Pirate Ship Mafia - information and summary thread

**GeneralHankerchief** · 09-28-2009, 21:45

Note: This thread is to only be used by the game host (GeneralHankerchief) to lodge the game rules and notable posts.

Pirate Ship Mafia

Overview:
Welcome to Pirate Ship Mafia. For those of you who know me for my classic Mafia series, or even my resurrection of Silver Rusher's Godfather series, this is something entirely different. Pirate Ship Mafia blends elements from Capo, Cosa Nuova II, Stig’s Beer Salesmen game, Rubicon, The Lost City of Tikkal, and even the Last of the Romans PBM game from the Throne Room, with a new feature that will add another entire dimension to the game: treasure. Maintaining a perfect balance between team cooperation and individual competition will be the key to obtain victory.

Setting:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read:

Basic rules:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read:

At the start of the game, you will randomly be PM’d a role and its description. Once all roles are sent out, the game will begin. Pirate Ship Mafia will begin with a day phase, taking place immediately after the death of the original Captain as per the above story. Instead of voting to lynch someone on Day 1, the only decision made will be who will be the new Captain. Upon conclusion of that phase, the Captain will appoint his two Officers (see below) and Night 1 will begin. In every night phase, players will PM me their night orders which may vary. Starting Day 2, players will vote to lynch and, if applicable, commit mutiny. This night/day pattern will continue until the game concludes.

Night actions:
Players may do a variety of things at night, depending on their roles. There is always the option to rest up, but treasure is awarded for those who take a more active role at night. Many of the actions must be coordinated with other players in order to be successfully executed, similar to Capo.

For the standard able seaman of the Presence (this game’s version of the townie), the following actions may be performed at night:

Sleep (no treasure awarded)
Kill an individual (treasure awarded) – must form a group of at least 4 to kill any individual
Protect an individual (treasure awarded) – must form a group of at least 3 to protect any individual
Abandon ship - this is a new feature in the game which allows you to depart the Presence with all the treasure you have collected. Chances of success are not guaranteed, but if you do escape then you are assured of at least a minor victory. Note: this option not available to British agents.

Other roles may do more or complete the same tasks with less people. You may only perform ONE action per night, unless otherwise noted in your role PM.

When actively performing at night, in your orders PM you must send me the exact specifics: What you are doing, the name of every person who is doing it with you, and who you are doing it to. If there is miscommunication and the orders do not match up, they will not be executed. Not only will this deprive you of treasure, but it may also put you at risk of dying! Beware!

Example orders PM:

Originally Posted by GeneralHankerchief

GH – night 3 orders

GeneralHankerchief, Sasaki Kojiro, Kommodus, and Kagemusha will kill Seamus Fermanagh.

At the end of every night I will send feedback PMs detailing how successful you were at night. If the group failed, I will not reveal what exactly what went wrong. I will also let you know your current treasure count at the end of every night.

PMs:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read:

Voting:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read:

The factions:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read:

Unlike in Capo, there is a set amount of factions: 3. However, it is possible to switch allegiances in the middle of the game. Pirate Ship Mafia is designed for 50 players and any starting numbers assume that amount.

The crew of the Presence: The main faction of Pirate Ship Mafia. Having just engineered a wildly successful raid on Charleston, they are heading home to Nassau and just trying to get back alive. They have two enemies on their ship: The British agents, determined to destroy them in the name of the Crown, and the saboteurs from the rival pirate ship Maven, determined to take the treasure for themselves. Of course, if all trust is lost and vigilante justice becomes common, they themselves could be their greatest enemy.
Primary goal: Elimination of all starting British Agents and Maven saboteurs.
Secondary goal (individual): obtain the most treasure. Assuming a Presence victory, the player with the most gold will be considered the true winner of Pirate Ship Mafia and get an awesome write-up at the end of the game. The more treasure you accumulate, the better off your write-up will be.

British agents (starts with 3 players): One of the two villains in the tale. Operating with only three agents , the odds would appear stacked against them. However, the British agents can work to determine which members of the crew are susceptible to their influence, and eventually, offer them a Letter of Marque. Letters of Marque allow Presence crewmen to switch over and let the British numbers grow. Agents can, of course, kill as well.
Primary goal: Elimination of every non-British affiliated person on board, survival of at least one original agent.
Secondary goal: N/A (treasure not a motivational factor).

Saboteurs from the Maven (starts with 3 players): Jealous pirates that have always rivaled the Presence. The Powers That Be on the Maven have decided that the haul from Charleston was just too much to let go without making a try at it. They too have sent three agents on board the ship who can work and try to get some Presence crewmen to defect to their side. However, they, unlike the British, cannot offer Letters of Marque, and thus must tempt their targets with gold. The Maven saboteurs may, at any time, unanimously vote to leave the ship with the current gold, but they must be careful to get enough – otherwise their captain will be mad and his anger will be reflected in the final write-up. Saboteurs may kill at night as well.
Primary goal: Accumulation of the most treasure possible/survival of at least one original saboteur.
Secondary goal: Elimination of every non-Maven affiliated person on board.

Once you are dead:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read:

Clarity to balance the ambiguity:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read:

The roles:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read:

Treasure and Wills:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read:

Treasure
The primary standout feature of Pirate Ship Mafia, the pursuit of treasure will significantly motivate you and guide your actions. Everyone starts out with 100 treasure and can accumulate more through various means. Unless you’re a British agent, the more treasure you have at the end of the game, the better off you’ll be. Treasure is disclosed privately to each individual at the beginning of every day phase.

The list of actions you can take and the amount of treasure accumulated for each is below:

100: Base amount
10: For each person you recruit to play Pirate Ship Mafia
3: For each round in which you lodge a legitimate vote (for Captain, you get the three if you make a post in the day phase)
2: For each round in which you submit a night order, whether it is successful or not (can even be simply “sleep”)
40: Amount awarded for successfully killing an individual, divided up evenly among killers (if treasure is left over, the remainder goes to those who sent in orders earlier)
30: Amount awarded for successfully protecting an individual, divided up evenly among protectors (if treasure is left over, the remainder goes to those who sent in orders earlier)
15: Captain’s daily salary
12: Daily salary of First Mate and Quartermaster (kill/protection awards do not apply)
100: Amount awarded for a successful mutiny, divided up evenly among mutineers (if treasure is left over, the remainder goes to those who mutinied earlier)
50: Amount awarded for a successful mutiny in the endgame – changed at host’s discretion

Wills
Players may privately message me at any time, saying, in the event of their death, who their treasure goes to. Players may not donate more than 50 of their treasure total – the remainder stays to their name. Players may divide up their 50 to multiple persons if they wish or choose not to have a Will at all. A Will may be changed at any time and must be sent to me (or updated) at least 3 hours prior to the individual’s death to be considered valid.

Legalese regarding wills:
A player is considered “dead” at the exact minute I first post his death in a public thread, either the main game thread or the game’s story/reference thread.

For example, let’s say Player X’s original will was as follows:

Give GeneralHankerchief all 50 of my treasure.

...but then at 13:00 he changed it to:

Give TosaInu all 50 of my treasure; GeneralHankerchief has been written out of my will.

Let’s say that I first posted Player X’s death at 15:59 that day. If this was the case, GeneralHankerchief would get the 50 treasure. If I waited one minute later and posted the death at 16:00, 3 hours would have passed and TosaInu would have gotten the treasure.

**GeneralHankerchief** · 09-28-2009, 21:46

Townie PM (note: not all Townie PMs look exactly like this):

Your role is:

Able Seaman (townie)

Piratical quote here
~ Quote author here

Avast, matey! Despite those cursed officers getting all high-and-mighty about their duties, you know that you and your fellow Able Seamen are the backbone of the Presence. After all, it was your hard work that won you the bounty of Charleston, your hard work that keeps the ship in good order, and your hard work that pays for that Captain’s immense salary. This loot you’ve acquired is a huge break, not seen since the days of Morgan, and you’re anxious to get back home and spend it. There’s only one problem: It seems like everyone wants you dead. You’re going to have to fight very hard for this if you ever want to see Nassau alive, and you may even have to… *gasp* use your brains. Don’t panic though, I hear a little rum is good for you mind. Or was that scotch?

Your goals: Unless successfully recruited by either the British Agents or Maven saboteurs, your aim is to eliminate every last threat on board the Presence. In addition, you also wish to accumulate as much treasure as possible. Please check the first post in the Summary thread for exactly how you can boost your treasure total.

Your victory conditions vary, but generally you will score highest if you survive the ordeal, stay on board, and have the most treasure. You will also score well if you survive and stay on board period, accumulate a lot of treasure before dying, or abandon ship with a lot of treasure and the Presence crew ends up losing.

You will not score so well if you die early on, abandon ship with little treasure, or abandon ship and later witness the Presence crew win.

Powers: Each night, you may perform one of the following actions:

- Sleep. This means you will do nothing for the night. However, still sending in the order will net you a small gain in treasure.
- Protect a target with a group of at least three people, including yourself. The chances for a successful protection increase with numbers. All orders must match for a successful protection. You will be awarded the full amount of treasure if the target is still alive at the end of the night, even if he is not attacked.
- Kill a target with a group of at least four people, including yourself. The chances for a successful kill increase with numbers. All orders must match for a successful kill.
- Abandon Ship: Leave the Presence with all of your treasure. Abandoning ship means you depart the game permanently, so choose wisely when you do this. Every night, you will have a random chance of being able to do this successfully.

In addition, you can perform the following actions in the day:

- Vote for who you think should walk the plank.
- In addition to this, you may also try to remove the Captain by voting for a mutiny. The proper way to do this in the thread is Vote: Mutiny. If over 50% of living players vote for a mutiny, the Captain is removed from his position and executed along with whoever has the most votes. You gain a bonus in treasure for a successful mutiny, and only mutineers may participate in the selection for the next Captain.

At any time, you may privately send me a Will detailing who your treasure goes to in the event of your death. You will automatically lose 50 treasure upon dying, but you can dictate who that treasure goes to, if anybody. Wills will only be considered valid if they are sent to me/updated at least three hours prior to your death.

Finally… good luck!

Base gold: XXX

**GeneralHankerchief** · 09-28-2009, 21:47

Post #1 of main thread.

Night 0

The dawn bell did not have a chance to ring on the Presence this morning. Everyone was aroused far earlier, courtesy of the piercing scream of one of the ship's watchstanders. Naturally, the crew was a bit annoyed, but they were too hung over and sleepy to overtly grumble. However, they were quickly shaken out of their stupor upon the sight that greeted them: Their captain, the same man that brainstormed the wildly successful attack on Charleston - dead, with a British flag painted on his chest.

Quickly, the men started cursing. There was no quicker cure for a terrible hangover than a terrible shock to the system, after all. Eventually, cursing turned into shouting, and shouting turned into drawn cutlasses. Surely, the British agents could have sat back and just watched as the crew sliced each other to pieces, but it was not to be.

"No!" one able seaman cried, one who had shown barely enough intelligence to carry a broom and sweep it in the past. Surprised by his own bravery, he continued on. "This be just what the scumbucket scallywags want us to do! Nay, I'll not see our haul be put in danger just because of a bit o' adversity! We be needin' to organize! We be needin' to elect a new Captain. It's just what the old man would've wanted us to do!"

Ashamed by itself (and still a bit shocked that their fellow sailor had been able to not only form an intelligent thought but eloquate it as well), the crowd slowly fell silent in agreement. He was right, after all. The Presence was under attack, and everybody worth their salt knew that a ship in battle without a captain was a ship soon to be sunk, or worse.

The Stewards and Watchstanders, currently the senior officers on the ship, started counting votes. Since the majority of the pirates were illiterate, they each swore oaths to be true with their counts, to the best of their knowledge.

"Now remember gents," one said, "if ye be elected Captain, it be yer prerogative to appoint a First Mate and Quartermaster, and replace them at will. Ye also be gettin' a set salary o' 15 pieces of treasure per day. Ye forfeit yer vote, except in the instance of a tie where you and yer officers have tiebreakin' authority. Should the three of ye be deadlocked still, then ye have final say over who walks the plank. Any questions, the lot o' ye?"

A resounding "nay" came out from the crowd.

"Good," said the man. "THEN GET VOTIN', YE RUSTY SCUPPERS, AND DON'T TAKE ALL DAY EITHER! THERE'S STILL WORK TO BE DONE!"

The men scurried every which way. The fight for the Presence was on.

OOC: It is now Day 1. As stated above, your only task today is to vote for a Captain. Votes must be lodged in the following way:

Select: GeneralHankerchief

Vote changes must be made like so:

Unselect: GeneralHankerchief
Select: TosaInu

You will be rewarded 3 pieces of treasure for lodging a legal vote. Voting will last until 12:01 PM, Wednesday September 30th, US Eastern time. Not all rounds will be this long, but as this is the very phase exceptions will be made.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Souls aboard (51):
a completely inoffensive name
A Very Super Market
A1 Unit
Andres
Askthepizzaguy
atheotes
Beefy187
Beskar
Captain Blackadder
Centurion1
Chaotix
CountArach
Crazed Rabbit
Cultured Drizzt Fan
Death is Yonder
Diana Abnoba
DisgruntledGoat
Double A
gibsonsg91921
Iskander 3.1
johnhughthom
Jolt
Joooray
Khazaar
KukriKhan
LittleGrizzly
Lord Winter
Louis VI the Fat
miotas
pevergreen
Psychonaut
Reenk Roink
ricera10
Sasaki Kojiro
scottishranger
Seamus Fermanagh
shlin28
Sigurd
slashandburn
spL1tp3r50naL1ty
SSNeoperestroika
Subotan
taka
TinCow
Tratorix
White_eyes:D
woad&fangs
Xehh II
Yaropolk
Yaseikhaan
YLC

**GeneralHankerchief** · 09-30-2009, 17:33

Post 166 of main thread.

Day 1

It was another very noisy day aboard the Presence. The souls aboard were a very hearty bunch and quickly got over the shock of the death of their previous Captain. Several sailors put their names forward to replace them, including TinCow, who spun a tale of how he stole the Governor of Barbados's daughter, and shlin28, who appealed to the lowest Able Seamen aboard.

However, none attracted the following better than Crazed Rabbit, who made a very early, passionate speech that appealed to his fellow pirates' hearts. He ended up being elected in such a landslide that his elevation to Captain by midday was a certainty, and the rest of the crew was set to get back to work (although some of them still had enough time to get together and discuss English literature, which struck the other sailors as a bit strange).

At sundown, it was made official. In a very brief but traditional ceremony, Captain Crazed Rabbit was handed a brand new tricorner hat and the keys to the Captain's quarters.

"All right lads," he said to the gathered crew, "I know it's been a tough ordeal for ye, and I thank ye for the trust ye be puttin' in me. And I tell ye right now that YER TRUST WILL NOT GO UNREWARDED!" There was a resounding cheer to this. "We're gonna find out who those Brits and who those Mavens are, and we're gonna send a message to the rest of the New World that nobody, I mean NOBODY, shakes the sails of the Presence!!!"

Another resounding cheer, this one lasting far longer.

"Now," Captain Rabbit said to the crowd in a bit more subdued of a tone, "Captain be a hard job, so I be appointin' me a couple officers to assist me in this task. Henceforth, Louis VI the Fat be yer First Mate and Sigurd be yer new Quartermaster. Treat them well, lads, for they mean to get us to Nassau in good shape.

This time, Rabbit's statements were greeted by a smattering of applause only. It was a tradition that officers were never as popular with the crew as the Captain was, so Louis and Sigurd thought nothing of it. They made their way up to Rabbit's space and took their places, flanking the Captain and facing the crowd.

"All right, lads," Rabbit said, "it be a long day and it's about time we sailors got some rest. Watchstanders! On duty! The rest of ye, to the cabins!"

Everybody filed out and went below deck. Night had already fallen.

Day 1 tally:

Crazed Rabbit: 28 (Rabbit, Drizzt, taka, Louis, A1, Seamus, khaan, Goat, Centurion, Sigurd, atheotes, woad, slash, Joooray, Double A, Sasaki, AVSM, ATPG, Yaro, Kukri, White_eyes, Iskander, Diana, CA, pever, Reenk, DiY, ricera)
TinCow: 7 (TinCow, Winter, john, Beskar, SSNeo, gibson, Grizzly)
shlin28: 2 (shlin, Tratorix)
Split: 2 (Split, Chaotix)
ACIN: 2 (ACIN, miotas)
Andres: 2 (Andres, Jolt)
miotas: 1 (Psycho)
Self-selections: 2 (Khazaar, Blackadder)

Illegal votes/didn't vote: 5 (scottish, Xehh, YLC, Beefy, Subotan)

It is now Night 1. Please send in your orders.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Souls aboard (50/51):
a completely inoffensive name
A Very Super Market
A1 Unit
Andres
Askthepizzaguy
atheotes
Beefy187
Beskar
Captain Blackadder
Centurion1
Chaotix
CountArach
Crazed Rabbit
Cultured Drizzt Fan
Death is Yonder
Diana Abnoba
DisgruntledGoat
Double A
gibsonsg91921
Iskander 3.1
johnhughthom
Jolt
Joooray
Khazaar
KukriKhan
LittleGrizzly
Lord Winter
Louis VI the Fat
miotas
pevergreen
Psychonaut
Reenk Roink
ricera10
Sasaki Kojiro
scottishranger
Seamus Fermanagh
shlin28
Sigurd
slashandburn
spL1tp3r50naL1ty
SSNeoperestroika
Subotan
taka
TinCow
Tratorix
White_eyes:D
woad&fangs

Yaropolk
Yaseikhaan
YLC

NOTE: Xehh's spot is currently vacant. If I do not find a replacement by the end of the next day phase, I will remove the role from play.

**GeneralHankerchief** · 10-02-2009, 00:53

Post 276 of main thread.

Night 1

Down in the cabins of the Presence, all eyes drew shut two by two. As dozens of sets of ears waited for there to be silence, the crew one by one arose from their bunks and went out on deck to perform their nights' business. For some of them, it was noble. For others, it was nefarious. But even in the wee hours of the morning, the ship bustled with activity.

Centurion1 was staring out at the sea, watching silently as the moon's reflection glistened. All was quiet aboard, at least for now. These were times for reflection, after all, and the mind worked best in solitude. Unfortunately for him, the solitude was broken by the sound of a single sword being unsheathed. Centurion jumped up in shock, nearly falling off the ship. Completely unprepared, he started running away from his attacker, making as much noise as he possibly could in order to raise alarm.

He was confident that he was making enough noise to be noticed, but was unsure if aid would come in time, for his attacker was catching up and waving his sword menacingly. Finally, almost out of breath, he scrambled up the mast, climbing as fast as he could. In the time it took for his attacker to put away his sword, three men sprinted to their location. Upon seeing this, the assailant took one final look at Centurion, and then disappeared below deck.

A similar attack was taking place on the other side of the ship, where LittleGrizzly was fending off a single man with a cutlass. After the initial reaction, it appeared that Grizzly had righted himself and was almost enjoying the bit of swordplay. Then, he heard the sound of multiple footsteps coming his way. Stealing a glance in the direction of the noise, his eyes widened.

"Oh... *#%!"

Disarming his solo attacker and sending him scampering back below deck, Grizz turned to face the five men advancing his way. Scrambling backwards, trying to buy himself some room, he tripped over yet another man with a cutlass, rushing forward in his defense. A frenetic duel quickly took place, with Grizz joining the action once he saw his savior was skilled with a blade and holding his own. The sound of steel on steel surely aroused most of the ship, but there were no more reinforcements to come for either side.

It was a duel to the end, but eventually numbers in the attackers' favor took their toll, and after several minutes Grizzly gasped in shock. He looked down and saw a cutlass poking through his chest, his heart region to be more specific. In another second, he was on the ground, the life already exiting his body. By the time the fight dispersed, LittleGrizzly was no more.

As the sun rose and the dawn bell tolled, the Captain's officers took a count and found they were one short. Once it was determined to be LittleGrizzly, Captain Crazed Rabbit sighed, and gravely looked out across the gathered sailors.

"All right, lads," he said, "it be clear that there still be scum on this ship. Courageous scum nonetheless, for they dare t'be doin' their dirty work in such an enclosed environment, but scum nonetheless. And it be in all of our best interests t'be gettin' rid of this scum. Therefore, we be doin' this democratically, mates."

He took a breath as Louis and Sigurd looked on. A quick nod to Louis sent him back inside the cabin's quarters, emerging a second later with a pot.

"Ye be votin' fer the lad who you think murdered poor LittleGrizzly," he continued. "And at the end of the votin', whoever be havin' the most will face my wrath. And that be the plank!"

There was a very loud cheer at this. The plank was always good for morale.

"Okay lads," Rabbit finished. "Be we ready? Good. GET VOTIN', YE BLOOMIN' COCKROACHES!"

OOC: Day 2 has begun. It will last until 00:01 US Eastern time on Saturday, October 3rd.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Attacked: Centurion1 (n1), LittleGrizzly (n1)

Murdered: LittleGrizzly (n1)

Souls aboard (49/50):
a completely inoffensive name
A Very Super Market
A1 Unit
Andres
Askthepizzaguy
atheotes
Beefy187
Beskar
Captain Blackadder
Centurion1
Chaotix
CountArach
Crazed Rabbit
Cultured Drizzt Fan
Death is Yonder
Diana Abnoba
DisgruntledGoat
Double A
gibsonsg91921
Iskander 3.1
johnhughthom
Jolt
Joooray
Khazaar
KukriKhan
Lord Winter
Louis VI the Fat
miotas
pevergreen
Psychonaut
Reenk Roink
ricera10
Sasaki Kojiro
scottishranger
Seamus Fermanagh
shlin28
Sigurd
slashandburn
spL1tp3r50naL1ty
SSNeoperestroika
Subotan
taka
TinCow
Tratorix
White_eyes:D
woad&fangs

Yaropolk
Yaseikhaan
YLC

**GeneralHankerchief** · 10-02-2009, 14:06

Regarding transferring gold:

I've had several requests do so. This was something I didn't really anticipate when concocting the game, thus I'm going to put the following caveats on it:

- It must be done for services rendered. You're bloodthirsty pirates. You don't give other people money out of the goodness of your heart.
- The services must be publicly available.
- It must be for a small fee. 10 gold or less.

**GeneralHankerchief** · 10-03-2009, 05:58

Post 565 of main thread.

Day 2

As would be expected on a pirate ship where heavy drinking was not just a custom, but a tradition, the discussion over who should walk the plank was very animated and spirited. Several pirates, seeing the potential for even further profit, started offering their services in various fields ranging from votes to pictures, providing a fine mess for the Captain's staff to sort out.

The biggest shocker of the day is when five sailors stepped forward and owned up to the killing of LittleGrizzly last night. Reaction was mixed, and another, more serious discussion emerged, with the vigilante group in question justifying their actions. Eventually suspicion fell on one of their members, Andres, as he defended himself louder than the rest and some of the Captain's officers cited his lack of being on duty for other things the previous night.

However, the opinion of the Presence was also very much against one woad&fangs, who claimed to be in allegiance with the departed Grizzly. woad, in a last-ditch attempt to save himself, offered some of his own stash of gold to whoever voted for Andres. It closed the margin of votes significantly, but was not enough. A late surge of votes for woad doomed him, and soon Captain Crazed Rabbit summoned him and the rest of the sailors to the decks.

"Well lads, I asked ye to speak, and ye have spoken," the Captain said to his crew. "Let the ship's log record that on this here day at this here hour, by the power vested in me by the crew of the good ship Presence, that I do pronounce woad&fangs guilty of treason." He stepped aside for a moment, and then handed woad a pistol.

"All right, woad, I don't know if ye're the man we be lookin' for or not, but rules be the rules and the rules say you've got to go. As per custom, this be a pistol with one shot. Should ye not find rescue or shelter, use it to take yer own life, and may you find more peace in the afterlife then aboard this here vessel. Do ye understand?"

"I do," said woad, taking the pistol.

"All right," said Captain Rabbit. "To the plank with ye, then."

woad&fangs slowly walked to the foot of the plank, and the stepped on it, taking a long and good look at the horizon, hoping to spot any nearby islands. There were none. A boot interrupted his scouring, and an unexpected woad flailed around madly before toppling into the water. The crowd roared with approval. Captain Rabbit knew how to take care of his men.

