3995/Set Sail for Adventure!

Set Sail for Adventure!
Date of Scene:	08 April 2016
Location:	Alfheim Online <ALO>
Synopsis:	Our adventurers learn more of the game when they run into pirates! The pirates learn the difference between stats and skill.
Cast of Characters:	Kirito, Tomoe, Staren, 162, 215, 437, 631, 707, Yuuki Konno, 922, 960
Tinyplot:	CCO

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Yuuki Konno has posed:
    While some people spent time shopping and hunting rumors in the local alehouses, the group needed even more time to prepare to be sea-worthy. And by the time everyone managed to do what they needed to, by the time people were able to get together again, some had other things they needed to do. It's a common enough problem in any online game... you can't just do everything all at once. Sometimes you have to wait for the next gaming session.

    By now, those who want extra time training in VR can get it. Those who spent time learning ship-based skills have them, at least at beginner levels. Those who were buying something better than starter gear can have it, having been given doubloons by Auralia. Those who sought to explore the fight mechanics can have a better understanding there, too. It's similar to Alfheim Online in that player-based skill is the key, not just experience points and Sword Skills. There are fewer of those skills here as well, with a corresponding increase in CCO's own special brand of abilities: Swashbuckler Moves.

Zephyr Windstar (162) has posed:
    Auralia has been a patient teacher for those that wanted instruction on how to use the various Swashbuckler Skills. Showing how one can be used to quickly ascend the rigging, then linked into using a second to swing from a rope back down to the deck, while being ready to fight. She's also shown some of the Trick Shot Skills with her pistols, special 'Sword Skill'-like abilities that add a bit of dynamic to the ranged combat that games such as GGO don't go into due to realism factors.

    She also goes into minor detail about Captain Commands. Special abilities that the Captain of a ship can use to 'Buff' the crew. Similar to Party Buff spells in ALO.

    "As we stand now, I say we'd do well to get some experience at sea. Tide's comin' in, so we can set sail within th'hour." she looks around, "Unless ye have other things ye wish to do here first?"

Tomoe has posed:
Eisen the Pirate was having a hell of a lot of fun with one the pirate outfit, and two speaking in a way no actual pirate likely actually spoke. She loved the long boots, teh shorts the banadas and it was honestly just fun to escape certain 'norms' for fashion playing this game. She Seeme dto be ready to go again and was more than happy to let someone else captain she'd been focusing on how do what she often does /tank/ becauyse theya re likely going to need it.

"Nay Capt, I think that's a fine idea there."

Kirito has posed:
Commander Kirito? Eh, maybe, but probably not. As before the Black Swordsman is dressed to kill. Black officer's outfit with black buttons, a sleek tricorne hat, black leather boots and black pants, cutlass sheathed at his side. There's no mistaking who this is! He's been spending some time with Zephyr, who knows the ropes already. Kirito's proven an adept learner. He's even appeared impressed with the idea of the Trick Shot Skills, but nothing's getting him to give up relying on a single sword.

    He's not even sure who the Captain of any ship is going to be.

    Everyone knows who it would be if it was the usual crew though, whether he likes it or not.

    "Finally time for an adventure on the high seas now?"

Kain (960) has posed:
    Sporting a brand new outfit as he rejoined the group an hour later, Kain had a Rapier on one side and he opted to get a Flintlock as well just in case. He wasn't proficient in it, but surely he didn't need other skills at the moment... once he was back, he did do a quick check of his skills and moved things around a small bit. He removed Sprinting because being on a ship meant he wasn't traversing long enough for Sprint to matter much. But other than that, all the Skills he had were still useful. Now he had low skill in Flintlocks, but just using them would help.

    Anyway, he didn't just get new weapons. He also acquired a set of armor akin to what he wore in SAO. But more attuned to CCO. At the very least, those who were in SAO would definitely recognize him much more easily.

    His skills set, his armor and weapons sufficient enough for him, he looked at the others that were there now with a smile. "Well! Let's get on with our pirating adventures, shall we?"

Staren has posed:
    Staren has come to the world of Cannons and Cutlasses Online! His avatar is a blend of one of the rogueishly handsome default male faces with hints of his own features, most clearly his real eye color and brownish hair that's still a bit wilder and unkempt than he keeps it in real life. His clothes are a blend of fantasy and historic, as befitting the setting -- a dark-colored hat with a feather plume that seems to be somewhere between a cavalier hat and a tricorner hat, a realistic buff coat with a red sash around the waist and an an unrealistically-clean white cloak for warmth on the cold seas. Two shoulder belts cross over his chest, with pouches for holding things and sheathed pistol-daggers. Blue trousers bloused into high leather boots can be seen under the coat.

    "Arr, mateys!" Staren strides up to the group. "So, um, what are we investigating here? Or is it just pleasure today?" He smiles and rubs the back of his head. "Can't say I wouldn't be up for just some fun! I haven't had as much time to study this game as I'd like, so I don't know about the sailing system and stuff..."

Weiss Schnee (922) has posed:
    While Weiss may not be willing to act the part, she's certainly gotten into the fashion around here - she's wearing a white shirt with a laced-up black leather vest over it, as well as a red 'combat skirt'. And of course, being the prim and proper princess she is, she's spent some time at the port's local tavern, trying to find some information on the alleged 'ghost ship'. What she hears is rather interesting - Unbeatable attacks? A crew that can only be defeated hand-to-hand? Always razing the victims' ship and leaving, without looting anything? Protecting something...?

    Eventually, she decides she's learned all she needs to know, and heads back to rejoin Auralia and the group. She decided to stick with her starter weapons for now - she's good enough with a sword, and she'd prefer to earn her gear the fun way! Of course, she relays everything she discovered to the group before turning to the captain. "And that's all I found. Sounds like we've got our work cut out for us, hm?" She crosses her arms and grins. "Either way, I'm ready to go whenever you are."

