Cursed Isles
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This article documents a recently-released or modified feature. |
| Information is still being collected and may change rapidly. |
As a lead-up to the release of the Cursed Isles, the 2008 Halloween events featured a riddle- and cryptogram-based puzzle. The solution to this puzzle eventually revealed that Vargas the Mad was plotting some spell that would destroy life on the oceans. Foiled by the pirates who solved his riddles, he instead turned to creating the cursed isles.
The Cursed Isles were released to production oceans on November 19th, 2008. Cursed Isles are similar to Atlantis, albeit with some significant differences. For example, boarding battles are rumble instead of swordfighting, enemies are other ships rather than sea monsters, and the primary means of earning treasure is significantly different. Also, the board is designed to make it possible for small ships (sloops and cutters for example) to actively and successfully participate while simultaneously discouraging larger ships (baglah and above).
All Cursed Isles battles are sinking.
Contents
[hide]Charting
Maps to the cursed isles are exactly the same as Atlantis maps, which are in the form of special charts. Cursed Isle maps are obtainable from pillaging battles or defeating skellies and zombies, and can be traded between players as normal. They mark a route between an island and a unique league point, which are similiar to flotilla league point markers, except that they cannot be memorized. To chart a course to a cursed isle, the chart must be placed on the ship's navigation table. Charts are "locked" to the navigation table while a route is charted to a cursed isle league point.
All vessels start in one of the safe zones at the right-hand end of the board. Recent modifications do not allow you to hop out and change the side you start on anymore.
The Sea Battle Board
The sea battle board for an attack on a cursed isle is essentially similar to other multi-ship sea battle boards, with several notable differences. Firstly, and most obviously, the board is much darker than other boards - it has been cursed, and is now under a permanent pallor of night. Secondly, much of the board is covered by a noxious green fog. Pirates on ships passing through this fog will suffer horrible nightmarish visions, reducing their effectiveness at duty stations, and the ship itself will take damage. Fog, however, does not affect bot ships. Thirdly, treasure hauling is not possible on a cursed isle board. This means that even if a player ship is carrying PoE in the booty chest and sinks, a wreck will not appear.
As the ship enters the fog, the following message is displayed:
- The crew inhales the noxious fog, and starts to lose fine motor control.
Periodically while inside the fog, the following messages are displayed:
- With continued exposure to the fog, the crew begins to see terrifying visions that distract them from their duties.
- The visions become increasingly grotesque with more time in the miasma, and the crew spends as much time shrieking in fear as they do on their duties.
- The hallucinations reduce the crew to doing little more than cowering on deck.
As the ship leaves the fog, pirates will start to recover:
- A ration of rum dispels the worst of the visions and allows the crew to operate at greatly reduced capacity.
- A confidence bolstering round of drinks restores some sanity to the crew.
- The crew feel nearly up to braving the Cursed Isle after a mighty helping of rum.
When pirates are completely recovered:
- Another draft from the rum kegs chases away the last ill effects of the vile fog.
Lastly, the sea battle board also includes cursed whirlpools, which travel in the opposite direction to normal whirlpools - that is, counter-clockwise rather than clockwise.
Fog speculation
The fog does not seem to be random; it appears to be created by "generators". These come in a variety of sizes, such as 2x9 or 3x4; some "drift", or random edge coverage is also present. These generators seem to be created inside the "perma-fog" over the island, and move at a speed of one per three turns to one per turn (turn = 35 second, 4 movement impulses). Most move down the map to the shallow end; at the far end, some move sideways.
Under feedback from players stating that the fog seemed easy enough to understand, the developers have increased the randomness of the fog movements from when observations were first made. It comes in smaller patches that move more erratically (converging occasionally to create larger banks), however these patches still tend not to move more than one square away from the island at a time. The only exceptions coming from whisps that now trail along the edges of the fog banks occasionally, which are seemingly more erratic.
In one battle, the "fire" maneuver special seemed to "burn away" the fog -- the fog that was generated for two turns was slightly smaller than expected, and the fog bank/generator seemed to move sideways AWAY from the fire in addition to the normal "shallow-er" movement. This needs additional testing.
The Cursed Isle
The focus of the cursed isle board is the isle itself, referred to as "the gauntlet". The island is located towards the back of the sea battle board, and furthest from the safe zone, and it is always surrounded by the noxious fog. Sailing the ship into the bay at the south-east side of the island automatically starts the process of acquiring treasures. All pirates on the ship disembark, and stand on the island. If there are multiple ships on the board, more than one ship can enter the gauntlet; however, pirates of each ship will not be able to see each other once they have landed. When the pirates make land, the following message is displayed on the screen:
- Ye land on the island, but an angry mob of its inhabitants stands between ye and yer rightful plunderin'!