"Okay laddies, hopefully this be the end o' things, though I doubt it. To bed with ye, then, and let's hope the count of souls stays the same overnight."

But nobody heard him. A few of the more drunken pirates were taking shots at the submerged woad. Loud cheering was rampant. Finally, the water around him gradually turned red. "A direct hit!" somebody yelled, and the crowd roared.

Sighing, Crazed Rabbit made his way back into the cabin for the night.

Day 2 tally:

woad&fangs: 14 (Sasaki, Yaro, Sigurd, Louis, Andres, DiY, ATPG, Blackadder, slash, TinCow, ricera, White_eyes, atheotes, Reenk)

Andres: 11 (Goat, Kukri, Beskar, khaan, woad, SSNeo, Tratorix, Subotan, taka, Double A, ACIN)

Sasaki Kojiro: 3 (miotas, Joooray, Centurion)
Jolt: 2 (pever, YLC)
A1_Unit: 1 (Lord Winter)
Tratorix: 1 (Chaotix)
Psychonaut: 1 (CountArach)
pevergreen: 1 (Jolt)
White_eyes:D: 1 (shlin28)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It is now Night 2. Night orders will be taken until Sunday, 10/4, at 12:01 PM US Eastern time.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Attacked: Centurion1 (n1), LittleGrizzly (n1)

Murdered: LittleGrizzly (n1)

Lynched: woad&fangs

Removed from play: Xehh II

Souls aboard (48):
a completely inoffensive name
A Very Super Market
A1 Unit
Andres
Askthepizzaguy
atheotes
Beefy187
Beskar
Captain Blackadder
Centurion1
Chaotix
CountArach
Crazed Rabbit
Cultured Drizzt Fan
Death is Yonder
Diana Abnoba
DisgruntledGoat
Double A
gibsonsg91921
Iskander 3.1
johnhughthom
Jolt
Joooray
Khazaar
KukriKhan
Lord Winter
Louis VI the Fat
miotas
pevergreen
Psychonaut
Reenk Roink
ricera10
Sasaki Kojiro
scottishranger
Seamus Fermanagh
shlin28
Sigurd
slashandburn
spL1tp3r50naL1ty
SSNeoperestroika
Subotan
taka
TinCow
Tratorix
White_eyes:D
Yaropolk
Yaseikhaan
YLC

**GeneralHankerchief** · 10-04-2009, 18:08

Post 605 of main thread.

Night 2

taka was alone and above deck, humming an old shanty to himself. He missed his mother. Dear old mum, always taking care of him and encouraging his peaceful inner nature... he almost thought about staying for a split-second when offered to join the crew of what would become the most bloodthirsty, drunken, and menacing group of pirates in the entire north Atlantic. Poor old mum. He wondered how she was doing now. Maybe after this was over, he would buy his own ship, and sail out to find her, and the two of them could retire together off the loot he had won. On the other hand, he could also blow it entirely on rum and women in the span of two weeks. Decisions, decisions.

He was seized by the shoulders as two hands started dragging him closer to the ship's edge. Snapping out of his nostalgia for his mother and his yearning for rum and women, taka struggled mightily to break free, and he did, eventually scrambling away from his two attackers. Cursing, the two men drew their swords and pursued, chasing taka in circles on the ship for a while. Eventually, however, they started to gain on him. taka, seeing this, dropped on all fours, and the lead pursuer tripped over him, going flying and landing on his other side.

As the first pursuer was struggling to get back on his feet, taka rose, seized his second pursuer by the hair, and brought his skull in contact with the first man's. Both attackers were now out cold, although taka was too dazed to do anything more than go back below deck and drink some more.

atheotes liked to practice his swordplay. During the operations in Charleston, he finally got to live his fantasy and go toe-to-toe with the enemy, holding his own. He was very proud of this and as a result had taken to sharpening his cutlass - sometimes excessively. He hadn't reached the point where his weapon had a name, but many other sailors on board had a wager going on when he would give in and name it. There was also a side wager about what the cutlass would be called, with the lowest odds being "Georgina".

"Hello, atheotes," two men said as they walked up to him. "Care to practice your sword play with us? You never know when you will find yourself at a numerical disadvantage." Both of them drew their own cutlasses as they were saying this, although atheotes was too excited about what they were saying to notice.

"Sure, that sounds great!" he said, drawing his cutlass.

"We thought you would like it," they said. "En garde!"

The three men sparred for a little while, with atheotes' opponents holding back their blows. However, a couple of minutes in, an unseen signal prompted the two men to ramp up their attack significantly. atheotes, taken aback, struggled to compete with the new ferocity that was coming after him. Panting, he tried to tell them to stop.

"Hey, guys, how about going down a notch, eh? I mean, this could really hurt somebody here!"

"That's the idea," said one of them, disarming atheotes and sending him kneeling to the ground in pain. The other lopped off his head.

Deep within the ship's cabins, a man was sleeping, dreaming the sweet dreams of a certain lovely lady. He was roused by a hand pushing his shoulder repeatedly.

"Mmmph... not morning bell until at least 3 hours from now... leeme 'lone..."

"I can't do that," the second man said. "You will wake up and you will listen to me."

"'less you're the captain, not interested," the first man mumbled.

"I have far more authority than the captain," the second man said in a menacing whisper. "I have the power vested in me by the English crown to arrest you, throw you overboard right now, and go after everyone you love and give them an even more horrifying fate."

This finally woke the first man up. He couldn't do this. He may have been a bloodthirsty pirate, but he still had a soft spot for his loved ones.

"What... what do I do?"

"I am offering you a letter of Marque. Accept it, and work with us. Destroy this foolish ship and its crew. Do this and I promise you leniency, plus a well-paying job and the support of the Crown instead of the opposition of it. What say you?"

The first man thought about it for several seconds. "Yes..." he finally said.

"Good," said the second man, already turning around to depart. "Now go back to sleep. I'll be in touch..."

gibsonsg91921 was sitting above deck, drinking some rum quietly. He couldn't sleep, so he figured that a healthy dose of alcohol would do the trick. Of course, it was getting harder and harder to do so. Being a pirate, gibson had achieved a very high tolerance for the substance over the years, so as a result he was rather drunk, but not completely gone to the point where he was about to pass out.

Four men approached him, cutlasses drawn. They did not mince words. Checking to see that his vision was not starting to blur and there were, in fact, four men approaching him, gibson took another swig of his bottle. "What's this all about, eh?" he slurred, with the men only drawing closer to him in response.

Taking one final swig of his rum, gibson finally drew his own cutlass in response and lunged at his attackers. He fought with fantastic bravery, although not particularly much skill, frequently swinging wildly at the air. Eventually, numbers and sobriety took their toll and gibson passed on. He didn't feel a thing.

Eventually the sun finally rose, and Captain Crazed Rabbit walked out of his cabins, shaking his head when he saw all the bodies. In addition to the corpses, there were also the bodies of johnhughthom and YLC, who had apparently gotten in a drunken argument over which wench in Nassau was the best value and took it too far, killing each other. "This be a bad omen if I ever saw one," he muttered to himself, and then proceeded to gather the remaining sailors to roll call.

"Right, laddies," he said, "the situation be growin' ever worse since last night. The attacks have increased, and so has the body count. Looks like ye'll be needin' to do the vote again to determine who walks the plank. Fer yer own sakes, I suggest that ye get this one right."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It is now Day 3. The round will last until Monday October 5th, 18:00, US Eastern time.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Attacked: Centurion1 (n1), LittleGrizzly (n1), taka (n2)

Murdered: LittleGrizzly (n1), atheotes (n2), gibsonsg91921 (n2)

Lynched: woad&fangs

Removed from play: Xehh II, johnhughthom, YLC

Souls aboard (44):
a completely inoffensive name
A Very Super Market
A1 Unit
Andres
Askthepizzaguy
Beefy187
Beskar
Captain Blackadder
Centurion1
Chaotix
CountArach
Crazed Rabbit
Cultured Drizzt Fan
Death is Yonder
Diana Abnoba
DisgruntledGoat
Double A
Iskander 3.1
Jolt
Joooray
Khazaar
KukriKhan
Lord Winter
Louis VI the Fat
miotas
pevergreen
Psychonaut
Reenk Roink
ricera10
Sasaki Kojiro
scottishranger
Seamus Fermanagh
shlin28
Sigurd
slashandburn
spL1tp3r50naL1ty
SSNeoperestroika
Subotan
taka
TinCow
Tratorix
White_eyes:D
Yaropolk
Yaseikhaan

**GeneralHankerchief** · 10-05-2009, 23:21

Post 869 of main thread.

Day 3

For a while, it seemed as if too much heavy drinking on the Presence the night before would doom the pirates to an unproductive day. Several votes were lodged for those previously aboard the ship but had long passed, or even some old mateys back in Nassau that had never set foot aboard in the first place. This was all done, of course, to the Captain's chagrin.

Eventually, Crazed Rabbit grew more and more agitated about the direction (or directions, if one wanted to be more accurate) the vote was going in, and loudly instructed his sailors to vote for his very own Quartermaster, Sigurd.

Instantly, a heated debate sprung out of this. The accusations and defenses flew far and fast, with several people starting to openly distrust the Captain. Some sailors even defied his authority by offering other possible lynch targets, although none yet called for a mutiny. Near the end of voting, a hopping-mad Sigurd finally emerged from below decks to defend himself.

"What be the meanin' of all this suspicion on me?" Sigurd said. "I be yer Quartermaster, lookin' forward to nothin' more than-"

"Former Quartermaster," Captain Rabbit said, cutting him off. "As of right now, Seamus Fermanagh be fillin' that position."

A shocked Sigurd turned his gaze over to Seamus for a second, who only shrugged. Looking back, he started staring daggers at Rabbit. "That be all well and fine," he said, "but it still doesn't explain the meanin' of all this. Why be half the bleedin' crew be votin' for me, seemingly out of nowhere?"

"Why?" Rabbit countered, eyes getting wider with anger. "I tell ye why, ye bloomin' no-good, treasonous wretch! I have in me very hands a slip of parchment saying you're with the Mavens!"

After everyone gasped in shock, Rabbit threw his hands wide so that everybody could see the paper, if not read what was written on it or who it was from. Sigurd, meanwhile, could only sputter in shock. He was already being escorted to the plank when he finally formed the words to defend himself.

"But... but it's not true!" he shouted. "It's an out-and-out lie, Captain! I would- I would never betray the Presence, and certainly not to those louses! Besides, no Watchstander be that sharp-eyed, and clearly not even dull-eyed since they got me wrong in the first place!"

But none of this was heard, and even if it was, it was not heeded. The pirates were bloodthirsty, and Quartermaster was never a popular position amongst the crew anyway, as Sigurd was learning firsthand. He didn't even have the chance to walk off, instead getting thrown overboard. Several people fired shots into the water, some into the air. Nobody knew if they hit anything or not, but it didn't matter. Sigurd was never seen again.

Day 3 tally:

Sigurd: 20 (Split, White_eyes, Beskar, Sasaki, Goat, Chaotix, Seamus, Beefy, ACIN, slash, Louis, taka, TinCow, ATPG, Subotan, Yaro, khaan, Diana, Drizzt, CountArach)

Andres: 3 (Kukri, SSNeo, pever)
A1_Unit: 3 (Winter, Double A, DiY)
Askthepizzaguy: 3 (Reenk, Blackadder, Tratorix)
Lord Winter: 2 (A1, AVSM)
Khazaar: 2 (Joooray, miotas)
pevergreen: 2 (Andres, Jolt)
Joooray: 1 (Iskander)

Abstained: 3 (CR, Centurion, ricera)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It is now Night 3. The round will last until Tuesday, October 6th, 20:00 US Eastern Time.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Attacked: Centurion1 (n1), LittleGrizzly (n1), taka (n2)

Murdered: LittleGrizzly (n1), atheotes (n2), gibsonsg91921 (n2)

Lynched: woad&fangs (d2), Sigurd (d3)

Removed from play: Xehh II, johnhughthom, YLC

Souls aboard (43):
a completely inoffensive name
A Very Super Market
A1 Unit
Andres
Askthepizzaguy
Beefy187
Beskar
Captain Blackadder
Centurion1
Chaotix
CountArach
Crazed Rabbit
Cultured Drizzt Fan
Death is Yonder
Diana Abnoba
DisgruntledGoat
Double A
Iskander 3.1
Jolt
Joooray
Khazaar
KukriKhan
Lord Winter
Louis VI the Fat
miotas
pevergreen
Psychonaut
Reenk Roink
ricera10
Sasaki Kojiro
scottishranger
Seamus Fermanagh
shlin28
slashandburn
spL1tp3r50naL1ty
SSNeoperestroika
Subotan
taka
TinCow
Tratorix
White_eyes:D
Yaropolk
Yaseikhaan

**GeneralHankerchief** · 10-07-2009, 03:02

Post 910 of main thread.

Night 3

All was calm on the North Atlantic as the sailors on the Presence did their nightly dance into madness.

"Psst... wake up." Tratorix didn't move.

"Wake up," the voice said a bit louder, jostling Tratorix a bit harder.

"Mmm... mmph!" he muttered as the voice's owner jostled him harder still. "Okay, okay, I'm awake! What is it?"

"We're about to pass Ile de Tresor," said the voice.

"So...?" Tratorix muttered. He had never heard of Ile de Tresor, and especially didn't care about anything that sounded remotely French.

"Have you never heard the tale of the natives of Ile de Tresor?" Tratorix shook his head, so the voice continued, all the while nudging him out of bed and leading him above deck. "As the story goes, one of the Spanish Conquistadors came upon the island on their way to searching for more gold, or possibly the Fountain of Youth. I can never remember. Anyway, at first he and his men were wary of the natives, for they seemed like the normal bloodthirsty savages. But then... then night fell, and one by one his soldiers deserted their posts, headed for parts unknown. Eventually it was about 3 in the morn when the Conquistador had had enough, and decided to see things for himself. Almost instantly, he was taken by an ethereal glow, so lovely in the pale moonlight, that he had no choice but to follow it; it was almost as if he was pulled to it..."

Tratorix could only stare in wonder. "What was it?" he asked.

"Upon closer inspection, the Conquistador realized, in his amazement, that it was actually people. The young female natives of Ile de Tresor had a skin unlike anything found in the rest of the world. It mimicked the sea in the way it was able to reflect the moonlight so beautifully. That night, the sky was clear, the moon was full... and the women were naked, bathing in the silver light. At this point every fiber in the Conquistador's very being was urging him forward; it was impossible to resist. It was the most beautiful sight he had ever seen... until he got closer."

They were now at the edge of the ship when Tratorix grabbed the second person by his shoulders, begging him to finish. "Well?" he demanded. "What happened when he got closer?"

"The natives turned, eyed him seductively... and then tore him apart with their bare hands, just as they had done with the dozens of other soldiers previously that night." Tratorix's eyes widened, but not in shock over the story. Rather, it was the pain of a blade slicing clean through his chest.

"The moral of this story is simple," his attacker said calmly. "If someone points out Ile de Tresor to you at night... it's best if you don't follow, for your own sake." He withdrew his blade and tossed the bleeding Tratorix overboard.

On the other side of the ship, Andres was hauling a fat sack of gold, a cutlass in his mouth, lugging everything to the edge. He was looking for a boat, and secondly a rope to cut...

Iskander 3.1 had no thoughts of abandoning ship, at least not yet. Despite the numerous threats on board, he saw no reason to panic. The Captain had everything in hand, after all. If everybody would just listen to him, maybe order would be restored and they would be able to dispatch their enemies quicker.

Four cutlasses were drawn. "Oh, *#%!," Iskander muttered, hoping to God that the cutlasses were for somebody else. They weren't.

All of a sudden, Iskander was now in full panic mode. As his attackers drew closer to him, he fell to his knees, begging, pleading, spewing his thoughts out as fast as they came through his head, much to the annoyance of everyone who heard him.

"Oh please God don't let me die, I didn't do anything wrong, I know I be a dirty pirate all these years and committed more than my share of trespasses against my Lord, but I did it for me own benefit, I swear, I had to, otherwise I would have lived a miserable life, oh why are you going after me, what did I particularly do to you, I don't deserve this, take my treasure please all of my treasure anything you want it's all yours just please leave me alone I DON'T WANT TO DIE let me see Nassau one last time let me see me best wench one last time I'll do anything you ask just don't-"

His blubbering was interrupted by a blade slicing through his neck. After a second of merciful silence, the four attackers grinned and walked back below decks arm in arm.

Meanwhile, Andres was still looking for a boat, getting more frantic and desperate as time passed. He was already running late as it was, he had meant to have left several hours ago. Eventually - eureka! - he found one. Dropping his sack of treasure loudly, he gripped his cutlass, cutting the rope. The dull "thud" and, a second later, the "splash" of the boat hitting the water was drowned out, however, by the sound of four additional cutlasses being drawn.

"Going somewhere?" one of the new arrivals said. Andres muttered to himself, turning to face his attackers...

Beefy187 was being chased. Not by a beautiful lass in real life, as he would have preferred, or even one in his dreams, as would also have been acceptable. No, instead two very imposing, very serious men were out to get him, and in real life too. Beefy had been running around, trying to hold them back with his cutlass, but he was running out of gas and his pursuers seemed to be as fresh as ever. So he had decided on a different option - hide.

Where to hide on a pirate ship? The Captain's quarters, for one. So Beefy took to putting all of his eggs in one basket and started desperately pounding on Crazed Rabbit's door, hoping for safety. "HELP!" he shouted, pounding relentlessly. "They're after me! I can't hold 'em off much longer, and they're out to kill me! Let me in, please!!!"

Another fresh burst of pounding. He saw a light flicker inside, which only caused him to pound harder. "QUICKLY, QUICKLY, LET ME IN! THEY'RE COMING UP! BE QUICK AND YOU MAY SEE WHO THEY ARE!" He could hear footsteps, not just at his back but also inside the cabin. He started yelling and pounding as loud as he could.

Finally, there was one final sound, a "crash"! Beefy's pursuers had caught up and slammed his head through the glass, only seconds before the door would have opened.

..."Can't ye be lettin' an honest sailor abandon a sinkin' ship with his life?" Andres said.

"What, you mean like a rat?" The others laughed at this.

"So this is how it's going to be," Andres said to himself, sighing. "All right, lads," he called out to his attackers. Have at me, then!" They all charged, but one man in particular was faster than the others. Andres, being a particularly adept sailor at fighting, took advantage of this and grabbed him as he was passing, using his momentum to toss him overboard.

Everybody could hear a loud cracking sound below, and the fight stopped temporarily as everyone looked to see what happened. It became immediately clear: Andres's escape boat had broken apart on impact with the falling attacker.

"Well me hearties, it appears as if ye have a choice now. Ye've got me trapped on this soon-ter-be-ghost ship for another night, at least, that much is certain. But do ye kill me or do ye save yer friend, who most certainly will be a-drownin' without yer help?"

The three remaining sailors put their heads together for a moment before two of them went to the ship's edge to try and reel their comrade back in. The third, meanwhile, looked Andres dead in the eye. "We'll be seein' ye tomorrow night, cully."

"Aye, I bet ye will," Andres said, and tried his best to nonchalantly walk back below deck.

That morning, Captain Crazed Rabbit arose, and was immediately greeted with half of Beefy's corpse poking through his cabin door. "My God, what a bloodbath," he said to himself as he saw the other bodies. This day's meeting was especially grave.

"All right, laddies, ye all know the score, so I not be repeatin' it here," he said. "I do have some additional information to give ye, though. Me and the officers be checkin' out LittleGrizzly and it appears as if he was loyal to the ship until the end. A foul man he may have been, but not foul towards the Presence, at any rate." He paused, only getting a half-hearted chuckled from the crew.

