Episode #32

Oh What a Night! 

Ahoy Landlubbers! Have I got a tale for you tonight! After this morning's rash of Sea Trance victims (See Episode 30), I contact Alastair and we agree we must go on Patrol to try and control the spread of this horrible epidemic!

We first patrol around the Minoc Mining Cliffs. I don't know who these
maraduing pirates are, but they should join AAR if they can burn boats!

Since this morning, I was able to get down to 3 short term counts, HAR!

While at the cliffs, I stacked some ore on my spot to prevent mages from 
easily targeting me. We pass by Valor Bloodsedge, Alastair quickly drops a poison field while
I drop a bladespirt, and he takes off! Alastair takes to the nose of the boat, while I stand on the tillerman's
shoulders and direct him in the correct path. 

Eventually, we got him! his spirit however was quick, and he sailed away swiftly. 
He wasn't in the Sea Trance, but we have suspicion he was a carrier! Alastair suggest perhaps these
carriers are just as bad as those infected, and we are proud to have been able to bring this situation under control!

We pass by "meager Pirate". Sure he may seem like a pirate, but
since he's not aligned with AAR, he's a tresspasser! We both conclude that Meager Pirate is
Sea-Trace-Carrier Positive, and he must be killed immediately to prevent further contamination! 

One blade Spirit was enough, Meager Pirate falls! But that's only the beginning...

 
His plank is unlocked! HAR! I board the boat, and Meager Pirate quickly
goes to his tillerman to spit out commands to do anything to prevent me from looting his corpse,
which has a boat key on it! While I'm busy trying to get the tillerman to keep the boat still long enough
to get the boat key from his corpse, "Rubiante" sails by, and I can't control myself, and lay in attack on him!
(We later learned that Meager Pirate and Rubicante were friends, and it's very possible that Rubicante came to Meager's aid!)
I still don't have the boat key, and I unknowingly have picked a fight with a very good mage, I call in Alastair to quickly find me, and abondon  our ship and board our new one in hopes to work together in getting that boat key and taking
command of this vessel!

Please Excuse Alastair, he's quite baffled that Meager Pirate sailed over five
screens away from where we killed him and hears I am already attacking another landlubber!

Finally Alastair comes aboard, and I stop the boat long enough for him to get the key!

Again, Rubicante comes back!!

He retreats to rethink of a plan of attack, and Alastair and I think we won...

Alastair fell, and with him the boat key! I quickly loot the key before the ghost of
Meager Pirate makes things worse for me!

I had bladespirts precasted, and Alastair is now in Stat Loss, so I can't ress him.
I check how many counts I have, and our guest arrives but this time with Dispel ready to go, oh oh!

I panic, and decide to throw all my purple potions to him, I was hoping they would
disrupt his casting....however it seems they are not as effective as one would believe against mages...

 
ARR! We lost, so it seems! Now it's back to fighting over who controls the tillerman!

I summon Jazon and Serpentine of AAR to come to our aide, and warn them that a mighty mage will be ready for them!

The fight for the tillerman's ears begins. I am macroing "forward" as fast as I can, while
Meager Pirate tries to thwart my every attempt.

Enough of this foolishness, and I start to macro Drop anchor!
Now Jazon and Serpentine can find us easier, however now Rubicante can get to us easier.

I finally had a Plan B! While Jazon and Serpentine dealt with the mage, I summoned the help
of Crazy Joe! He sailed alongside the boat, and Alastair opened the plank and allowed Crazy Joe on board!
Crazy Joe was able to loot everyone's corpses, including the boat key! Jazon and Serpentine were able to chase off the mage, so I sailed off quickly in hopes to finally lose him. Now just to get rid of Meager Pirate....

 
HAR! They sailed into T2A, and noticed the spirit of Meager Pirate was no longer on board! They quickly
sailed to land, and dry docked Meager Pirate's boat! Alastair, still in stat loss, was given a gate portal back to Scoundrel's Cove!
   

But wait....There's More!

Upon returning to my spirit that lost consiousness earlier, I arrived dead at Scoundrels' Cove myself.
Alastair sadly won't be doing much tonight, and Twitch was hanging around and gave me a ress!

I was ready to call it a night, but then Jazon and Serpentine summoned me, they died at sea and needed a ress!
I got on my pirate boat and found them rather quickly, assisted them back to the land of the living, then sat on their boat awhile...but then snapped out of my daydreaming to the sounds of battle, it seems Jazon and Serpentine found someone else at sea!

Before I really knew what was going on, Daeanera was dead. Jazon and Serpentine quickly
loot her corpse, while I went to go peek in the hold...guess what I found?

HAR! Can it be true? Another person with their plank unlocked and a boat key ?

 
Tis True!

Jazon is snorting hysterically, it seems he found something of great value on the corpse and I ask him to show it to me....

!!!!!! 2,793 ash at 3 gold each, that's 8,379 gold! Jazon is overloaded,
and starts to sort his loot to recall home to take the reagents to safety while Serpentine and myself
try and get Daeanera off her boat...

After a few minutes, we cross a server line, and sure enough Daeanera is still with us!
She is quite determined to keep this boat...so Serpentine and I come up with a plan....

While still thinking of our plank, I loot an "incognito" scroll off her corpse. HAR!

HAR! Where did Janks go?!?!

Ok, back to our plan. We both figure Daeanera will sit and lay low until she believes she is alone. Therefor,
We hide and allow her control of her ship. After what seemed like 30 minutes, she figures she's all alone finally and
sailed to Magincia Island!

 Good news - we are practically at Scoundrels' Cove! Bad News - She is taking us straight into the Guard Zone! Sure, Serpentine is Blue and has nothing to worry about, but I'm red and the guards have been looking for me for ages!

 
Now the worst part - we know her plan. She thinks she will quickly go ress and then
get her boat key from the bank and drydock the boat! However we have no idea in telling when she will actually leave this boat. Serpentine and I lay low and try to figure out how to know when the ghost is gone, and I start tracking every 10 seconds...

Egads! Daeanera left the boat already and we didn't see it, and she's already ressed! I see her standing on the shore, and I quickly pull up the anchor and take off, she calls the guards who do see me on the boat, and they come after me!!

 NO TILLERMAN! MY OTHER LEFT!!

AHH! I'm amazed they haven't shot lighting bolts at me yet...

I don't have any clue how she did it, but Daeanera was able to recall to her boat while we were sailing it! This is the second time it has happened in my career (first time was obiwan). However, she is fresh from the healers and is easy to kill!

Guess what she has on her corpse? Can it be true? Did she bring the OTHER BOAT KEY?

She did! Now that we have both boat keys, it's basically ours in a matter of time!

   
Time to dust off that skill known as Spirit Speak...

 
Well, we sailed the boat to Ocllo. Serpentine kept one key, I kept the other. I decided to retire for the night,
and Serpentine stuck around for awhile hoping to see her leave the boat finally.
However, she apparently didn't. I awoke the next morning 6 hours later, and....

....drydocked her boat!