(Also, as I said before, I am not showing off most of the sidequests - there will be an update to detail a big side-quest because it involves Captain Avery but I won't go over EVERY one - there's only so many times you can detail Agnes and her crew killing Flying Fish and Batacuda for their meat before you go bat-jack crazy. @_@)
Flotsam is an interesting place - it used to be a ship's graveyard but when homeless people who were driven out their homes or shipwreck survivors ended up here, they got the idea of building homes inside the ruined ships and so the town thrived, and here is where the Frogfather sent our crew, to locate One-Eyed Jack, who could tell us where Ratbeard was hiding, which would help us recover Captain Gunn's will, which would lead us to his mighty treasure.
That was a lot of whichs, and we had no sea salt to protect us from their magic. (rimshot)
But in all seriousness, it wasn't that hard to locate someone who knew where One-Eyed Jack was. A few district enquiries led me and my crew to the local pub, the Black Jack. The bartender, a rabbit called Flopsy who claimed to be Jack's nephew, told us he was collecting money from his suppliers, and to check the local flophouse.
Flophouses are places where the homeless get a free night's sleep, but sadly there would be no sleeping as the owner, a equine lady called Sally, was being harassed by Ratbeard's men. She was holding her own in battle, but we helped out to drive out the hooligans.
"I am not surprised Ratbeard is harassing anyone who is looking for him," I said coldly. "We're looking for that scurvy rodent ourselves, he has a map to treasure. Do you happen to know where One-Eyed Jack is?"
"Nay," she said. (She's a horse.. get it? rimshot) "At least not today. Maybe Salty Ned would know, Jack's usually there."
Salty Ned got a little antsy thinking we were coming to collect for Jack until I said I was looking for him. He then dropped a bombshell... that "Flopsy" was actually Jack!
"How dare he fool us!" sneered Sarah. "Let's go teach him some manners."
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| Fun fact: This is actually the character that Thomas Lionblood, the Friendly Necromancer(who works at KI) is on the Pirate101 forum! ^_^ |
"I'm here to ask you for the favor that you promised the Frogfather in eexchange for a..." Ugh, I can't believe I was talking like that toad!
"You're here to collect the favor I owe the Frogfather?" asked Jack. "Good! The Frogfather's favors are... uh... difficult to repay."
"We need to find Ratbeard, you know where he is," I said, leaning into him. "So..."
"Oh yes, I know where Ratbeard is," he said, nodding. "I rent out a cabin to him when he visits so he's there... or he was. I promised to warn him if anyone was looking for him so when you came around I told him."
"You... warned him about us," I said, trying not to grab my dagger for rabbit-skinning.
"It's a favor, you understand," he said hastily. "You can catch him if you go now. When you get down from the hoist, take the left ramp and follow it to the end, then down to your left is a boat cabin..."
I tore out of there like a banshee.
"Ratbeard!" I shrieked as I crashed into the cabin and found the slimy rodent. He taunted me and leapt out of the window. I got the whiff of smoke and saw the burning paper.
"The Will!" cried Sarah in horror. "He's burnt it!"
I took my hat and smacked the flaming paper, but sadly was only to recover a tiny scrap of paper which had any writing on it. It read as follows:
"Whoever reads these words, congratulations! I, Captain Gunn, being of sound mind, hereby name you my sole heir and bequeath you a king's ransom. In order to claim it, take a few lessons from a old pirate who has learned many a trick in his day. Go to my home in Corsair's Cave at the end of Corsair's Channel. Inside is an iron-bound cask, and inside that is the first lesson.
"Of course, I understand that, being a pirate, you may not have time for an education from an old salt like me. In tha---"
I groaned and held my head as I put my smoking hat back on it. Ratbeard destroyed the Will once he read the rest of the part and found the shortcut. What sort of idiot pirate was Captain Gunn to give a shortcut that some scalawag could exploit? If Ratbeard had to do the lessons too, we could have caught up to him and stopped him from getting the treasure.
"Ratbeard's got an advantage over us," scowled Bonnie. "Guess we have to do this the hard way."
"You're right, we have no choice but to go through the hoops," I grumbled. "Guys, I need to have a powwow with everyone outside."
Outside, I got on my steed and address my crew. "Look, I understand you all have reason to follow me on this quest... however, we have a situation. I can't take all of you into battle, it would be too difficult to command an army. I can take three of you at best. However, I don't you who are left behind to twiddle your claws or thumbs or whatever you have for digits back at the Rainbow Amber. So I am going to be taking on my duty as a pirate captain and assigning the rest of your guys to all sorts of tasks that will increase our income so we can purchase supplies and gear, work on the ship to improve our nautical experience, and do minor errands to obtain gear, pet snacks for Admiral Harry, and some battle experience for you so you don't feel left out. If that is not fair to you, I understand and give you leeway to break off from my crew and leave." I paused to wait their answer.
