there was a big fat cloud ahead. later i realised it was the cloud with the eyes. therefor, they must be somewhere in the NE of the nightly sky.

03:00 - i'm rolling a lot. the wind is the same. so exactly the same in fact that i didn't even notice the hour change until the lookout reported some floating goods. unfortunately they where upwind, so i watched them bob past, annoyingly close. it's still raining. ghastly.

04:00 - the wind is from a good angle for a change, but that's no use, because there is hardly any wind at all. the rain's gone, for another change. and for no change at all, i sighted another convoy, this time the dutch again. at first i thought they where pirates due to the lightfall. i wonder what they think of us.

[here is another screenshot missing. that F8 button is dodgy. i only just noticed that this one had also gone]

i don't think i'm ever going to arrive. this voyage has been taking 11 hours already.

05:00 - half a headwind from the NNW, and i FINALLY sighted land. along with pirates. poo. to my amusement, it was only a puny little gaff-rigged chebec. hehehe. strangely enough it didn't seem the least bit scared of me. boo! nope.

for a start, we both fired our bow cannons, both hitting each other fair and square, right on the nose.

<img src="http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s208/morgan_terror/openingshot.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />

then, the ever so common situation occured where we were heading straight at each other at maximum speed. uh-oh. the winner is usually the most agile one, as he gets to deal out the broadside. ahum. agile? well, no shot, always a miss. the ship reeled over at an alarming angle when i tried to be the quicker of us two, and i must admit i was pretty nervous.

<img src="http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s208/morgan_terror/hardastarboard.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />

as you can see, this is very close. however, the rewards where more than worth it. i was just SLIGHTLY quicker and got the prize. a truly devastating broadside at point-blank range completely wrecked the thing, six cannons went up in smoke, the main mast went over the side, and splinters where flying everywhere.

<img src="http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s208/morgan_terror/devastation.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />

i turned on, and a volley from the stern finished him off. afterwards i sailed to the island. it was khael roa, as i had suspected. the only beach wasn't accessable, which i had also suspected. this is annoying, as you can't use the island as a pirate base as a result. and now, i had to get out. with a galleon. in the fog. which i had never done before with any ship in the first place. right. by now, it was 7:54, and it was, as i already said, a foggy daybreak. i waited to see what the next hour would bring. a lot of screenshots, as it turned out.

<img src="http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s208/morgan_terror/khaelroabay.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />

08:00 - still foggy. not the best weather for trying this, but appropriate. trying to find the anchorage was without succes, which left me with but one choice. getting out and going on. keep in mind that i had to get this right at the first try ever. i had already been sailing for a long time, and a galleon isn't exactly my first choice for doing this. i tried to get out, but had to wait in the entrance for the wind to change.

<img src="http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s208/morgan_terror/intodanger.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />

09:00 - it changed allright. blowing right out of the bay! and not too hard either, which was good. besides, going through the gap slowly is far more interesting. it really gives you time to admire the sinister scenery. huge cliffs towered above the ship. and this is not a small ship.

<img src="http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s208/morgan_terror/loomingcliffs.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />

look at the size of those things. it really is scary going through here with such a big ship. i think even a manowar would be dwarfed by these rocks.

<img src="http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s208/morgan_terror/intothepass.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />

speaking of rocks, it looks like there's a big one ahead. sailing through this pass feels EXACTLY like the Hai Peng sailing through the ice, emphasised by the low speed. now, there's a problem. as i've never done this before, i don't know which side of the rock to sail round. the left side seems too narrow for this ship, but the right side looks awefully white. i'm going for the right exit. i've seen the same white water with the 'devil's teeth' at redmond, and it dissapeared at closer range.

<img src="http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s208/morgan_terror/squeezingthrough.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />

<img src="http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s208/morgan_terror/knockingtheyard.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />

i managed to squeeze myself past the rock, the main yard just tapping the cliffside. now, there was a bigger problem. another rock, even bigger that the last, completely blocking my way. to the right of it was an even bigger one, and i was expected to sail through the gap between them, having to make a sharp turn to the right. maybe i could have gone left, but i doubt the masts would have made it through. or anything at all. in fact, this was a very close call.

<img src="http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s208/morgan_terror/scrapingpast.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />

i only just scraped past it. these rocks effectively hide the entrance to the bay, and make it seem impossible for any ship to pass through them. from the other side, however, it doesn't look so bad. try it. i've heard of players fitting a manowar through here. maybe i'll try someday, but i doubt i'll get through. this was narrow enough with a galleon.

i am now going eastward, finally towards my destination. i wonder when i'll arrive.