"All right then boys, let's make it a good one."

~~~~~~~~~~~~

It is now Day 4. Voting will conclude Wednesday, October 7th at 23:00 US Eastern.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Attacked: Centurion1 (n1), LittleGrizzly (n1), taka (n2), Andres (n3)

Murdered: LittleGrizzly (n1), atheotes (n2), gibsonsg91921 (n2), Tratorix (n3), Iskander 3.1 (n3), Beefy187 (n3)

Lynched: woad&fangs (d2), Sigurd (d3)

Removed from play: Xehh II, johnhughthom, YLC

Souls aboard (40):
a completely inoffensive name
A Very Super Market
A1 Unit
Andres
Askthepizzaguy
Beskar
Captain Blackadder
Centurion1
Chaotix
CountArach
Crazed Rabbit
Cultured Drizzt Fan
Death is Yonder
Diana Abnoba
DisgruntledGoat
Double A
Jolt
Joooray
Khazaar
KukriKhan
Lord Winter
Louis VI the Fat
miotas
pevergreen
Psychonaut
Reenk Roink
ricera10
Sasaki Kojiro
scottishranger
Seamus Fermanagh
shlin28
slashandburn
spL1tp3r50naL1ty
SSNeoperestroika
Subotan
taka
TinCow
White_eyes:D
Yaropolk
Yaseikhaan

**GeneralHankerchief** · 10-08-2009, 05:00

Post 1170 of main thread.

Day 4

As the Presence sailed on, cutting its way through the calm waters of the North Atlantic, clouds started to form overhead. Soon, the waters would no longer be calm. Every sailor aboard the ship saw what was coming, and knew it wouldn't be pretty. The anticipation of the coming storm probably added to the overall testiness that defined the day's vote. Three days now of attacks, both physical and personal, did not make for a happy crew. Captain Crazed Rabbit's absence for most of the day did not do the crew any favors, either.

Finally, though, he emerged from his cabin, pronouncing the vote over, and telling the crew that he had another announcement to make.

"Lads," he said, "I be replacin' yer Quartermaster again. Thank you for yer service, Seamus Fermanagh, but right now I deem it best to be havin' Askthepizzaguy in this here position at this particular time."

Seamus eyed Rabbit incredulously as he stepped away, rejoining the crew. "I hope the next step isn't to pronounce me a Maven and have me thrown overboard?" he asked, half-joking.

"That remains to be seen," Rabbit replied in the same manner. "But seriously though Seamus, thank you for yer service. Should another vacancy open up, I'll be keepin' ye in mind. Now lads," he said, addressing the entire crew. "Who be the target o' our disapproval tonight?" A score of fingers immediately pointed at Jolt, who started loudly protesting at this.

"Quiet, boy," Rabbit hissed. "Yer fate has already been sealed, traitor. If ye don't want any further humiliation by the crew, then I suggest you die like a man, even if ye not be livin' like one."

"But-" Jolt said, and then finally closed his mouth, looking murderously at everyone who had pointed at him.

"That's a good lad," Rabbit said in a neutral tone of voice, leading Jolt and the rest of the crew to the plank. "Here be yer effects," he said, handing them to Jolt. "My ye find solace, be it in this life or the next."

"May I find solace through the night, never mind for eternity," Jolt muttered, eying the clouds up ahead.

"Aye, that ye may," said the Captain. And without further warning, he booted a surprised Jolt into the water, much to the chuckles of the crew. Several pistols were pointed at him, but Rabbit waved them off.

"Nay, lads, save yer bullets. And yer time, as well! There's a storm coming! Batten down the hatches! Secure the loose articles! I want this ship to be pissin' in Mother Nature's face tonight, and that also means nothin' rattlin' around! Well? What're ye waitin' for? GET TO WORK, YE SORRY SACKS OF SEAGULL DROPPINGS!" He continued amiably cursing at the crew, which sped off to work, leaving new discipline officer Askthepizzaguy to awkwardly yell shouts of agreement at Rabbit's orders.

Day 4 tally:

Jolt: 12 (Louis, ATPG, Goat, Subotan, Joooray, Yaro, Centurion, scottish, CA, Diana, ricera, Kukri)

Drizzt: 3 (pever, Drizzt, shlin)
ATPG: 3 (Andres, Split, Jolt)
Reenk: 2 (Beskar, Psychonaut)

Single votes: Andres (miotas), Yaro (Reenk), Diana (TinCow), shlin (Sasaki), ACIN (Chaotix), slash (Seamus), Seamus (slash)

Abstained: 5 (CR, A1, DiY, White_eyes, taka)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It is now Night 4. The round will end at 00:01, Friday, October 9th US Eastern. That is precisely 24 hours from now.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Attacked: Centurion1 (n1), LittleGrizzly (n1), taka (n2), Andres (n3)

Murdered: LittleGrizzly (n1), atheotes (n2), gibsonsg91921 (n2), Tratorix (n3), Iskander 3.1 (n3), Beefy187 (n3)

Lynched: woad&fangs (d2), Sigurd (d3), Jolt (d4)

Removed from play: Xehh II, johnhughthom, YLC

Souls aboard (39):
a completely inoffensive name
A Very Super Market
A1 Unit
Andres
Askthepizzaguy
Beskar
Captain Blackadder
Centurion1
Chaotix
CountArach
Crazed Rabbit
Cultured Drizzt Fan
Death is Yonder
Diana Abnoba
DisgruntledGoat
Double A
Joooray
Khazaar
KukriKhan
Lord Winter
Louis VI the Fat
miotas
pevergreen
Psychonaut
Reenk Roink
ricera10
Sasaki Kojiro
scottishranger
Seamus Fermanagh
shlin28
slashandburn
spL1tp3r50naL1ty
SSNeoperestroika
Subotan
taka
TinCow
White_eyes:D
Yaropolk
Yaseikhaan

**GeneralHankerchief** · 10-09-2009, 06:41

Post 1263 of main thread.

Night 4

Four sailors aboard the Presence woke up. Looking around, they nodded to each other, and slowly made their way above decks. They had had quite enough the conditions on the ship, and they were going to make things right. They walked outside, greeted by a fierce gust of wind and driving rain, the kind of storm that only a long voyage at sea could truly prepare you for. After a momentary adjustment period, the four of them drew their cutlasses in unison. The sound of the swords being unsheathed could barely be heard over the rain and the wind and the thunder. It was better that way. Their target was probably expecting something like this, but even the smallest element of surprise could be enough to enough to turn the tide their way.

And as the Presence rocked and swayed in the ocean, the four vigilantes made their way to the Captain's cabin, where Askthepizzaguy would face pirate justice.

Below decks, another sailor was roused from his sleep. This was done rather forcibly, as at one instant he was dreaming of bliss and peace, and at the next instant was being literally dragged across the room, a foreign hand clamped firmly over his mouth. It went like this until they were up the stairs and above deck, at which point it was useless to scream. The sailor and his kidnapper both realized that the wind would capture any cry for help.

Instead, the kidnapper silently dragged the sailor closer and closer to the ship's edge, the plank looming ever closer. The sailor looked at the kidnapper questioningly, and then fell back in surprise as he took a boot to the chest. Losing his balance on an already unstable boat, the sailor dropped, the only thing keeping him from being lost at sea forever was his arm lock around the thankfully-sturdy plank. The kidnapper only stared at this sight for a while before finally grinning.

Abandoning all thoughts of logic, the sailor started screaming, uncaring for the futility of the act. This only seemed to amuse the kidnapper more. The screaming went on for a while, and little by little the sailor was starting to lose his grip on the slippery plank. Finally, the kidnapper seemed to have enough and finally leaned down, speaking loudly and clearly.

"Would you like to get out of this situation?"

The sailor nodded vigorously.

"Would you do anything to get out of it?"

The sailor nodded again. He didn't care. He had paid his debt, swabbed the decks more times than he cared to count. He was a good man, had done his part in Charleston and numerous missions before that. He didn't deserve to be another one of the countless men who had simply disappeared at night, claimed by the angry sea.

"Would you accept an offer by the Crown in order to reclaim the valuables of Charleston in exchange for your freedom?"

The sailor nodded once again, his horizons quickly adjusted. The kidnapper finally extended a hand and pulled up his new accomplice. The sailor walked with him back below deck, chatting business. He had helped pull off the steal of the decade from Charleston; he would now work to give it all back.

The vigilante crew on Askthepizzaguy had arrived at the doors to the Captain's cabin. Unlike Beefy187 of the night before, the didn't bother wasting time by knocking. Instead, one man kicked the door in, and they rushed into the cabin, not taking any time to admire the luxuries the officers enjoyed. Instead, they searched for their target.

Pizzaguy did not disappoint, walking out of his quarters, fully-dressed and armed for battle with his officer's sword.

"Hello, gentlemen," he said tonelessly. "I've been expecting you."

"You die tonight, Quartermaster," one of them responded. "We be havin' just about enough the way this ship be run, and we'd be likin' to make some changes 'round here. First demand: You, dead."

"Consider the complaint noted," Pizzaguy replied. "I be referrin' it to me staff. Expect an answer from them right about... now," he said, and several more figures rushed out from behind another door, their cutlasses raised. The vigilante group, a bit taken aback, charged forward, and the battle was on.

Back outside the Captain's quarters, in the cold and wet nightmare that was the storm, flashes of lightning illuminated a large problem for scottishranger. No matter where he was on the ship, he could always see four figures with cutlasses, always approaching, always drawing closer. As the endless night wore on and scottish kept trying to outmaneuver his pursuers, he gradually became more and more paranoid, eventually having several brushes with insanity itself.

At first, he wondered why his pursuers were going after him. Then, after accepting that they *were* coming after him and realizing that he probably shouldn't question why and instead focus on survival, he wondered why they never seemed to tire. He wondered why they weren't being affected by this hellish weather. Then, he wondered if they could even feel the rain, the heavy swaying of the ship. He started to wonder if his pursuers were even human at all, or simply beings from another plane come to take him early.

"OH, GOD!" he cried out, his scream lost to the wind. "It's the Four Horsemen! They've come for me! It's just as they prophesied! The Seventh Seal! Revelation! Pestilence! War! Famine! Death! O, Discordia! The end times have come! A crew we were as living, and so a crew we shall be when dead! Ah, rue it, for the End Times are here!" He babbled along like that incoherently for a while, forgetting about all means of escape from the "Horsemen". Eventually, one of them put him out of his misery by beheading the knelt scottishranger as they simply walked by, much as a mounted man with a scythe might do.

In the Captain's Quarters, a fierce battle was taking place, which was quite loud and shredded lots of furniture and putting lots of slash marks in the wooden walls. Askthepizzaguy, despite having a protection group looking out for him and being the sole target of his attackers, was very much in the fray.

Despite Pizzaguy's presence, though, the outcome of the battle was very much in the air. The combatants were so evenly matched that it looked like it was coming down to whoever would tire first. Finally, however, one of the members of Pizzaguy's bodyguards took another one aside and hissed in his ear, "the table, matey! Drop it down and use it as a barricade!" The two men did so, attacking the vigilante group's legs and throwing them off balance.

Little by little, thanks to the table's protection, the vigilante group was being forced back. They all started attacking even fiercer, but it was just not to be. Momentum was not on their side, and eventually they found themselves back in the deluge, helplessly banging on the now-reinforced door. After about five minutes of this, they decided to call it quits and trudged back below deck.

Not one of them saw Andres get grabbed from behind and dragged off to the side.

DisgruntledGoat couldn't sleep. He was always a light sleeper, and in a storm of this magnitude, forget it. He had long learned to make do with it. Most of the time, it involved heavy amounts of rum. Another Presence crewman was keeping him company, the two of them looking out at the storm and whistling in amazement.

"Y'know," the second sailor said to Goat, "they say they had a storm like this at Port Royal the night before the earthquake." Goat only looked at him quizzically.

"Arr, ye don't know about the earthquake?" the second sailor said, with almost an indignant expression on his face. "What's this world comin' to, when somebody in our business doesn't know about the earthquake or the town it hit? I be gettin' too old for this, methinks."

"No no, go on," Goat said. "I be wantin' to hear about this."

"Very well," said the second sailor. "Basically, Port Royal was the Nassau of a generation or two ago, only a lot more so. Founded by the Spanish, taken by the English, it relied on privateers for its defense. Back then, the Crown said Spanish ships were fair game, so business was boomin' and as a result Port Royal thrived. Those lucky scallywags did everything they did and more, and they even had the protection of the bleedin' English! Those were the days," the second sailor sighed, trailing off for a moment before resuming.

"Anyway, Port Royal was the home base of the great pirate Morgan, who led many-a-raid on the Spanish, all from Port Royal. And Port Royal continued to grow, serving our particular clientele. At one point, 'twas the second largest English city in the New World. Eventually, though, times changed. The Crown made nice with Spain and cracked down. Morgan was installed as Lieutenant Governor of Port Royal and later Governor itself, if memory serves. He pretty much tried to put a stop to the piracy, and while he was somewhat successful he could never quite clamp it down entirely. Eventually he died, and still the trade the city did flourished. I be rememberin' one learned man back on the ship a few summers back, readin' somebody describin' Port Royal as 'a modern-day Sodom'. It was just askin' for a smitin', everybody knew it, even us folk.

"Eventually, it came. Giant, nasty earthquake, sank darn near half the city. Legend has it it uncovered Morgan's coffin and the newly-sloped ground took it right into the sea, as if it had decided to initiate this entire devastatin' act just to rightfully reclaim one of its greatest conquerors. But first, there was the storm. Beautiful time o'year, late spring, early summer, just like this. And then the temperature just drops. The rain comes, and so does the wind. God's opening act, some said. An early warning to those still religious enough to heed the signs." He tailed off for another moment before finally snapping back into it.

"The most interesting part though, is just how everything... sank. When the sea is hungry, me lad, it will be fed. And right now... the sea be hungry," he finished, ripping a hole in DisgruntledGoat's chest with his cutlass and tossing him overboard.

Andres, meanwhile, was trying to break away from the grip of the man who had snatched him away from his group. The rain in this case was a double-edged sword; he was able to break free, but always slipped and fell when he tried to run away.

"Curse this weather!" he cried aloud. It seemed like the wind would take this one as well, but his kidnapper seemed to hear it. Andres could see an unearthly glow in this man's eyes, his yellow, remaining teeth grinning eerily.

A flash of lightning illuminated even more features about this man, Andres noticed. Most striking out of all of them was a blunderbuss, pointed directly at him. The sheer absurdity and shock of it all overwhelmed Andres, who began to cackle.

"What? You really expect that thing to work?" Andres burst out between bouts of hysterical laughter.

The figure said nothing, only drawing closer.

"Be... be ye kiddin' me?" he said, the laughter a bit more nervous this time.

The figure said nothing.

"Come on!" he finally shouted, ready to finally crack from all the pressure he had been under the past few days. "The Almighty Himself be takin' a shower right now in this! No way that thing can stand up and still work!"

Finally, the figure spoke. "Bess?" he said gruffly. "Bess don't care 'bout gettin' wet." He then pulled the trigger, and Bess's mouth erupted in a brief flash of fire.

The last thing Andres noticed before he died, his blood being quickly washed away by the rain, was how much Bess's nozzle, smoking afterwards, reminded him of a woman enjoying some tobacco after finishing the physical act of love.

The sun finally rose, and with it the rain tailed off. It didn't leave entirely, as a light and steady drizzle would fall throughout the entire day, but it was enough to make the sailors feel human again. Mother Nature had claimed most of the crew's work over the night, but the remaining days and the roll call told Captain Crazed Rabbit all he needed to know. In addition, his quarters were also trashed. It seemed like the only part of the Presence that was in good condition was, well... the Presence itself.

Halfheartedly, almost zombie-like, Captain Rabbit walked the crew through the process as usual. This would be a quiet day for everyone after the apocalyptic storm of the previous night. As a matter of fact, it was only halfway through the voting that he remembered to tell the crew the results of the crew that had earlier.

"Well lads," he said, we be makin' progress. atheotes and woad&fangs were good honest sailors, but gibsonsg91921 was a dirty rotten traitor who meant to steal all our treasure and make off with it to the Maven. If nothin' else encourages ye, at least hang on to that.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It is now Day 5. The round will end Saturday, October 10th at 12:01 PM US Eastern.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Attacked: Centurion1 (n1), LittleGrizzly (n1), taka (n2), Andres (n3), Askthepizzaguy (n4)

Murdered: LittleGrizzly (n1), atheotes (n2), gibsonsg91921 (n2), Tratorix (n3), Iskander 3.1 (n3), Beefy187 (n3), scottishranger (n4), DisgruntledGoat (n4), Andres (n4)

Lynched: woad&fangs (d2), Sigurd (d3), Jolt (d4)

Removed from play: Xehh II, johnhughthom, YLC

Souls aboard (36):
a completely inoffensive name
A Very Super Market
A1 Unit
Askthepizzaguy
Beskar
Captain Blackadder
Centurion1
Chaotix
CountArach
Crazed Rabbit
Cultured Drizzt Fan
Death is Yonder
Diana Abnoba
Double A
Joooray
Khazaar
KukriKhan
Lord Winter
Louis VI the Fat
miotas
pevergreen
Psychonaut
Reenk Roink
ricera10
Sasaki Kojiro
Seamus Fermanagh
shlin28
slashandburn
spL1tp3r50naL1ty
SSNeoperestroika
Subotan
taka
TinCow
White_eyes:D
Yaropolk
Yaseikhaan

**GeneralHankerchief** · 10-11-2009, 00:24

Post 1466 of main thread.

Apologies in advance for the quality of this writeup. It is the second time I am doing this and RL has not been kind.

Day 5

Discussion on the Presence continued as usual. Throughout the day, the members of the vigilante attack on Quartermaster Askthepizzaguy revealed themselves one-by-one. Surprisingly, they came under little pressure. Most of the crew attributed this to the fact that a similar vigilante hit on gibsonsg91921 several nights ago ended up killing a Maven.

Instead, suspicion focused around mainly two crewmen. The first target was White_eyes:D. White_eyes had spent mostly the entire day drunk off an incredible amount of rum, so much so that his speech became incredibly slurred. Indeed, on the few occasions where the rest of the crew could understand him, they were almost in universal agreement that he was saying that he confessed to being a serial killer.

Finally, near the end of the day, White_eyes sobered up enough to clarify that he was, in fact, not the serial killer. Despite this, he still sounded very depressed and it was not enough to let him off the hook.

The second suspect was ricera10, who was also quite drunk. The trick is, he was so far gone that he was sleeping it off the entire day, and was not present for any of the accusations against him. His main attacker was the Quartermaster, who said that he pretty much "smelled suspicious" and that he never saw him at night in groups with the rest of the crew.

Instantly, a debate spawned about whether or not the Quartermaster had too much power. As the Captain was spending more and more time in his own cabin, votes for mutiny started to be called. People were wondering whether or not the Quartermaster was starting to usurp Captain Rabbit's authority. The calls for change, while still faint, could clearly be heard.

Despite this, many people were still ready to listen to the officers and placed their votes on ricera, as instructed. When the dust cleared, the two were tied in votes.

"All right," said Crazed Rabbit, "here's what be happenin' next. Since the crew be deadlocked, it be up to yer officers to decide who walks the plank today. We be retreatin' into our Quarters to discuss it over. In the meantime, make sure the ship be steered straight. The storm from last night took care o'all yer cleanin' duties, so there be no reason to slack with the jobs ye still have! Get to it, lads!" With a nods from the officers, the three men went indoors to the ruined Quarters, leaving the crew to speak amongst themselves.

"They be takin' a while," one of them said.

"Aye, in their little private offices," another concurred.

The banter and grumbling went along like this for a while, with the crew growing more and more discontent. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, the Captain emerged, flanked by his officers. None of them said anything, though, instead marching straight below decks. The crew was extremely puzzled.

A minute later they came back up, Captain Rabbit in the lead, Louis and Pizzaguy in tow carrying a still-passed out ricera10. Without a word, they marched him straight to the plank and unceremoniously threw him overboard.

"We in our wisdom have decided that ricera is guilty," Rabbit said the crew. "His sentence has just been carried out. Everybody else, back to work. There be a long night ahead of us."

Day 5 tally:

ricera10: 6 (Sasaki, Chaotix, Joooray, Louis, A1, White_eyes)

White_eyes:D: 6 (Beskar, CA, ACIN, CDF, TinCow, Subotan)

pevergreen: 4 (Centurion, Yaro, SSNeo, slash)
shlin28: 2 (Seamus, pevergreen)
Single votes: Yaro (Reenk), A1_Unit (shlin), Chaotix (Psychonaut), Sasaki (Kukri)

Abstained: 6 (Cr, Double A, ATPG, Diana, Split, DiY)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It is now Night 5. This phase will end Sunday, October 11th, 20:00 US Eastern Time.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Attacked: Centurion1 (n1), LittleGrizzly (n1), taka (n2), Andres (n3), Askthepizzaguy (n4)

Murdered: LittleGrizzly (n1), atheotes (n2), gibsonsg91921 (n2), Tratorix (n3), Iskander 3.1 (n3), Beefy187 (n3), scottishranger (n4), DisgruntledGoat (n4), Andres (n4)

Lynched: woad&fangs (d2), Sigurd (d3), Jolt (d4), ricera10 (d5)

Removed from play: Xehh II, johnhughthom, YLC

Souls aboard (35):
a completely inoffensive name
A Very Super Market
A1 Unit
Askthepizzaguy
Beskar
Captain Blackadder
Centurion1
Chaotix
CountArach
Crazed Rabbit
Cultured Drizzt Fan
Death is Yonder
Diana Abnoba
Double A
Joooray
Khazaar
KukriKhan
Lord Winter
Louis VI the Fat
miotas
pevergreen
Psychonaut
Reenk Roink
Sasaki Kojiro
Seamus Fermanagh
shlin28
slashandburn
spL1tp3r50naL1ty
SSNeoperestroika
Subotan
taka
TinCow
White_eyes:D
Yaropolk
Yaseikhaan

**GeneralHankerchief** · 10-12-2009, 02:35

Post 1485 of main thread.

Night 5

Beskar was busy being entertained by a friend of his. Nights aboard the Presence were long, lonely affairs, and he was grateful for the company. On this particular night, his fellow crewman was reflecting on the magnitude of the fast-diminishing feat they had pulled off: the sack of Charleston.

"It be rare for any pirate crew to hold a city hostage, especially nowadays with the great crackdown and the British actually havin' all their ropes in the right place, unlike the Spanish." Beskar sat and nodded knowingly. "'course, even back in the old days, 'twasn't every day that a crew brought home a whole ship's load of treasure, really. Best at it was Morgan, of course, the cleverest sailor who ever did live. Ye know about Panama, don't ye?"

Beskar nodded. Of course he did. Everyone knew about Panama. Despite this, the story never got old, and he let his friend spin the classic tale.

"Well, Morgan had had some previous successes raidin' Spanish territory, as ye know. Ones that come to mind are Puerto Principe, Maracaibo, and Portobello, and the loot from those stashes were beyond countin'. Despite the massive haul from all those, the greed of Morgan was sensational, and he wanted more. Now, the three great Spanish cities of the Caribbean at the time were Havana, Cartagena, and Panama. Nobody worth his salt even dreamed of doing anything with those jewels, not even a night o' hard drinkin'. It was suicide, see. But Morgan, he didn't think like any other man. He saw a weakness in one of the three." He paused, looking out over the ocean, and then resumed.

"He knew Cartagena was nigh unassailable, even then, for the fortifications surrounding the city and harbor were top-o'-the-line. Havana too, was too rich and too heavily-guarded. The Spanish forces were spread out across the Main, ye be knowin' this, and as a result they didn't have enough men to protect any one city. Ye be needin' to be loved by Mother Spain if ye wanted to be protected. Well, Havana was one of the few that Mother Spain deemed worthy of protectin', so Havana was out. But Panama... now, Panama be connected to the Pacific, not actually the Caribbean. Ye had to land on the other side o' the Isthmus in order to make an attack, and the Spanish be countin' on that as their main defense."

"But they still had soldiers and fortifications there, right?" said Beskar.

"Oh, aye, but they were hardly used, because again, nobody even dreamed of attacking it. So, the garrison became a bit... lax, ye might say, and so was its funding. So Morgan figured, if he could get his men to Panama, well, the hard part would be over, and his mateys would find killin' the Spanish t'be easy in comparison. The only problem, of course, was gettin' across that isthmus. 'Twas a relatively thin strip of land, aye, but it be the single worst strip of land that length ye could imagine, what with hills and marsh and jungle the whole bleedin' stretch. Upon the landing, Morgan brought more than enough men to take the city, a number in the thousands, but then they actually started the walk. And then the lives started to be lost. Gettin' lost on the way. Snakebite. Malaria. Starvation. By the time they actually got to the plain east o' the city, the crew was ready to mutiny, unbelievable as it sounds. But Morgan finally found some animals, slaughtered them, fed them to his crew, and got them together long enough for them to band together, and kill the Spanish. Sometime during the sack, a fire was started, and by the time they got out of there with their king's ransom, the city was almost fully consumed by the flames. The cloud of smoke was said to be so high ye could see it from anywhere in the Caribbean, and those sages amongst us said that it signaled the end of an era. 'An end of an era', they said. Imagine that!" he said, and started to laugh. So what does that make us, then?"

"I'm not sure," said Beskar. "I mean, we have to be gettin' back to Nassau first before we become the stuff of legend. No sense in feelin' good about ourselves when there's all this treachery aboard, eh?"

"Aye, how right ye are," said his friend, who was beginning to finger his sword. However, just as he was preparing to pull it out and behead Beskar with one sweep, a group of men walked by, cutlasses drawn.

"But hopefully, none of that will happen tonight, eh mateys?" one of the group said, not so subtly making some motions with his cutlass.

"Aye, Lord be willing," Beskar's "friend" said, turning red in embarrassment and excusing himself shortly afterwards to get some sleep.

SSNeoperestroika was under the distinct impression that he was being watched. He was above decks to get some air, it was true, but his sixth sense was strong and he felt that any more fresh air, at least this night, would be hazardous to his health.

