Before we begin, a few words from the mods! What we are asking here is for general responses regarding your interest in this event. We realize the game has slowed dramatically as is the nature of going into endgame, but if there is little interest in this event then we will probably move straight into endgame within the coming week. So let us know if you are going to participate in the comments below! Also, if you have any questions feel free to ask!

Things are almost over, but not entirely quite yet. Meep still has to be rescued, for one thing!

Interested parties will receive a letter with explicit instructions to head to Anygrav Moon.

The island is surrounded by a familiar mist, thinning though it is. On August 9th, it will dissipate enough to merely hug the ground, though it seems to not go any further. Fortunately, it doesn’t give you nightmares, but rather lends to the general feeling of unease that fills the place. Small though the population was, it is even smaller now -- that is to say, there are now dead, lifeless husks that dropped wherever they were as if something completely drained them of energy. They are all unmarked, however. Will the same fate take you? Will you find Meep in time? And what shape will he be in when you do?

All of that is up to you!

This penultimate event will run for about a week, starting on the 9th, with a new riddle every other day and little prizes that may help you in your final battle with Davy Jones. A Nav has been set up on a little rowboat next to the island so sailing there isn’t necessary.

Give us your thoughts below!

Ever since the belated start of the Great Ghost Race, the seas have been full of chaos. Frequent storms, sometimes of the odd variety, have left many ships in wrecks and tatters. Battles have been fought over shards, some lost, some won. The first week of August is the calm before the storm. Shard pieces can be found pretty much everywhere, though you might have to fight other people for them or prepare to fight to keep yours with you.

By the end of the week, the shards start to throb. Those who are brave enough to hold them will feel them pulsing in their hands to the tune of a heartbeat, humming and glowing faintly red. They seem to be calling you to Isla Empieza, which has been strangely quiet for some time now with no news reaching the seas beyond.

Should you go to that island, you'll see it's covered in a thick green fog with storm clouds circling steadily overhead. Something is brewing there. Something major. Other ships have been wrecked along the shoreline, but they are curiously empty as if everyone has gone inland for some peculiar reason.

In any case, you can't get onto the island -- at least not yet. So keep gathering shards and fighting your way through the Navy, pirates, and infrequent rains of exploding frogs. The end is on the horizon.

Hello, High Seas! Lycoris here with a little announcement thingy.

Long story short, losing his entire crew to drops is leaving Ragna in less than stellar state, pushing him to deal with it using one of his less healthy coping mechanism: namely, wishing for the destruction of the world, which will cause him to turn into the Black Beast to make that happen. I realize this is on an extremely short notice, but the circumstances outside my control led to this timing, so I can only hope it won't get in a way of anything for you guys.

Now, let's move on to explain what all of this actually means for you!


So what is this "Black Beast" thing you speak of?

Without getting into technical details that would make one's head hurt, the Black Beast is a huge monster with numerous heads (think hydra or Yamata no Orochi - especially the latter) that exists simply to kill every living thing. Here are some visual references: one, two, three; these should be enough to give you a general idea. Also, these look just like the shadows Ragna normally uses in battle, in case someone's familiar with them.

What can we do about it?

Fight and defeat it, preferably before it accomplishes its goal of destroying the world! No one likes that.

And how is that supposed to work?

On the 10th I'll be putting up a post, followed by an open log on Port Chance a thread on the general log for everyone's combat needs. The Black Beast can be NPC'd freely there, since there isn't any sort of thought behind its actions anyway. It's just a monster that kills and eats, eats and kills, nothing more.

Wait, the 10th? Isn't that the date of the race?

Tough luck, eh? But shhh, don't you worry about that. It'll work out, trust me.

Okay, but what's in it for us?

Glad you asked; in case saving lives isn't good enough reason, there actually is something you can get by fighting it─ namely, the Katabami's remaining shards (two big and two small ones). Once the Black Beast is defeated, you can find those near its corpse. Or perhaps some can fall out of its body in the middle of the battle, too. Whatever works for you.

Gimme.

Sure, just drop me a line in the thread below and I'll get back to you. To keep things simple and quick, I'm gonna make it a "first come, first serve" rule, with one shard per crew (unless we don't have that many crews left, I guess). I'll randomize the size of the shard you'll be getting, too, for the sake of fairness.

Can we punch Ragna in the face for all this crap afterwards?