10:00 - i landed in the middle of a huge fogbank! i'm lucky it happened now and not ten minutes ago. then it would have really been last-minute steering, and i doubt i could have done THAT. the wind is weak, but good.

11:00 - the fog's gone, but it's raining again. on the brighter side, the wind's picked up, and i'm going 8.4 knots. i'm very relieved to be out of that pass. even now i feel to tension of getting through or not. the miserable weather is fitting for the island. is it me or is khael roa always surrounded by bad weather? the jagged peaks in the haze behind me give the island a distinctly ghostly image. it has a great resemblace to an iceberg.

12:00 - the weather cleared up. the skies are still grey, though i think that won't last much longer. there's less wind, now doing 4.6 knots, and rocking heavily. i seem to have lost the Cimson Blood completely. maybe it's behind the island.

13:00 - the wind is the best so far! it seems to have blown away the clouds, and the skies are the brightest blue i've seen in a great many days. the wind also seems to have blown away the island, along with the Crimson Blood. that thing must really be a long way off. but to my amazement, we're going 14.5 knots! that's above our maximum registered speed! the lookout sighted some stuff, but i'm going to ignore it. there's no way i'll waste speed like this. the ship literally glides over the sea, perfectly stable.

14:00 - the wind's from a bad angle, but still usable. i'm going to pick up a boat we spotted to the south, doing 6.9 knots. we, not the boat. it contained 20 men, and we wen't back on course.

15:00 - the wind chose to go nuts and started blowing from the opposite direction, from the south! and, finally, land was sighted!

<img src="http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s208/morgan_terror/caymaninsight.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />

you can't believe how glad i am to finally see land. i've been sailing for at least 3 hours straight. the island is indeed cayman, thank goodness. there's also a british fleet ahead, and the Crimson Blood has miraculously reappeared behind me. i can already see the land. doing 3.7 knots. so close, and yet so far! <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/modding.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="" border="0" alt="modding.gif" /> the brits have a frigate among them. i checked my position. i should go slightly more to the south, to end up at the right side of the island. something strange has happened: both my ships seem to be suddenly missing crew, the same percentage. this might be related to the crew that wen't missing on my old Bobber.

16:00 - it's a headwind, and i've had enough. i'm using sail to, and you'd better be pleased with it. i arrived at the port at 17:06, having been at sea for 23:38. it would have been more than a full day if sailed manually to port.

 

[morgan terror]

ok, i intended this to be a proper entry, but the game crashed after a series of important events, so i'm kinda pissed. in short, i completed a pirate mission after i did some deals in the town. then i went on to redmond, meeting a spanish fleet on the way, and as i was about to board the last of the three ships the game crashed. in other words, yay!...@!%$%!%#!$^@^!$@#!$%#@~...****.

 

[morgan terror]

yep, i'm back to making entries. some of these pictures may be upside down due to a fluke in photobucket, but i'll fix that if it turns out that way. let's get to it!

to refresh your memory, i had just arrived in Cayman after an overly long trip with my galleon. it was here that i met a patrol of soldiers for the first time because i had taken crew ashore. just out of interest, i tried talking to them, but that turned out a little messy. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/happy.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="^_^" border="0" alt="happy.gif" /> no idea why that happened. anyway, in the usal trend of PotC i met my first wierdness at the town hall:

<img src="http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s208/morgan_terror/doublenathan.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />
yeaaaaah.... they where talking to each other earlier like nothing was going on. wierdos.

anyway, i paid a visit to the governor where i agreed to hutn down a little pirate for him. heck, it's money. those pirates should start a newspaper concerning my whereabouts so they can stay out my way. somewhere about here my pen started writing like an effin' quill, and the other didn't write AT ALL, so i fell back to my pencil. i might accidentally leave out some stuff here because it's so unreadable. my studies on morganesque tell me that i had decided to visit the store. on my way there i was beginning to wonder what all those french merchants where doing in an ENGLISH colony, but i heard that's been fixed. i could have if i wouldn't get the town guards after me when i tried. asses. but i'm getting sidetracked. at the store i restocked the ship, which was very neccesary because all the food had somehow dissapeared (seriously, where did that go? those must be some big fellas on board), and i bought some musket bullets, as well as selling my junk. stuff, not ship. it was here that i discovered that the crew you bring ashore doesn't have any weapons with them. i'll 'find' some for them later.

having gone out of the store, i made my way back to port. it had turned dark now, and i met another patrol. totally unsuspicious, i ran for my life past their very noses and through the gates.