"Subodai not leave Captain Agnes," said Subodai. "I shall gladly aid in your efforts. When you rescued me from that clockwork fiend's brig, I promised to have your back forever!"
"I helped ya recover Avery's amulet, Captain," said Bonnie Anne. "And you helped me become a Sharpshooter by replacing my weapon with a great one. I ain't leaving even if I can't battle by your side. I'll do whatever busy work I can if you assign me."
"You were quite impressed by me credentials of breaking out of Newgate Prison, Captain!" said Fan, smiling as she leaned on one her swords. "I won't mind if you take me out of the active party as long as it's a gathering mission I go on. I told you I'm quite the acquirer of goods."
"And I promised I'm honor your parents' memories and the oath I made to your mother," said Gaspard, taking a firm stance. He looked like a tiny little soldier as he saluted. "I'll sail with you always, even if I don't fight for you."
There was one other who spoke. "Hey, Uncle told me to go with you, I ain't leaving just because I get stuck on ship duty. As long as we get the Rat Pack, that's fine."
Ah yes, Vinny. While we were back in Gullet, I helped a trader called Strong John Silver get some Gunpowder for Ore. The trader in Flotsam, Tommy Tin, was being held hostage by a group of rodents which Tommy called "The Rat Pack." John told me that even the Frogfather was getting annoyed, so I decided to see what old Froggy wanted help with. I do feel a sense of respect for the toad as he had done business with my folks.
The Frogfather told us that he intended to find out what the Rat Pack was up to. I had a feeling it would lead to something big - after all, the whole Cutthroat revolt led to the Prawn plot. The Frogfather asked me to put his nephew, Vinny, on the crew. The young frog was a fine sharpshooter.
"Thanks guys," I said, wiping a tear from my eye with a smile. "Okay, let's get going."
(I don't know what trigger the obtaining of Vinny as a companion, but it must be some obscure link as the second character on this account, my avatar Lazy Chris Grant the Musketeer, didn't get Vinny while Agnes did. It must be something I need to look up. However, I did discover that companions ALWAYS join you at one level above your character's current level - Gaspard joined at Level 13 just as Agnes leveled up to Level 12 from meeting the Frogfather after the Presidio and Vinny was also Level 13 as was another character you'll meet later because Agnes wasn't Level 13 yet until after getting him.)
I also had to deal with some unsavory individuals wanting one of Captain Avery's treasure, the Mooshu Falcon. Of course, it got stolen without Avery knowing and guess who ended up fighting us again? I had almost forgotten that memorable shark-guy with the shades, Fin Dorsal. He was a lot stronger than before but even with the backing of that crazy Captain Fowl, we managed to defeat him... only to find that the frog who approached us about the Falcon had gotten it anyways. We took him and his goons down, tied them up for Mordekai's dungeon, and returned the falcon to Avery.
I called a meeting in the ship before we set out. "Okay, I'm going to have to assign roles to you guys. First off, I have made a decision - Fan, Sarah, you both have proven to be extremely valuable to me so you two will be accompanying me, at least for now. Sarah, the way you took out those sharks while we were handling the Mooshu Falcon crisis was amazing, having you join me in backstabbing foes will make battles go much quicker. I'll rotate the others for my third slot as we go."
The crew applauded my skills in negotiation and we headed off... hopefully to get to Gunn's treasure before Ratbeard did. Somehow I felt he'd get his hands on it by the time we got to where it was...
(One more note: The newest update of Pirate101 has improved the companion system. Now the companions who won't join you in battle can be given orders - once they reach Level 8, which they did in Agnes's case - and they can go gather gold, get experience for themselves[so you don't have to waste companion training points] or nautical experience, get gear[but that takes a LOT of real time, at least 12 hours], or pet snacks. You can speed up the process by greasing their palms - aka using Crowns - and the time it takes for them to complete a task increases unless they have a talent like Scavenger trained. It's best to put any companions you never plan to use for battle on orders so you can have them gather gold and nautical experience, as selling items in Pirate101 isn't as lucrative as it is in Wizard101 and the only other way to get nautical experience is by fighting shps which is boring, stupid and risky. You can also get tomes to get companion training points, but sending them to find THOSE is the biggest time-sink, they'll be out for a DAY.)
{To be continued...}
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