Ah, here comes the tricky part. Sadly, the answer is no─ after the Black Beast, and by extension Ragna himself, dies, he won't be coming back. In other words, this post also doubles as an ahead-of-time drop post. The guy is already dying though, cut him some slack.


Apologies for the tl;dr I've just put you through; if you've got any questions or I forgot to cover something, feel free to comment here! That said, it's been amazing (almost) two years and I really enjoyed my time in the game here. Hope you guys are gonna have fun sailing until the end!

ETA: links are up!

It seems that the worst is over. Whatever strange force created the zombies now seems somewhat satisfied with the results. To what end? Who can say! Most importantly, they are no longer crawling over your decks. Through the next couple of days, everything will seem preternaturally still as if the world is holding its breath.

On July 2nd, however, flyers for the Great Ghost Race will begin to appear throughout various islands and some may even flutter from the sky as if blown from a cloud island somewhere. It seems the race may be a little late this year, starting on the 10th rather than the 5th, but that's probably a good thing, everything considered. Zombies do require a lot of cleanup duty.

Will you race? Will you spectate? Will you simply come and enjoy the festival? It's all up to you.

The next week or so will be bright and sunny with seemingly everything going right with the world!

But you know what they say... Every silver lining has a dark cloud.

June 15th-???




The sea is boiling once again, but this time it doesn’t herald the arrival of new people. No, rather there are old people -- dead old people. Zombies, as a point of fact, glowing with green light. Look beyond the decaying flesh of their faces and you may just recognize some of them as pirates you’ve fought against before, whether in the race last summer or more recently. Don't be surprised if you recognize any Navy men, too. Throw in the mass of unfamiliar faces, and there are definitely a lot of these creatures appearing on the seas.

Starting on the 15th and throughout the month of June, as soon as the sun sets each night every ship will be plagued by zombies -- surprisingly powerful ones, too. It’s as if they’re at least as strong, if not stronger, than anything you can throw at them.

These zombies can be dismembered or set on fire, and those that are still left by dawn will dissipate into dust which will blow away in the wind. But the following night, more will come to take their place. The sea is deep, after all, and Jones’ locker can hold more than anyone can imagine.

Your character dying won’t lead to zombification, however. For whatever reason there seems to be something just a little special about Outworlders that no one expected.

If you have any questions, feel free to ask below!

May 19th-22nd

A storm’s a comin’! And it’s a doozy. Nearing midnight on the 19th, green clouds begin to melt across the skies, lit by the sinking moon which is quickly covered, casting everything an uneasy green light. Those awake may feel a sense of dread if they are inclined to such things — as if something big was about to happen.

Half an hour later, those still asleep may be jolted out of bed by the sound of screaming, but don’t worry, it’s only the wind. A huge wind threatens to tip unprepared ships into the drink and those observant might see things that appear to be humanesque shapes, but there is no time to speculate because after the wind comes the rain, hard and fast and sharp, feeling like glass needles against the skin. The sea will rise to one-hundred foot swells in some places so prepare to get wet if you’re on deck and try not to get knocked in. Davy Jones won’t thank you.

The storm will blow through with patches of calm here and there until on the afternoon on the 22nd, the rain patters to an end and everything is flat as a millpond. There is still an undercurrent of electricity in the air and those sensitive to such things may feel that this is the calm before the storm. But that’s ridiculous, right? Around two in the afternoon the tension will have dropped away, the sun will shine, and everything is back to normal...except for weird splotches of blood that can be found here or there on the hull, or deck, or mast. Where in the world did they come from?

We meet again!

First off, thank you to everyone who commented on the last post. We really appreciate all your input and a lot of good points were made. We apologize for being so quiet since then, both with in-game happenings and mod-wise, but we've been talking a lot about where to go from here, discussing what everyone said, and trying to work out plot details that would follow whatever decision we made. There's obviously a lot to consider and we want to make absolutely sure we do what's best for the game.

Unfortunately, we all agreed that what's best is closing the game.

There are still details to be worked out, and as we said in the previous post, it's not something that will happen for several months. We'll start working our way toward endgame over the summer, and we're aiming for things to wrap up in September. That will put us at exactly two years since High Seas opened. This also means that we will have our last Activity Check at the end of June, and we're going to keep applications open continuously through July, at which point they will close for good. Apps will be reviewed on a rolling basis from here on out.