23:17 - there's a huge wind blowing, more or less out of port. so much wind in fact, that i was in danger if crashing into the fort, and ships unfortunately don't have anchors in this game. bugger. where's that quick turnaround when you need it? anyway, to save my soon rather wet ass i fast travelled to the pirate schooner i was supposed to fight. i ended up ahead of him, him coming straight for my port side. sucks for you, mate! i raked him from bow to stern, sending his bow cannons somewhere into the cabin. no need to worry about that anymore. i then tried turning around, but since galleons turn like trucks, the schooner kinda slammed into my port side with his nose, me knocking his bowsprit off. then i treated him on my stern cannons, swerved round some more, and unloaded the starboard guns on him, making him history.

i decided we where going to redmond, so i reset the course to the ESE, doing 16 knots. but not for long. (ooh, cliffhanger!)

midnight - due to a fluke in the wind i was now forced to go SE. it was then that the lookout reported something ahead, which is BAD when you're sailing this barge. it was a mine, as you probably can't see on this screenshot:

<img src="http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s208/morgan_terror/mine.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />

as you can ALSO see, i'm way clear of it. but due to a time-warp which had inserted future proximity mine technology into this age, it somehow exploded anyway and sank me. there's gameplay for ya! somehow i had managed to end up back at the port in a lifeboat while i'm sure i had sank way out at sea. well, only makes it easier for me. i took over the Crimson Blood, scuttled the lifeboat, and set back out for Redmond, a lot faster this time. it wasn't all bad news. me, Claire and Artois had gone up a level, so i assigned some points first. for me there was +2 sailing skill, making that 10, and professional ship defence. Claire and Artois both got +1 sailing and melee skill. Artois got toughness (imagining Artois looking tough allways makes me laugh) and Claire advanced defence.

i was back on course at 00:35, the deck going everywhere. for some reason the crew had taken up turns at walking towards me, staring me in the face for a few seconds, and going back to doing nothing while trying to look busy.

01:00 - the wind had gone kapoof and was now blowing straight on the arse, leaving me going nowhere at 1.4 knots. meh. as i had nothing better to do, i went to my cabin. for some reason there was a huge midnight meal standing on the table.

<img src="http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s208/morgan_terror/wierdfood.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />

seriously, what the hell? there's three full mugs of beer on there and a PIZZA. it really is wierd. you think we can call that breakfast? and why is there a model of that floating brick standing in my cabin? i would have made something else than that snailing fleut of mine if i had to make a model.

back at sea, i discovered there was still no music. really need to fix that sometime. well, as there was still nothing to do, i went on a looting spree of my own ship again. wasn't much interesting in the hold, so i went to plunder the crew's quarters, where i found a needle. could come in handy. back at sea again, i noticed our speed had increased to 2.4 knots.

02:00 - wind's from the ENE, which is practically useless, as i'm going at 3.3 knots now, the ship going all bouncy. in fact, my personal length keeps varying between four meters and half a meter. what DID i eat, mexican jumping beans? the crew's also taken up ballet again.

03:00 - now the wind's back on the arse again (yes, i WILL continue calling the stern the arse). now we're doing 6.4 knots, which is better, but still not thrilling. in my cabin, i noticed that the candle flames are animated. at sea the music had finally returned, so it wasn't all boring. however, i noticed something really wierd going on with the boom. seems like the visuals have gotten inverted.

<img src="http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s208/morgan_terror/boomwierdness1.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />
<img src="http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s208/morgan_terror/boomwierdness2.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />

04:00 - urgh. back to 2.8 knots. i think it's time to get those big fans and start flapping. i picked up 132 cwt of wheat floating around to the NE, and went back to my course. i tried aiming at my crew with the crosshair, but with little success.

05:00 - OOOOOH, bugger we're going backwards! <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/piratesing.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="" border="0" alt="piratesing.gif" /> and fast! after a bit of a schemozzle i managed to get myself to go ENE at 7.5 knots. seems like the only way i can go fast these days is the WRONG way. i entertained myself by playing a little with the guns.

06:00 - ooh. wind from the E now, which got me on the nose again. that good ol' pea soup also showed up again. somehow i managed to notice cargo to the SE, which i couldn't get. meh. i just chose to sit and wait this time. i was slightly frustrated when i noticed that the cargo was a barrel, which usually equals booze. i wish for tidal flows! some other things i saw were that there were a lot of ropes missing from the foremast and that the lower yard for the mizzen topsail wasn't attached to the mast.

07:00 - FINALLY, we're getting somewhere!

