The Voyage

The Voyage Begins
It was a wonderful day for sailing. The winds blew fairly, the sun was shining, the water was calm, and their wasn't a cloud in the sky. So Captain James Villiers was ready for a little looting of ships with his pirate crew. They were all excellent sailors after all. Surly they would come back with plenty of gold. Especially on a day like this.

"Raise anchor and tie down anything loose!" commanded Captain James. While his men did the work, James decided to have a look around town. He visited the local gunsmith and brought some extra gunpowder just in case. He gave the barrel of powder to one of his men but when he turned around, he saw a face he didn't want to see.

"Hello James." sneered Roger Beck, an old enemy.

"Listen Roger, I payed that debt already so leave me alone!' yelled back James.

"You were probably so grog-filled that you thought you payed me. I only got 2 old pices!"

"I don't have time for bilge rats like you!" said James pushing Roger out of his way. James eventually escaped Roger and continued looking around. He stumbled across a tavern called "Rusty Anchor."

James went to go play poker and win big. He had two aces drawn to him. Roger called. His opponent called. Roger then raised by 5. His opponent just matched it. The dealer flipped out three more cards: another ace and two kings.

"Full house!" thought Roger in his head. After more betting and two more card being drawn, James end up winning the hand. More people started to play against him and James won every time. Not by cheating, but by luck. Not everyone thought it was luck though.

James beat a man named Charles. Charles had a three pair of threes and James had a four pair of fives. Charles got furious and punched James in the face. James punched him in the chest, then kneeded him in the nuts. James then tackled him down. One of charles friends pulled James off Charles and tried to shoot him. James wrestled for his gun, then used it to kill Charles friend. Then he killed Charles. James then ran off with all of his winnings.

He was at the docks when he heard Rogers voice. "i hear your a good gambler! Lets see you gamble with you life, unless you give me your winnings."

"Never!" replied James.

"Then die!" Rogers men came and began attack. James fired his pistol at them but only managed to kill three of them before they got into attack range. James ran for it and got on his ship just in time. One of rogers men got on the ship but was easily overpowered by the crew. The dockboard was pulled up and they took off.

"You'll remember this as the day you almost captured Captain James!" James yelled at Roger. He went into his personel quaters and counted up his winnings. In all he had 500 gold pieces. Suddently their was a knock on the door. It was James first mate Tomas.

"Where do we start our plundering sir?" asked Tomas.

"We'll start at the Blackheart Straight sea" replied James. "I'll come meet you shortly.

Tomas gave the driver the sea name. In the meantime, the crew loaded the cannons and prepared for battle. It would be a 3o minuite sail to get to the Blackheart Straight without anyone trying to cause them trouble. But it still seemed like a while when you knew treasure was close by. But they got to the Blackheart Straight and saw some Brithish Navy ships patroling the seas.

James went out of his quaters to go help fight. They ran into a regular class Galleon ship owned by the Navy. They were a good range away from it so they wouldn't have to fire that high. The broasides were lined up and the battle began.

"Fire broadsides!" ordered James. Boom went the broadsides as they shot out cannon balls. Each broadside hit the enemy ship ripping right through the wood. Some of there broadside cannons were wiped out. After a few minutes of exchanging fire, James ordered grappling hooks to be fired so they could tow the ship in then board it. The grappling hooks were all fired and hit the ship.

Once it was close enough, everyone grabbed a rope and swung onto the ship. Navy men scrambled around and tried to defend the ship but, the pirates outnumbered them. Everyone was hacking and slashing at each other and the pirates won the battle with only one injured. They collected some of the treasure and threw it onto their ship. It was a good looting of the ship.

More Navy vessels were sunk with the help of Captain James who was enjoying his loot. It was all divided among the crew and they sailed off ready to return to home port. James decided to rest in his quaters, He went to sleep with a grin on his face.

Lost
While James was asleep, he had a dream. He saw his ship sailing past Navy ships. No fire was even exchanged but the Navy ships were grabbed by the water and the ships sadly sunk into the depths of the water. Suddently, the sea spit gold out and it all landed on James' ship. The crew all cheered from their victories but James didn't move. He wanted to cheer but he knew something was wrong.

Storm clouds gathered around and it started raining with high winds. Then all the Navy ships came from the ocean and started firing. All the ships cannons disappeared so now, James had no firepower. James' first mate Tomas came from behind him and whispered "It's not the end. We're still alive."