Reker (631) has posed:
    As soon as he heard there was an MMO where he could be a pirate, Reker basically vanished from GGO. After all, now he can be a PIRATE. How freaking cool is that? Reker's based his pirate costume off of the totally historically accurate documentary Devils of the Caribbean.

    He has decided to join with the rest of the group after finding out they were in game. He may have missed their initial adventures, but that's okay because he's here now, and he'll be able to assist them as best he can with his vast knowledge of piratey lore, "Oi, good to see you all!" He calls out in his best fake British accent that he can manage.

Yuuki Konno has posed:
    Rumors from the taverns abound, though there were none from anyone who actually claimed to have been there when the 'unbeatable' attacks happened. Probably significant, since this is the beginner zone. To find higher-end players, one must go further into the game's higher-end zones.

    The rumors, for the tales lack anything substantial enough to be anything close to facts, suggest the following. An apparently unsinkable ship appears, attacks, and cripples a vessel. It then boards, and monsters attack the crew, killing everyone. The vessel is then sunk, all goods lost, nothing actually taken by the attackers. No one knows for sure why they board a ship if they're just going to sink it without taking anything, but rumors abound. The attackers can only be defeated hand to hand, some assume, and this is a sporting chance sort of thing. The monsters are protecting a particular region of sea, or perhaps protecting something beyond their own mysterious ship. The monsters... well, no one really seems to know much about them, partly because they always seem to attack surrounded by a dense fog.

    Yuuki's present, recognizable in hair and face though she wears a piratey blouse and trousers rather than her usual ALO garb. She still wears a flaring skirt however, in the form of a buttcape. "We're here to have fun!" she insists with reckless cheer. "Also MAAAYBE we might find..." she pauses, looks around at the group significantly. Also a little guiltily. "I mean, we're looking for the cause of this mutated AI thingy. You know I have an interest in what might be behind that." she finishes. She's not at all good at hiding her intent however, so it should be remarkably easy for anyone to realize she's hiding something.

Annie Sandberg (437) has posed:
Silverbloom, still the musician, has been joining Kirito as he learned some things. She's dressed with a similar blue-green-turquoise color scheme, but in more of an islander style of dress with a sash. (Think Marin from Zelda: Link's Awakening.) "I hope so," she says as Kirito suggests an adventure. "I'm ready to get out there and explore!"

Zephyr Windstar (162) has posed:
    Auralia looks across the group, adjusting her jacket before she grabs a rope and swings herself up onto the aftcastle, and the pilot's wheel. "Right then!" she chirps, before her voice resonates, much akin to the Aggro-boosting skills in ALO. "Hoist the Mainsail, make ready to leave port! Boatswain, weigh anchor!"

    Snowflake gets a nod. "Aye, I've heard as much meself, tis only rumours an' hearsay, but once we get further to sea, an' closer to the area, we'll like as not find more solid information." her 'accent' is slipping a bit, probably because, fun as it is, talking like a pirate all the time is /hard/. "Everyone, set your skills for Sea, and head to where you're suited best. Gun skills to the gundeck, carpentry and crafting to the cargo hold, Rigging stay on deck and the best Spotting up in the Crows Nest."

    She also makes sure everyone has a Crew Invite, and once everyone's accepted, speaks again. "So you all know, the Ship can take damage just like any of us. She's a part of the Party as much as we are." she gestures to the right side of her field of view, about opposite where the rest of the party names appear. "Her hull strength and 'systems' icons appear about here. If the Sails, Rudder, Hull or Cannon icon are flashing red, they need repairs. Flooding is a problem too, if a water droplet appears, find the leak and plug it, fast."

Staren has posed:
    Staren listens to the explanation. "Hmm, that does sound interesting... well, I guess at least if we investigate it as newbies, we have less to lose. Suppose I'll practice my leathercrafting until you need a boarder... although, it might be nice to try my hand at the canons, too..." he heads below deck to explore the ship.

Kain (960) has posed:
    Kain accepts the Crew Invite, and his name does appear in the list as just 'Kain.' He looks to Auralia and nods. "Alright, then. Guess my skills are more based around combat and cooking. Unless anyone else has Cooking, which they'll likely have a higher skill than me." He grumps a small bit. "Either way, I don't really have any other ship-based skills useful here. I mean, I took the Pistol skill so I could use this." He taps the Flintlock at his side. "But other than that..."

Reker (631) has posed:
    Getting the Crew Invite, Reker's name pops up as the same name from GGO. He hops abord the ship with the others, "I'll have you know I have been practicing my sword combat and pistol combat. Hard to hit targets effectivelly with these, aye." He points at his leather vest, which has two pistols on it, and two more behind his back, "So you just cary more!"

Tomoe has posed:
Tomoe has heard plenty of rumors as well herself she ot the gist of the rumor but she seemd ready to sale she looks to Yuuki for a moment nodding. "Found some old files about another VR game where the Ai went down right glitched and crazy things like unkillable monsters happened. Could be something like that with how the Cardinal system is, right?"

She pauses looking t Yuuki for a moment and her eye narrow slightly at her friend just what is /she/ up to? She's got to wonder about this but she doesn't sya anyhting else as Eisen looks t STaren for a moment as she meanwhile remains on deck to get a good look at the digital sea.

"Tell me if you find anything neat down below, Staren."

She lookss over to Yuuki with a bit of a smile.

"So another adventure but this time on the high seas, right?"

Weiss Schnee (922) has posed:
    Weiss raises an eyebrow at Yuuki as she clearly lets something slip. That's something worth making a mental note of... but not worth pursuing right now. Probably, she decides. She then pulls up her skillsheet, looking over her various stats and accepting the invite while she's at it. Most of them seem to be at their base level, as she -did- just join - save for her existing combat knowledge and the various skills she attained with her choice of class, the craftsman. "Aye aye, captain," she tries. The ensuing cringe does seem to be a bit smaller, at least. "I'll get to work on training my crafting skills, then. When I'm done, there won't be a finer ship afloat in this whole game, if I've got any say in it!" she calls behind her as she follows Staren down to the hold.