<img src="http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s208/morgan_terror/waverocket0728.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />

i'm going all over the place, but at least we're going fast. i sighted some dons to the south. i was flying the portugese flag, so no problem. it was here that i saw that the fog was gone.

hmm.... those dons are going awfully SLOW. and slow little buggers means little buggers stuffed with stuff. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/happy.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="^_^" border="0" alt="happy.gif" /> hehehehehe. right, change of heart, up goes the pirate flag! these snails are going to have it. i had to say that i was closing in on them awfully FAST. must look pretty scary.

<img src="http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s208/morgan_terror/attackingtraders.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />

right after this some really tropical-sounding battle music started playing. always gets me in a funny mood. when i saw that two of the ships where sailing next to each other, i sparked an idea.

<img src="http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s208/morgan_terror/prapreforbroadsides.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />

see where i'm heading? <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/icon_mrgreen1.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="" border="0" alt="icon_mrgreen1.gif" /> this one's going to be nice. well, that was the intention. i only succeeded in boarding them straight after each other. the first one surrendered straight away (it's the hat, i swear), which had been carrying a huge bunch of sugar and fruit. i know what i'll be eating for dinner. the second one put up a fight though. such a big one in fact that i had to kill everyone to get to the loot. no problem, your loss. i found a lot of interesting stuff in the chests. a grapeshot pistol, a tizona (after setting myself on fire), and two vagrants. somehow the name of the latter disturbes me a little. on board was a load of sandal and cotton.

now i was after the third. as my hold was now full, i dumped some of the stuff, but not much.

<img src="http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s208/morgan_terror/VML.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />

he surrendered as well. seriously, this is too easy. since i had no more room left, i assigned Claire to the ship, which was filled with tobacco. i was a little curious if i'd start seeing clouds of smoke coming from it if i left it alone. during the boarding party i had found yet another dragon's tongue. no wonder they're extinct. anyway, i went back on course at 11:43. all in a day's work.

12:00 - ooh. good wind. screw that lugger slugg...er...whatever, i'm going to wing it now i can. i met a portugese 16-gun brig along the way, which seemed to be going backwards. everyone has his own particular notion of fun. something very wierd was going on with the rain.

<img src="http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s208/morgan_terror/highspeed1220.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />

which way IS it falling? <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/blink.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":blink:" border="0" alt="blink.gif" /> it's completely horizontal! if this happened in reality you would have broke physics. you'd see a cloud standing on it's end at the horizon. maybe you could even catch water with a wall. anyway, i hoisted the portugese flag again (oops), and after i had adjusted the course to the east, i was doing 15 knots.

13:00 - aaaaaaaaaaand here we go again. another headwind, but i did see land. well, the lookout did. i WANT that guy's telescope. i did see, however, a dutch fleet, which included a galleon. i was 'wary' with the dutch, so it might not be a completely bad thing that i was a sitting duck. i changed the course back to the SSE.

there's pirates around here somewhere. i later found out they where at rocky shore, but where the hell was i? i managed to narrow down my position somewhere to either the north or south of redmond, but that wasn't much help. we where either going in exactly the right direction or the completely wrong one. i was actually more surprised we ended up at the right island, seen the dodgy nature of this part of the sea. since the dutch where at war with england and fairly strong, i figured they where heading for the english ships at redmond port, so i followed those guys. meanwhile, i'm hearing rain but not seeing it. wierd, but not unusual here. oh. my plan for following the dutch got slightly torpedoed. seems like the galleon is going backwards. ass. i checked my trade book for what i could sell at redmond, which turned out to be the sandal.

14:00 - well, we finally have some decent wind from the north, the ship making gentle sway. i saw a spanish fleut of war all by his onesy, which i of course attacked because he just happened to be aligned with the nation who chose to pick a fight with me for no reason. that sounds crooked even in my own mind. i lurched at the floating banana, but he surrendered when a ptooey'd a cannonball against his mast. bloody coward. this isn't fun. bet he noticed my hat. ....or the glaringly obvious redness of my ship and sails. i later found out that he had only five guns on board, as well as being STUFFED with mahogany! <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/w00t.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="" border="0" alt="w00t.gif" /> that's the good stuff. it sells for huge amounts at the smugglers. besides that, he also had a load of sugar on board. now we're definately going to get hyper. i commandeered the ship and set back on my course. sort of.

hey, i found it!

<img src="http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s208/morgan_terror/redmondinsight1453.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />

i have to say that it sounds a little odd for a captain to be surprised at that, but anyway, i'm now going ESE. what am i going to DO with all this stuff? well, looks like another trip round the archipelago. i later adjusted the course to the east once i found out at which place offshore i was.

