Chapter 4, everybody! Welcome aboard a particular creepy black ship!
Yes Maxwell is quoting Timon from The Lion King. Older houses that were built with a serving crew in mind frequently did have servants' stairs built inside the walls, partially to keep from running into someone with a tray in the hall, but it does make for a convenient backdoor exit if need be. And…okay so Gilbert and Sullivan is well after the golden age of piracy, the tail end of which the Pirates movies are set, but I think we established a good decade ago that Don't Starve doesn't care about anachronisms. Saying that, remember the cuckoo clock in chapter one? Those were invented in the 1600s, so weirdly we avoided an anachronism there.
Don't Starve © 2013 Klei Entertainment
Pirates of the Caribbean © 2003 Disney
Okay. So. For the record full moon wasn't the best but it was better than nothing and if he had to sit in this jail cell listening to a bunch of idiots try and tempt the dog with the keys over for one more minute there were going to be some issues.
"You can try that all you want, that dog is never going to move," he ground out.
"Well excuse us for not resigning ourselves to the gallows just yet!" one of the guys barked.
"Well it's not like you're actually doing a good job of it—they're going to come down tomorrow and you'll be in the exact same place and no closer to your goal then you are now."
"Oi I'd like to see you do better!" a different guy spat.
"Okay fair you know what? Challenge accepted." Stand up, flick his hands, go to the door—
Walk right through it, swinging it shut as he went. Grab his effects—
"Ta, boys," he said, tipping his hat as he walked by the dumbstruck pirates.
"Hey wait!" one guy yelped, the rest quickly joining in. "Come back! Let me out!"
Aha, no—granted he would be in need of a ship and a crew, but at this point he was willing to try in Tortuga instead—wait, what was that? Froze at the top of the steps, head tipped as he listened...
"I know those cannons," he muttered. Made it the rest of the way—looked out the window—
Oh no.
The men were still howling let me out let me out!—ended up looking at him dumbfounded when he ran back for the cell yelping let me in let me in! Swing the door back shut behind him—okay think maybe he was lucky there'd be no reason to raid the prison—
"What is it? What'd you see?" one pirate demanded of him.
"The Shadowcatcher."
Dead silence followed that declaration.
"I-I know that ship," one guy said. "I's heard stories—been preying on ships for years—" Looked nervously at the others. "Never leaves survivors."
"Oh really?" he sniped at them. "Then where do the stories come from, I wonder."
The pirate started to open his mouth—paused like he had to think on that—
Whistle and BOOM cut off any further communication, knocked them all off their feet—by the time Max had recovered the last of the guys in the other cell was scrambling out of the big smoking hole after the others.
"Well I'll take my wins where I can," he decided, settling back in; at least he had his hat again, could just wait for the pillaging to finish up and then sneak out during all the chaos.
Although...sidle up to the window to look again; real talk, this was the closest he had been to his ship in almost a decade, if this wasn't the perfect chance to slip on and take it back—
Look sharp at the sound of a fight, spin around in time to see a redcoat come tumbling down the stairs, two pirates charging down after the body—
"This ain't the armory!" one exclaimed.
"Hold it," the other said, having spotted him. "Well well, look what we have here. Maxwell Carter." Sneered as the other spat. "Last we saw you, you was stranded on an island, shrinkin' in the distance. His fortunes haven't improved much."
"Oh I'd worry about my own fortunes if I were you two," Max said drily as the pirates cackled. "There's some decidedly nasty places reserved for mutineers and betrayers, if you catch my drift."
One guy snarled, shoved his arm through—Max jerked back, just narrowly avoiding getting his collar snatched—
It wasn't lost on him that the guy's arm turned skeletal and crystal-ridden in the moonlight though.
"We're already there," the guy snarled, yanking his arm back; the second guy spat again as they went back up the stairs, leaving Max with a particular conundrum.
"So there is a curse," he mused, leaning against the bars and assuming a pensive stance. "Now that's interesting." And problematic—something that got its juice from the moon was not something he could tackle easily.
He was really going to need a workaround for this one.
Willow hadn't really been sleeping, just staring at the ceiling and turning her medallion over and over in her hands, so she was the first one to hear the cannon fire. Start out of bed, alert the others, run upstairs as some of the men scrambled for the gun cupboard—
"Wilba! Wilba wake up!" Willow hollered, jumping on her bed and shaking her. "Wilba you got your wish pirates are invading!"