Just as he started to make his way to the stairs back below deck, he sensed some motion behind him. Illuminated by the moonlight was a figure, swinging down from one of the myriad ropes on the ship, ready to behead him as he passed by. Acting purely on reflex, SSNeo ducked, leaving the would-be rope assassin to swing high and miss. As he felt the attack pass over him, SSNeo rose back to his full height, watching with some amusement as he watched his attacker crash face-first into the mast. He made his way back below decks, chuckling.

Despite his persona of a big, burly, never-sober man who had enough tales of tavern wenches to fill a library, Itchy Lou (Diana Abnoba) was actually, at heart, an art aficionado. On previous raids, when the crew had returned to Nassau with their loot, Itchy Lou would usually buy small woodcuts while the rest of the crew went and boozed it up until they were all out of gold. Itchy Lou's art habit left him with just enough money for the cheapest rum and wenches in the port, which probably contributed to his reputation. It was a cycle that made everybody happy.

Itchy Lou would secretly bring his woodcuts aboard, for there was little fear of them being ruined by the water. Sometimes, he would study them above decks, illuminated by the pale moonlight, and appreciate them, knowing that he was one of the very few pirates able to comprehend beauty in such a form. Tonight was one of those nights, just Lou and his woodcuts, in solitude. Or so he thought.

One man saw Itchy Lou sitting, alone, and approached him. "Woodcuts?" he asked, leaving Itchy Lou to look up in delight. "Aye!" he said, surprised. "Be ye an admirer?"

"That I am," said the other man, somewhat embarrassed. "Never thought I'd find another one on board, that's for sure. What be ye studying right now?"

"I got the works of Ugo da Carpi with me right now," Lou said. "A bit lesser-known, but the dealer in Nassau doesn't really get much, so I be happy with what I have. Besides, da Carpi copies work from such other greats as Raphael, allowing their genius to be shown in other forms. I be quite grateful for that, aye. What be some o'yer favorites, my friend?"

"Well," said the second man, noting that he had Itchy Lou's full attention. Lou didn't even notice three men inching up behind him. "I be likin' the work of Albrecht Dürer, meself. He be a master at the woodcut, maybe even the best ever."

"Aye, that he be," said Itchy Lou, still in too much wonder to sense that anything was wrong. "Tell me, do ye be havin' a particularly favorite Dürer work?"

"It just so happens that I do," said the second man. "I be admirin' most his Apocalypse series, especially the 'Four Horsemen' cut. As a matter o'fact, all of us be fans of that particular work." Finally, Itchy Lou looked up in shock, noticing the other men for the first time. It was with this expression that his face would have etched on it forevermore afterwards, as one of the other men lopped his head off as soon as he looked up.

pevergreen was being chased, chased by a single attacker. He did not know what he had done to provoke this man, or even really anything at all about him. All he knew is that he had been scurrying around the ship for two hours now, still being pursued by someone who did not seem to tire.

All the while, pever was slowly losing his energy, his vitality... possibly even his life force itself, although he was too focused on escape to notice. More annoying still, every time he tried to retreat below deck, the pursuer was always there, somehow spookily managing to block his one safe line of retreat.

As pever started to get more panicked and more tired, he made more mistakes. Finally tripping over a loose strand of rope (incidentally enough, the same rope that someone had used earlier in the night to try to kill SSNeoperestroika), he lost his balance and knew it was over. Falling face forward, by the time he turned around, his pursuer was standing right over him, blunderbuss in one hand. By the moonlight, pever could see the man's yellow, yellow teeth. What was possibly even more disturbing is that there seemed to be a second light source forming, this one emanating from the man's eyes. All in all it created a very unearthly appearance, and pever knew he was a goner. All he wanted to know now was...

"...why?" he asked.

He didn't get a response, save for one from Bess the blunderbuss that put an end to any further questions.

In the morning, Captain Crazed Rabbit arose and did his now-standard body count from the night. "Only two," he grumbled to himself upon completion. "That's an improvement." Once he had roused the crew, he addressed them above decks, as usual.

"All right lads," he said, "here's where we stand. It be clear that we're bleedin' 'em out, that much is certain. I've got some more results, and it's good news. Cut me some slack, because our former Quartermaster Sigurd did turn out to be a dirty rotten Maven traitor, after all. Despite the losses of Beefy187, Tratorix, and Iskander 3.1 - loyal crewmen all - we *are* making progress. Fall back on that, lads, and remember that the officers are always right."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It is now Day 6. The phase will end Monday, October 12th, at 22:00 US Eastern.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Attacked: Centurion1 (n1), LittleGrizzly (n1), taka (n2), Andres (n3), Askthepizzaguy (n4), Beskar (n5), SSNeoperestroika (n5)

Murdered: LittleGrizzly (n1), atheotes (n2), gibsonsg91921 (n2), Tratorix (n3), Iskander 3.1 (n3), Beefy187 (n3), scottishranger (n4), DisgruntledGoat (n4), Andres (n4), Diana Abnoba (n5), pevergren (n5)

Lynched: woad&fangs (d2), Sigurd (d3), Jolt (d4), ricera10 (d5)

Removed from play: Xehh II, johnhughthom, YLC

Souls aboard (33):
a completely inoffensive name
A Very Super Market
A1 Unit
Askthepizzaguy
Beskar
Captain Blackadder
Centurion1
Chaotix
CountArach
Crazed Rabbit
Cultured Drizzt Fan
Death is Yonder
Double A
Joooray
Khazaar
KukriKhan
Lord Winter
Louis VI the Fat
miotas
Psychonaut
Reenk Roink
Sasaki Kojiro
Seamus Fermanagh
shlin28
slashandburn
spL1tp3r50naL1ty
SSNeoperestroika
Subotan
taka
TinCow
White_eyes:D
Yaropolk
Yaseikhaan

**GeneralHankerchief** · 10-13-2009, 04:19

Post 1649 of main thread.

Day 6

For once, the officers aboard the Presence did not dictate the day's lynch choice. They may have tried, but it was a half-hearted effort and with none of the Four Horsemen coming forward, they were for once not sure where to turn. This vacuum of lynch candidates was quickly filled by several crewmen who had misspoke over the past few days. First among them was Sasaki Kojiro.

Now, Sasaki had a bit of history to him. While never Officers' Club material, he was nonetheless unanimously respected by the crew both for his dueling skills and his ruthless demeanor. Several times in the past, he had devised battle plans when coming across English ships (and, when it called for it, retreat plans) which were almost always successful. There were even whispers that Sasaki was the one who had masterminded the attack on Charleston, though he never took credit for it and the previous captain was too well-respected to have been questioned about it to his face.

However, that was all behind him now. Sasaki had not quite been falling in lockstep with the officers and the rest of the crew about their decisions, so naturally people were quick to suspect that he was using his vast intelligence and charisma to initiate an evil plot to take over the ship for himself. As the day wore on, and despite his offers of treasure, it was clear that Sasaki would be the one to go down today. He fought until the end, but when the sun started to set and Captain Crazed Rabbit emerged from his cabin, Sasaki knew it was over.

Turning to the Captain, Sasaki gave him a long look in the eye. "They picked me, Captain. Make it quick."

Rabbit raised an eyebrow. "And did they say why they be pickin' ye, Kojiro?"

"He did not obey," shouted out one of the crewmen. "Therefore he must die!" There were loud shouts of agreement from amongst the crew, shouts that continued on for an inappropriately long time. Sasaki and Rabbit continued looking at each other in perplexment, and then shock as the shouts gradually turned into a monotone drone.

"You must obey, or you must die," the crew chanted in unison, moving as one towards Sasaki. "The officers know all," they continued. "Submit and all will be well."

By this point, Sasaki had abandoned most of his dignity, but was too shocked and terrified to do anything but watch the scene unfolding. Rabbit too was rooted to his spot, but the crew mostly ignored him, instead heading for the man they had selected to walk the plank.

"What's good for the officers is good for the ship," they continued chanting, by now having completely surrounded Sasaki. "Good for the officers, good for the ship. Good for the officers, good for the ship. Good for the officers, good for the ship. Good for the officers, good for the ship. Good for the officers, good for the ship. Good for the officers, good for the ship." Sasaki, who had been picked up, started screaming over them, but it was of no use as the collective voice of the crew simply got louder.

"GOOD FOR THE OFFICERS, GOOD FOR THE SHIP. GOOD FOR THE OFFICERS, GOOD FOR THE SHIP. WE DO NOT GET TREASURE FOR THINKING. WE GET TREASURE FOR OBEYING. GOOD FOR THE OFFICERS, GOOD FOR THE SHIP. GOOD FOR THE OFFICERS, GOOD FOR THE SHIP. THINKING BAD, TREASURE GOOD. THINKING BAD, TREASURE GOOD. GOOD FOR THE OFFICERS, GOOD FOR THE SHIP. GOOD FOR THE OFFICERS, GOOD FOR THE SHIP. GOOD FOR THE OFFICERS, GOOD FOR THE SHIP. GOOD FOR THE OFFICERS, GOOD FOR THE SHIP." It was as if they were possessed by a singular force, one that caused them to abandon all vestiges of free will in pursuit of the greater good.

"GOOD FOR THE OFFICERS, GOOD FOR THE SHIP!" they roared as they carried Sasaki closer and closer to his doom. "GOOD FOR THE OFFICERS, GOOD FOR THE SHIP! THINKING BAD, TREASURE GOOD! THINKING BAD, TREASURE GOOD! GOOD FOR THE OFFICERS, GOOD FOR THE SHIP! GOOD FOR THE OFFICERS, GOOD FOR THE SHIP! THINKING BAD, TREASURE GOOD! THINKING BAD, TREASURE GOOD! THINKING BAD, TREASURE GOOD! THINKING BAD, TREASURE GOOD! THINKING BAD, TREASURE GOOD!" Sasaki was finally thrown off the ship, his final thoughts all having the endless beat of the crew pounding through his head.

When it was done, they all looked up, blinked, and then stared at Captain Crazed Rabbit. Wide-eyed, the Captain said nothing, only backing into his cabin for the night.

Day 6 tally:

Sasaki Kojiro: 5 (Chaotix, Yaro, ATPG, Drizzt, SSNeo)

Yaropolk: 4 (Reenk, split, miotas, Sasaki)
TinCow: 3 (Subotan, Kukri, ACIN)
AVSM: 3 (White_eyes, Beskar, slash)
Reenk: 2 (shlin, Louis)
Chaotix: 2 (CA, Joooray)

Single votes: DiY (Psychonaut), ATPG (khaan), slash (AVSM)

Abstained: 4 (CR, taka, A1, DiY)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It is now Night 6. The phase will end Wednesday, October 14th, at 00:01 US Eastern.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Attacked: Centurion1 (n1), LittleGrizzly (n1), taka (n2), Andres (n3), Askthepizzaguy (n4), Beskar (n5), SSNeoperestroika (n5)

Murdered: LittleGrizzly (n1), atheotes (n2), gibsonsg91921 (n2), Tratorix (n3), Iskander 3.1 (n3), Beefy187 (n3), scottishranger (n4), DisgruntledGoat (n4), Andres (n4), Diana Abnoba (n5), pevergren (n5)

Lynched: woad&fangs (d2), Sigurd (d3), Jolt (d4), ricera10 (d5), Sasaki Kojiro (d6)

Removed from play: Xehh II, johnhughthom, YLC

Souls aboard (32):
a completely inoffensive name
A Very Super Market
A1 Unit
Askthepizzaguy
Beskar
Captain Blackadder
Centurion1
Chaotix
CountArach
Crazed Rabbit
Cultured Drizzt Fan
Death is Yonder
Double A
Joooray
Khazaar
KukriKhan
Lord Winter
Louis VI the Fat
miotas
Psychonaut
Reenk Roink
Seamus Fermanagh
shlin28
slashandburn
spL1tp3r50naL1ty
SSNeoperestroika
Subotan
taka
TinCow
White_eyes:D
Yaropolk
Yaseikhaan

**GeneralHankerchief** · 10-14-2009, 06:26

Post 1698 of main thread.

Night 6

For the most part, all was quiet on the Presence tonight. No shots rang out, no threats were made, no ropes were swung from to try to decapitate unsuspecting sailors. All in all, there were no attempted murders on board.

Except for one.

CountArach was having a nightmare. The ship - everything he knew - was in chaos. The Atlantic had been replaced by a sea of fire. The wood on board the ship was rotting, the ropes worn. The sails were ghostly and waving on their own volition. And the crew...

The crew was skeletal. Dressed to a man in hooded cloaks, their cutlasses replaced by scythes. They seemed unaffected by the presence of the rotting wood and the sails and the fire. As a matter of fact, they seemed to thrive in it, for wherever CA ran, he met even more skeletal figures, each skull with a more insane expression than the last.

"Get me out of this nightmare!" he shrieked, and a new sound could be heard from the fire and the scythes. He turned around and saw four horsemen bearing down upon him, the lead rider's weapon out, aiming straight for him.

He bolted awake in a sweat, barely suppressing the urge to scream. Looking around, he saw four figures at his side, all of them with their cutlasses out. He rolled out of bed just in time and ran as fast as he could towards the stairs, opting for as much open space as he could get in order to evade his attackers. He survived, but as always, his pursuers followed.

He put enough distance between himself and them to gain control of his fear, and used the increased endorphins to focus in and fight the Horsemen off. Drawing his own personal sword, CA was ready to fight these savages from another world to the last. He charged at them just as they emerged from below decks, surprising them with his aggression, and it worked. The attackers stumbled backwards, one of them struggling to parry CA's fancy swordwork. CA pressed relentlessly, slashing his target several times, though none of them were truly harming.

Finally, the rest of the Horsemen regrouped, and rushed forward to help assist their comrade. After putting some space between CA and him, the other three took him on at once, slashing furiously as CA adjusted and denied all of them his blood.

At this point in the battle, CountArach had two things going against him: numbers, and momentum. Even though he was a more proficient swordsmen than any single one of the Horsemen - perhaps even two put together - he could not handle three or all four at once, and it was telling. He was slowly being pushed back, even though he was able to hold them off. Soon, he would tire, and then succumb. He could not keep this up for forever.

Sensing this, he quickly changed direction once more, scrambling up the ship's rigging, leaving the Horsemen to only slash at air for a bit before they realized that he had moved. Instead of trying to slash at CA, they instead went for the ropes he was climbing up, but the Count was too nimble, changing ropes just as the Horsemen were undoing his current choices.

Eventually, two of the Horsemen started to climb in pursuit. Since they did not have to worry about the ropes being cut out from under them, they made good time, and pretty soon they were right on CA's heels. CA paused, looked down, and started to slash wildly at his pursuers, causing the duel to continue over a dozen feet in the air. Once again CA was at a positional disadvantage, but once again his proficiency was enough to keep the match a draw, and he kept climbing... headed directly for the Crow's Nest.

The two Horsemen on the rigging looked at each other, alarmed. If the Count gained the Crow's Nest, he could hold that position until the rest of the crew woke up. He would survive the night for sure. They *had* to stop him there, but it wasn't looking good. Whenever they gained on him, a wide slash from CA always created more separation.

CA, meanwhile, wasn't concentrating on anything aside from getting to the Crow's Nest. Therefore, he didn't notice the abrupt end of pursuit from the two Horsemen, the reason being that the two back on the ground were waving them off. He didn't notice the two on the ground wheeling a portable cannon to the ship's edge, aiming it directly at the Nest. He didn't notice that, upon gaining the nest, all four Horsemen now were loading the cannon.

Finally, when he mounted the Nest and looked down in triumph for a fleeting moment, did he notice. And just like that, the triumph was replaced by a look of pure horror. He screamed, but nobody heard, for at the precise moment the cannon fired, connecting with the Crow's Nest in a direct hit, waking up the entire ship in the process.

This sound was followed up a second later by a loud crack of wood. Captain Crazed Rabbit rushed out, groaning in agony. "What have ye done?!" he cried at the Horsemen, who were still admiring their work. "That be the mast, ye great bloomin' morons! Without her, we be dead in the water! DEAD!"

"What have ye done?!" came another voice, although this one far more anguished than Rabbit's. Everybody turned and saw Yaseikhaan standing, looking at the mangled remnants of the Crow's Nest, tears forming. "Ye promised victory! Ye promised justice! I gave up everything to join ye, Count!" he cried. "EVERYTHING! And now it's all over! Ye failed, matey! And now I can't go back! I can never go back!"

Nobody was quite sure as to what khaan was going on about, but everyone could agree that he was getting more and more hysterical.

"Someone take that cutlass away from him-" Crazed Rabbit started, but once again khaan cut him off.

"I'M SO SORRY!!!" he bellowed, and then brought it into his own chest. Everyone gasped and rushed to his aid, but it was too late. khaan had stabbed himself in the heart.

"Well," said Rabbit after some time, "No sense in going back to sleep after that. I'll be needin' a crew to check out the mast; who knows how much longer she can hold up after that. By the way," he finished, "We got another one. scottishranger was a Brit. DisgruntledGoat, Andres, and Jolt were all loyal crewmen, but we are making progress. Let's keep it up today, lads."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It is now Day 7. The round will conclude on Thursday, October 15th, at 12:01 US eastern.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Attacked: Centurion1 (n1), LittleGrizzly (n1), taka (n2), Andres (n3), Askthepizzaguy (n4), Beskar (n5), SSNeoperestroika (n5)

Murdered: LittleGrizzly (n1), atheotes (n2), gibsonsg91921 (n2), Tratorix (n3), Iskander 3.1 (n3), Beefy187 (n3), scottishranger (n4), DisgruntledGoat (n4), Andres (n4), Diana Abnoba (n5), pevergren (n5), CountArach (n6)

Lynched: woad&fangs (d2), Sigurd (d3), Jolt (d4), ricera10 (d5), Sasaki Kojiro (d6)

Committed suicide: Yaseikhaan (n6)

Removed from play: Xehh II, johnhughthom, YLC

Souls aboard (30):
a completely inoffensive name
A Very Super Market
A1 Unit
Askthepizzaguy
Beskar
Captain Blackadder
Centurion1
Chaotix
Crazed Rabbit
Cultured Drizzt Fan
Death is Yonder
Double A
Joooray
Khazaar
KukriKhan
Lord Winter
Louis VI the Fat
miotas
Psychonaut
Reenk Roink
Seamus Fermanagh
shlin28
slashandburn
spL1tp3r50naL1ty
SSNeoperestroika
Subotan
taka
TinCow
White_eyes:D
Yaropolk

**GeneralHankerchief** · 10-15-2009, 17:39

Post 1875 of main thread.

Day 7

For the first time in a week, the sailors of the Presence were able to express an unfamiliar emotion to them: hope.

There had only been one kill last night, and it was done by the ultra-successful Four Horsemen vigilante group, removing quite possibly the last remaining enemy presence on board. So, as they were voting to purge the ship of any remaining threats, the sailors also made merry. They ate, they laughed, they sang shanteys, they drank. Okay, well, some things never changed. But they were all in a good mood.

All of them, that is, except for Khazaar, who was to be the final sacrifice to appease the Gods of the Sea for some unknown wrong the crew had done them. Khazaar, who had been mostly ignoring the entire process, preferring to concentrate on swabbing the decks, finally snapped to attention once somebody finally alerted him that he was in danger of walking the plank.

"Wait a minute, you've got this all wrong!" Khazaar pleaded to his mates. "I... I haven't done anything wrong! I be protectin' ye at night from all the dangers of the sea, both mythical and human! I never hurt a fly! Even... even during Charleston, I be stayin' aboard to guard the ship! I love this ship! I'd ne'er do anything to hurt it, and that be God's honest truth!"

"Aye, that may be so," said one crewman, "but ye not be doin' anything during the daytime."

"But... but I still be workin' to keep the ship clean!"

"Aye, but we be needin' records, Khazaar," said Quartermaster Askthepizzaguy, holding a scroll of parchment so long it reached from his arms to the ground, and even then it was folded several times. He took a long look, coughed, and read the scroll a minute, finally looking up. "Ye've got nothin', me boy. No record of who yer friends on board are, no potentially record-clearing votes... no damning evidence here."

"But... no evidence against me... doesn't that mean I'm innocent?" Khazaar stammered.

"Ordinarily, aye," said Askthepizzaguy. "But in this case-" he stopped mid-sentence, double-checking his massive scroll, and continued. "But in this case, it appears as if nobody else has any evidence against them either. Thus, off you go, boy! Enjoy what be left of yer life!" The crowd cheered and started to close in against Khazaar, but they were prematurely interrupted.

"Excuse me," said Captain Crazed Rabbit, "but I believe that organizin' the execution be *my* job. Pizzaguy, thank you for yer service, ye've been a great help to me, but ye've gotten too big for yer britches recently. We can't be havin' two captains aboard. Hence, TinCow be the new Quartermaster."

TinCow, trying to fake a look of surprise, stepped forward to join Rabbit and Louis.

"Right lads," said Rabbit, "We have an execution to do! Khazaar, any last words before ye join Davey Jones!"

"I'M INNOCENT!" Khazaar bawled, and then broke for below decks.

"Somebody stop him!" Rabbit called, but a half-dozen sailors were already on it, rushing behind him and bringing him back up a minute later. They were dragging Khazaar, who in turn was dragging his own personal collection of treasure.

"Ye lousy sea-dogs, I always wished nothin' but the best fer this ship, and ye go and do this to me?! Well, I'll have none of it. Me treasure be goin' with me to the Locker, and none o' ye bilge rats be gettin' any of it!" He somehow managed to break free of all the hands gripping him, and bolted straight for the plank, running off.

The last anybody saw of Khazaar was him in mid-air, lovingly cradling his bag of treasure, and hitting the water.

Day 7 tally:

Khazaar: 10 (ATPG, Centurion, taka, CDF, AVSM, Kukri, ACIN, Subotan, Blackadder, Joooray)

AVSM: 5 (Louis, TinCow, Khazaar, Yaro, SSNeo)
ACIN: 2 (Beskar, A1_unit)
Psychonaut: 2 (shlin, White_eyes)

Single votes: shlin (miotas), Beskar (Reenk), taka (Seamus), TinCow (Chaotix), Centurion (Psychonaut)

Abstained: 5 (CR, DiY, Split, CDF, Double A)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It is now Night 7. The phase will conclude Friday, October 16, at 15:00.

(Note: I will be in New Jersey for the weekend [as opposed to Washington, DC] and thus may not be around at the exact moment to end the phase. Thus, orders will be accepted until I close things off in the thread, though I'm still shooting for the 15:00 deadline.)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Attacked: Centurion1 (n1), LittleGrizzly (n1), taka (n2), Andres (n3), Askthepizzaguy (n4), Beskar (n5), SSNeoperestroika (n5)

Murdered: LittleGrizzly (n1), atheotes (n2), gibsonsg91921 (n2), Tratorix (n3), Iskander 3.1 (n3), Beefy187 (n3), scottishranger (n4), DisgruntledGoat (n4), Andres (n4), Diana Abnoba (n5), pevergren (n5), CountArach (n6)

Lynched: woad&fangs (d2), Sigurd (d3), Jolt (d4), ricera10 (d5), Sasaki Kojiro (d6), Khazaar (d7)

Committed suicide: Yaseikhaan (n6)

Removed from play: Xehh II, johnhughthom, YLC

Souls aboard (29):
a completely inoffensive name
A Very Super Market
A1 Unit
Askthepizzaguy
Beskar
Captain Blackadder
Centurion1
Chaotix
Crazed Rabbit
Cultured Drizzt Fan
Death is Yonder
Double A
Joooray
KukriKhan
Lord Winter
Louis VI the Fat
miotas
Psychonaut
Reenk Roink
Seamus Fermanagh
shlin28
slashandburn
spL1tp3r50naL1ty
SSNeoperestroika
Subotan
taka
TinCow
White_eyes:D
Yaropolk

**GeneralHankerchief** · 10-16-2009, 22:45

Post 1976 of main thread.

Night 7

Psychonaut awake and alert. His eyes flicked around the ship, eager for any signs of movement. Nothing. He grinned. He couldn't believe that nobody else saw what he saw. How it was all just *there*, his for the taking. This was money.

He crept above decks, waiting to go head into a secluded, seldom-used cabin aboard the Presence. His eyes flicked around once more, side to side, seeing nothing. Excellent. It was all his. All of it. He was going to be rich. Salivating, he approached the door, put a hand on it...

...and felt a hand on his shoulder. Turning around wildly, he saw a familiar figure standing behind him, sword in his other hand. He was looking at Psychonaut with something akin to amused disgust. "Just a tip for the future," the figure said, raising his sword, "but when you look around for people moving... make sure you check behind you as well."

Psychonaut stared, seemingly looking through his attacker, in shock. That glimmer of gold, the promise of what lay behind the door, seemed to go out. "Yes, it does end this way," the attacker said, raising his sword. Instead of bringing it down on Psychonaut, though, he instead dropped it and went down to his peg leg, unscrewing it. Psychnaut, horrified, tried to break away, but his attacker's grip was too strong and he was forced to watch the unscrewing. Eventually it was complete, and the attacker held the peg leg in his other hand.

"Hold still now," the attacker said, and proceeded to club Psychonaut over the head repeatedly. Eventually, he slumped to the ground, dead, his lifeless eyes facing the empty space between the bottom of the door and the floor. Ironically, were he still alive, he would have had the perfect view of all the promise that the room on the other side of the door offered.

Once again, Beskar was up late at night, being entertained by the same storyteller as before. His tales were definitely starting to get old, more so tonight because Beskar had somewhere to be. He kept trying to interrupt his friend, but the friend would have none of it as he kept spinning his tales. Eventually Beskar realized that he would just have to sit through it. Rudeness on this tight of a living space made for an ugly ship.

"These be interestin' times," the friend said, and inside, Beskar groaned. He was starting another new story. "Reminds me o' the ancient tales of Homer and the like," the friend continued. "Tell me Beskar, be ye familiar with Homer?" Beskar shook his head.

"Well, Homer was all about the ancient Greeks of the times before Christ. And his biggest story - and this actually happened, matey, which makes it all the more interestin' - was the tale of the Trojan War. How the war started was not important, but eventually the Greeks got so mad at the Trojans that they culled a fleet together and sailed across the sea to the great city of Troy, where they laid siege to it and fought the greatest war ever fought for ten years."

This tale sounded vaguely familiar to Beskar, but he said nothing. Perhaps this storyteller was running out of material and had told it in the past. Either way, he kept silent. "And now matter how hard they tried, the greatest army assembled simply could not breach the walls of Troy, for they were simply too thick and the Trojan defenders too hardy. The Greeks though, they tried *everything*. Challenging the Trojan champion to single combat, head-on attacks, you name a military strategem, they tried it. Eventually, after ten years, they were ready to give up and head home. But the Greeks, see, they this one wily general... now I be forgettin' his name..."

"Odysseus," Beskar mumbled absentmindedly.