Annie Sandberg (437) has posed:
Silverbloom triumphantly pushes the accept button. "And now we're a crew," she says. "Are we going straight out to look for the ghost ship then, or are we going to get prepared first?" Preparing seemed like it would probably be the best thing...but the longer they waited, the more the ghost ship could cause trouble! Quite a dilemma. "I still have my music skill from Alfheim... This time I have a mandolin!"

Yuuki Konno has posed:
    Like the others who transfered their characters and skills, Yuuki's name remains Yuuki. Maybe her next character will be Zekken, but she's not really all that inspired to make a host of alts. It'd still be awfully funny for Yuuki to be a master swashbuckler, while Zekken is a craftswoman or merchant.

    "Adventure on the high seas!" Yuuki says, jumping up and pounding one fist into the air with a battle cry of "Yaarrrr!". It's quite different from that guilty look she cast at the rest of the crew a moment before. One that, in particular, seemed to be aimed at the non-Gatecrasher she dragged into all of this. She may not be historically accurate, and she's definitely not good at hiding her feelings, but Yuuki surely is enthusiastic.

    She takes station on-deck, manning the rigging. Cannons and guns don't really appeal, but she's been keeping an eye on those swashbuckling skills. Being able to climb quickly and swing down is a fine option for 'ranged' combat in her books.

    There are, of course, many options for characters to occupy their time. Practice stations exist for carpentry. There's a sailing minigame. Chanter-types can sing, and NPCs (and PCs too, possibly) will join in for the chorus if the singer sings something well-known. For those not all that interested in gaming activites there's the option to browse unlocked tales through your game menu and even full nautical-themed books once you've unlocked them. Some people, after all, only hang out for the combat and don't like spending long hours at sea doing nothing. Not that you typically have to sail for hours anyways. This is an action MMO, and travel times are remarkably short when there are no flagged ships in sight.

Zephyr Windstar (162) has posed:
    The Windstar isn't a massive vessel... only about five decks, with one solitary deck seemingly put aside for the cannonade. Twelve guns, six a side. The cargo hold is at the bottom of the ship on the lowest deck, and is packed with trade goods purchased from the local vendors. Perserved food, semi-valuable items such as quality wood for ship building, crates of screws and other metal fixings, salted meat and fish, even a few scant bolts of cloth. It's not the /best/ haul, but there it is.

    Something Staren may note, is that one 'deck' seems to be missing, there's a small 'landing' area between the main gundeck and the fourth deck, but it's all boxed off with solid looking wooden panels... what could be going on here?

    The ship begins to move as the NPC Boatswain raises the anchor and the ship is let free, turning out of the port and into open water as the sails are set, and angled into the wind. "All Hands, At Ease." Commands Auralia, as she mans the pilot station. The NPCs shift their behavior patterns, going about the normal activities of a shipboard crew. The Boatswain salutes to Auralia. "All stations ready captain! We're away!"

Kirito has posed:
"Sounds like an unmarked quest? Or some kind of event? ... or maybe a glitch... or something else entirely." Is Kirito's answer to all of the strange things going on. He's got a hand resting on the hilt of his cutlass though, as though itching to use it!

    He probably is. The open ocean, digital or not, is pretty exciting.

    So he drops onto the ship and draws the weapon, pointing dramatically at the horizon! "Away we go!"

Tomoe has posed:
Tomoe looks over at Weiss who would get a very big grin from her. She seems very amused to seem very amused with something about her, right? She looks to them for a moment.

"I look forward to see what you can do with that. I'm going to be set to tanking."

She now just chills out, she's not transfered her account persay but seems to know what she's doing for the moment she's going to deal with singing and why not it's fun for abit othewise she's going to be working or rolling the bones.

Staren has posed:
    Staren does notice the closed-off deck, and sends a message about it after confirming that sections of the above and below decks aren't double-floored -- <<What's with this closed-off area? If it's open for expansion, shouldn't it just be... empty?>> And then he finds... books! Staren should've invited Twilight. He flips through one, copying it for external reproduction.

Weiss Schnee (922) has posed:
    Weiss crosses her arms at Yuuki and raises an eyebrow, an amused smile on her face. "Maybe you'll get that out of me someday," she says with a chuckle as she heads to the lowest deck. Poking her head in each floor as she comes to it, she takes note of the blocked off level on her way down, but decides not to pry in other people's business once again. Her menu's open as she reaches the cargo hold, looking for somewhere to write down all these curiosities with the other players for later investigation. Swiping it away, she turns to Staren, then to the piles of supplies. "Hm. Didn't Yuuki say something about crafting minigames?" She looks to a nearby crafting station and interacts with it, perusing her options - so far, not many, due to her rather low skill. May as well practice, then!

Xiaomu (707) has posed:
Equipment and skill upgrades are always useful, and as a Brewmaster, Sunshower wanted to make sure she had some higher-quality equipment and ingredients to work with ... plus, y'know. Grinding her brewing skills in town, making simple drinks and potions for other newbs who didn't know what they were missing out on.

What *isn't* useful (ever) is when RL keeps you from logging in to meet up with your crew, and while Sunshower wasn't entirely hiding her identity, she wasn't sharing it all THAT openly either. So the blonde Brewmaster ...

.... missed the ship's casting off. Oops.

Fortunately, whoever designed CCO was aware that sometimes RL just gets in the way, and a 'party-invite request' message comes to Auralia - or more specifically, a request to join the ship even though it's no longer in port. If the request is accepted, Sunshower will appear - still bent over, hands on her knees, chest heaving as she catches her breath. "Stupid ... freaking ... god ... ****ed ... foxes," she complains between gasps.

Or maybe that was meant to EXplain rather than simply COMplain?

Iria (215) has posed:
Another party-invite request arrives as well, and this one is for Iria as well. She quickly showed up alongside Sunshower, having been delayed by real life matters (involving you-know-who!) and feeling a bit on the frustrated side. But thanks to the magic of this game, Iria arrives not long after Sunshower does, only this time Iria's got her hand on her shoulder, but still gasping for air. "Fuji...kurow... I'll... make... you... pay!" She runs a hand through her hair before straightening up and looking at the others.