We want to make sure to end things in a way that's satisfying for everyone, and we know there are still things that many of you wanted to do and things that you wanted to see happen. As such, we are asking for you all to comment here with your Bucket List! If there's anything specific you still want to do in the game, or plots you'd like to have happen, say so here! Comment to others if there's CR you want, work together to get in some final player plots, and let the mods know if there's anything we can do to make the final months of the game as fun as possible!!

This has not been an easy decision to make because we really hold this game close to our hearts. It's been amazing getting to play with you all and we'll be sad when it's over! But we've still got several months left, so let's all make sure we make the most of them!

Thank you again, and we hope you understand our decision!

As always, you can also feel free to comment with any questions, thoughts, or concerns.

Hello, High Seas!

Well, fellow pirates, I believe we have hit the point where we need to decide where to go from here in the game. The amount of incoming applications has been dwindling for several months now, but this is the first time since the game opened that we actually had zero apps, and our total number of characters has now dropped below 40 after the last Activity Check.

Obviously, the comms haven't gone completely dead; we just had a pretty active summit log last month! But there's no denying that things have definitely slowed down, and we seem to only see the occasional burst of activity these days. If our numbers continue to drop, it's safe to assume there won't be much improvement on that front.

We love this game and all the players in it, so we wanted to make sure you guys get to have a say in what happens from here on out! There are several different options, so please leave a comment and tell us what you think is the best decision for the future of the game!


What do you want to see happen?

1) Leave things as they are. We'll continue to have apps, possibly leaving them open all the time and reviewing them on a rolling basis. AC will still be required, and the mods will still create plots for the players. Things will continue as they have been, though it's very likely you will all have to accept the slowing pace of the game because there are no guarantees it will pick up again. And that works for some people! But for others, it doesn't. So keep that in mind.

2) Move into endgame. This is nothing that would happen immediately, and we don't have a set date, but over the next several weeks we would begin to introduce the endgame plot and get ready to wrap things up. The game would probably officially end sometime during the summer. That's not set in stone as we don't have all the details worked out yet, but things would definitely come to a close in the near future.

3) Turn the game into more of a sandbox. Mod plots would become a thing of the past and things would have to be much more player driven. But you wouldn't have to meet Activity Check requirements anymore and anyone would be welcome to join the comms.

Please let us know what you think, and feel free to speak your mind and/or provide explanations for your choices or even offer thoughts of your own! Your comments will help us to decide what to do. This is not a "majority wins" sort of poll, we are just looking for player input and offering up a place for discussion to help us come to a hopefully satisfying decision.

Feel free to ask questions if you have them, as well!

Thank you!! ♥

Hey guys! The characters under the cut still need to report their AC. Remember that per the rules on that page, your Activity Check requirements are due by the end of the day on the 3rd! Which is in just a couple hours!

All game pages and character lists will be updated within the next few days. If you haven't commented on the AC page by tonight at midnight, aren't on hiatus, or haven't gotten in touch with a mod, your character will be purged!

( Danger List )

If we made any mistakes or if we missed something, definitely let us know!

Sorry to say this, but I'm dropping England from the game. Mint Bunny and things that arrived with him will be going with him, but all other possessions will be left in his cabin to be distributed amongst his crew as they see fit. You've all been great. <3

If you want to continue poking me, my plurk is coffeeforink.

Hello, High Seas! Time for your monthly mod post!


Housekeeping items:

♦ REMINDER: AC is due at the end of this month!! Please check that page for the rules and details. Remember that we adjusted the requirements a bit, so read it over! April 30th is the deadline!

♦ New characters! If you haven't already done so, please make sure to comment on both the Taken Characters and Player Contacts pages! Current players, please make sure you're keeping your info on the Player Contact page updated whenever you bring in a new character!

♦ Intro Log for anyone who wishes to participate! Characters both new and old are welcome. Feel free to bump into other people here as your characters are trying to figure out what's going on!

♦ ALL CHARACTERS IN THE GAME SHOULD HAVE A TAG! Please use these anytime you create or comment on a post in piratejournal and high_seas! This will make it much easier for YOU if you ever want to go back and find a post your character tagged into! If you've commented on the Taken Page, then you should have or will soon be getting a tag. If we somehow missed you, let a mod know and we'll create one ASAP.