"Aye, Odysseus, or Ulysses, as the Romans called him. Anyway, Odysseus was a wily general, and he had a plan. He knew the Greeks were about to give up. He also knew the Trojans knew they were about to give up, for the greatest Greek champion Achilles had just been shot dead with an arrow. Therefore, he proposed they take advantage of the Trojan feelings and create an elaborate deception." He paused, looking around, as if searching for something specific on the ship. After a while, he turned back.

"One day, the Trojans woke up to find a curious sight. The Greek army was gone, and in their place was a giant, wooden horse; a peace offering from the Greeks. Overjoyed, the Trojans brought the horse into the city, past the insurmountable walls, not heeding the warnings of some. They partied all night, but eventually tiredness overcame them and they went to sleep. Then, finally, once the city was quiet, the many Greek soldiers hidden inside the horse opened it up, climbed down, and burned the city to the ground. They had finally breached the walls, and the Trojans paid dearly for their lack of foresight."

"So what's the moral of this one?" Beskar said, finally showing some interest. "If something looks too good to be true, it probably is?"

"Precisely," said his attacker, drawing a sword, but Beskar had already drawn his as well and was joined by a lone protector with a cutlass, who had seemingly appeared out of nowhere.

"Ooh," said the attacker, mockingly, "two on one, eh? Now that be fightin' like a proper dirty pirate would do. Unfortunately for ye, I be bringin' backup of me own." Right on cue, a fourth figure charged from the side, tackling Beskar's protector out of the way. "En garde!" the fourth man yelled while busy punching the protector in the mouth, and the double duel began.

Beskar was holding his own against the storyteller for a while, the two of them crisscrossing the Presence while crossing blades. However, the other duel was another story. The second attacker was clearly a skilled swordsman, flourishing his rapier and easily outmaneuvering his opponent. Finally striking him down, the rapier-wielder looked down for a minute before speaking.

"I should probably end ye now," he said, "but ye're not worth it. Do not get in me path again, matey, fer yer own sake." The he ran off to the site of the other duel, first cornering Beskar with his partner and then disarming them. Beskar, kneeling down, started praying, eventually looking up at his two attackers.

"Make it quick," he said emotionlessly.

"Aye, mate, ye've already been subjected to me stories now, so I'll be happy to oblige." The two attackers, one with a cutlass and the other with a rapier, together ended Beskar's life.

While all of this was going on, all of the participants were too engrossed in their duels to pay attention to SSNeoperestroika, who was busy lowering one of the Presence's dinghies into the water and then lowering himself into it with his bag of treasure.

Taking one final look around, SSNeo took a swig of a bottle of rum and then paddled away into the night. "It's been great, but if tonight is indication it be too dangerous for me to stay here any longer." He continued paddling on, not looking back.

Chaotix too, was trying for the door. Not concerned with looking around, his strategy instead was to make his way as quickly as possible to the door, get what lied inside, and then make his way back below decks before anyone had the chance to know what happened. He was successful at this, crossing the ship in record time, but stopped abruptly when he saw Psychonaut's beaten, bloody corpse at the foot of the door.

"Blessed Mary, Mother of God," Chaotix said to himself, unable to stop himself from uttering the words out loud. He further broke his own rule when a hand gripped his shoulder from behind, causing him to emit a wordless cry, not to mention soil himself from fright at the sight of a man with very few, yellow teeth, and unearthly glowing eyes.

"Ye have no business invoking the name o' the Lord or the Virgin Mary, traitor," said the man.

"I... I..." Chaotix stammered, unable to get anything further out. He took a very large gulp, and finally continued anew. "Who... why... what do ye want to do with me?"

"To send you to the place where ye belong," the figure said, raising his blunderbuss with his other hand, pointing it directly at Chaotix's eye. To Chaotix, the sight of Bess's nozzle seemed as dark as the end of an endless tunnel, only to find out that there was no exit on this side. Meanwhile, the figure continued. "To send you to Judecca, to Cocytus. Ye think the conditions on this ship are bad, get back to me once ye've spent an hour where ye're going."

"And..." Chaotix managed to get out, "w-w-where's t-that?"

"Hell," the figure said, and set Bess alight once more. Chaotix dropped right alongside Psychonaut.

Askthepizzaguy was out above deck, taking a midnight stroll. He needed to get some air, after being removed from his Quartermaster position and viciously attacked by the crew before they all headed off to bed. He needed to simply watch the sea, collect his thoughts... and maybe see what was behind that door and get it for himself.

He slowly made his way over to there, taking his time, being halfway there when noticing another figure walking beside him.

"Hello, Pizzaguy," said Captain Crazed Rabbit, very obviously holding a pistol. "What be yer business above deck, this time o'night?

"Just takin' in some air," Pizza said, trying to be nonchalant about it. Inside though, he was groaning. No way he was going to let Rabbit in on the secret. Thus, he led the Captain on a walk all around the ship, deliberately avoiding the door though. Eventually, he ran out of conversation though, and an awkward silence ensued for two very long minutes before Rabbit finally broke it.

"Well," he said, "I think that be a good long walk, lots of air to be had. What say we head back and get some rest, eh?"

"I'm not sure, Captain," Pizzaguy replied. "I still need to think about some things. Alone." He emphasized that final word. "If ye don't mind, o' course."

"Not at all," Rabbit said. "Every sailor needs to do a bit o' soul-searching to keep the great monsters from entering his head. But, if ye don't mind me askin', exactly what is it that be requirin' ye to be out on yer own for so long?"

"Uh..." Pizzaguy said, trailing off after the first word. His ability to improvise had left him at the worst possible time, flying right out the window once the Captain had entered the room.

"Could it possibly be that ye feel guilt over, I don't know, givin' the names o' our important sailors to whoever it is on the Maven?" Rabbit said, his eyes flashing with anger. "Because there be somethin' ye want to keep from your Captain, the man who has the best chance of gettin' us all to Nassau alive? Tell me Pizzaguy, we may have crisscrossed this ship five times, but ye never led me anywhere near that little-used door. What be behind that door, Pizzaguy, eh?"

"Uh..." Pizzaguy said again, and then took off running.

"AU REVOIR, PIZZAGUY!" Rabbit yelled, leveling his pistol, aiming it carefully, and firing it. The shot went wide, but Pizzaguy tripped over the corpses of Chaotix and Psychonaut and went flying... right into one of the ship's oil lamps. Yelping, Pizzaguy leapt up, trying desperately to put out the small fire that had appeared on his clothes. Mostly due to panic, he was unsuccessful at this act.

All the while, Rabbit was calmly walking, a stark contrast to the hysterical Pizzaguy. Grinning evilly, he mock-noticed Pizzaguy and then fake-gasped, yelling out in his loudest voice, "FIRE! FIRE ON BOARD! EVERY SAILOR REPORT ABOVE DECKS TO HELP PUT IT OUT!" After a minute, the fire bell started clanging. Nobody had appeared to help put Pizzaguy out yet, which struck Rabbit as odd, but he was fine with it, humming a little tune.

"Putting out the fire... with gasoline..."

He found a small pail of the stuff, looked up, winked, and then splashed it onto Pizzaguy. He was instantly engulfed in flames, his screams turning less and less human by the second. Still, nobody was anywhere near the two of them, Rabbit and Pizzaguy, which meant that nobody was on hand to witness Pizzaguy becoming far more apocalyptic-looking than any of the so-called Four Horsemen. Out of the corner of his eye, Rabbit saw them all drawn to the door, but disregarded it for the time being as the inferno that was formerly Askthepizzaguy rose higher and higher into the sky.

He fired his pistol once into the fiery figure, which was somehow still screaming. Once, twice, three times, and now the inhuman creature was completely obscured by the flames, dropping to the ground. Eventually the moans and screams subsided, leaving the only sounds on board the ship the crackling of the flames and the clanging of the fire bell. Rabbit watched, saying nothing as the flames dwindled away, leaving only a pile of ash and some char marks on the deck to mark the former remnants of Askthepizzaguy. When the flames had finally burned themselves out, he turned and walked over to the door where he saw well over a dozen sailors break it open and fight each other inside, all of their hands over a large pile of treasure.

"What exactly be goin' on here," he yelled, and finally everyone fell silent."

"Well," said one of them, "I saw a glimpse of it last night, figured ye had forgotten to divvy it up, so I figgured I'd be takin' it meself."

"Aye," muttered all of the others in agreement.

"Ye morons," Rabbit said, shaking his head. "Ye're all too drunk to realize that the door was left wide open last night and ye *all* got a glimpse of it! This is what happens when ye screw around and don't follow yer Captain! I don't even want to think about how many bodies there are on board tonight! If ye think we be out of this yet, mateys, think again!"

Everybody stood there silently, ashamed of themselves.

"Bleedin' pirates," Rabbit muttered. "Clean the mess up, and get votin'. We've got a long day ahead of us."

"Captain!" somebody yelled. "What about the dead?"

"Ah, right," said Rabbit. ricera10 was a Brit. Diana was loyal. pever is a bit of an interesting case. He was definitely a loyal crewman for us, but had sympathies for the Maven. I wouldn't trust anything he said to you before he died. Satisfied? Get to work."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It is now Day 8. The round will conclude Saturday, October 17th at 18:00, or whenever I can get online to end it.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Attacked: Centurion1 (n1), LittleGrizzly (n1), taka (n2), Andres (n3), Askthepizzaguy (n4), Beskar (n5), SSNeoperestroika (n5)

Murdered: LittleGrizzly (n1), atheotes (n2), gibsonsg91921 (n2), Tratorix (n3), Iskander 3.1 (n3), Beefy187 (n3), scottishranger (n4), DisgruntledGoat (n4), Andres (n4), Diana Abnoba (n5), pevergren (n5), CountArach (n6), Psychonaut (n7), Beskar (n7), Chaotix (n7), Askthepizzaguy (n7)

Lynched: woad&fangs (d2), Sigurd (d3), Jolt (d4), ricera10 (d5), Sasaki Kojiro (d6), Khazaar (d7)

Abandoned Ship: SSNeoperestroika (n7)

Committed suicide: Yaseikhaan (n6)

Removed from play: Xehh II, johnhughthom, YLC

Souls aboard (24):
a completely inoffensive name
A Very Super Market
A1 Unit
Captain Blackadder
Centurion1
Crazed Rabbit
Cultured Drizzt Fan
Death is Yonder
Double A
Joooray
KukriKhan
Lord Winter
Louis VI the Fat
miotas
Reenk Roink
Seamus Fermanagh
shlin28
slashandburn
spL1tp3r50naL1ty
Subotan
taka
TinCow
White_eyes:D
Yaropolk

**GeneralHankerchief** · 10-18-2009, 02:28

Post 2123 of main thread.

Day 8

Most of the crew of the Presence was in shock all day after the crazy events that had happened overnight, but driven solely through the force of their Captain's will, they still attended to their tasks. Attended to their tasks with vacant, dazed expressions on their faces, but attended to their tasks nonetheless.

Once the record amount of deck swabbing had been completed ("arr," said one old sailor with more than a touch of nostalgia, "I think the only I swabbed more blood was the time back in 'ought three when we fought off four boarding actions one after another. Me boots were dyed red afterwards"), the crewmen proceeded as usual to the vote. They had long since grown to hate and dread this process, as one never knew in which direction popular sentiment would go against on any given day. Nobody ever knew if they were safe.

After the events of the previous night, Captain Crazed Rabbit was in a particularly foul mood, directing his ire at everyone who had forsaken their protection duties to go for the gold sometime over the course of the day. Because of this, quite a few crewmen seemed sheepish about being very vocal or accusatory. However, the officers once again stepped in, with one of the crew pointing out that the only crewman who remained alive on First Mate Louis's list from a few days ago was Joooray.

"Whuh-oh," Joooray muttered to himself as the votes on him steadily piled up after the list was re-revealed and the Captain told everybody to stop voting for his nearest challenger, Reenk Roink. This wasn't looking good for him, and the rest of the day was predictable. The suddenly authority-worshiping crew of the Presence obediently followed orders, leaving him out to dry. As the sun started to set, Joooray knew his fate was sealed.

"All right, lads," Captain Rabbit said sometime later as it was clear that nobody else was going to vote. "It's been a rough day fer all of us, I suspect. Hopefully, it'll only be a rough night fer one o' us, and that only be because he be lookin' fer an island to be marooned on." Everybody chuckled at this, everybody except for Joooray. Nobody bothered looking up at the mast, which was still holding up the ruined Crow's Nest, only barely.

"Right then," Rabbit continued. "Joooray, ye hereby be sentenced to walkin' the plank. Be there anything ye wish to be-"

*SNAP! CRACK!!!*

Finally, everybody looked up. The mast, which had taken a direct cannon hit a day and a half ago thanks to the Four Horsemen, was finally starting to give way. Everybody looked on in horror as dozens of splinters flew down, a rather large one impaling Joooray on the neck.

"Oh... oh God!" somebody moaned, as Joooray, gasping for breath, staggered around the ship. Of course, the splinter happened to pierce his carotid artery. He would be gone now regardless of whether he fell off the ship or not. Meanwhile, pandemonium had taken hold of the crew.

"EVERY ABLE SEAMAN UP THE RIGGING AND TO THE MAST!" Captain Rabbit bellowed, with his officers already rounding up the crew. "TIE OFF THE BREAK WITH ROPE! TIE HER TIGHT, LADS, SHE'S GOT TO LAST US 'TILL WE MAKE PORT IN NASSAU!!!" Everybody was in action at once, running to and fro, climbing, fetching rope, and yelling. Nobody noticed Joooray, still gasping for oxygen, pass out and topple over the deck.

Thirty tense minutes later, and it seemed as if the mast would hold out, Rabbit finally allowed himself a moment to breathe. "Bleedin' Horsemen," he muttered to himself, and retired for the night.

Day 8 tally:

Joooray: 8 (White_eyes, A1, DiY, Subotan, CDF, TinCow, Yaro, Split)

Reenk Roink: 6 (Joooray, Seamus, Blackadder, Kukri, shlin, Centurion)
Yaropolk: 1 (Reenk)
Cultured Drizzt fan: 1 (Louis)
TinCow: 1 (ACIN)

Abstained: 1 (Crazed Rabbit)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It is now Night 8. The round will conclude Sunday, October 18th, at 22:00 US Eastern.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Attacked: Centurion1 (n1), LittleGrizzly (n1), taka (n2), Andres (n3), Askthepizzaguy (n4), Beskar (n5), SSNeoperestroika (n5)

Murdered: LittleGrizzly (n1), atheotes (n2), gibsonsg91921 (n2), Tratorix (n3), Iskander 3.1 (n3), Beefy187 (n3), scottishranger (n4), DisgruntledGoat (n4), Andres (n4), Diana Abnoba (n5), pevergren (n5), CountArach (n6), Psychonaut (n7), Beskar (n7), Chaotix (n7), Askthepizzaguy (n7)

Lynched: woad&fangs (d2), Sigurd (d3), Jolt (d4), ricera10 (d5), Sasaki Kojiro (d6), Khazaar (d7), Joooray (d8)

Abandoned Ship: SSNeoperestroika (n7)

Committed suicide: Yaseikhaan (n6)

Removed from play: Xehh II, johnhughthom, YLC

Souls aboard (23):
a completely inoffensive name
A Very Super Market
A1 Unit
Captain Blackadder
Centurion1
Crazed Rabbit
Cultured Drizzt Fan
Death is Yonder
Double A
KukriKhan
Lord Winter
Louis VI the Fat
miotas
Reenk Roink
Seamus Fermanagh
shlin28
slashandburn
spL1tp3r50naL1ty
Subotan
taka
TinCow
White_eyes:D
Yaropolk

**GeneralHankerchief** · 10-19-2009, 18:01

Post 2211 of main thread.

Night 8

After taking a night off, the Four Horsemen had saddled up and were ready to ride again. While they had no actual steeds aboard (they had discussed this and were actually thinking of buying horses of their own with the treasure they had accumulated), they had all of the mentality required to take up the job as vigilantes answerable to no one. After all, it was they who had taken down a Maven and at least one British agent. It was they who had possibly ruined the British by killing another one, with the final autopsy investigation due this morning. It was they who had nearly disabled the Presence's mast in a spectacular attack on CountArach. It was they who were taking the ship's destiny into their own hands.

And so they rode.

Their target tonight was Reenk Roink, who they found above deck, softly humming a tune to himself. Drawing their cutlasses, they did not even attempt to stealthily approach him. Reenk, meanwhile, simply looked up, regarding the Horsemen coolly.

"Well," he said, "judging by your numbers and lack of rapier or blunderbuss or stories, it's clear that my vanquishers are going to be the Four Horsemen," and his lack of fear or even anxiety in his voice was what troubled the Horsemen the most. "So what are you going to do? Chase me around the ship, set some more fires, blow a hole through the rudder this time? All very entertaining propositions, but I'm afraid I must decline."

"Actually, we weren't," said the lead Horseman, "this time we were just going to throw you overboard. Plain and simple this time."

"Arr," said Reenk, falling back into his pirate demeanor, "but to do that, laddies, ye'll be needin' all yer Horsemen pals, and I only be countin' three o' ye."

"Wha-?" The Horsemen stopped for a second, looking at each other, counting. A split second after it finally clicked in their brains that one of them was indeed missing, Reenk charged at them, tackling one of them and beginning to gouge his eyes out.

"Ack!" the one on the floor gasped, unsuccessfully trying to pry Reenk's hand off him. "Get me some help, lads, me left eye's almost out!" The two other Horsemen jumped down, trying with all their might to pull Reenk off their buddy. Thirty long seconds later, they were all on the ground, panting from the effort, but Reenk had succeeded. The one Horseman was clutching his now-empty eye socket, moaning in pain.

"Now, lads," Reenk said to the two remaining coherent Horsemen, "we could duel and ye could get more of the same, or ye can help yer friend calm down and find him an eyepatch. It shouldn't be too hard to get one. This is a pirate ship, after all." He grinned and drew his cutlass for the first time. "So, what'll it be?"

After a moment, the two Horsemen cursed at him, helped their friend up, and took him back below deck, trying to pretend they couldn't hear Reenk's soft chuckling as they walked away.

A flash of silver caught Centurion1's eye. Even though the sky was cloudless, it was still night out, which meant the metal in question would have to be exceptionally polished to catch the moonlight. A moment later, Centurion was able to witness that he was right. The object in question was a rapier, moving so fast that it was a blur, yet its beauty still distinguishable in the moonlight. Centurion, who had very good reflexes, had to be as quick as he ever was to take his blade out and parry the furious attacks.

It quickly became clear that Centurion's typical pirate tactics were no match for the work of this blademaster, and he found himself backpedaling much faster than he would have liked. The dueling went on for some time, but eventually Centurion was disarmed and his attacker was about to strike the killing blow.

Suddenly, something caught his attacker's eye to the right. Three figures, blades out, were advancing on their position. The attacker looked at the helpless Centurion, regarded the advancing figures one more time, and then looked at Centurion again, hissing the words "next time" before retreating below deck.

"Lovely night," First Mate Louis VI the Fat said to his Captain, Crazed Rabbit. The two of them were killing time, the Officers' Cabin looking less and less appealing by the night. Instead, they were sitting on the edge of the Presence, their backs facing the water.

"Aye, Louis, that it is," Rabbit said back. "Makes ye truly appreciate the finer things in life, ye know?"

"Indeed," said Louis. "The calm sea, all of the treasure below deck, the promise of what all awaits us back home in Nassau, the thought that we owe our loyalty and fealty to no one but ourselves, that's a comforting and pleasant thought indeed. Sure, Captain, we may be needin' to follow yer word while we're aboard, but that's only temporary and nobody will care once we get back to Nassau. All of us aboard this ship are truly free, and there are precious few folk in the world who can say that. Personally, I'm right glad to be one of 'em."

Rabbit was silent for a long while. Finally, he slowly replied. "It may not be the case in the future, Louis," he said, choosing every word carefully. "Look at us. Our kind is dying out, much as we hate to admit it. The British don't need us anymore, so our years of friendship and business with them has turned to animosity. Likewise with the French. Heck, even our berth tells us something. We used ter have our pick o' the litter, port wherever it was convenient, be it Port Royal or Tortuga or anywhere else so long as they had a friendly governor. But now, all of us are stuck to the one place where the British haven't bothered cracking down on yet. Nassau. It makes for a great party, aye, but it's still a sad state."

Louis nodded. "Times change, mate," he said. "We're trying to fight it off for as long as we can, hold back the good life, but there's no denying it."

"Aye," said Rabbit. "Do you realize that we very well have pulled off the last great raid in the world? The Brits are clamping down everywhere. Once word of this gets back to Mother England, you know we'll pay for it in spades. You can tell the pickings be mighty slim these days when another crew, desperate for payout, tries to take what's rightfully ours. If we ever get back to Nassau alive, we'll be regarded as heroes, sure, but then eventually the money will be gone, and we'll need to set out again."

"And lightning doesn't strike twice in the same place," Louis said.

"Aye, ye said it. There will never be another Charleston," said Rabbit, sighing. "The payouts will be less and less, the opportunities fewer and fewer. And if this cursed voyage be any indication, the few truly free people left in the world will be turnin' on each other, trying to stay afloat. We'll be doin' the Crown's work for them. And our kind will slowly die out, forever replaced by the shackles of bondage."

Louis nodded, looking seriously depressed at the prospect. "Then I suggest we enjoy our time in Nassau more than anybody has ever enjoyed anything."

"Evenin', First Mate," came a voice off to Louis's right. He turned, acknowledging the voice's owner, hoping that he would continue with his business. However, much to the First Mate's chagrin, he did not, instead plopping right beside Louis on the ship's edge.

"You know," said the newcomer, "a night like this reminds me of Francois l'Olonnais. Ye both know who the great l'Olonnais was, right? A pirate in the time of Morgan, some say his greatest rival..."

"Please, sailor, no stories tonight," said Louis, holding his hand out. "The Captain and I be needin' some time to think, and thinking's done best in silence."

"Really?" said the sailor, mildly off put. "That be too bad, matey, fer all that my story does is delay yer own death." In a flash, the newcomer had his cutlass out, slashing directly for Louis's neck. The First Mate was barely able to duck out of the way when Rabbit drew his own Captain's blade out and started to duel Louis's attacker.

"This be an interestin' prospect," said the attacker. "Protectin' yer mate solo? Now, unless ye be a Steward, methinks that really not be workin' out."

"Be silent," Rabbit growled. "Surrender now and I'll kill ye now instead of in front of the crew."

"Okay, fine, I surrender," said the attacker, dropping his cutlass. Using Rabbit's temporary shock wisely, he grabbed Louis and whirled him in front of him before either of the officers knew what was happening. Certainly, Rabbit didn't comprehend it quickly enough, for he finally recovered from his shock to stab the attacker, not registering that Louis was in the way until the blade had pierced his heart.

"Oh... Oh God, Louis..." he muttered, as the soon-to-be-former First Mate had already fallen to his knees. Meanwhile, the attacker had already retreated.

Louis, in shock, stared down at his wound, and then up at his Captain, his eyes glazing over. The First Mate would never enjoy himself in Nassau for possibly the last time, after all.

As dawn broke, Captain Crazed Rabbit ordered, for the first time, a full funeral for the First Mate. There was no chaplain aboard, of course, but it was a worthy ceremony for a lifelong man of the sea, with his body being lovingly lowered into the water to end it all. Afterwards, Rabbit was so distraught that he immediately withdrew into his cabin, leaving Quartermaster TinCow to begin the day's voting and announce the day's autopsy investigations.

"Well lads," he said, "this be a sad day fer all of us, but I do have excellent news. Sasaki Kojiro was at one point a loyal crewmen, but at some time during the voyage got charmed into becomin' traitor and joining the British. Likewise with Yaseikhaan. It's likely that they were both recruited by CountArach, who was as British as they come - he was their Special Officer, their lead man. All of this means that the British presence aboard is likely gone. Take heart while ye vote today."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It is now Day 9. The round will end Tuesday, October 20th, at 14:00 US Eastern.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Attacked: Centurion1 (n1, n8), LittleGrizzly (n1), taka (n2), Andres (n3), Askthepizzaguy (n4), Beskar (n5), SSNeoperestroika (n5), Reenk Roink (n8)

Murdered: LittleGrizzly (n1), atheotes (n2), gibsonsg91921 (n2), Tratorix (n3), Iskander 3.1 (n3), Beefy187 (n3), scottishranger (n4), DisgruntledGoat (n4), Andres (n4), Diana Abnoba (n5), pevergreen (n5), CountArach (n6), Psychonaut (n7), Beskar (n7), Chaotix (n7), Askthepizzaguy (n7), Louis VI the Fat (n8)

Lynched: woad&fangs (d2), Sigurd (d3), Jolt (d4), ricera10 (d5), Sasaki Kojiro (d6), Khazaar (d7), Joooray (d8)

Abandoned Ship: SSNeoperestroika (n7)

Committed suicide: Yaseikhaan (n6)

Removed from play: Xehh II, johnhughthom, YLC

Souls aboard (22):
a completely inoffensive name
A Very Super Market
A1 Unit
Captain Blackadder
Centurion1
Crazed Rabbit
Cultured Drizzt Fan
Death is Yonder
Double A
KukriKhan
Lord Winter
miotas
Reenk Roink
Seamus Fermanagh
shlin28
slashandburn
spL1tp3r50naL1ty
Subotan
taka
TinCow
White_eyes:D
Yaropolk

**GeneralHankerchief** · 10-21-2009, 07:47

Post 2412 of main thread.

Day 9

*Bang* *Bang* *Bang*

There was a rhythmic pounding on the Captain's Cabin's door all day as most of the remaining sailors on the Presence demanded direction from their leader. Captain Crazed Rabbit, meanwhile, no longer having anyone's confidence and still distraught over the death of Louis, had retreated deep into the cabin, not even acknowledging all of the calls for leadership until late in the day.

"All right," he said when he finally emerged at sunset. "What have ye got fer me today?"

The crew screamed several names at him. "ACIN!" "Seamus!" "Drizzt!" "Abstain!" But none were as frequently mentioned as taka and Yaropolk. Upon realizing that those were the two candidates with the most votes, Rabbit furrowed his brow and scowled.

"These be horrible choices," he said to the crew.