    "Right, so here I am," Iria says, only to remember Sunshower and she shakes her head. "OK, here WE are. I'm ready if everyone else is."

Reker (631) has posed:
    For the time being Reker is having fun wandering around on deck, then he gets an idea. He hops up onto the railing and swings around onto the cargo net, hauling himself up the length of it towards the crow's nest.

    There's most likely an NPC manning it for the time being, but Reker relieves him of duty for the time being and takes the spyglass, scanning the horizon for hostile hsips, "Hey guys, are we pirates or privateers? It makes ahuge difference!"

Yuuki Konno has posed:
    Yuuki peers dubiously up from her 'sail' station at Xaiomu, mouthing the word 'foxes' curiously. She doesn't get to ask further however. Time abruptly seems to slow, which is bound to be an odd feeling for anyone not used to such things. It doesn't, not really, but it feels like it.

    The game system, when a ship sets out to sail, gradually accelerates the ship so long as only friendly vessels are in sight. Everything feels normal since the ship itself is the true reference point. The virtual wind feels no faster and the sensation of speed is like that of being on an airplane. Past the initial acceleration, you hardly feel any motion at all.

    That all changes, however, when a non-friendly ship closes in. The sensation is deliberately eerie, to ensure everyone notices. Nearby, a ship flying the jolly roger is visible. The pirate vessel, judging this merchanter's speed, decides it has a lot of cargo or a newbie crew, or both. They decide it's an easy kill, and turn to intercept.

    For those who have the game soundtrack enabled - which plays only when someone's not actually singing shanties live - the soundtrack switches to a faster-paced adrenaline track.

    Yuuki looks up and around, trying to figure out what's going on. "Er, I don't think we're pirates or privateers." she says. "But I think we might meet some soon! Where are they?" she calls out eagerly, bounding up and down to try to see better.

Zephyr Windstar (162) has posed:
    "Merchanters." replies Auralia to Reker, levelly.

    Staren's inquiery is pointedly not responded to, save for a simple. <You'll see, sooner or later.>

    The two late arrivals are given the same explanaion as the others about the ship, the status showing up in their HUDs along with the rest of the 'Crew'. The other PCs are in the normal place for a Party, on the left. The Ship is on the right, with various icons underneath it.

    That slowdown gets Auralia on edge, and she instinctively calls out. "ALL HANDS. BATTLESTATIONS! BATTEN DOWN THE HATCHES AND PREPARE FOR BOARDERS. BOATSWAIN, TIME TO SHOW OUR TEETH!"

    To Staren, she sends a message. <Sooner than later, it seems.>

    The NPCs shift patterns and quickly file into position, manning the guns and trimming the sails for combat maneuvering. The Boatswain and three other NPCs go below the gundeck... and quickly dismantle the boardings, revealing a full twenty extra cannon hidden within, primed and ready with shot. They knock open the outer panelling too, pushing the guns out into position. "This is a Q-ship. We have some... hidden extra teeth to fend off wouldbe raiders. It cuts into my cargo capacity and speed, but it's so satisfying to send a Pirate down to Davy Jones' Locker." The Captain says with a Cheshire-cat grin.

Reker (631) has posed:
"Hostile ship off the starboard bow!" Reker calls out from the crow's nest, pointing in the direction of the incoming ship.

    "About eight hundred meters out, closing fast!" Boy what he would give for his sniper rifle right now. Too bad the best he could get is a musket that would barely be accurate out to 50 feet.

    He hops off the crow's nest and grabs hold of a rope, sliding down the length of it rope to the deck, "They'll be on us fast. I'd say maybe two minutes at their speed."

Xiaomu (707) has posed:
Sunshower straightens up, blinking a few times, as Auralia calls for battlestations. "And what do those scurvilious scallawags think *we've* got that's worth their trouble? Plunder? More like *blunder*; my best brew's barely aged ..."

And on that note, the Brewmaster flicks open her inventory window, followed by slamming a large barrel down in front of the mast. It's a supply of healing grog, albeit very low-grade - maybe healing dozens of HP per tick rather than hundreds. Could still be useful, though.

"In case of emergencies!" Sunshower calls out by way of explanation, rolling her shoulders and making sure she's got easy access to her supply of knives. "Where d'ye need me, Cap'n?"

Iria (215) has posed:
Iria scowls a little, but then goes for her sword and makes sure it's still sharp and shiny. "Well, looks like we've got us some intruders!" She says, not exactly up with the pirate talk yet. "I'll take 'em out! Just tell me where I need to go!" She grins a little.

Staren has posed:
    Pirates! Staren rushes to a porthole, then abovedecks, where he tries to fly for a better view. After a second he realizes he can't. He follows Zephyr's explanation, but asks, "Well, why do you even need to hide it from your /crew/?" still, he rushes to man one of the cannons, looking for an opportunity to target and fire!

    "They might not think anything," he comments to Xiaomu, "if they're just NPC pirates."

Weiss Schnee (922) has posed:
    Weiss passes the time trying to perfect the crafting minigame - it turns out that she's not half bad at it. She manages to make some decent progress on upping her related skills before she notices the change in atmosphere. "Well, that can't be good," she notes to herself, backing out of the minigame's menu. Ascending back up the stairs, she's surprised to see the new deck, armed to the brim with cannons! "Oh, this should be fun." She gets behind one and peeks out at the pirate ship in question, then realizes that she has no idea how hard it can be to operate a cannon. She doesn't worry about that, though - again, how hard can it be?

Yuuki Konno has posed:
    "So uh... they want to board us, right?" Yuuki asks. It's a reasonable question. The whole point of piracy is to steal the cargo, which they can't do while distant. If they sink the ship, they don't get very much cargo. If the ship runs away, they get even less. A pirate ship uses cannons against warships and against targets, in both cases more to slow them down than anything else. Most fights devolve to a boarding action.