Wilba started awake with a snort, blinking furiously as she focused on Willow. "Willow don't lie about that you know how I feel about it—"
"Oh get up!" Willow hollered, rolling her out of bed—leaped over her and checked the window—
"Look see!" she barked, pointing as Wilba scrambled over. "There in the harbor!"
"Forget the harbor!" Wilba exclaimed, forcing Willow's attention closer—right in time to see a band of pirates burst through the gates and across the driveway.
"Oh dang we've got to go," Willow said—turned to see Wilba tugging the decorative swords off the wall. "Seriously?"
"My time has come," Wilba declared, struggling to get the swords dislodged from the plaque.
"Yeah sure whatever we need to leave—you especially," Willow said, grabbing her arm and tugging her out of the room. "You're the governor's daughter, they're probably here to kidnap you."
"Well at least let me grab something sharp—ooh wait! Daddy's blunderbusses—come on," she said, leading the way and dragging Willow off her intended trajectory of down the servant's stair and into the night.
"Wilba I don't think we have the time—" Cut off sharply, the both of them freezing at the sound of gunshots. "Okay fine but I get one too."
"Right!" Wilba squeaked, hustling for Warbuck's gun cabinet. Willow shut the door, listened at the thick wood...sounded like they were coming up the steps, and she doubted Wilba would have two finished in time. Look around for something to work with—
The first pirate to come through the door got a coal holder square to the face, the next one getting a coal shower, and by then Wilba had a gun loaded and fired it in their direction, missing everyone but definitely killing the bust of some musty ancestor. At the very least, the combo got them back out the door and fleeing down the steps, dodging into a side room when it became clear that going out the front was out of the question—
"Dangit—split up!" Willow told Wilba. "They can't catch us both and they don't know which of us is the governor's kid—out that window, I'll try to distract them."
"No are you crazy do you have any idea what they'll do to you!?" Wilba demanded, yanking at a window. "Come on!"
Look back at the sound of the pirates approaching—yeah no there wouldn't be enough time. Shove Wilba out the window, slam it shut and pull the curtains closed, run and hide in a closet and hope they hadn't heard. Also, really hope that Wilba had enough sense to run.
The cautious creaking of the door being eased open suggested this wouldn't be the case.
"We know you're in here, poppet," one of the pirates called, shushing the other. "Come out, and we promise we won't hurt you."
Yeah right, she'd roll her eyes if she weren't half-out of her mind with fright. Hug herself to keep from shaking, willing them to leave—
"We know you're here. You've got something of ours and it calls to us."
What?
Realize she had instinctively clutched at the medallion—forced her hand open, looking down at it—was it just her or did it have a sort of...sheen, almost, like it was trying to glow?
Heart stopped when she realized that she had lost her light, that there was an eye staring through the gap in the door at her.
"'Ello, poppet."
"PARLEY!" she blurted as they flung the door open. "Parley!"
The two pirates blinked at her, apparently startled into pausing. "Wot?" the shorter one asked.
"I invoke the right of parley," she said quickly—okay maybe Wilba's pirate nerding paid off. "According to the code set forth by Morgan and Bartholomew if someone invokes parley you can't harm them until negotiations are met." Should she throw in some widows and orphans stuff too or was that Gilbert and Sullivan? Oh gosh her knees were shaking send help—
But apparently she had invoked the magic words—the pirates had a short argument before the smaller one finally settled it. "She asked to see the captain," he growled finally, glaring at her. "And she'll go without a fuss, won't she?"
Oh boy.
It took maybe two rounds of cannon shot for Wilson to realize that it wasn't a demonstration up at the fort because the Commodore was so amazing—stuck his head back out, realize that they were being invaded by—
Pirates.
This was it—this was totally it this was his chance to redeem himself—sure he hadn't succeeded against that pirate earlier, but being one of the ones to repel a pirate invasion, possibly to spring Maxwell Carter from prison? This would finally get him the recognition he needed to actually be worthy of Willow.
It was why he snatched up as many sharp objects and scientific contraptions as he could before running out, to Wagstaff's alarm—was quick to take down as many pirates as possible with scientific chicanery and the occasional show of lethal force. Don't think about that, don't think about it, these were pirates, filthy monsters who took delight in endangering and ending others' lives—
Like what could have happened to Willow—
Spun to face another pirate coming up to tango with him—had to take a beat when he realized he recognized this one, was reasonably certain he had taken an axe to the man's back not too terribly long ago he should be dead why—follow his line of sight to a grenade near his feet, dance away in panic—
Fortunately it was a dud, and the man went down to another axe to the front before Wilson was running off to the next thing—
Skidded to a halt when he saw Willow being dragged away by a pair of pirates.