A couple of sailors, finally fed up with Rabbit's isolationism, fired back. "Well, Cap'n," they said, "maybe if ye deemed to spend some o'yer oh-so-precious time with the common folk, input during the discussions, give us an obvious lead, maybe ye'd be more satisfied with our choices!"

"Enough of this," Rabbit replied, now in an even fouler mood than before. "So the vote's tied, aye?" When there were no correcting statements, he continued on. "All right, mateys, guess this tie be needin' resolvin'. And to do so, I be needin' some officers to help me out. So as of now, Double A and White_eyes:D be yer new First Mate and Quartermaster, respectively." He waited as the two new officers took their positions beside their Captain, ignoring TinCow's howls of protest over being sacked as Quartermaster.

"Right," Rabbit continued over TinCow's swearing, "the officers and I will now resolve this tie. Shouldn't take too long." At this, he and the two new officers retired into the cabin to make their decision. As Rabbit promised, it was quick, this debate lasting less than ten minutes. After emerging from the cabin for the second time, the Captain did not mince words.

"It be taka," he said. "Grab him."

Now taka's loud protestations joined TinCow's, creating a small but manageable cacophony aboard the ship. There was one time when the crew would have simply been encouraged by this, and egged on by taka's not taking his fate gracefully, would have subjected him to even worse treatment. However, this was a different group. Harrowing circumstances had changed them, forever haunted them. Now, they simply tuned taka out. Now, they would drink, but do so in lonely silences, each man retreating to his own special corner of the ship.

Now, this terrible process was little more than routine. And so, they disposed of taka in a routine manner. Afterwards, each of them went their own separate ways, the ship now roomy enough to keep everybody occupied with their own thoughts.

And in the Captain's Cabin, despite it being newly repopulated with officers, one could find the loneliest man on board, possibly even in the New World. Crazed Rabbit commanded a block of wood with a barely-hanging mast, a pesky persistent killer that just couldn't seem to be smoked out, and trusted no one. It would be another long night.

Day 9 tally:

taka: 3 (White_eyes, Seamus, AVSM)

Yaropolk: 3 (Reenk, Subotan, A1)

ACIN: 2 (shlin, Yaro)
CDF: 2 (TinCow, Split)
Seamus: 2 (Kukri, taka)
Single votes: Centurion1 (miotas), Double A (CDF)

Mutiny: 1-3 (ACIN, AVSM(?), TinCow(?))

Abstained: 5 (CR, ACIN, DiY, Double A, Centurion)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It is now Night 9. The round will conclude Wednesday, October 21st, at 22:00 US Eastern.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Attacked: Centurion1 (n1, n8), LittleGrizzly (n1), taka (n2), Andres (n3), Askthepizzaguy (n4), Beskar (n5), SSNeoperestroika (n5), Reenk Roink (n8)

Murdered: LittleGrizzly (n1), atheotes (n2), gibsonsg91921 (n2), Tratorix (n3), Iskander 3.1 (n3), Beefy187 (n3), scottishranger (n4), DisgruntledGoat (n4), Andres (n4), Diana Abnoba (n5), pevergreen (n5), CountArach (n6), Psychonaut (n7), Beskar (n7), Chaotix (n7), Askthepizzaguy (n7), Louis VI the Fat (n8)

Lynched: woad&fangs (d2), Sigurd (d3), Jolt (d4), ricera10 (d5), Sasaki Kojiro (d6), Khazaar (d7), Joooray (d8), taka (d9)

Abandoned Ship: SSNeoperestroika (n7)

Committed suicide: Yaseikhaan (n6)

Removed from play: Xehh II, johnhughthom, YLC

Souls aboard (21):
a completely inoffensive name
A Very Super Market
A1 Unit
Captain Blackadder
Centurion1
Crazed Rabbit
Cultured Drizzt Fan
Death is Yonder
Double A
KukriKhan
Lord Winter
miotas
Reenk Roink
Seamus Fermanagh
shlin28
slashandburn
spL1tp3r50naL1ty
Subotan
TinCow
White_eyes:D
Yaropolk

**GeneralHankerchief** · 10-22-2009, 04:27

Post 2436 of main thread.

Night 9

Day breaks aboard the Presence. All is quiet.

Lord Winter had been chased for several minutes. Now, he was cornered. Now, he was begging. And the Four Horsemen were hearing none of it.

"P-please..." Lord Winter pleaded. "I-I'll give you... all of it. Everything. Just keep me alive. Spare me, please!"

The Horsemen looked at each other, chuckling. "141 gold?" one of them said. "Only 141? Jeez, Winter, that's a shame. What have you been doing all of this time?" Winter looked on, shocked. "We be greedy, aye, but fer 141 gold. split betwixt the four of us? Well, mateys, that just ain't worth the trouble. Maybe if ye join some crew in the next life, ye'll be more pro-active at acquiring some treasure so ye can be doin' some proper barterin'. Consider this a lesson, laddie."

Lord Winter opened his mouth to complain some more, but nothing came out. His head had already been separated from his body.

The time had come for Centurion1. He had survived two determined attacks, separated by a week. He had undergone significant criticism from his Captain for his lack of effectiveness Watchstanding as opposed to his partner, Beskar. But look where that had gotten Beskar. He was still alive, and still investigating. Finally, he would get some answers. His two assignments for the night had been investigated twice before. He no longer had to sort through the superficialities. Instead, he would get real, useful results. He would find the true affiliations of his targets.

His first assignment for the night was Cultured Drizzt fan. Drizzt was sleeping tonight, but Centurion was still quiet, sneaking below decks and sorting through his personal belongings. Taking them out into the moonlight to read, he skimmed through. Nothing out of the ordinary. A letter from his beloved, back in Nassau, waiting for him. No mention of the Maven. Drizzt was clean.

spL1tp3r50naL1ty was ordered by her Captain to block a different target for tonight. She had alerted the Captain of her presence very early on, explaining to him her "talents". Captain Rabbit quickly took advantage of this asset and set her to work, which she was only too happy to do. After all, satisfied men were less likely to notice that their treasure was being stolen. This is the part she didn't tell the Captain.

Her target for tonight was TinCow. Despite the former Quartermaster's extreme vocalness aboard the ship, she had never really seen him up close. She was eager to do so tonight. New conquests were always exciting, and she figured that TinCow's being an officer for so many days would give her a significant amount of plunder to pilfer.

Seeking out TinCow at night, she was prepared to execute her usual M.O. of smiling sweetly and feigning weakness. Upon spotting her target, however, something happened that she did not expect.

Her heart fluttered.

Seeing her stare open-mouthed at his dashing figure, TinCow grinned. He did not expect to be paying a visit to a woman at night, especially not one so... beautiful? He tried to brush it from his mind, but there was no denying it: She looked great.

"Take me, my love!" she breathed, and TinCow swept her up in his arms and took her to his hammock where the two of them spent the best night of their lives. Split would take no treasure from this one. Meanwhile, all thoughts of helping out his buddy one last time escaped TinCow's head. There were more important priorities right now. Like absentmindedly stroking Split's hair.

The Four Horsemen were above deck, watching the sunrise together as they celebrated another successful purge. The Captain could take all the credit he wanted to; the four of them knew they were most responsible for the well-being of the ship. Who else had killed gibson, to start the downfall of the Maven? Who else continued their run by taking out the British agent scottishranger? Who had singlehandedly destroyed the British by killing their Special Officer, CountArach, even if the mast had taken a bit of damage? The entire ship owed them a serious debt of gratitude.

One by one, they all left, retiring back below decks. A Very Super Market, miotas, and Subotan.

a completely inoffensive name was the last to go downstairs, enjoying the sunrise longer than anyone else, lost in his own thoughts. Just as he turned to join his comrades, he felt a hand grip his shoulder. He barely had time to turn around when he felt the hot, foul breath on his face.

"But... but... WHY?!?!" ACIN sputtered, his gaze transfixed on the man's sparse yellow teeth and his unearthly, glowing eyes.

"You voted to mutiny," KukriKhan said emotionlessly, raising his blunderbuss. "Mutineers must die."

Bess thundered one last time, and the Four Horsemen were no more.

Centurion1 was ready to move onto his next target, Reenk Roink. Reenk was not in his hammock, which made the job that much easier. Centurion rifled through his heavy, heavy bag, the time taking much longer this time.

"Wow," he muttered, "Reenk has a *lot* of treasure. Didn't know a fellow Watchstander was so concerned about making money. We have the Officers' Club waiting for us back home, after all." He continued searching for several minutes, before he finally found a piece of parchment, read over it, and gasped.

Standing orders from the Captain of the Maven, issued to Sailor Reenk Roink, to steal as much treasure from Charleston as possible and, if prudent, eliminate everyone aboard. CC'd to gibsonsg91921 and Sigurd.

Nobody else was around. Centurion had to do this himself. Drawing his cutlass, he rushed out above deck, making a beeline for the dinghies.

"Ye be too late, matey!" Reenk yelled, grinning madly from atop a dinghy that hadn't been lowered into the water yet. "I'd tell ye a story, but I'm afraid I have a date with me *true* Captain! Enjoy tellin Captain Rabbit that ye failed again, matey!" Centurion, gritting his teeth, rushed up to the dinghy in an attempt to duel Reenk, but Reenk, drawing his own cutlass, instead made a looping cutting motion, severing the dinghy's two ropes. He dropped in the water, but the boat stayed afloat despite supporting the weight of both Reenk and his hefty bag of treasure.

"Well, at least he won't be botherin' us anymore," Centurion said to himself, and made his way to the Captain's Cabin to report his findings.

The Frenchman and the Woman lay together in the hammock.

"They'll be coming after me in the morning, mon amour," TinCow said, caressing Split softly. "I'm the rapier killer, and Rabbit knows it. We'll need to abandon ship."

"Aye, my love," Split said, "I'll follow ye anywhere." The two of them arose from their hammock, making their way above deck. They had the entire ship to themselves, save for the corpses of Lord Winter and ACIN. Centurion at the moment was in the Captain's Cabin, explaining everything to Crazed Rabbit. Quickly but silently, they lowered another dinghy into the water and stepped in, Split guarding the gold and TinCow paddling.

After about an hour of paddling, they caught up with Reenk. He turned around, alarmed, but TinCow indicated that it was him, and Reenk then relaxed. The two of them exchanged a few words, shook hands, and then paddled off in separate directions.

"What did ye say to each other?" Split asked.

"We thanked each other for the help," TinCow replied. "Reenk needed more gold, and I gave it to him."

"What did you need?"

"My ship back," TinCow said. "And I will get it. Make no mistake about it, I will get my ship back."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

That morning, Captain Crazed Rabbit, already having been briefed at dawn by his final remaining Watchstander, assembled his crew for the final time. Once again, he was flanked by White_eyes and Double A, as well as his two Stewards, slashandburn and Yaropolk.

"Well boys," he said, "We're over it. Reenk was the final Maven, and he up and left. TinCow was the rapier killer, and he up and left too. I have no idea why he took Split with him, but nothing we can do about it now. Enjoy yer daily work, lads. There be no votin' today!"

Everybody cheered. Finally, they were headed home.

**GeneralHankerchief** · 10-22-2009, 18:39

Post 2506 of main thread.

Epilogue

One Fine Morning in Nassau

All of the residents of the last great pirate port in the world, at least those who weren’t still passed out due to excess rum intake the night before, turned their eyes to the northern horizon, where they saw a great ship approaching.

She wasn’t in the best condition. Her mast was barely hanging on, as if being held in place only by the sheer will of her captain and crew. She was also moving very slowly and deliberately, as if she weren’t being manned by enough crewmen to get her at full capacity.

“Odd sight, indeed,” said a younger sailor, watching the ship inch her way into the harbor. “I heard she set out with over 50 crew. Musta been a brutal fight in Charleston.”

“Or afterwards,” said a grizzled old sailor who, from the looks of him, had seen everything in his long life. “Nothing turns a ship on itself faster than the strong tides of treasure.” The two watched in silence as the Presence drew ever closer to salvation. As time went by, the two were joined by more and more denizens of Nassau, at first applauding and then cheering as the crew deboarded, all of them carrying very significant sacks of treasure.

“Thank God!” one of them yelled, kissing the docks as soon as he stepped off. Everybody was embracing, the old animosities forgotten, everybody realizing that tonight would be a night like no other. It was finally over, and now, they would wash their bad memories away in a sea of drink, women, and merrymaking.

…

Down in the Officers’ Club, an exclusive tavern in Nassau in which only men who had achieved rank were allowed to enter, three filled glasses clanked against each other. Yaropolk, slashandburn, and Centurion1 were quietly celebrating their triumph in style. They had endured more than enough raucousness and mayhem on the ship. Tonight was a way to get away from it all. Tonight, they would enjoy the comforts of being Stewards and Watchstanders and all the benefits that came with their positions.

“Hello, boys,” cooed three voices in unison. The three of them turned. Ah, yes. The triplets: Anna, Hannah, and Tatiana, had entered the room. Everyone in Nassau agreed that The Triplets were the most beautiful wenches on the entire island, and the best at what they did. Yaro, slash, and Centurion grinned, setting their drinks down, prepared for the spoils of officerhood.

KukriKhan, the Fanatical Loyalist, had no such use for taverns. In a quiet, secluded alley, he set up camp for the night, lovingly stroking Bess the Blunderbuss. Over the course of the voyage home, four sailors had risked the depths of the deepest circle of Hell just so they could get a little more gold. All four of them met their ends at the mouth of Bess.

“Order prevails once more, my darling,” he cooed, his eyes losing none of their intensity. After doing this for two hours, he finally arose, and disappeared off into the night, never seen by anyone again.

Seamus Fermanagh walked into a lonely tavern far from the rest of the port city’s mayhem. He gathered up his relatively meager stash of gold and ordered an ale from the bartender. Reaching into the bag, he was stopped by the bartender.

“Uh-uh, my friend,” the bartender said, “this one’s on me.”

“Much obliged,” Seamus said, and sipped his ale quietly. When he was about halfway through, the bartender tried a stab of conversation.

“Well?” he asked. “How was it?”

“On the other side? Interesting. Wish I did a bit more. I mean, I *was* Quartermaster for a night, but still slept for half the time. Fell for the stupid treasure trick, as well. I must be getting old. How was your little adventure?”

“Mine?” The bartender, GeneralHankerchief, chuckled. “On the other side? Interesting. Think I’ll stick to being a simple seaman in the future, although something tells me that’s just not in the cards.” The two men laughed heartily and shared several more drinks, telling each other all the old war stories.

The two appointed officers aboard the Presence, Double A and White_eyes:D, entered the main tavern in Nassau, officers no more. Double A looked around, shouted “PARTY!!!” and immediately dove into the crowd, which roared in its approval, doubly so as Double A started showering everybody with dubloons and getting kissed on the cheeks by three women at once.

Eventually swimming his way back to his comrade, he took White_eyes by the shoulder. “It’s okay, matey, ye can stop being paranoid now. We’re home. And we’re having one amazing time!!!” White_eyes looked around, blinked, and finally, abandoning all inclinations of paranoia, dropped his bag and ran for the two bustiest wenches he could find. They squealed with delight as he rubbed his manly beard against their chins. Double A could only chuckle and drown himself with ale.

In that same tavern, Captain Blackadder, Cultured Drizzt fan, shlin28, and Death is Yonder joined in the celebration. They were the unheralded protectors of the ship, working behind the scenes to make sure that chaos and destruction did not overcome the crew. They ended up being handsomely rewarded for their work, acquiring 200, 207, 214, and 226 gold, respectively. As day turned into night and night turned into the wee hours of the morning, the four of them gathered around a table, discussing what they might do with their handsome stashes.

DiY, the richest of the lot, was more partial to retiring and buying a small piece of land, working it and not being beholden to anyone. Shlin and Drizzt, however, were going to enjoy the night as much as they could, have the weeks of their lives back in Nassau, and then head straight back to find another pirating opportunity. They were young, after all, and if they had survived Charleston and everything that followed, surely they could take on anything. Blackadder, meanwhile, seemed determined to spend it all tonight, as he gorged on ale, rum, and women.

“It may have only been good for one night,” he said, “but it was the best night anyone ever had.”

In a different, slightly less crowded tavern, the remaining members of the Four Horsemen, A Very Super Market, miotas, and Subotan, were sharing drinks together (after, of course, enjoying the company of the tavern wenches), already reminiscing about the good times. Already, the events aboard the Presence were the stuff of legend, and none of it more so than the exploits of the Four Horsemen.

“I don’t care how much credit that Captain gets,” Subotan said, “We killed more bad guys than he did. We took out that first Maven, and the first Brit to boot. Then we followed it up with the worst Brit of them all, getting one of his converts to up and off himself out of shame, to boot.”

“Aye,” said AVSM. “Don’t forget Reenk, in that second-to-last night. If it weren’t for ACIN falling that woman’s charms, we would have killed him as well and saved the ship even earlier. Maybe even saved ACIN’s life.” They fell silent at this, honoring their friend’s memory.

“To ACIN,” miotas said finally, holding his glass out.

“To ACIN,” the other two echoed, and clinked glasses.

“You know,” said AVSM later on in the night, “we got a lot of gold from killin’ people. We should do something about it.”

“Aye,” said Subotan, “but what?”

“Well… I was thinkin’ of gettin’ our own ship, to be honest. We can afford a small one, but who needs size when ye have the bravest crew in existence? And besides, we’ll get Able Seamen of our own, especially when they find out the ship’s run by three of the Four Horsemen!”

“That sounds splendid!” said Subotan. “But which of us’ll be the Captain?”

“That’ll be me,” miotas interjected, “Seeing as how I have the most gold.”

The two others grumbled, then laughed good-naturedly. And so it was. In less than a week, the sloop a completely inoffensive name was christened, captained by miotas, with Subotan as First Mate and A Very Super Market as Quartermaster, with a willing crew ready to plunder to their hearts’ content.

A1_Unit staggered around Nassau, unable to believe his luck. Out of all the ship’s Able Seaman, somehow it was he who had acquired the most treasure, 236 of it to be exact. There really wasn’t much explanation for this; he just kept plugging away at night, protecting, being lucky that his target was never attacked, and never forgetting to vote in the day. For his steady, constant service, he had been rewarded. Now, he was going to do something with that money.

Hauling his large sack of goodies into the main tavern, he swam through all of the raucous mayhem going on in the main room, instead heading upstairs. Bypassing all of the wenches’ rooms, he instead knocked on the proprietor’s door.

“Aye, what is it?” came a slurred voice from behind the door.

“A1_Unit, from the Presence!” he called. “How be times, matey?”

The door opened, and the owner, in alcohol-stained clothes, stared out at A1. “They be tough, me lad, they be tough. Tonight be a great night fer business, fer sure, but these seem to be the exception rather than the rule nowadays. I’m afraid I won’t be in the tavern business much longer.”

“How about a buyout?” A1 asked. “All my treasure, right now, for the deed of this tavern.”

The owner’s eyes widened. “236 treasure, to be exact,” A1 said. “Ye can count it, and ye know I’m good fer it.”

“I don’t ever want to have to pay for food or drink in here either,” the owner said after a minute.

“Done,” said A1, beaming.

“Done!” repeated the owner, and the two of them slapped hands, eventually making their way back downstairs.

“All right lads!” the owner said downstairs, after taking 10 minutes to get everybody’s attention. “I just been offered an offer I couldn’t refuse. It’s been some great times runnin’ this tavern through all the years, but now I got a ton of treasure and it looks like A1_Unit is now the man in charge. Be good to him, boys!”

“Right!” shouted A1 over the cheers of everybody inside. “My first act as the new proprietor of this establishment is to rename it A1’s Tavern. My second act is to proclaim that everything is on the house for the rest of the night! Drink up, me laddies!” A1’s Tavern erupted in a great roar, and A1 got showered in rum. A great start to his new business.

Elsewhere in the North Atlantic…

“So you’re sure about this, then?”

“Aye,” said SSNeoperestroika, clutching his bag of treasure reassuringly. It was significantly less than what he had right when he abandoned ship, but SSNeo didn’t mind. He had seen enough to know that the crew was going down. Heck, the ship itself had a busted mast, and if that wasn’t a recipe for trouble, he didn’t know what was.

SSNeo had found a small island about a day and a half after he jumped ship, using it to repopulate his food supply and get his energy back. He rested there for a day, and then made his way east. For five long days he paddled, beginning to lose hope as his food and water started to dwindle. But finally, on the sixth day, he spotted land, land that appeared to be much bigger than the tiny island he had landed on a week ago. After a few hours, he think he saw signs of civilization. A few buildings, well-tended-to fields. He started paddling harder, and finally landed right as the sun was going down.

From there, he recuperated once more, and then found out more about where he was. It was an English settlement in the Northern Bahamas, one that saw British ships, merchant ones mostly, every couple of days. SSNeo had used a lot of his treasure first to get himself in good graces with the city’s officials, but secondly to barter passage back home. He had waited a week, until a ship that would take him there had arrived.

“All right, then,” said the ship’s captain. “As ye know, we’ll set out and eventually make port in Blyth. From there you can deboard and make your way north to Scotland. In return for us agreeing to transfport, you have already paid your fee and in addition, will accomplish basic tasks such as swabbing the decks. Nothing too laboring, for already have a crew to do that. Just when we need an extra set of hands.”

“Agreed,” SSNeo said, shaking the captain’s hand.

“I find it interesting that you’re heading back to the Old World to seek your fortune,” the captain said after they had both boarded the ship. “Usually I find it to be the other way around.”

“Tried it,” said SSNeo. “The opportunities may be more numerous, but so are the perils. I prefer a bit more order in me life.”

“Aye, order’s always a good thing,” said the captain. “Take the Presence for instance. Did you hear about that?”

“No,” said SSNeo, feigning only a passing interest. “What happened?”

“Craziest thing. Looks like they channeled a bit of Morgan and hit Charleston hard. Made off with a king’s ransom in treasure. They just stumbled into Nassau a little while ago with more than half the crew dead, though. Looks like they turned on each other sometime during the ride back. Looks like all discipline broke down. That’s the thing about the Royal Navy. Say what you want about all the pirates’ bravery, but the Navy’ll make sure you’ll do what you’re told.”

“They survived, though?” said SSNeo.

“Aye, that they did, and from what I hear they’re all filthy rich. The ones that survived, though. That’ll make for a great story, eh?”

“Indeed,” SSNeo muttered, already softly cursing to himself. He tried not to think about it too much, though. A peaceful life in Scotland awaited, and he still had a significant amount of money to give him a kick start.

TinCow, the Frenchman, and spL1tp3r50naL1ty, the Woman, were resting on an island, tending to their signal fire. TinCow had recently been teaching Split how to fight with a rapier. Split had proven to be a natural at the craft. He was also entertaining her with tales of court life at Louis XIV’s Versailles. She, in return, was providing him with companionship and a bulk of their treasure, which would come in handy for later.

“And then I set off for the New World, in search of adventure and fulfillment,” TinCow concluded, absentmindedly poking the fire. Somehow, he had managed to secure a bottle of wine and was sipping it down, toasting his accomplishments despite the fact that his ship still belonged to someone else.

“So what do we do now, my love?” Split asked. “Get back to civilization, but what after that?”

“Bide our time,” TinCow replied. “Listen for news. Track it down. And then, eventually, make our move. Together, you and I will sail the seas on board the Presence. And the ship *will* be mine, make no mistake about it.” He spotted a ship on the horizon, heading our way, and took another sip of wine. Soon, his pursuit would begin anew.

“It *will* be mine.”

On board the Maven, the sailor manning the Crow’s Nest called out from his post. “A dinghy, headed our way from Four O’Clock!” he cried. “Only one person inside, I think it’s one of us!”

The captain took out his spyglass and, after looking through it for a second, shouted orders to his crew. “Throw him a rope, lads! Throw him a line! Make sure it’s secure, we don’t want a single piece of treasure going to Davey Jones! Hurry now! Reel him in!”

The process went off without a hitch. Once Reenk Roink climbed aboard, he was greeted by multiple slaps on the back and good-natured ribbing. However, everyone soon fell silent as the captain started questioning him.

“Gibson and Sigurd?”

“Dead.”

“Pity,” said the captain. “Well, let’s see how much ye were able to steal!” Grabbing the large bag of treasure, he carefully dumped it out on the deck, going through it quickly. “340?” he said, and Reenk nodded.

“I’m not pleased, Reenk. Even with the base treasure of gibson and Sigurd and ye, that’s only a 40 gold increase. What were ye doin’ all that time?”

Now, Reenk started to get angry. “What was I doin’? I was surviving, Captain. Gibson and Sigurd both died very early on, leaving me alone. I stayed on board for almost an entire week after me buddies died, Captain. I made a 240 treasure profit all by meself, Captain. Not to speak ill of the dead, but don’t be blamin’ me for their failures and my best efforts to make up for them, Captain.”

“You may be right… but I am still not pleased.”

“Would you like to hear the story of how the Presence won?” Reenk asked, his voice going cold. Without waiting for the captain to reply, he continued. “The sailors on board, the first day after the British killed their original captain, elected a new one. Now, this one went to work right away, trying to organize his crew and his officers. He did a decent job, too, pulling the wool over my eyes more than once. But was that the reason why they won? No, not at all.