    "Um... captain?" Yuuki says tentatively. "Do we have any skilled gunners? Because we've actually got some really skilled close-range fighters. We might want to LET them catch us. Or ram them or something!" she suggests. "I'll take on a dozen fighters any day, but I don't think I'll be parrying cannonballs!"

    In the meantime, the pirates begin firing their own cannons on the Windstar. Shots come in high; paired cannonballs with links of chain connecting them, aiming to tear great swathes through sails and rigging. "HEY!" Yuuki protests as her sail station begins taking damage. "Are they allowed to do that?!" she demands, scowling.

Zephyr Windstar (162) has posed:
    Auralia is already turning broadside onto the approaching pirate. "Boatswain, Gunners Mates, load grapple shot." she calls as the Chain-shot comes spinning in, shredding sails. "It's how they slow their prey down. Ready for boarders... if they want a fight they'll get one." she replies. The guns on the primary deck, the smaller number, fire their shots. They're linked to heavy chains and have a barbed hook-like spear instead of a cannonball. The pirates weren't expecting /that/ from a Merchanter, and as the chains are pulled tight and the pirate dragged in closer... well, they're kinda shitting bricks... this is more than they bargained for. "We'll get a good bounty for bringing this crew down."

    The Windstar is a sturdy ship, and the NPCs stick to their cannons, firing shot into the hull of the pirate ship, trying to break some of their 'stations', or cause flooding.

    "ALL HANDS. PREPARE FOR BOARDING ACTION!" she shouts, then, once the ships are deadlocked together, leaps down from the aft castle, and swings on over to the Pirate ship, drawing her little hand-axe-punch-blade left handed.

Reker (631) has posed:
"I'm one of the best gunners you've ever seen." Reker says to Yuuki, though as the cannons go off from the enemy ship, "Everybody hit the deck!" He yells out. Chain shot, trying to stop them in their tracks and keep them from escaping. These guys are expecting them to run.

    Firing grapple lines to assault them first catches Reker off guard, but hey he's not going to complain about taking the fight to them. He runs up to one of the grapple lines, and takes hold, swinging across full speed.

Kirito has posed:
Since Kirito's been paying most of his attention to the open ocean... he's quick to spot the ship on the horizon not long before the soundtrack changes. "Hoooh." His blood BOILS with anticipation. A fight's coming. And he's itching to see just what this is like in CCO!

    The ring of scraping steel accompanies the cannons being whipped out... a feat that has Kirito GRINNING. "That's so neat that it's almost cheating."

    Yet he stands on deck, eyes on the closing ship with his cutlass drawn and a daring look on his face that says to those coming...

    'Yeah, just try and board us.'

Xiaomu (707) has posed:
Too bad that healing grog doesn't do anything for the ship's structural integrity, but hey, Brewmasters can't help with everything. Sunshower specifically doesn't know enough to help man the cannons, but the NPCs seem to have that covered well enough.

Sunshower does spare a glance at Yuuki. "All's fair in love an' war, lass, an' pirates don't care even for those loose rules!" she calls out, then grins as Auralia's leadership sets the tables to turning. "AVAST AND ALACK, YOUR FATES LIE DEEP BELOW!!" she shouts by way of a battlecry, and rather than trying to swing across by a rope, she actually charges straight across, throwing a knife or two ahead of her - and then JUMPS from Auralia's ship to the pirates' deck, followed by grabbing for one of the pirates she just put a knife into. Her first priority is to get her knife back; they're technically replaceable but they're not free.

The next thing she attempts is to simply chuck the unfortunate ne'er-do-well straight over the railing and into the drink.

Annie Sandberg (437) has posed:
Silverbloom's been plucking away at her mandolin, but sits up and takes notice when the enemies near. "Uh-oh," she says. "Here they come." She missed being able to use her Puca magic, which would have allowed her to do more support from behind. Here, though, while her music might have provided a bit of a boost, it seemed likely she'd have to join in the fight against the enemy boarding party. She drew her saber and pistol, ready for action. Somewhere within her, a long-suppressed memory started to bubble to the surface...

Iria (215) has posed:
Iria's a bit of an acrobat here, so she is able to leap from her ship to the pirates' ship. "Arrr," She yells, now imitating a pirate dialect. "Ya be pickin' the wrong ones to mess with! I'll make ya walk the plank and feed ya to the sharks!" She attempts to go after the nearest pirate with her rapier, attempting to make her point known.

Tomoe has posed:
Tomoe nods to Yuuki for a moment and nods for a moment as she turns back to her gabling until well? They have company from the looks of it. She'll get to one of the cnaons and she'll start to load and fire. She's had the sense to train the skill and not be using the weapon without such for the moment. She hefts the balls in, prims and then fire the massive weapon.

Staren has posed:
    Staren's manning one of the cannons, so he participates with and directs the gunner NPCs, trying to disable the pirate ship without sinking it. As the call comes to prepare for boarding though, he drops what he's doing and runs above deck with a smile on his face, quickly copying what the others are doing, climbing up to grapple lines and swinging across! "Yo ho, me scurvy dogs! Yer treasure be our plunder!" Since his chosen weapon is pistol-daggers, he has more versatility -- for the moment, he plays more cautiously while he gets the hang of things, using them as daggers and holding the pistol shots in reserve in case it looks like he's going to be overwhelmed.

Weiss Schnee (922) has posed:
    Weiss gazes down the cannon's barrel, then leaves her post and sprints up to the top deck. It's best that she leaves this one to the NPCs. Drawing her rapier, she gives a huge grin and brandishes the sword as she emerges from the ship's depths. "Pirate filet, coming right up!" she shouts as she charges towards the edge of the ship. She almost forgets that she doesn't have access to her Semblance here, and it almost sends her overboard - but she manages to grab a rope before she goes too far and swings aboard the aggressor, challenging the nearest enemy she sees.