After a short wait, a horde of zombies will arrive to attack the group of pirates, with one or more Enlightened Ones to lead them. The zombies will fight using rumble, like normal zombies, and always arrive with the same number of zombies as pirates, but are generally easy to defeat. Once the first fray is done, the following message is displayed on the screen:
- With the islanders subdued, ye may forage their riches till they return.
Pirates are automatically sent into the foraging puzzle to forage for treasure. Intead of foraging for crates of fruit, pirates will find chests of treasures. After a short period of foraging, the enemy forces regroup for another attack, only this time, pirates are assulted by a group of cultists, who fight using swords. The number of cultists will be greater by a small amount than the number of zombies previously faced. When the cultists are defeated, all of the chests found during the previous foraging session are transferred to the vessel's hold. After this, foraging resumes.
This pattern continues. After a period of foraging, the zombies attack again, with slightly greater numbers and slightly more skill than before, then the cultists attack once more, again with greater numbers and more skill. At any time, the captain of the vessel may order the pirates to return to the vessel - this means that the next time the pirates would be attacked, they instead return to the ship, with the treasure they have hauled so far. Alternately, the pirates may lose the fray, in which case, they are returned to their ship, but lose 50% of the treasure they hauled in the previous session (All treasures hauled in sessions followed by a successful fray however are safe from the vengeful natives).
When the zombies arrive, the Enlightened Ones chant two lines from the following set:
- "spy ye afar... a ship wrecked on stones...
- the chaos priest cries out in ruinous tones..."
- "rending of timbers... clatter of bones...
- a gracefullness marred... a ruined hulk groans..."
- "for blackened hearts and broken bones...
- we shape the world with blood and stones..."
- "we chant the lines from curs'd tomes...
- to give rise to zombie moans"
- "burnish ye may the lamp shining bright...
- its power shall not cut through the coming night"
- "though ye may feel the chaotic fright...
- it is only a glimplse of the master's full might"
- "the shipwright plies his clever craft... his hands make beauties float...
- sweet chaos on a craftless raft... the thick-tongued mockers gloat..."
- "a charred and meager puppet man upon an ashen boat...
- the flies they hover gleefully about his rawboned throat..."
When cultists arrive, two of them shout one message each:
- "Thou gleeful dung-flock! The BLADE of CHAOS is SINGING! SH'lugg Xeruth-mikkash!"
- "Oh sweet moon-LEAPER, shadow-SWEEPER, stab-DRINKER! G'laroth Bhin Cearow!"
- "Unleash the time-nibbler, raving G'rooth!"
- "slice-CUT, bash-SMASH! red RAIN RED rain red RAIN!"
- "Lorg-tamer, CH'arkkakk, wanton foulsmith of oat-grass!"
When another group of enemies is approacing, it displays:
- Look lively! The cultists are regrouping for another attack!
When the group arrives, the following message comes up:
- A larger group of islanders approaches, intent on driving ye back to the sea. Ye stop yer foraging to decide between making yer escape and preparing for the onslaught.
After a short grace period (where foragers can make final clears, and the officer in charge is allowed to make a decision whether or not to stay) a duty report for the foraging session is posted and the next fray (or getting back onto the boat) begins shortly after.
Foraging
- Main article: Foraging
The foraging puzzle is played in exactly the same way it is when foraging for fruits, save that it is always unrated, and the crates of fruit are replaced by chests containing treasure. There are three sizes of chest - a 1x1 bone box, a 2x2 fetish jar, and a 3x2 cursed chest.
At the end of each foraging session, a duty report is generated which shows performance of all pirates to the whole ship, unlike the regular foraging report. It is similar to a Treasure Haul duty report in that it shows icons of what chests each person hauled, and displays the total haul during that foraging session at the top.
To reflect the fact that the foraging is performed with a time limit, the foraging report also has its own performance rankings based on the number of chests collected. In this scoring system, a bone box is worth 1 point, a fetish jar is worth 2 points and a cursed chest is worth 3 points. The rankings and points required — from highest to lowest, are:
- Frenetic — 15 points and up
- Swift — 12 to 14 points
- Brisk — 9 to 11 points
- Steady — 6 to 8 points
- Lethargic — 3 to 5 points
- Asleep — 0 to 2 points
Enemy Vessels
Roaming all over the sea battle board, cursed versions of the standard player ships may be found. These ships appear to have all of the same abilities and performance as their equivalents found within flotillas, and their names appear in red.