“You see,” he continued, “there was one vigilante group outside of the Captain’s control that operated every night. They called themselves the Four Horsemen, after the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. And they killed mostly every night, all the time under no orders to do so. Now, this made the Captain and his officers very angry, because they were supposedly jeopardizing the Captain’s great plan to right the ship. But then, the autopsies on the Four Horsemen’s victims started coming in. First, they killed a Maven; gibson. Then, a British Agent. Then, a night later, they offed the British Special Officer hisself, leaving me pretty much the only saboteur left on board. They even went after *me* one night, and it was only through their captain’s doing that I survived.”

“How interesting,” the captain said.

“Aye, it is,” said Reenk, a cold anger growing in his voice. “The point is, ‘twasn’t the Captain or his officers that saved that ship. It was the *crew*, Captain. The crew took matters into their own hands. The crew saved the ship. Their Captain, while important, was ultimately… expendable.”

“I don’t like where this be going,” the Captain said, finally taking note of Reenk’s voice.

“Aye, well, ye really shouldn’t,” said Reenk, and then in a fluid motion, took out his cutlass and beheaded the Captain.

“Tell me, sailors of the Maven, do ye bless me as yer new Captain? Take note of the treasure I brought back all by meself in the face of difficult odds. Do ye wish for more o’ the same under my lead?”

“AYE!!!” the crew bellowed back in unison.

“All right then, my lads,” Captain Reenk Roink shouted. “Then it’s treasure we seek!” He turned the rudder wildly, and the Maven sailed off into the distance, under new management.

Back in Nassau, Captain Crazed Rabbitlovingly looked over the Presence. His ship. He had spent much of the past week repairing the mast and the Crow’s Nest. It was tough work, but it was honest work, and it saved him some money. Still, out of all the crewman, he had acquired the most treasure, 336 to be exact, but he was saving it for something special. What it was, he wasn’t exactly sure. Maybe equip his ship with more improvements to make her a true terror on the seas, to singlehandedly restart the Golden Age of Piracy. Maybe blow it all at A1’s Tavern, seeing as how business had finally died down after the greatest week of general debauchery that the port had ever seen. Maybe use it to retire, and build himself a nice estate in Jamaica, where he could grow whatever his heart desired.

But, he thought as he lie aboard his ship, exactly what he did with his massive amount of treasure didn’t matter. The fact that he had the treasure in the first place did. He had his freedom. He could do whatever he wanted.

And freedom was the greatest treasure of all.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The victorious crewmen:
Crazed Rabbit - 336 (first place)
A1_Unit - 236
miotas - 233
Subotan - 227
Death is yonder - 226
A Very Super Market - 216
shlin28 - 214
Cultured Drizzt fan - 207
Double A - 202
Captain Blackadder - 200
Seamus Fermanagh - 188
White_eyes:D - 185

The satisfied crewmen (those who met their victory conditions but gold was not a factor):
Yaropolk - 161
KukriKhan - 154
slashandburn - 141
Centurion1 - 136

The new Captain of the Maven:
Reenk Roink - 340

The vindicated dead:
Louis VI the Fat - 222
Askthepizzaguy - 212
taka - 203
Joooray - 180
Chaotix - 166
Tratorix - 147
a completely inoffensive name - 141
Khazaar - 128
Beskar - 124
Lord Winter - 115
Psychonaut - 115
Beefy187 - 110
Diana Abnoba - 92
Iskander 3.1 - 92
atheotes - 90
Andres - 85
DisgruntledGoat - 84
Jolt - 74
woad&fangs - 68
YLC - 67
pevergreen - 57
johnhughthom - 53
Xehh II - 50
LittleGrizzly - 46

The defeated Mavens:
Sigurd - 134
gibsonsg91921 - 78

Looking forward to Scotland:
SSNeoperestroika - 187

The devastated British:
Sasaki Kojiro - 118
Yaseikhaan - 85
CountArach - 71
ricera10 - 70
scottishranger - 57

The vengeful Frenchman and his new lover:
spL1tp3r50naL1ty - 239
TinCow - 79

**GeneralHankerchief** · 10-22-2009, 20:59

And now, for the roles!
First, an explanation on how I determined them. I had written up all of the role PMs beforehand, and set them in a certain order. The secret roles came first, followed by the British, then the Mavens. The normal Able Seamen came next, followed by those with minor special abilities. All that remained was to put names to the roles. Gathering all the names from the sign-up sheet, I first alphabetized them. Going to random.org’s List Randomizer, I clicked the button three times to ensure true randomness. This is what came back to me:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read:

It was the names in this order that I put on my monster Excel Spreadsheet that has literally been opened up on my laptop for a month now. What now follows is every role PM in the game, along with brief commentary.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Frenchman
Sent to TinCow

Spoiler Alert, click show to read:

Your role is:

The Frenchman

The best thing I know between France and England is the sea.
~ Douglas William Jerrold

Back home, you lived the high life. You were educated in the finest schools and knew nothing but the best of everything. Visits to the great new palace of Versailles were not uncommon. You were the epitome of the flourishing high culture under the reign of Louis XIV. But then the Sun King died, two years ago, and frankly, life under his great-grandson (plus his regent) just hasn’t been the same. Still craving adventure, you acquired yourself a nice ship, the Presence, and set off to the New World. There was just one problem: In a bout of trickery, you lost your ship to an enterprising pirate captain. Stranded, but still with a considerable amount of resources, you have been working to get it back ever since.

Right around the time of the sack of Charleston, you finally made your move, joining the ship’s crew and hoping to work your way from the inside. The presence of those perfidious British aboard have complicated matters somewhat, but, ever the innovator, you adjust your goals accordingly.

Your goal: To survive, and to be in command of the Presence at game’s end. You may tell the other sailors whatever you wish to accomplish this mission, for this is the only way you can personally obtain a victory.

Powers: A dashing swashbuckler in the prime of your life, you have several skill sets that will serve your well during your time aboard:
- You may kill one person a night without the help of a partner or group. As always, your trusty rapier, a gift from the Count of Toulouse himself, is with you.
- You may investigate one person a night. Results may vary.
- You may roleblock one person per night. In addition to this, you will also find out how much gold they currently have.

You may do any one of these three activities on a single night, but none of them will earn you any treasure. In addition, you cannot perform the same individual action more than three consecutive nights. In lieu of this, you may also take part in the usual townie group activities (kill with at least 3 others, protect with at least 2 others) and obtain treasure. However, as you are already a wealthy man, treasure means very little to you. You just want your ship back and to have a good time in the process.

Finally, as a result of your skill with a rapier and overall flamboyance, you will survive the first kill attempt somebody makes on you without protection. Good luck!

I had thought of this role the night before the game started. Its prototype, called “Captain Blood” as suggested to me by Seamus Fermanagh, had the same objective as the Frenchman, but would go about it by recruiting crewmen much like the Brits and Mavens. Not wanting to create such a powerful third-party, I was leaning against putting it in. However, that final night, on a brainwave probably started because of Louis’s joining the game, I retooled Captain Blood into its current form. The recruitment aspect was gone, but in its place was an impressive arsenal of powers that would ensure it to be a major power player.

In addition to the powers listed above, there were a couple that were not mentioned in the PM. The first of which was partial immunity to investigations. Watchstander or First Mate efforts would and did reveal nothing about TinCow until a Tier 3 investigation, which would return something along the lines of the detective discovering nothing but a single fleur-de-lys in his bag. Considering the Watchstander PM (see below) had a small throwaway sentence that the ship used to belong to a Frenchman, a crafty Watchstander could have put two and two together. TinCow was investigated several times over the course of the game, but nobody had the patience to go to the necessary three tiers. Beskar was the only one that went to Tier 2, but gave up afterwards.

Going along with investigation immunity was the ability to override the First Mate/Quartermaster’s power limitations (which really helped TinCow later on), and a neat mechanic having to do with the Woman, as described below.

All in all, I was quite pleased when random.org spat back TinCow as the Frenchman’s doppelganger. Very few players have the guile and resourcefulness necessary to pull this role off, and while he ultimately failed, he played the role exactly as I intended it to be played: allying with multiple sides at different times, always in the thick of things. Had the Four Horsemen not pretty much solidified CR’s hold on the Captain spot by offing so many bad guys, I think TC may have had a legitimate shot of pulling his difficult victory condition off.

The Woman
Sent to spL1tp3r50naL1ty

Spoiler Alert, click show to read:

Your role is:

The Woman

Had you only fought like a Man, you need not have been hang’d like a Dog.
~ Anne Bonny, her final words to “Calico Jack” Rackham

Yup, that’s right. You’re a female in disguise aboard the Presence, tired of being endlessly hit on in taverns and looking for a little bit more adventure in life. However, now you’re starting to see why all the men aboard believe the tradition that having a woman on a ship is bad luck. You quickly realize that you’ve stepped into something rather large and now you just want to get out alive.

Your goal: To survive. The “Abandon ship” option is not available to you because, frankly, you don’t have the necessary skills to make it out there on your own. Therefore, you’re in this for the long haul. However, there is no reason why you can’t profit from this mess. You want to accumulate as much treasure as possible, preferably the most out of the entire crew so you can buy yourself a nice nest egg once this is all over. Maybe even a tavern!

Powers: Every night, you may seduce and “occupy” one person for the night, which also serves as making them unable to perform any action that night as well. While they’re not looking, you will steal some of their treasure, which will be a random number anywhere from 5-20. In addition, you will also see how much treasure they have left.

You are apparently susceptible to both Letters of Marque and offers to join the Maven and will join if asked, but your conversion is not permanent and you do not count as a member of either crew for their purposes.

Finally, because you are weaker than the rest of the sea dogs who have spent half their lives sailing the blue, you do not count as a part of successful group efforts (example: if there’s a protection group that has the minimum of three participants including you, and your target is attacked, the protection will fail). However, should the group you’re in have an extra member and succeed, you will still be awarded the appropriate amount of treasure. Good luck!

This role was present from my earliest drafts of the game, back in May 2008. It was your standard roleblocker, but had the potential to annoy the living snot out of the rest of the crew by taking their gold as well. The main wrinkle to this role for the longest time was giving her the ability to freely choose her affiliation. She was marked down as susceptible to both Letters of Marque and treasure, but in reality could side with whoever gave her the best shot of staying alive. Again, thanks to TinCow and the Four Horsemen, this side was established to be the town early on, providing another blow to the mafia’s hopes.

Once the Frenchman was created, I decided to give Split’s role the potential to expand a bit. Basically, if the two of them encountered each other at night (whether it be by blocking, killing, investigating, or being in the same group), the two of them would fall in love and ally with each other, with Split now sharing TinCow’s goals. Because this happened on the very last night, TinCow in essence dragged Split down to his level of defeat, despite the fact that she survived. That’s men for ya.

The Fanatical Loyalist
Sent to KukriKhan

Spoiler Alert, click show to read:

Your role is:

The Fanatical Loyalist:

It’s your call, Bill. I’ll back you either way.
~ Colonel Saul Tigh, to his commanding officer

You are one of those people that believes that mutiny is the single worst sin any sailor worth his salt could ever commit, the kind that calls for a quick and painful death, not to mention eternal damnation immediately afterwards. Stability and order are very important to you, for without it, then the very fabric of society (even pirate society) falls apart. With the colossal disruption of this stability that has been the threat to the Presence , you’re starting to lose it a bit.

Determined to right the ship (no pun intended), you have decided to take matters into your own hands regarding the discipline on board. You have your trusty blunderbuss with you, and you fully intend to make use of it to maintain order.

Your goal: A Presence victory, preferably with the original captain still in command. However, that’s not as important. Treasure is not important to you.

Powers: Anybody that votes for a mutiny in the thread is to be killed. You may kill one potential mutineer a night, with those who were more vocal taking precedence. If the vocalness of the would-be mutineers is about equal, then whoever voted for a mutiny first takes precedence. Those who voted for a mutiny but then took it back must not be spared, however, if they took it back and somebody else left their vote on for a mutiny, you must kill the second person. As your determination to keep order on board is threatening to cross the line into an all-out obsession, your kills are particularly powerful and even stand a chance of blasting through protection.

If there are no targets for you to take care of, you may participate in a townie protection group (but not a kill group). You may not instigate thoughts of mutiny in any way in order to gain yourself potential targets, nor may you alert the Captain, his officers, or anyone else, of your presence at any time (note: if your role becomes common knowledge in the thread, then this rule no longer applies). If the Captain is revealed to be an enemy of the Presence, you must still stay loyal to him.

Finally, if the captain is replaced at some point in the game, your loyalty fully shifts to the new captain and will begin protecting his sovereignty immediately and as intensely as with the previous captain. Good luck!

Another role that had been around from the beginning, I think this one became a victim of my excessive tweaking. On advice from Seamus, I cut the treasure bonus for participating in a successful mutiny significantly. However, what Seamus didn’t know is that I had inserted the Fanatical Loyalist in as a deterrent against would-be mutineers who would do so only for profit. As a result, it just really wasn’t worth it to really work to engineer one this time around, and Kukri spent half his time protecting instead of keeping the ship in order.

Despite this, Kukri took to the role very well, providing his blunderbuss with a name (the now-infamous Bess) and suggesting in I work in Judecca and Cocytus references to give a hint as to the exact particulars of his role. I thank him for his services, but I’m going to spend a long time looking at the mutiny mechanic for the sequel.

British Special Officer
Sent to CountArach

Spoiler Alert, click show to read:

Your role is:

British Special Officer

England expects that every man will do his duty
~ Adm. Horatio Nelson, in a coded signal before the Battle of Trafalgar

Congratulations! You’re the de facto main villain in a Huge game. Are you feeling up to it? I hope so, because the entire British High Command, not to mention the good citizens of Charleston, are counting on you to get their treasure back. As a higher rank than the two lieutenants designated to assist you, you have certain powers that are unavailable to them. However, you are also at more risk than them because of this. Exercise extreme caution during your days on the Presence, for your team will be crippled in the event of your death.

Your goal: Essentially, you have been tasked to accomplish your task no matter what. You must therefore eliminate or subordinate every single non-British-affiliated person on board the Presence. You must survive with at least one original Agent.

Your allies in helping you accomplish this task are [ALLY] and [ALLY].

Powers: As British Special Officer, you have perhaps the most varied skill set in the entire game. Every night, you may do one of the following tasks:

- Investigate two persons a night to determine susceptibility to Letters of Marque. This is a unique power available only to you.
- Team up with a fellow Agent to kill one person a night. However, if you are the only Agent left, you may kill solo.
- Go out individually and offer a Letter of Marque to one person. If your target is susceptible to Letters of Marque, they will join your team and become a British Convert. If your target is NOT susceptible, then you stand a chance of being discovered.
- Take part in the townie vigilante groups with 3 others. However, you do not count as towards a successful protection. If a target is protected with more than the required minimum of players, and you are part of it, you will still be awarded treasure for your efforts.

In addition, your officer training has served you well. If you are attacked within the first three nights on board, you will successfully fend them off, no matter their numbers. However, sea life eventually takes its toll, and starting the fourth night (or earlier, if you are attacked earlier), you will lose this ability.

Lastly, treasure is not a motivator to you, and you may not Abandon Ship under any circumstances, under penalty of death as per the British Naval Code. Good luck!

The thing I was worried about most before the game started was the Special Officer falling victim to a random vigilante hit, thus crippling the British before they had the chance to get their feet wet. Hence my giving him his early-game immunity; the most powerful in the game, second only to TinCow’s. As I’ll detail further in my list of everyone’s actions, CA was amazingly accurate with his investigations, but he really could have benefitted from an extended immunity.

On the bright side (at least for me), the British collapse in Pirate Ship Mafia probably breaks the record for most startling, set in pevergreen’s “The Fight for Inishmore” game set by… the British. Apparently the men of St. George don’t know how to close games out.

British Lieutenant
Sent to ricera10, scottishranger

Spoiler Alert, click show to read:

Your role is:

British Lieutenant

For England, for home, and for the prize!
~ Captain Jack Aubrey

You are one of the two British Lieutenants on board, under the command of your equally British Special Officer. Although this is nothing more than a mission to get the treasure from the sack of Charleston back by removing the pirate threat, you still cannot help but feel disgust that so many good Britons have been turned away from the loving embrace of the Crown to the despicable practice of piracy. While you know some of them may still be redeemed, and are counting on this prospect for your team’s success, you still take a grim, professional pleasure in removing Mother England’s enemies.

Your goal: Essentially, you have been tasked to accomplish your task no matter what. You must therefore eliminate or subordinate every single non-British-affiliated person on board the Presence. You must survive with at least one original Agent.

You ally in helping you accomplish this task is [ALLY]. Your Special Officer, commanding the mission, is [COMMANDER].

Powers: Every night, you may do one of the following tasks:

- Team up with a fellow Agent (or your Special Officer) to kill one person a night. However, if you are the only Agent left, you may kill solo.
- Go out individually and offer a Letter of Marque to one person. If your target is susceptible to Letters of Marque, they will join your team and become a British Convert. If your target is NOT susceptible, then you stand a chance of being discovered.
- Take part in the townie vigilante groups with 3 others. However, you do not count as towards a successful protection. If a target is protected with more than the required minimum of players, and you are part of it, you will still be awarded treasure for your efforts.

Lastly, treasure is not a motivator to you, and you may not Abandon Ship under any circumstances, under penalty of death as per the British Naval Code. Good luck!

In the future, I may allow the bad guys to successfully be able to hide in protection groups so they can get a better alibi.

Maven Saboteur (basic)
Sent to gibsonsg91921, Sigurd

Spoiler Alert, click show to read:

Your role is:

Maven Saboteur

It is when pirates count their booty that they become mere thieves.
~ William Bolitho

The Maven and the Presence have been the two main competing pirate ships in this part of the ocean for several years now. Ordinarily, the two of you would cooperate, as there would have been more than enough loot to go around, but this is no longer the Golden Age of Piracy. The ever-cursed British have cracked down, and the opportunities are drying up. Your captain, hearing about the ever-spectacular sack of Charleston, has decided that the treasure accumulated is just too much of a bounty to pass up. He has ordered you and two other trusted comrades to sneak onboard the Presence, and steal as much of it as possible before hightailing it. In addition, he would also like it if you were able to eliminate the entire crew and take the ship for yourselves, but that might be difficult to do and he will understand it if you are unable to accomplish this task.

Your goals: The primary goal is to accumulate as much treasure as you possibly can, and then getting out of there alive. The secondary goal is to eliminate everyone on board and take the ship for yourselves. This is a much more difficult task to accomplish, but the victory will be far much more spectacular if you are able to obtain it.

Your two initial allies in helping you accomplish this task are [ALLY] and [ALLY]. You may acquire more allies along the way (see below), however, one original saboteur must survive in order for your goals to be accomplished.

Powers: Unlike with the British Agents, there is no overt command structure among the three of you and thus you all share the same abilities. You may perform one of the following activities per night:

- ONE (and only one) of you may investigate one person to determine their susceptibility to treasure.
- Two of you may team up to kill one person a night. The standard pot of treasure is rewarded.
- You may also take part in the standard townie group activities (kill with at least 3 others, protect with at least 2 others). As a by-product of your involvement, you will also receive accurate information on one other person’s treasure count, randomly determined.
- Once one of you becomes the active leader in treasure accumulated (I will notify you of this), then you may begin offering Presence sailors to join your crew, promising them greater treasure. If they are susceptible to treasure, they will become a Maven convert. If not, then you stand a chance of being discovered.
- You may choose to Abandon Ship. This decision must be unanimous, but unlike your standard townies, you are guaranteed to get off the ship without incident. This takes you out of the game permanently and is to only be done if you don’t think you stand a chance of victory or if you think you have accumulated enough gold to please your Captain.

Lastly… good luck!

The basic premise behind the Mavens and the Brits is that I wanted each to have a specific set of strengths and weaknesses. In the Mavens’ case, their strength was flexibility. All of their men had the same exact set of powers (though Reenk got a little immunity bonus, see below), but they were limited by the gold provision. This in essence forced themselves to kill if they wanted to be able to recruit.

Though the Mavens did end up surviving longer than the Brits, they had also been effectively neutered by Day 4, meaning I think that they had an equal chance of doing as well as the Brits, all other things equal. Again, something I’ll have to look at for the sequel.

Maven Saboteur (Plus)
Sent to Reenk Roink

Spoiler Alert, click show to read:

Your role is:

Maven Saboteur

It is when pirates count their booty that they become mere thieves.
~ William Bolitho

The Maven and the Presence have been the two main competing pirate ships in this part of the ocean for several years now. Ordinarily, the two of you would cooperate, as there would have been more than enough loot to go around, but this is no longer the Golden Age of Piracy. The ever-cursed British have cracked down, and the opportunities are drying up. Your captain, hearing about the ever-spectacular sack of Charleston, has decided that the treasure accumulated is just too much of a bounty to pass up. He has ordered you and two other trusted comrades to sneak onboard the Presence, and steal as much of it as possible before hightailing it. In addition, he would also like it if you were able to eliminate the entire crew and take the ship for yourselves, but that might be difficult to do and he will understand it if you are unable to accomplish this task.

Your goals: The primary goal is to accumulate as much treasure as you possibly can, and then getting out of there alive. The secondary goal is to eliminate everyone on board and take the ship for yourselves. This is a much more difficult task to accomplish, but the victory will be far much more spectacular if you are able to obtain it.

Your two initial allies in helping you accomplish this task are [ALLY] and [ALLY]. You may acquire more allies along the way (see below), however, one original saboteur must survive in order for your goals to be accomplished.

Powers: Unlike with the British Agents, there is no overt command structure among the three of you and thus you all share the same abilities. You may perform one of the following activities per night:

- ONE (and only one) of you may investigate one person to determine their susceptibility to treasure.
- Two of you may team up to kill one person a night. The standard pot of treasure is rewarded.
- You may also take part in the standard townie group activities (kill with at least 3 others, protect with at least 2 others). As a by-product of your involvement, you will also receive accurate information on one other person’s treasure count, randomly determined.
- Once one of you becomes the active leader in treasure accumulated (I will notify you of this), then you may begin offering Presence sailors to join your crew, promising them greater treasure. If they are susceptible to treasure, they will become a Maven convert. If not, then you stand a chance of being discovered.
- You may choose to Abandon Ship. This decision must be unanimous, but unlike your standard townies, you are guaranteed to get off the ship without incident. This takes you out of the game permanently and is to only be done if you don’t think you stand a chance of victory or if you think you have accumulated enough gold to please your Captain.