Yuuki Konno has posed:
    All the damage done to the pirate vessel helps. Cannonballs fired by PCs disrupt the pirate ability to fight, knocking crew around and keeping them from turning away. Chain shot makes it difficult to maneuver. Grapple shot, little different from ballistae that would have been used over a thousand years ago, turns the attacking ship into a little puling victim. The Windstar's little bitch, in fact.

    The rope swing is probably the best CCO skill ever, Yuuki figures, as she grabs hold of a boarding rope and the system takes over. "Wheeeee!" she squeals out, releasing the rope and drawing her blade as she plummets to the enemy deck. "I mean YAAAARRR! Get 'em, me hearties!"

    The enemy fighters are, no surprise, not that great as opponents. They're well-geared and can fight with some degree of smarts, but they're absolutely no match for the sheer butchery that can be put out by fighters of the caliber of the Windstar's crew. The main crew though, the PCs, that's another matter entirely. The pirate crew have deadly rapiers, cutlasses, boarding hooks and similar weapons. The PCs know how to use them, and are quite a lot better-geared than the crew of the Windstar. They can afford to take hits from the relatively weak weapons of our heroes, and their own weapons would deal out terrible wounds at this level. So our heroes will have to make up for that liability with considerable skill, and with hitting their targets many times for each attack they take in turn.

    Yuuki herself could put on a clinic in this regard. She doesn't attack once and then wait to defend. Her method is to cut rapidly, to be elsewhere when the enemy swing comes near, and to keep on slicing while she moves faster than a mongoose.

    Auralia, Reker, Iria, Sunshower, Staren and Snowflake will find opponents. Several opponents in fact. NPCs from the Windstar don't advance over the boarding lines like the PCs do, so for now they're going to be swarmed, three to five opponents trying to get at them each. Silverbloom, standing back a ways, will only have two opponents charging for her. Those back on the Windstar have no direct opponents and can fire freely.

    Yuuki's clearly enjoying things, diving through enemy lines without waiting for them to come to her. At one point, rather than sword a PC, she bounds clear over him and kicks him in the back, thrusting him towards Auralia with a gleeful cry of "Switch!" She hasn't downed any of her opponents yet, but she's left a series of pixellated red lines across a swath of them.

Zephyr Windstar (162) has posed:
    Auralia is dancing amongst the NPC crew, turning aside and avoiding their weapons, much like Yuuki is. Her own gear is better than the other PCs on her own ship, but she's still a couple tiers down from the PC crew of the Pirates. As one of the NPCs lunges at her with a boarding hook, she pirouettes aside, drawing a pistol from her bandolier, and shoots him right in the back of the head at point blank, causing him to shatter into green and blue pixels. "Invictus Maneo."

    Then Yuuki's kicking someone her way with that familiar shout. "Heh, knew she'd be the first." she murmurs to herself, then gathers herself down into a Sword Skill stance.

    With an 'Azai Slash' to start, she hacks across the guy's chest, stepping forwards as he's knocked back from the force, into a second diagonal slash. A spin around and a horizontal slash, another spin into a raising upward slash before a hop and a downward hack.

    For good measure, she fires her flintlock /again/ at point blank, the system having taken over and 'automagically' reloaded the 'single shot' weapon.

    The NPC crew still aboard the Windstar reload the cannons, but hold fire now their boarding party is on the target. They're ready to reopen engagement should the boarding party evacuate, or die though.

Reker (631) has posed:
    Reker, he's not really a sword fighter. He's gotten some practice in ALO, and in this game, but he's a gunfighter, plain and simple. He's going to save his guns for the PCs. He doesn't wield a normal sword, no. He wields a weapon he's much more comfortable with, a machette. He drives the blade down into the skull of the first NPC he comes across, scanning for any players. They tend to stand out more than the NPCs do.

    Reker slams the machette down onto the NPC a few more times until he's sure the target is dead, and then quickly rushes towards one of the PCs, "Hey!" He yells out at the player, as he pulls one of the pistols from his chest rig and fires a shot at his opponent, before moving in to try to strike with the blade

Xiaomu (707) has posed:
One dagger retrieved, and one pirate bleeding into the ocean; Sunshower's comfortably certain that was an NPC. More importantly, that dagger is in her hand when her other starting victim comes at her with his cutlass; she's able to block the descending blade, but the differences in weapon weight and wielder strength work against her. What makes up the difference is skill: a combination of real-world battle experience and knowing her way around a broad range of games.

So she's able to leverage the cutlass aside, effectively getting herself out from under it; she follows up with a series of slashes, about half of which are from the OTHER dagger she opened the fight by throwing. The pirate NPC's HP aren't dropping fast enough, but going for a few critical strikes - slashing at his throat, for instance - help on that front.

Now if only she could make sure the pirates' HP drop faster than her *own* health bar. Sunshower may need to retreat to the Windstar's deck and make use of her own healing grog at this rate, because while she's focusing on one enemy, she's getting ganged up on by the pirate crew and she can't fend off ALL of them at once ... at least, not without gear closer to her real-world loadout.

Iria (215) has posed:
Iria's sword fighting tactics from real life help out a lot here. She is able to parry at least one enemy's attack easily and then finish them off with a swift stab. Unfortunately, this leaves her vulnerable for another enemy comes at her, but she comes around just in time to counterattack. The attack is blocked, but it keeps Iria focused as she spins to the side and attempts to continue her fencing duel with her opponent. "Yarr, ye be swimmin' with the fishies today!" She says before using a feint to kick the NPC in the stomach and then drive the blade through the body of her opponent. At the same time, she tries to help out Sunshower by attempting to lure the attention of some of the other NPCs towards her. It may not work, but it's worth a try!

Staren has posed:
    Staren notices the names over the first opponent he runs into that fights intelligently and doesn't drop quickly. "Oh, you're PCs?? Sorry about this... But we can't really back out now, can we? Show me what you got!" and then he stops talking to focus on the fight. His knife-fighting skill rating is quite high, and he's had a lot of practice in ALO, allowing him to easily use one blade to parry his opponent's cutlass while striking with the other. What he's /not/ ready for is guns. A pistol's drawn on him and he tries to use his wings for a speedboost as he twists out of the way, but it's not fast enough, and his armor's no good against guns. There goes a chunk of his HP! "Nngh!" And then he's swarmed by NPCs as the PC reloads and laughs!