♦ As you form crews or join the ones that already exist, please be sure to let us know over on the Ship Registry / Crews page! Also, we suggest making plurk cliques with your crew members, or maybe even setting up a separate DW community for your crew. It makes it easy to keep in touch with everyone on board your ship and gives you a convenient place to plot, etc!

♦ We also have the Crew Locations post. Be sure to keep it updated!

♦ Joining a crew is not optional. Whether you start your own, hop on someone else's ship, or even set sail by yourself, your character should eventually end up sailing the seas. Isla Empieza is not there for them to set up a permanent residence! Get yourself on a boat!

♦ You can use the Island Registry to determine where you would like to sail to and have ADVENTURES. Feel free to visit any of the islands already listed there, or create one of your own!

♦ We really suggest that you keep the Mod Plurk friended, as we use it to post all sorts of updates, reminders, and event notifications: highseas

♦ Here is your monthly Lookin' Fer Crew Meme, in case you need help finding a crew or if you're trying to recruit this month!

♦ And this month we have our Player HMD Meme up!


Current and upcoming shenanigans in game:

♦ Player plots: a Summit is being held at Gamboller's Berth on April 18th, if you and your crew are interested in attending.

♦ Don't forget that it's also the season for dances and balls! Both official Navy balls and smaller occasions held by the locals. Are you going to crash any this year?

♦ Do any of you dare to go visit the Cat o' Nine Tails at Pilgrim's Keep?

Hi! I'm KJ and I've been eyeing off this game from afar forever. I'm bringing in Nami from One Piece, navigator of the Straw Hats, who's not gonna be impressed at this whole-new-world deal. She's greedy and snarky and hot-tempered and bossy and fanservice apparently but she does tend to be pretty nice under all that.

I'M TERRIBLE AT THESE SO I'LL LEAVE THIS HERE but I look forward to playing with you all! My plurk is kayjayyy, feel free to add me for plotting and general shenanigans.

Guess who's back? Decided to yank Akira Inugami back to the game, with his experience from the last time still fresh in his head.

For those who weren't around when he was in, he's a teenaged, Japanese werewolf with a pretty snide attitude. He's also a general grumpy-pants who thinks most situations are going to end in disaster. Once you get PAST all the layers of negativity, though, he's actually a pretty damned cool guy, and he's got some insane loyalty to his cohorts.

Hello, High Seas!! Intros are always weird so I'm just gonna barrel through it bear with me

HI I'M PHASE and I am totally new to this game despite having on-and-off stalked it for a while, so. Yes. I may ask dumb n00b questions about things and slam down some tl;dr at times, especially since I tend to be very anal careful with details, but I only have good intentions! Honest!

But I'm boring so let's move on to the main topic which is the fact that I'm bringing you Jesse McCartney the Second technically Jesse McCartney the First this dork



If you're thinking he looks familiar, yes, yes he does. Saying Kingdom Hearts is complicated is like saying the sky is blue so I'll spare you the details (unless you REALLY want to know) but this is Ventus and he is here to treat everyone nicely and make all the friends and just be such a gosh darn good person all around because that's how hero protagonists roll. He's also been in a coma for the last twelve years because this is SUCH a KID-FRIENDLY SERIES so he's gonna be even more confused by this gig than usual and will probably say some really weird things about that now and again. ANYWAY

I am all up for cross-CR, so I'm always up for plotting and making mischief and all those things! I look forward to meeting you all and bugging your characters with this insufferable optimist. 8') I'm on plurk at puncheverything if you need me for anything, or if you just want to friend me for the hey of it (as a heads-up my plurk is mostly cats, crying over fictional characters, Bible quotes, and gaming shenanigans, so Go There if you so choose). Thanks for having me, High Seas!

Salutations one and...no wait, I did that one already.

What's up everyone! I'm Morgan, and I'm joining you for the second time here! I've been very much wanting to come back to this pirate's life and adventure since leaving and the opportunity has finally presented itself to me. To which I could not be happier about.

Also coming back with me is this douchebag.



It's Jin Kisaragi. He's from a lovely series of extremely anime bullshit called Blazblue. He's a hero, a warrior, a complete turd. He also has a bit of an extremely homicidal brother complex obsession with his dear brother Ragna. Perfectly normal, perfectly healthy. Nothing to be concerned about.

