Part 21: Smuggler's Cove Revisited

Update 21: Smuggler's Cove Revisited

It's been a while since we last checked in with our heroes, but as you may remember, last time we asked a bunch of pirates if we could ride in their boat, and they left us in the worst place possible -- the literal City of the Dead. While we were in the City, we managed to bump into Nergal, King of the Underworld, and after a skirmish with his goblins and ghouls, he feasted upon some hallucinagenic mushrooms (and Louie's head) and gave us a key to unlock his estranged lover who is currently chained on an island. We also stepped into a magic portal, and fortunately it led us back to familiar territory rather than, say, dumping us in the ocean.

So, where to go from here? Well, we should probably take that key down to the Underworld and unchain Irkalla. The Queen of the Underworld surely can help us out somehow. Fortunately, getting back to her island is as easy as crossing a bridge, visiting an enchanted forest, climbing down a well into hell, and hopping over the surrounding water. Easy stuff, takes about a minute.




So, in exchange for rescuing her, Irkalla rewards us with... another fetchquest. Sigh.

Anyway, to get to the Eastern Isles, we'll either need another magic portal, or a ship. (In case you're wondering, no, there isn't a portal, so ship it is.) Now, let's take another look at that map:



Necropolis and Rustic are two of the Eastern Isles. See that hooked peninsula right by Necropolis? That's Smuggler's Cove. From Smuggler's Cove, we can get to any of the Eastern Isles we need to, as long as we have a decent vessel. So our next order of business is to head on over and politely ask Long John Ugly and his crew to give us another ferry.

And by "politely ask," I of course mean we're going incinerate every last one of them and take their ship.




Once again, we bribe them, they offer us another one-way trip to Deadville. Instead of walking through the south door, however, this time we walk through the west door.






So, there are only 13 pirates to deal with. The problem is that those 4 Scurvy Seadogs can melee from 20" for some reason, which means it's 11 guys who can hit us on the first turn. And they hit hard enough to at least stun multiple party members on the first turn.

Obviously, we'll be throwing out Inferno and Big Chill on the first turn. Piers and Kali will use Fire Blast as well. But we'll also have to make defensive moves here. Ulrik and Louie will block attacks, and Dolph will queue up Major Healing. Go!



...and, with all of that taking out a total of zero enemies, let's do the same thing for another round!



There we go. Front-liners will hack away at the remaining Pirate, Madrick will cast Fire Light at Peggy, and Valar will use our long-range weapon, Rage of Mithras on Ugly.





Peggy goes down in one shot, leaving us with only Long John Ugly to deal with. Ugly isn't much of a threat. He does last a few rounds, and finally Louie gets in another nice shot to finish the job.



We win!



And levels! Lots of levels!

Paragraph 24 posted:

You board the ship as soon as the last of the pirates drops dead, eager to see what it was the thieves were so determined to defend. You see the ship's name is the PRAIRIE MADNESS, and that it seems to be fitted out for fast raiding missions. There isn't much of a cargo hold, so the ship won't serve for long journeys, but it looks very fast and dangerous.

What kind of name is Prarie Madness? Oh, by the way...

WE HAVE A FUCKING PIRATE SHIP

Oh, and there's a chest of stuff too. Because, of course, they'd be pretty terrible pirates if they didn't have a treasure chest.



First off, the Parrot is totally useless. As far as I know, it does absolutely nothing in this game and is just there to mess with the player. The Hook and the Old Peg Leg can be used as weapons. They are awful, roughly equivalent to the junk weapons we picked up back in Purgatory. We can ignore these items.

The Heavy Plate offers a ton of AC (12) but murders AV (-6). Madrick doesn't even carry a weapon, so we can put it on him.

The Pilgrim Garb and the Jade Eyes will have their uses. Neither is essential, but we'll get to that later. All of this junk is really burying the lede here: we have a ship and it goes places!



New places, even! So, we now have more choices than ever!

We've already been to Necropolis. There's not much point in going back, unless someone dies.

Freeport is a place we've heard mentioned, but know nothing about. Should we find out?

As Irkalla told us earlier, the Sunken Ruins contain the skull of Roba. We have the water-breathing potion, so we're free to go here as well.

Rustic appears on the map, but we have yet to learn anything about it. (HINT: Going here is pointless right now, wait until later to vote for this one. For now, don't pick this.)

There's also Lansk, which we'll have to visit eventually.

And there's King's Island, where we may be able to make use of some of the items we just picked up.

So, where shall we sail/walk/warp to? Get your votes in!