    BLA-BLAM! Staren uses the guns now, shooting and stabbing two of the NPCs and dropping them, then leaping up to stab the shocked PC in the arm and shoulder where he's less armored. The PC's expression of shock is priceless, but he's not incompetent, and bashes Staren with the hilt hard to knock him away.

    The catboy-turned pirate stumbles to the side, then narrowly dodges a followup thrust from the cutlass. The PC advances, making Staren back up towards the side as he tries to parry the PC's attacks while dodging and stabbing the NPCs intermittently. It's not looking good...

    But Staren is an experienced fighter up against NPCs and some gamer. He body checks an NPC and sends them reeling with one of his daggers in their chest as their saber strikes his coat for mere chip damage, then as the PC and remaining NPC lunge for him... he hops back, grabs the NPC while stabbing them, and pulls them in front of the PC, letting the NPC take the PC's lunging stab. He grabs the surprised PC's wrist and squeezes as he bites their hand, causing them to release their weapon in shock and pain. He sends them stumbling back with an elbow strike, then pulls their cutlass out of their dying NPC and RUNS THEM THROUGH with it. "HYAAAAAH!"

    Their stunned expression as they break into polygons would be priceless, but Staren's not really paying attention. He swings the now-free cutlass to riposte and stab the last NPC just as it charges him again, then grabs the dagger still in their chest and twists it.

    The NPC disappears into polygons as Staren takes his dagger back and retrieves his other one from the deck, looking around for any allies that need help.

Annie Sandberg (437) has posed:
Silverbloom might look innocent, but that just serves to lure the opponents in as she proceeds to fight them off capably, even taking a shot at one who's aiming for one of the other crew members. "That was a close one!" she says... before suddenly being jumped by one of the smarter opponents. "W-whoa! Too close!" Suddenly she's in the middle of a sword fight, flailing about for a bit before finding a rhythm.

Tomoe has posed:
Tomoe is doing her best to keep the fire going but these are no modern weapon systems, they can't fire as fast as modern naval canons, still they are doing pretty good. She's done what she can to do a lot of damage. She watches Yuuki use the roope to get over and with them no longer firing off the canons? It's time for he r to get in on it. She gets on a rope and slwings on over yelling as she does so and she'll land on the othe ships's deck and she'll be getting into the fight as soon as she can.

"AVAST! Your end comes at the hands of the Cirmson Lily!"

Weiss Schnee (922) has posed:
    Finally, some bloodshed! Weiss has been waiting for this moment since she began playing - so now she stands on the deck of the enemy ship, dueling NPCs left and right. She lunges towards one of them, faking the pirate out at the last moment by sliding under his legs to slice at his ankles, followed by spearing him right through the chest. Another comes right behind the first - and she goes down just as easily, too, crumpling under a sword hilt and a flintlock to the face. "Level up!" she shouts, not really caring if she actually got any stronger by defeating the nameless mooks.

    Spinning around immediately, she finds herself staring down an enemy PC. Waggling her eyebrows tauntingly, she takes the first strike, her outstanding fighting skill more than compensating for the level gap. The two lock swords Star Wars-style, a determined grin on the princess' face, before Weiss feints to the side and takes a swipe at the opponent's side. He stumbles and grabs at the wound, but he isn't going down yet, pulling a pistol on Weiss! He fires before she can react, and she takes the hit right in the arm. Letting out an involuntary yelp, it only serves to spur her onwards, stringing together rapid flurries of stabs followed by a dodge to the side through the opposing player's guard and the occasional shot from her flintlocks to keep things interesting. One hit throws him off guard - time for a little showboating. She throws her rapier up in the air and draws both her pistols, ending the PC with two simultaneous shots to the head. "You may be fast, but you still excel at wasting time," she quips as she sheathes the pistols and catches the falling sword gracefully.

Kirito has posed:
Although he's definitely under-geared, Kirito's transferred his character from Alfheim Online for this endeavor, inheriting all of the insane Skill ratings that have carried him through SO much in the Multiverse.

    UNFORTUNATELY he's not had much time to familiarize himself with CCO's combat style, or even most of its features and conventions, so he's operating at a severe handicap.

    The NPCs pose little challenge to him! He ducks, weaves, parries and counters attacks pretty casually. The ring of steel against steel doesn't just echo as he advances through the waves, it's a BARRAGE OF noise. NPC crew members... well, if they use ALO's logic, there's going to be LOTS of NPCs bursting into pixels in the Black Swordsman's wake.

    Which leaves him whirling around to face the PCs. He twirls the cutlass about in his hands, rests it over his shoulders... and offers the more insanely confident grin he can.

    So much Swordsman's Spirit burns in him, deeper than anything one would expect from a simple player, that any decent warrior might feel a CHILL from that gaze, friendly and confident as it is.

    "So... it's just you left!"

    The GUNS are the problems, but believe it or not, when someone raises a pistol he raises the cutlass MIDCHARGE and angles it JUST SO. The bullet spangs off the blade - in reality, it would break a sword, but in this case the sword just loses durability! - and Kirito uses the opportunity to activate a Swashbackler Skill and execute a barrage of slashes!

Yuuki Konno has posed:
    Some fighters find it easy to deal with the NPCs despite gear differences, some have more trouble. It depends perhaps more on familiarity than on differences in ability, and on whether a given fighter values speed, power, or a mix of both. With Kirito and Tomoe joining the fray, the battle should become little more than a formality. The pirate crew of some 20 NPCs are already more or less fully engaged, and PCs are accounted for by Staren, Kirito, Snowflake, and the combo of Yuuki and Auralia.

    Yuuki continues cutting a swath through opponents, not particularly finishing any of them off but striking them freely and drawing aggro so her friends can get breathers or strike a NPC who's turning away.