Enlightened Ones and Zombies
As well as the standard ships, small rafts swarm around the battle board all of which are entitled "Raft of the Dead". Instead of turning in an arc like other ships do, rafts always turn on the spot, and can even perform an about-face. They may also perform double-forward moves. These rafts take only one small cannonball to sink them, and they have no offensive capability of their own, but the danger comes in the passengers of the ship, rather than the ship itself.
When a raft ends any part of its move phase in a square directly adjacent to that of the players vessel (diagonally not included), the raft sinks, but its occupants, an Enlightened One and a number of subservient zombies (scaled on the size of the ship), board the ship. This causes a boarding phase with a challenge thrown to a player and a hindrance to the station of that player as well. Players may engage the zombies in one-on-one combat, or may volunteer to join a group defense effort.
It is of an advantage to know, that all zombies will only use fists during rumble. Thus, if every Enlightened One is defeated, all zombies will attack with the same pattern, which makes it easier to keep multiple attackers in check.
Although similar to dragoons from Atlantis, there are two major differences. Firstly, like all zombies, they fight using rumble. Secondly, the rumble board starts with an equal hindrance on both sides (approximately 1/2 max damage if it were a pillage) to cut down on the time spent dealing with the boarders. Even then, the rumble boarders are tough opponents. They may not be quite as deadly as the atlantean dragoons for a GM+ rumbler compared to a GM+ sword fighter, but they are very difficult to kill and take substantial time to knock off all the same.
Maneuver Tokens
While on the cursed isle sea battle board, pirates at stations may contribute towards maneuver tokens, in the same way as Atlantis, flotillas and blockades. However, as well as the standard four tokens, pirates in the cursed isle board may produce a fifth token. The token causes zombies to fight for you instead of against you.
The silver version of the token will remove attacking zombies from the ship. The golden version, however, will turn any zombies on the ship into thralls, each beholden to a specific pirate on the ship. However, the token does not convert Enlightened Ones to thralls, nor does it knock off all the boarders on the ship. Typically, the silver token takes out two boarders, while the golden token takes out approximately 5 (there is some variance) and gives between 1-4 thralls (depending on the Enlightened to zombie ratio of the boarding party).
In future swordfights and rumbles the thralls will fight with you, even when you land on the cursed isle. However, if the owner of the thrall is not fighting in a ship boarding fray (say, not chosen, or does not volunteer) the thrall does not appear to fight in the ship either. If the thrall is ever eliminated during combat, he will vanish from the ship. Note that full-ship boarding battles will commence when there are the same number of attackers as pirates on a ship, just as normal, meaning any thralls on board will count as extra fighters of behalf of the defenders.
Cursed Isle Exclusives
Certain clothing items, trinkets, furniture items, and injuries can only be obtained during an attack on the Cursed Isles. Some of these items are given out in the hauled treasure chests and some are given upon the ship sinking.
Clothes
In addition to being able to obtain numerous standard clothing items in the Cursed Isle-exclusive color, indigo, Enlightened Masks are given out in both male and female as prize items from the hauled treasure chests. These are just a few examples.
- Enlightened Mask.png
Enlightened mask
Indigo / Magenta Feathered Hat
Purple / Indigo Bandolier Jacket
Indigo / Red Loose Pants with Sash
Purple / Indigo Buckle Shoes
Furniture
- Main article: List of Cursed Isle furniture
Certain Cursed Isle-themed furniture items can only be obtained from treasure chests in the Cursed Isles.
Crossed spears
Necromancer's table
Vargas statue
Trinkets
Cursed Isle-themed trinkets and standard trinkets in indigo are available from treasure chests.
Cursed effigy
Booty Division
At the end of the voyage, PoE is divided in the usual fashion.
The treasure chests acquired from foraging are divided based on puzzles played during the voyage. Below is a complete list of reasons a treasure chest may be awarded to a pirate.
- Amazing Bilging
- Amazing Carpentry
- Amazing Foraging
- Amazing Gunning
- Amazing Sailing
- Battle Navigation
- Bilging
- Brave Defense of the Ship
- Carpentry
- Consistent Bilging
- Consistent Carpentry
- Consistent Foraging
- Consistent Gunning
- Consistent Sailing
- Gunning
- Outstanding Bilging
- Outstanding Carpentry
- Outstanding Foraging
- Outstanding Gunning
- Outstanding Sailing
- Sailing
Trophies
History
- Cursed isles were first released on the Ice Ocean on November 4th, 2008.
- Cursed isles were released into production oceans on November 19th, 2008 under Release 2008-11-19