No. No. Of all things—run for her—
Was decked hard by a pan a pirate had liberated from the silversmith's, ground running up to deliver the knockout punch.
Okay, so if Willow ever survived this she'd forever be able to hold this over Wilba's head because she was pretty sure this was that girl's dream scenario.
Granted in the here and now she couldn't see it—yeah these two guys said they weren't going to hurt her but they were pirates so she really had no reason to believe them. Not to mention the ship they were rowing to (were they even rowing? The passage was way too smooth)—she had seen this ship once before, had it haunt her nightmares ever since, a great black ship with black sails, oozing malice, the front resembling a shadowy shark's maw right as it breached to take its prey.
And she was expected to board it and chitchat with the captain.
"Didn't know we was taking on prisoners," a big burly guy rumbled once they were on board.
"She asked to see the captain," the shorter of her escorts said, indicating her.
"I have parley rights," Willow offered.
The big guy snorted at her, looked up at the back of the ship. "Cap'n Charlie."
"Present!"
Willow blinked as the new person registered on her—she had been expecting the captain to be some big guy with a beard, maybe on fire since Blackbeard did that thing with the lit fuses in his braids. This—was not that, this was a woman a little taller than Willow, dressed in a shimmering black jacket and dress that trailed behind her like some great black peacock, broad hat keeping her face mostly in shadow. If she didn't know any better, she'd say that the woman was made of darkness herself, had peeled herself straight out of Willow's shadow to manifest herself here now.
Except she was pretty sure spooky shadow people didn't look you up and down in polite bafflement. "What's this then?" the woman asked, not really sounding very piratey—maybe more like a mandolin, she wasn't sure.
"She asked for parley, wanted to see you Miss Captain Charlie Ma'am," the shorter pirate said, poking Willow forward. Okay how would Wilba do it?
"I'm here to negotiate the cessation of hostilities towards Port Royal," Willow said, hoping those were all real words.
The way the pirate captain, Charlie, blinked made her doubt that. "You wanna run that one by me again?"
"I want you to leave and never come back."
"Ah. Well I'm disinclined to acquiesce to your request. Means no," Charlie said, smirking at her.
Okay then, plan B. "All right," Willow said—broke for the railing, startling the pirates—had the medallion on a chain dangling over the edge before anyone could react. "I'll drop it then."
Charlie arched an eyebrow. "I've got a ship so loaded with swag it's threatening to sink, you think that little trinket matters to me? Why?"
She considered the pirates in front of her. "Well if it's worthless then there's no reason for me to keep it—" Barked a triumphant laugh when every last pirate jumped forward, her tightening her grip on the chain before it could slip away from her completely. "You were saying?"
Charlie worked her jaw at that. "All right, fine," she said, waving them off. Squinted at her. "What is your name?"
"Willow," Willow said—debated on whether or not to give a last name, was unable to before Charlie continued.
"And did you ever have any dealings with one Maxwell Carter?"
Her recollections immediately flashed back to earlier that day, to the pirate that rescued her and used her as a hostage within the span of five minutes. "Oi…."
"So that's a yes then," Charlie said, looking pensive. "All right then. You hand that medallion over and we'll leave this island alone. That sound like a plan?"
"Sounds about right," Willow said, gathering up the medallion and chain before holding it out. Charlie reached out—
Willow started at what felt like a spark of static when the other woman grabbed her hand instead, shaking it and grinning—yanked her hand back, leaving Charlie to admire the medallion a moment before handing it to a parrot wearing a little pirate hat. Willow watched the bird fly into the masts as Charlie started barking orders—
Started when she realized the ship was leaving and she was still on it.
"Hey wait hold it!" she barked, running after Charlie. "You have to take me back to shore! According to the pirate code set forth by Morgan and Bartholomew—"
"Lemme stop you right there," Charlie said, turning and holding up a hand. "Firstly, returning you to shore wasn't in either the negotiations or agreement so I must do nothing. Secondly, you have to be a pirate for the pirate's code to apply and you're not. And thirdly…the code is more what you'd call guidelines than actual rules." She grinned maniacally at Willow, showing teeth that looked too sharp and too numerous to be natural. "Welcome aboard the Shadowchaser, Miss Willow!"