    There are fifteen NPCs remaining. The PCs are accounted for, and several of the NPCs are badly injured by the combined newbie elites. The fight won't end until they're fully defeated. Once they are though, a decision needs to be made. Loot the pirate ship (and then release it), or sink it without looting. The former pays a small bounty and offers up some potential loot, but falls under the rules of a surrendered opponent - they get to sail away. The latter pays a larger bounty, but almost nothing will be retrieved from the ship.

Zephyr Windstar (162) has posed:
    As her opponent falls, Auralia looks to Yuuki, then at the others all fending off their own opponents... Unmolested for the moment, the Captain opens her menu and starts rifling through her inventory... good she did renew her Letter of Marque. She grins, then jumps back into the battle, hacking at the backs of NPCs and PCs alike, trying to draw aggro off of the weaker fighters, or just outright murdersandwich them.

    As the last one falls, she puts her axe away and declares. "Loot and Release." as a hanging banner appears in the air over the pirate vessel. It tallys up the XP and Dubloons earned, and lists out acquired materiel and items. A few good cutlasses and flintlocks from the PCs, and a new Brewmeister Vat! Probably something they got from a previous mark that couldn't fend them off.

Xiaomu (707) has posed:
With thanks to her allies, Sunshower finds her stride in the fight, helping to subdue the pirates; it's pretty clear that she isn't geared for a close-combat stand-up fight, which is something she'll have to work on. But hey, it counts as character development, story growth instead of just stat growth, so it's all good.

"Loot and release sounds good to me too," she chimes in - especially when she sees that vat. She can *USE* that.

... are her eyes actually sparkling?

Iria (215) has posed:
Iria smiles at the others and nods. "Pretty good if I say so myself," She says, ditching the pirate accent. She lets the others go first before having a turn at the loot. It's just a game, after all, and it's about working together as a team.

Weiss Schnee (922) has posed:
    Weiss sheathes her rapier, satisfied with her work as the body of the probably-pretty-salty player fades away into polygons, and looks up at the banner. "Huh. Loot." She checks her skillsheet again - she's sure to have gone up a few levels at this point, right? "If there's a sweet rapier or crafting stuff in there, I so call dibs," she proclaims.

Reker (631) has posed:
"Hey I need a better gun or four, if we can find any in all their stuff." Reker says, as he begins to do the usual MMO thing of picking through the still fresh corpses of those they had just hobo murdered. It was an age old tradition, after all. Admittedly there weren't actually corpses left, just pixels, but the idea was the same.

Yuuki Konno has posed:
    Yuuki sheathes her cutlass. She doesn't mind the sword, but she'd prefer a nice straight-blade instead. She's used rapiers for a while now, and katanas before that. The cutlass is a fine defensive weapon but... well, she has other options she'd prefer.

    "Loot and release? Huh!" she grins. "I guess that makes sense. Got to be fair to other players right? If everyone went around sinking all the ships all the time, players wouldn't want to take risks and stuff." she grins. She's not always up on the specifics of a game, about the crafting systems and damage ratings and stuff, but she's been doing MMOs for a while now and is pretty perceptive about people considering her young age. "Now, if they were scum who jumped our claim, I'd say SINK THEM! But hey, better luck next time boys!" she says, apparently to the ghosts of the PCs. "Better luck choosing targets that is!" she grins happily with only the slightest hint of smugness.

Staren has posed:
    Staren quickly helps clean up the last few NPCs. When the PVP system is explained to him, he casts his vote. "These guys had better gear than us. We might not have won if not for our overwhelming skill transferred from other games. I vote we take their stuff -- We're just going to need to buy better gear anyway, so if this system is at all balanced, we'll get more total value of stuff if we take some of what they already have. Otherwise there'd be no point in offering the choice, right?"

    At Yuuki's comments he turns and waves to the player ghosts. "So, how do we do this?"

Reker (631) has posed:
"There's no way they would have hesitated to take all of our stuff if they'd been given the chance," Reker notes, "I know these types of players. We're better off taking their shit to try to teach them a lesson." He has run into many players like them in GGO who would rather prey on newbies than actually git gud.

Tomoe has posed:
Tomoe is just going wild now with her cutlass and pistol, she fires a few shotsk but well those weapons were slow to reload after all. SO she doesn't bother after she puts one to us. She's getting into it spamming her taunts and generally keeping the NPCs tied up as she laughs. THough soon the fight is over as she mops up the last NPCs she looks to Yuuki calling out.

"Loot and Release, no need to sink the ship now is there?"

Sides doing that might cause a grudge which would issues later.

Yuuki Konno has posed:
    Yuuki grins. "We don't get to take all their stuff, and they don't get to take all ours if they win either." she says. She knows all this from other games. "Of course they would've looted us if they won. That's part of playing the game! If we really want to hurt them, we choose to sink them for the bounty." she explains. That seems likely enough to her. "Cost them the ship, rather than some of their spare inventory. If you really want to punish them, do it. But this is a PVP game. They're playing the game, not being jerks. I want some nice loot, don't you? And maybe I also want to make a run on some islands or something later for some PVE too!" she smiles. She also nods at Staren. "We can buy stuff but I always find it more fun to loot stuff, don't you?"

Weiss Schnee (922) has posed:
    Weiss leafs through the available loot and finds something shiny and to her liking. "As much as I wanted to, how do you say... send them to Davy Jones' locker for messing with us? It's probably more benefical to loot their gear. Yuuki has a point," she confirms. "Plundering is far more fun than shopping - though I am going to need to head back to port for some things."

Staren has posed:
    Staren turns back to Yuuki. "That's what I'm sayin'. We'll probably get more bang for our buck by taking the loot option here, since if we took the money we'd have to spend it on gear anyway." He runs his hand through his hair, knocking his hat off, and squats down to pick it up. "Besides... as you say, they were just playin' the game. No reason not to be nice to them. Not like lives are at stake here." He puts his hat back on.