Lastly, you are stronger than the other two Maven crewman and thus are guaranteed survival the first time somebody attacks you at night. However, after Night 5, the overwhelming paranoia and constant being-on-your-guard starts to wear on you, and this ability no longer applies. It is your choice whether you wish to tell your fellow crewmen about this ability. This ability does not imply that you are their leader. Good luck!

I wanted one of the Mavens to get some kind of immunity from the early attacks, much like CA. Unfortunately, this went to the wrong person. Gibson went down to the Four Horsemen very early on, and Reenk actually had protection on him the first couple of nights.

Steward
Sent to slashandburn, Yaropolk

Spoiler Alert, click show to read:

Your role is:

Steward

The first thing you’ve got to learn about this ship is that she was designed by geniuses to be run by idiots.
~ Lieut. Thomas Keefer

Although life on the Presence is not nearly as ordered as a career in the Navy, there is still some chain of command as well as discipline beyond that of the Captain and his officers, and you are that chain. A Steward is responsible for the general well-being of the crew. In the past, this usually meant making sure that half the sailors didn’t come down with scurvy and that they weren’t dying from malnutrition. However, your job particulars have somewhat altered in the outbreak of violence that has recently affected the ship. Now, your main job is to make sure that there is a crew that returns to Nassau. Isn’t responsibility great?

Your goal: Ensure a Presence victory by eliminating all her threats. As you are a mid-level officer, you are ensured that you will be well-compensated for your work, and thus the accumulation of treasure is not a motivation to you.

Powers: Unlike most of the Able Seamen aboard, you are somewhat limited in the scope of night actions that are available to you. However, you perform your stated duties particularly well.

- Every night, you may protect one person a night. You are able to thwart the standard two-man villain kill groups and four-man townie kill groups. However, groups over the minimum number of participants stand a greater chance of blasting through your protection. Very large groups may even put yourself at risk.
- You are not the only Steward on board. Should you find others, you may protect them, but at least one of you must protect an outside target (this is to prevent an invincible circle of Stewards from forming).
- You may not Abandon Ship at any time. You are in this until the end.

Finally, if you are appointed First Mate or Quartermaster, those powers replace your current powers. You will gain your original powers back upon being sacked. Good luck!

The standard Doctor role. Not really needed as I think the protection groups had more saves than the Stewards (Yaro had one, and it would have failed anyway because the attack was uncoordinated). If I could do this all over again, I think I would eliminate this role. The presence of the Quartermaster, a roleblocker, and protection groups kind of made the Steward vestigial.

Watchstander
Sent to Centurion1, Beskar

Spoiler Alert, click show to read:

Your role is:

Watchstander

I often think that the night is more alive and more richly colored than the day.
~ Vincent Van Gogh

Someone has to keep the ship going while the Captain and his crew get some sleep (or at least pretend to). That someone would be you. Your job entails basic duties such as making sure the ship is straight, nothing’s falling apart, and watching for potential attacks. However, as the Presence is a streamlined vessel (you heard a rumor that it was originally the personal ship of an adventurous Frenchman) and pretty much runs itself, you have a lot of down time. This means looking carefully at what’s going on.

Your goal: Ensure a Presence victory by eliminating all her threats. As you are a mid-level officer, you are ensured that you will be well-compensated for your work, and thus the accumulation of treasure is not a motivation to you.

Powers: Unlike most of the Able Seamen aboard, you are somewhat limited in the scope of night actions that are available to you. However, you perform your stated duties particularly well.

- Every night, you may investigate two persons on board the ship. This basic investigation will tell you what they were doing that night. Follow-up investigations will reveal more about them, including susceptibility and eventually their true affiliation.
- You are not the only Watchstander on board. Should you find others, you may work together to investigate targets, which will bring about more thorough results in a faster period of time.
- You may not Abandon Ship at any time. Doing so would be a dereliction of duty. Even pirates have that much honor, mate.

Finally, if you are appointed First Mate or Quartermaster, those powers replace your current powers. You will gain your original powers back upon being sacked. Good luck!

I wanted to be very careful about this one, especially with the town in Capo III being dictated by “wait for investigations”. Luckily, my experience hosting the small game Omertà back in May/June prepared me for this, and I recycled the three-tier investigation system I used in that. In addition, after being asked for clarification on this issue several times, I made it so that the First Mate’s investigations were entirely separate from the Watchstanders’, disallowing them from getting Tier 3 results immediately.

Ultimately I think I made the Watchstander role fairly well-balanced, especially with the provision that protection groups couldn’t block a double-kill attempt. However, Centurion was inactive for several nights. It’s difficult to speculate how things may have been different had he been operating at full efficiency, much like Beskar.

I eventually provided this PM to Reenk and the British on their joint Quicktopic just as the British were in the middle of their 72-hour death knell. Reenk used it to great effect in the later rounds, though by that time there was little misdirection he could really throw up.

Able Seaman (basic)
Sent to ACIN, White_eyes, Xehh II, YLC, Louis, Drizzt, Blackadder, AVSM, atheotes, Iskander, Jolt, Winter, ATPG, khaan, A1, pever, Beefy, Chaotix, john, Diana, Seamus, shlin, Psychonaut, Khazaar

Spoiler Alert, click show to read:

Your role is:

Able Seaman (townie)

I’m sailing away, set an open course for the virgin sea/I’ve got to be free, free to face the life ahead of me…
~ Styx

Avast, matey! Despite those cursed officers getting all high-and-mighty about their duties, you know that you and your fellow Able Seamen are the backbone of the Presence. After all, it was your hard work that won you the bounty of Charleston, your hard work that keeps the ship in good order, and your hard work that pays for that Captain’s immense salary. This loot you’ve acquired is a huge break, not seen since the days of Morgan, and you’re anxious to get back home and spend it. There’s only one problem: It seems like everyone wants you dead. You’re going to have to fight very hard for this if you ever want to see Nassau alive, and you may even have to… *gasp* use your brains. Don’t panic though, I hear a little rum is good for you mind. Or was that scotch?

Your goals: Unless successfully recruited by either the British Agents or Maven saboteurs, your aim is to eliminate every last threat on board the Presence. In addition, you also wish to accumulate as much treasure as possible. Please check the first post in the Summary thread for exactly how you can boost your treasure total.

Your victory conditions vary, but generally you will score highest if you survive the ordeal, stay on board, and have the most treasure. You will also score well if you survive and stay on board period, accumulate a lot of treasure before dying, or abandon ship with a lot of treasure and the Presence crew ends up losing.

You will not score so well if you die early on, abandon ship with little treasure, or abandon ship and later witness the Presence crew win.

Powers: Each night, you may perform one of the following actions:

- Sleep. This means you will do nothing for the night. However, still sending in the order will net you a small gain in treasure.
- Protect a target with a group of at least three people, including yourself. The chances for a successful protection increase with numbers. All orders must match for a successful protection. You will be awarded the full amount of treasure if the target is still alive at the end of the night, even if he is not attacked.
- Kill a target with a group of at least four people, including yourself. The chances for a successful kill increase with numbers. All orders must match for a successful kill.
- Abandon Ship: Leave the Presence with all of your treasure. Abandoning ship means you depart the game permanently, so choose wisely when you do this. Every night, you will have a random chance of being able to do this successfully.

In addition, you can perform the following actions in the day:

- Vote for who you think should walk the plank.
- In addition to this, you may also try to remove the Captain by voting for a mutiny. The proper way to do this in the thread is Vote: Mutiny. If over 50% of living players vote for a mutiny, the Captain is removed from his position and executed along with whoever has the most votes. You gain a bonus in treasure for a successful mutiny, and only mutineers may participate in the selection for the next Captain.

At any time, you may privately send me a Will detailing who your treasure goes to in the event of your death. You will automatically lose 50 treasure upon dying, but you can dictate who that treasure goes to, if anybody. Wills will only be considered valid if they are sent to me/updated at least three hours prior to your death.

Finally… good luck!

The bare-bones townie PM. Contrary to popular belief, susceptibility was not determined by the quote you received. Instead, I further randomized the names after I sent out all the PMs and made a note of the results in the Excel spreadsheet. The first four names on the list were susceptible to both Letters of Marque and treasure; the next six, Letters of Marque only; the six after that, treasure only. I will show everyone’s susceptibility when I write up the list of every player’s activities, which you should expect in a couple of days.

Able Seaman (with “strong” bonus)
Sent to Joooray, woad, Grizzly, taka, Andres, miotas, Tratorix

Spoiler Alert, click show to read:

Your role is:

Able Seaman (townie)

We are all in the same boat in a stormy sea, and we owe each other a terrible loyalty.
~ G.K. Chesterton

Avast, matey! Despite those cursed officers getting all high-and-mighty about their duties, you know that you and your fellow Able Seamen are the backbone of the Presence. After all, it was your hard work that won you the bounty of Charleston, your hard work that keeps the ship in good order, and your hard work that pays for that Captain’s immense salary. This loot you’ve acquired is a huge break, not seen since the days of Morgan, and you’re anxious to get back home and spend it. There’s only one problem: It seems like everyone wants you dead. You’re going to have to fight very hard for this if you ever want to see Nassau alive, and you may even have to… *gasp* use your brains. Don’t panic though, I hear a little rum is good for you mind. Or was that scotch?

Your goals: Unless successfully recruited by either the British Agents or Maven saboteurs, your aim is to eliminate every last threat on board the Presence. In addition, you also wish to accumulate as much treasure as possible. Please check the first post in the Summary thread for exactly how you can boost your treasure total.

Your victory conditions vary, but generally you will score highest if you survive the ordeal, stay on board, and have the most treasure. You will also score well if you survive and stay on board period, accumulate a lot of treasure before dying, or abandon ship with a lot of treasure and the Presence crew ends up losing.

You will not score so well if you die early on, abandon ship with little treasure, or abandon ship and later witness the Presence crew win.

Powers: Each night, you may perform one of the following actions:

- Sleep. This means you will do nothing for the night. However, still sending in the order will net you a small gain in treasure.
- Protect a target with a group of at least three people, including yourself. The chances for a successful protection increase with numbers. All orders must match for a successful protection. You will be awarded the full amount of treasure if the target is still alive at the end of the night, even if he is not attacked.
- Kill a target with a group of at least four people, including yourself. The chances for a successful kill increase with numbers. All orders must match for a successful kill.
- Abandon Ship: Leave the Presence with all of your treasure. Abandoning ship means you depart the game permanently, so choose wisely when you do this. Every night, you will have a random chance of being able to do this successfully.

In addition, you can perform the following actions in the day:

- Vote for who you think should walk the plank.
- In addition to this, you may also try to remove the Captain by voting for a mutiny. The proper way to do this in the thread is Vote: Mutiny. If over 50% of living players vote for a mutiny, the Captain is removed from his position and executed along with whoever has the most votes. You gain a bonus in treasure for a successful mutiny, and only mutineers may participate in the selection for the next Captain.

At any time, you may privately send me a Will detailing who your treasure goes to in the event of your death. You will automatically lose 50 treasure upon dying, but you can dictate who that treasure goes to, if anybody. Wills will only be considered valid if they are sent to me/updated at least three hours prior to your death.

Finally, you are stronger than many men on board and thus you can defend yourself better than a lot of these scurvy landlubbers. Any time a minimum group of players attacks you, you stand a 50% chance of survival. This ability does not expire. Good luck!

This was my major mistake of the game. While sending this PM to LG, Joooray, taka, and woad (they all had the same base gold), I forgot to BCC them and instead made the list of recipients public, or at least to them. Combine that with the eerily coincidental Chesterton quote, and these four were sure that they were masons. Joooray asked if it was an error; I confirmed that it was but failed to say whether or not I rectified it (I didn’t). I do apologize to the four of them, especially Grizz and woad, for the error, but still found the mechanic interesting as they were an experimental variable of sorts.

Able Seaman (with “food” bonus)
Sent to SSNeo, CR, Sasaki, Double A, DiY, DisgruntledGoat, Subotan

Spoiler Alert, click show to read:

Your role is:

Able Seaman (townie)

Yo ho ho ho, a pirate’s life for me!
~ Traditional

Avast, matey! Despite those cursed officers getting all high-and-mighty about their duties, you know that you and your fellow Able Seamen are the backbone of the Presence. After all, it was your hard work that won you the bounty of Charleston, your hard work that keeps the ship in good order, and your hard work that pays for that Captain’s immense salary. This loot you’ve acquired is a huge break, not seen since the days of Morgan, and you’re anxious to get back home and spend it. There’s only one problem: It seems like everyone wants you dead. You’re going to have to fight very hard for this if you ever want to see Nassau alive, and you may even have to… *gasp* use your brains. Don’t panic though, I hear a little rum is good for you mind. Or was that scotch?

Your goals: Unless successfully recruited by either the British Agents or Maven saboteurs, your aim is to eliminate every last threat on board the Presence. In addition, you also wish to accumulate as much treasure as possible. Please check the first post in the Summary thread for exactly how you can boost your treasure total.

Your victory conditions vary, but generally you will score highest if you survive the ordeal, stay on board, and have the most treasure. You will also score well if you survive and stay on board period, accumulate a lot of treasure before dying, or abandon ship with a lot of treasure and the Presence crew ends up losing.

You will not score so well if you die early on, abandon ship with little treasure, or abandon ship and later witness the Presence crew win.

Powers: Each night, you may perform one of the following actions:

- Sleep. This means you will do nothing for the night. However, still sending in the order will net you a small gain in treasure.
- Protect a target with a group of at least three people, including yourself. The chances for a successful protection increase with numbers. All orders must match for a successful protection. You will be awarded the full amount of treasure if the target is still alive at the end of the night, even if he is not attacked.
- Kill a target with a group of at least four people, including yourself. The chances for a successful kill increase with numbers. All orders must match for a successful kill.
- Abandon Ship: Leave the Presence with all of your treasure. Abandoning ship means you depart the game permanently, so choose wisely when you do this. Every night, you will have a random chance of being able to do this successfully.

In addition, you can perform the following actions in the day:

- Vote for who you think should walk the plank.
- In addition to this, you may also try to remove the Captain by voting for a mutiny. The proper way to do this in the thread is Vote: Mutiny. If over 50% of living players vote for a mutiny, the Captain is removed from his position and executed along with whoever has the most votes. You gain a bonus in treasure for a successful mutiny, and only mutineers may participate in the selection for the next Captain.

At any time, you may privately send me a Will detailing who your treasure goes to in the event of your death. You will automatically lose 50 treasure upon dying, but you can dictate who that treasure goes to, if anybody. Wills will only be considered valid if they are sent to me/updated at least three hours prior to your death.

Finally, you have been secretly stealing rations for a while now and as a result are better fed than most of the sailors. This doesn’t really have an effect on you from the outset, but as time wears on and life as you know it starts breaking down, you will be in a better position to deal with it than most of the crew. As a result, if you are attacked anytime from Nights 6-10, you stand a 50% chance of survival. Good luck!

Crazed Rabbit cleverly used the quote provided in his push for Captain as a way to subtly say that he was a townie without letting the mafia pick up on it, but unbeknownst to him this was not the quote sent to the majority of the townies. However, I don’t really think anyone picked up on it either way.

Captain

Spoiler Alert, click show to read:

You have been elected to:

Captain

Have you ever considered piracy? You’d make a wonderful Dread Pirate Roberts.
~ Westley, to Inigo Montoya

Congratulations! The Presence is yours to command. Now get to work, because there’s villains a-plenty aboard and the good honest pirates are counting on you to steer them home to Nassau with all of the haul from Charleston intact. As Captain, you are the main authority figure on board and have several powers to assist you with your responsibilities.

Your goals: Eliminate all threats to the Presence. You will not be able to be converted while you are in office, even if you are susceptible. However, in the case that you are already on a different side, congratulations on your deception and continue furthering your goals. A secondary goal is to remain Captain of the Presence for the rest of the voyage, but should you do a good enough job then accomplishing the first should go far towards accomplishing the second as well.

Powers: As Captain, your main powers are of delegation and placing your trust in the right people. However, you do have your own personal abilities in the case of an emergency.

- If you have not done so already, you must make your choice of who is to be your First Mate and Quartermaster. Your First Mate can kill one person or investigate two persons per night, and the Quartermaster can individually protect or roleblock one person per night. You may replace these two officers at will.
- You personally cannot be killed at night. The only way you may be removed from office is if over 50% of the ship’s crew votes to mutiny.
- You may still take part in night actions as usual. However, your treasure count for performing any such activities will be wiped away.
- Instead, your salary as Captain is 15 pieces of treasure a night (plus 2 for submitting a night order).
- For the duration of the period that you are Captain, you may not Abandon Ship. This violates every single code of honor you have ever heard of, pirate or not.
- You have no vote, however you will still gain the 3 pieces of treasure for making a post in the day phase. Should there be a tie, it will be up to you and your officers to break the tie. Each of you has one equal vote in this. Should you and your Officers be deadlocked, you have the final tiebreaking vote.

Finally, you have the Captain’s Prerogative. Once in the game, you may go out at night and choose to kill one person. This kill has a guaranteed 100% chance of success and will override all protections, both innate and from external sources. This is the only sure-fire kill in the game and will not be recycled should a new Captain be elected, so use it wisely. Good luck!

I quite liked the Captain’s Prerogative special feature, and am glad that CR got to use it during the game. It’s too bad that ATPG didn’t have protection stacked on him the night he died, though, just to shock the heck out of everybody.

First Mate

Spoiler Alert, click show to read:

You have been appointed to:

First Mate

When he reached the New World, Cortez burned his ships. As a result his men were well motivated.
~ Capt. Marko Ramius

Welcome to officerhood! The Captain has entrusted you with the safety and security of the Presence and you are responsible directly to him. Going back over your responsibilities, you start to wonder if the Captain has something against you for putting you in this thankless role, but put the thoughts aside. You have work to do.

Your goal: Using your new powers, your mission is to ensure a Presence victory while at the same time making sure you are at or near the lead in gold count. You will not be able to be converted while you are in office, even if you are susceptible. However, in the case that you are already on a different side, congratulations on your deception and continue furthering your goals.

Powers: Your nighttime abilities as First Mate override those you had previously. Upon your removal from office, you will get your original powers back.

- You stand a flat 50% chance of dying at night, regardless of numbers or powers.
- At night, you may submit orders to either kill one person or investigate two people. Your investigation results will be akin to those of a Watchstander. Multiple investigations are required to determine susceptibility and finally true affiliation.
- Your salary as First Mate is 12 pieces of treasure per night (plus 2 for submitting a night order).
- Unlike the Captain, you have a vote in the daily proceedings. If there is a tie vote, you, the Captain, and the Quartermaster will vote to break the tie. If the three of you cannot break that tie (say, each of you votes to execute a different person), then the Captain has the final say.
- So long as you hold this office, you cannot Abandon Ship.

Finally, in addition to your orders, you have the option to leave the Captain vulnerable at night. This is not the default option – i.e. you must specifically let me know that you are doing this. If both you and the Quartermaster choose to leave the Captain vulnerable for a night, then the protection his office provides is removed and he is liable to be murdered at night. However, you cannot be the one to deliver the killing blow – the Captain must be murdered by an outside source. The Captain does not know about this ability. Good luck!

Louis’s impact on this game was very underrated. I think he was the sole person CR had a 100% trust in throughout the game, and he provided some very important services for the Captain. His one kill (Psychonaut) was off the mark, although he was a very entertaining player and did his best to evenly pace his captain in the treasure race by offering pieces of a (totally fake) “officer’s treasure map” to unsuspecting sailors for treasure. Well done and totally within the spirit of the game.

Quartermaster

Spoiler Alert, click show to read:

You have been appointed to:

Quartermaster

You, you, you, step forward! You three are a disgrace to salt water! Ten days’ half rations!
~ Capt. William Bligh

While in reality, pirate Quartermasters were usually elected along with the Captain, in this game they are appointed. Lucky you. The fact that they were appointed speaks to the importance and power of their role in Pirate society. As Quartermaster, you are primarily in charge of discipline on the ship, which is fast becoming unraveled thanks to the numerous threats on board the Presence. You are well-versed in the Pirate Articles and issuing punishments for those who transgress the Articles falls entirely in your jurisdiction. This is reflected in your powers.

Your goal: Using your new powers, your mission is to ensure a Presence victory while at the same time making sure you are at or near the lead in gold count. You will not be able to be converted while you are in office, even if you are susceptible. However, in the case that you are already on a different side, congratulations on your deception and continue furthering your goals.

Powers: Your nighttime abilities as Quartermaster override those you had previously. Upon your removal from office, you will get your original powers back.

- You stand a flat 50% chance of dying at night, regardless of numbers or powers.
- At night, you may submit orders to either protect one person or throw one person into the brig (prevent them from doing anything at night). As a by-product of throwing them into the brig, you will also gain an accurate report of that person’s treasure count.
- Your salary as Quartermaster is 12 pieces of treasure per night (plus 2 for submitting a night order).
- Unlike the Captain, you have a vote in the daily proceedings. If there is a tie vote, you, the Captain, and the First Mate will vote to break the tie. If the three of you cannot break that tie (say, each of you votes to execute a different person), then the Captain has the final say.
- So long as you hold this office, you cannot Abandon Ship.

Finally, in addition to your orders, you have the option to leave the Captain vulnerable at night. This is not the default option – i.e. you must specifically let me know that you are doing this. If both you and the First Mate choose to leave the Captain vulnerable for a night, then the protection his office provides is removed and he is liable to be murdered at night. The Captain does not know about this ability. Good luck!

Good God I remember sending this PM so many times throughout the course of the game. Once I realized that CR wouldn’t be removed through mutiny, I was secretly hoping for an officer-driven coup as per the special abilities. TinCow, if he had wrangled Reenk into the First Mate position, could have pulled it off since his role could both leave protection off CR as well as deliver the final blow. It was not to be though.

I still have the individual players’ write-up to finish, but in the meantime feel free to feast on this for a while and enjoy.

I relied heavily on Microsoft Excel for this game, almost obsessively so. For those interested, there were 12 separate sheets: one for keeping track of everyone’s status, one for recruitment, one for transactions, and nine for voting. The status sheet ended up being 52*32 cels in total, or a whopping 1,664 cels of data! And that was only one sheet!

If anyone is interested in seeing the actual spreadsheet, let me know and I’ll send you an email.

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