That's when James woke up, breathing heavily. He felt his hot, sweaty forehead as he leaned foward out of his bed.

"It's not the end." thought James. "We're still alive."

He decided to go out onto the main deck to check the weather. It was a fair wind with calm waters which was the same conditions he left in. Then James remembered that the home port was where Roger was. He almost forgotten that from all the plundering and his dream.

"Dan!" yelled James.

"Yes captain?" replied Dan, the driver.

"Alter our course a few clicks to the west. We're heading to Emerald Isle."

"Why not home Port?"

"Because Roger is their"

"Roger? I thought the debt was apid."

"It was but Roger keeps coming back for more."

"OK. Emerald Isle it is!"

The ship turned to the west and began pushing foward. James was still worried though. The longer they were at sea, the bigger the chance of attack. James went up to the bow and looked out into the horizon. The sun was nice and still. James calmed down and realized that it was just a dream.

As the ship sailed for a while, a Navy ship came and ambushed them. James ordered their ship to open fire and the battle began. Of course, James and his crew won. But then a lot more ships came and readied their cannons. James had only two options: Fight and die or run and almost die. Of course he had to chose to run.

The ship fled quickly but took some damage. Looks like the wind was in their favor that day. But once they got away, the wind started pushing too hard. The clouds filled the sky and it started raining. The wind was pushing the ship off course.

"I knew this would happen!" yelled James unaware that everyone else didn't know about his dream.

"What are you talking about?" asked a confused tomas.

"While I was asleep, I dreamed of Navy ships ambushing us and storm clouds. You said in my dream that it wasn't the end and that we're alive."

"Well we are alive and I suggest we stay that way."

"OK. Tie down anything loose! Do anything you can to get us back on course! If we need more speed, then throw off anything that's useless!"

The storm got worser and worser. It rained harder, the wind blew more, lightning went out from the sky, and a...

"Maelstrom!" yelled Dan.

The crew was scatering around looking for things to throw overboard. Some guys were so scared that they took a longboat to escape. But the tiny vessel was easily sucked up by the Maelstrom and was violently torn apart. That definately made the ship lighter.

Several crates were thrown overboard but it wasn't enough yet. James took some bags of his loot ready to throw them overboard.

"Goodbye fotune." he said grimly as he threw his gold overboard. As he turned around a crate was being thrown off to lighten the boat. It accidentally hit James and it all went black.

"James are ye alright?" asked Tomas.

"Yeah. How long was I out?" replied James.

"For the rest of the storm and into today."

"Status report."

"The good news is that no ships are persuing us and that we escaped the storm. Most of us are still alive except for a few of us. The bad news is that we're lost."

Undead Island
"Lost?" asked a confused James.

"Yes we're lost. The storm blew us way off course and in order to survive we had to travel a new direction while you were out. Once we knew we were at calmer waters, we decided to check the maps for our location and realized that we were lost." replied Tomas.

"OK now I want to know what was thrown off."

"Well we threw off some crates that were empty. You threw off some of your fortune and then got knocked out. I decided to throw off some rum and then that seemed to free us."

"YOU THREW OFF THE RUM!!!!!"

"Yes but if we didn't we would have to throw off some bodies. You could have been one of them!"

"Well I suppose you're right. Now that I'm awake, I should check the charts for the nearest port." James walked over to the charts and found their location. There was no chance of getting to Emerald Isle all right. But at least no Navy or any of Roger Becks men could find them. But then, James noticed a spot on the map.

The spot was a foggy island but it showed no name. It was the closest island they could get to plus, they could restock on rum. But due the the picture, and the fact that it was unamed, they should be very careful.

"Dan! Move the ship southward. I found an island we can port at." commanded James. With no question, Dan turned the ship south and they started heading to new land. But James should have known better than to pick this island.

As they got closer, they started seeing ghost ships. James took out his sextant and saw undead skeletons on the ships. The sky got darker and the seas got a little bumpy. When they were in seeing range of the island, it had fog. James soon realized this was the notorious Undead Island!

He still wanted the rum so he continued to the dock. When he went off the ship he took Tomas, Jack (a crew member), and William (a crew member/ excellent sword duelist).

"This place dosen't look right to me." said Tomas a little frightfully.

"But we still need to get the rum!" replied an eager James. As they continued, some of the citizens gave them dirty looks, considering that James and his men were the only people with flesh.

"This is Undead Island!" whispered William to James. "We should turn before we run into someone we don't want to meet."

"We'll leave after we get the rum. Besides, we're all up for a good fight!" replied James.