He's going to be just thrilled, and I'm already excited to be back and raring to go! Looking forward to playing with everyone here, and if you'd ever like to reach out for plot, or just general shenanigans, please feel free to add me on plurk at Insaneiac.

Cheers!

I apologize for the picture, and blame Lycoris for enabling me.

Sorry to do this, especially when I've only been here for about two monthes now, but I'm afraid I'm gonna be dropping ol' Hook here. He was fun to play while it lasted, but alas, my drive for this game has been running low and I hate to character squat. So the cap'n is going back home to fight Peter Pan and whatnot. Sorry for any disappointment!

Sorry guys but I can't really justify staying in game when I'm not doing anything. As much as I adore playing Remy and playing him in pirate land, I think I'm gonna take a break. See you all later probably!

April 1st-5th


In the wee hours of the morning of the 1st, those who have shards will see them glow a faint red before the seas begin foaming gently. From the foam, light multicolored bubbles just visible by the quarter moon begin to rise. At around 5am, these bubbles (ranging from pinpricks to fist sized) will be floating all over any ship/island you happen to be on, practically unavoidable. They don't seem to be doing much of anything, and if left alone will continue just floating around charmingly.

Should you pop these bubbles, however, your character will immediately be drenched head to foot in sea foam, which will slide away half a second later leaving you...changed.

What kind of change? Well that's up to you.

Are you gender witched? Species switched? Are you a mermaid? A marmoset? Gigantic? Minuscule? Do you look like someone else from your canon? Another of your crew? The options are limitless.

On the evening of Sunday, April 5th, a short, violent rain of small, colorful marshmallow chicks will pop all the bubbles at once, but it will take until midnight on the 6th for bubbled effects to fade away.


FAQ

How many bubbles can I pop?
As many as you want.

Are there any limits on what I can transform into?
Not exactly, but try not to break the world. If you have a question about whether your transformation would be world breaking or not, feel free to ping a mod.

Will my characters remember what they were before?
That's up to you! Except in the case of canonmates/crewmates/other people.

In other words, your character can turn into a girl and believe they were always a girl -- but they can't turn into, say, Roxas, and believe they were always Roxas. Since the kid has enough of an identity crises as is.

Will the effects pile up on each other?
They can if you wish.

Can I transform into the same thing twice?
Yup.

Can I use different journals to reply?
Sure thing! But we're not going to be adding any to the community so piratejournal posts, for instance, have to be done with the original account.


That's all for now! If you have any additional questions, feel free to ask below.

Event Day FAQ




Who will we be up against?
The combined forces of Joscham "the Crooked" Morten and Maddie the Butcher, known as "The Crooked Bone Boys". They've also temporarily aligned with the bounty hunter Esper "the Conflagration" Jones.

( details under cut )


Will we be able to fight the captains?
While you may engage them if you wish, they will escape through their own Nav before they can acquire any serious injury through your hand.


Can we choose between winning a shard or a demon's egg?
Certainly you may. There are separate sign-ups below. You may sign up for both (contingent on participation) but there will be only one prize per crew.


Do we have to participate?
No. However, we ask for the sake of keeping cohesive world-building that increased pirate activity at least be noticed, and ideally your crew would still be ambushed but you are free to escape without engaging in any fighting.


What are the deadlines again?

You have until 11:59PM (EST) on Wednesday, March 25th to do the following.

♦ Crews with 5 people or less must have a minimum of 30 comments.
♦ Crews with 6 people or more must have a minimum of 35 comments.


That's all from us! If you have any further questions, feel free to ask below.


**Important note: though the log will be available from March 19th-25th, for IC purposes this ambush will be happening all across the seas on Tuesday, March 24th.

So! Lepo, Kim, and I have been talking.

We'd like for the crew of the Dragon Emperor to go after another crew in an attempt to raid/pillage their ship.

We've got Captain Hook, Azula, and Gambit for another ship to go up again, and we're open to discussing various outcomes.

There will definitely be IC consequences as a whole, but for this particular plot, we'd prefer to limit the damage of their actual actions (so, later news spreading, etc, is different) to be moderate injuries and, of course, damage to their egos. We're also happy to lot with them getting away with a bit of treasure from the other ship. It can either be a flashy fight or a stealth op, depending on what everyone wants.

If there's interest in being the ship they go after, just comment here, and we'll discuss with you and among ourselves to decide the details!