15:00 - better wind, as well as rain. maybe i have a future as a weather hindcaster. doing 9 knots.

oh bugger. take a look at this:

<img src="http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s208/morgan_terror/dutchwarfleet.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />

i'm glad i didn't pick a fight with those dutch earlier. i could take them, of course, but i'm stuffed with loot now, so i don't fancy my chances with two weak ships in tow. it was nice to see them sail along. to my surprise, i was actually faster than that frigate. but this IS, of course, the fastest class 2 ship in the game.

16:00 - weee, going even faster now, and still raining. 10.8 knots. i just kept tinkering on the course to get round to the other side of the island, but i'm enjoying this now. it was then that i spotted a little spec next to the land. i had noticed earlier that there was an english ship at the island, so i figured it was it.

nope, it wasn't. it was a BOAT. i teeny little english tartane......... <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/happy.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="^_^" border="0" alt="happy.gif" /> are you thinking what i'm thinking? <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/icon_mrgreen1.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="" border="0" alt="icon_mrgreen1.gif" /> skipper, you picked a BAD day for a sail! <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/laugh.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":" border="0" alt="laugh.gif" />

hmm. it's going pretty fast. this could be an interesting race. meanwhile, i ended up at rocky shore, but the pirates seemed to have made a run for it. i had a battle here earlier.

<img src="http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s208/morgan_terror/battlebay1635.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />

recognise it? i had four ships then. might have been the same bay at a different island though. i was still chasing the little bugger when i sailed round the last corner.

17:00 - the new hour greeted me in a somewhat hilarious way. as soon as i saw the fort, the ship reeled STRAIGHT over, sending the guy in the crow's nest into the sea, everyone else through the cannon hatches, and the parrot into my rum. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/laugh.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":" border="0" alt="laugh.gif" /> after we had recovered from that wallop, i checked the speed, which turned out to be a little above five knots. the fort was shooting at the dutch fleet, which had apparently followed me. those guns make a nice sound when you're close. a docked a while afterwards.

in port i was a bit annoyed to discover that the first thing i heard was that french quality and service where mine again. THEY'RE EVERYWHERE! <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/piratesing.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="" border="0" alt="piratesing.gif" /> HEAD FOR THE BOATS!

anyway..... i saw a patrol standing around a market stand, the very market stand where i was supposed to go. i just ignored the guards while they ignored me, did my trading, and went to the blacksmith. you see, i had quite awesomely discovered that i had a good brace of large pistols and a conquistador on me! <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/w00t.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="" border="0" alt="w00t.gif" /> no idea where those came from, but i didn't mind. i fixed the sword, met up with marque blacque (seriously, a name with two q's?) and payed his debt to the store, taking him with me to FdF. i also sold the sandal here. looking for marque, who i couldn't find somehow, i met some thug who apparently didn't like me. whatever. i found the guy, and went to the gov to start the main quest. i rested in the tavern, picked up the reward for hunting the pirate (those gov's are telepathic, i swear) and went back to port.

whew!

if you want to comment, do so in the 'captain's log' topic by me.

 

[morgan terror]

bump. seemed a shame to lose it. anyway, with me reinstalling the mods soon, i'll probably pick writing a logbook back up. these entries may not seem like much fun at first, but they get increasingly more fun as the story progresses. you can reply in this topic from now on, since i won't be using it anymore. and yes, the first entry seems to have gone missing.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Indeed! This is a good thread to keep. And I'll be looking forward to your continuing the story. Even if I might not have enough time to read it all. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/mybad.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="" border="0" alt="mybad.gif" />
HEY! You could post your story entries on the ModDB too! Maybe people there would be interested as well! If you'd like that, register there and I'll add you to the PiratesAhoy! usergroup. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/yes.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="" border="0" alt="yes.gif" />

 

[morgan terror]

that would be an excellent idea! it might even be a good kind of advertising. it will be an entirely new voyage though, since i don't have that savegame anymore. and i kinda forgot where the ModDB was, so a link would be nice...

in the meantime, these log entries take a up a huge amount of time. it takes an entire day to just collect the needed material. don't expect the entries to come at a rapid pace.

now that i think of it, is it neccesary that i include caps in my grammar if it goes on the ModDB?

as for the new voyage, i'll start off in more or less the same circumstances. maybe with the stormy start, i don't know. in any case, i'll need a list of things to add on top of build 13 for the game to work the best it can. fixes, patches, updates, the works. i'd rather not have to start a new game several times.