"Well that is true" agreed Jack. The crew continued until they reached a tavern called "Drunkin' Dogs hell house." When James went inside, he was nearly hit by a dagger that missed him by 13 inches. The rest of his crew walked in and began shooting the drunken skeletons.

BAM! went their pistols. Slash! went their swords. During all the confusion, James grabbed a barrel of Rum and used it to knock over skeletons. The other three grabbed a barrel and ran out of there luckly to be living.

"That was close James!" commented Tomas. "But it was worth it." The four of them rolled barrles to the ship when suddenly, they saw a group of mercenaries in front of them, daggers at their side.

"You're first mistake was ever coming here, and now you choose to steal from us? Prepare to die!" The mercenaries advances on them and started slashing their daggers. William did a foward roll toward one of them and then stuck out his sword stabbing him. Jack took out a pistol and shot one of them. Tomas took out his own dagger and began slashing. After several slahes, the mercenaries guard was broken and Tomas killed him. James threw his dagger at one of them and stabbed it's head. Eventually, all the mercenaries were killed and the crew members got the rum to the ship.

"We got the rum and we still have our skin. But we be never returning to this hell of a land again!" said James.

"Destination Captain?" asked Dan. James thought a little and made his decision.

"Gentlemen, we be heading to Isla de Lujo!" replied James.

"Aye aye cap'n!" said Dan.

Attack of The Undead
James' crew made their way to Isla de Lujo on their ship. The wind was on their side and at this rate, they would be going to the island of luxery soon enough. James decided to take a look at the map. His eyes widened as big as gold dabloons after what he saw.

"Mer--mermaids!" he whispered to himself. Luckily no one heard what he whispered or saw his facial expession. They would be heading into mermaid waters in about 1 hour. Mermaids are very pretty and sing beautifully yes, but they're very vicious. Once you're caught under their spell, they take you and pull you under. They can easily take apart a longboat or dinghy and they are capable of taking apart bigger ships too. once you try to run from just one of them, then you have a whole heard of them chasing you.

James tried to think of the good things. He could find Greek fire ammo for his ship. Greek fire is very hot and can easily burn anything. If you get enough, you can blow something up easily. Plus, mermaids are only attracted by light, singing, or being disturbed from resting or other things.

"Men!" started James "We are heading into Mermaid waters!"

The crew started the gasp and whisper rumors to each other about the mermaids.

"Everybody calm down! We are all great pirates and can take some Mermaids. We also can prevent them from coming out. Douse all light, don't sing any trinkets or sea shanties, and be very quiet. Plus we can steal some Greek fire! Understood?"

"Yes cap'n!" replied to crew. James was confident he would win but just then, a ship came behind him. He took out his sextant and looked at it. The sails were somehwhat torn, it rotted a bit, and he couldn't fully tell but the crew looked very hungry since he could see their bones a little.

"Men lets go hail that ship!" commanded captain James. He gave them the hailing signal and it suddently started sailing toward them. James ordered some men to the cannons as a precaution. The ship went closly to their ship snd then started boarding them. It wasn't a crippled ship, it was a ghost ship full of skeletons!

It looked crippled due to the rotting and the torn sails, but it was in good condtion for a ghost ship. James and some others took out their pistols and shot some of the boarders before they landed on the ship. Gunners fired at the ghost ship but it soon went out of range.

James came face ot face with a skeleton and was ready to kill him. He drew his sword and began slashing at the skeleton. But this skeleton was a good fencer and James couldn't find any open spots to aim for so he kept parrying the blows as best as he could. James was eventually backedup to the edge and was at the skeletons mercy. Luckily James was able to strike it's sword arm and then with a quick turn of his wrist, he knocked the skeletons sword out of his hand and then stabbed it's heart.

As James advanced across the ship he confronted two big skeletons. He took out his pistol and aimed it at one of them. But at that instant he saw in the corner of his eye Tomas fighting a desperate duel. If James didn't shoot Tomas's attacker, then he may loose his first mate. On the other hand if James wasted his bullet he could get killed easier and this ship would have no captain. James decided to kill one of his attackers who fell to the ground like a mighty oak tree. The other one was easy to finish off. When James turned around he saw that Tomas also won his duel.

The skeletons were all cut down and defeated. James was smart enough to know that the ship would be back so he ordered men to the guns and took the wheel.

"James" said Tomas. "Didn't you reconize the ship?"

"Well it looked like the other ghost ships to me." replied James.

"Not just any ghost ship. It was the Cursed Blood Alive. The ship with torn black sails and the crew of the damned captained by William Blades! I suggest we order all the men to put out oars so we can get away faster."

"No. If we run then he'll eventually find us. He can smell the blood of his bretheren. We already killed them here and the bodies are on the ship. If we throw them overboard, then we need to clean up all the blood too. By then, we would have already been found."

"You're right! If we launch explosives ammo at them, then we can easily sink or slow them down."

"Good suggestion. The men are on the guns already so I'll order the rest to get their pistols ready to fire at the crew on the ship."

James ordered the men to aim their pistols at where the ship would be. James felt death whispering in his ear. Join us. Be free from this world forever. Come into the heavens. Join us.

James shook it off and took out his sextant to look onto the hoizon. He saw the Cursed Blood Alive in the distance.

"Ready on the guns! She's upon us!" yelled James as he sailed his ship in position. The two ships met and immeadiately opened fire. James' exlosive ammo worked and they took out one of Captain Blades' mastswhich wold slow it down. Due to that, James turned his ship and the broadside raked the enemies stern causing more damage.

James ordered his men to save the rest of the explosive ammo and switch to regular cannon balls. The explosive ammo caused major damage and put some fire on the ship but the ship was cursed so it would take more than that to sink it. With some well-aime cannon fire, another mast was taken off. But the battle enetually came down to boarding action.

The pistol men that James set up managed to kll some of the skeleton cannon gunners and the boarders were taken out as well. Some of the boarders used planks instead of swinging over on a rope. But James kicked the planks off the ship stopping more skeletons.

James then boarded the ship intending to kill the captain. He met an undead skeleton and dueled him. the skeleton slashed at James' had but he parried it and kneed the skeletons rib. With it's guard down, James stiked it's head and sliced it in half.

James met the infamous Wlliam Blades; the ships captain.

"So it's you James. I'm still cursed as a boney skeleton. Why is that?" asked William.

"It's not my fault. You lost the card game against Beck and bet your soul. You lost." replied James.

"He cheated! His death would turn me to normal. So tell me why you didn't kill him!"

"I neverhave seen him for a longg time." bluffed James.

"I see it in your eyes that you're a lying bilge rat Villiers!"

"But if I kill you I can set you free."

"My freedom has already been taken from me after that card game." said William. He then let out a ferosious scream and charged toward James. James quickly blocked the blow delivered by Blades and sent out blows himself. William was a very good duelist. He lauched blows that were quick, but powerful at the same time. James was good at blocking but William was giving him plenty of trouble.

Evntually they went into a sword lock. They each pressed against each other but they were at equal strenth. James slid his sword down toward Williams hand so William took action and turned his sword so that his hand wouldn't be cut off. But they went into another lock but this time James used all his might and broke off Williams defense. With that, he cut Wiliiams sword arm and then hit the sword out of his hand.

James went to go deliver the final blow but William grabbed James' sword and pulled it out of James' hand. Then William grabbed his hand and James' hand and arm started to decay revealing his bones. With that he threw James to the ground and picked up and fallen skeletons sword.

"If you're lucky, you can join my crew when you're dead!" said William about to plunge a blade into James' heart.

"NOOO!!!!" yelled a nearby pirate who jumped in front of James at the last moment. The man felt a cold blade stab into his heart. William took the sword out of the man and threw him on the side like a ragdoll. William turned and looked at the man cringing in pain. He would be dead within minutes.

"You stupid pitiful fool!" yelled William. "You will now die for you actions and so will your captain!" Just then, William felt aggrieving pain as he saw a blade go through his chest. James was behind him and stabbed him with a sword that he picked up from a fallen pirate.

"If you're lucky, you can get into the heavens when you're dead!" whispered James as William died. James looked over sadly at his fallen first mate who's body quickly decayed into bones. Tomas got up but he was a skeleton so James left him behind.

James boarded his ship again and ordred everyone to make any last fires onto the ship. With that, the ship sunk finally. The crew cheered now that they would be legands for sinking that ship and for all the loot they collected from boarding it.

"Where's Tomas?" asked Dan as he took the wheel.

"He sacrificed himself for me." replied James.

"Tis a shame that we couldn't save him."

"Ok so lets go to the mermaid waters. After this I think we're not afraid of some swimming ladies are we?"

"No we aren't!" yelled the crew in unison.

"Then that be our destination!" replied James.

To Be Continued