User blog:Subject1099/A Tale of Three Islands

Something quite interesting happened a while back, and I thought I'd share it here.

At about noon, while my brother was still in school, I decided to get in a few hours of time on 303. When I spawned on Mainland, an island I personally hate, I barely had time to sigh and roll my eyes before I was jumped by two guys in full steel kit. They told me I was under arrest, and led me at sword point to a fortification near one hill cluster. As far as I could tell, it was some kind of farming settlement. The fort was a small keep of mideaval walls around a forge, surrounded by a decent sized pallisade wall area. Within the wooden walls were a mill, a granary, and four small huts of unknown use. Finally, outside those were a very large number of wheat farms, with the occasional pavilion in between. I was led to one hut and locked inside, proving them to be cells.

I started talking to the two other prisoners, who introduced themselves as Klei and Darcy. From them I learned the grim truth. Soon, I'd be questioned about my intentions on Mainland, and either sentenced to labor till death in the fields, as Klei had been, or execution, as Darcy had been. Part of me wanted to find a new server, but the other realized some MAJOR role play was going on. And I wanted in.

I'm darn happy I stayed. After a few minutes, Klei and I were taken to the fields to harvest wheat, and Darcy was left in her cell. As we worked, I saw a few ships coming, and then suddenly it was chaos. T, one of the guys who'd caught me, was yelling in chat "Here they come! Ready! Ready!", and Den, a guard, called us back into the fort. Naturally, we ran for the ships. As they landed and men poured off, we asked what was happening, and were directed to a girl named Uni. I remember our brief conversation in perfect clairity.

Uni: Who are you two?

Me: Escaped prisoners. Are you attacking them?

Uni: 'Course.

Klei: Please, our friend Darcy is still in one of those cells. Can you save her?

Uni: Got a better idea. -She threw some steel down- You save her. Make swords.

Over the next hour or two, I got to know Uni's RP character pretty well, so I can safely say: She's really stupid. I was a fresh spawn, so I didn't have the skills, to say nothing of a anvil. But to my surprise, Klei handed me a longbow and pulled out a steel sword. He said he hadn't used them earlier because he was too outnumbered. Including us, there were ten people there, as this server was quite full. If we could get inside the fort, I was certain we could take 'em, but they were well defended.

We would charge, take a few hits and get injured, then retreat back to recover. After about three bouts of that not working, the leader, Ruier, sent a man up with a bomb. He placed it, but didn't manage to light it before he was killed. At that, Ruier called for a catapult. And that's when I realized this wasn't just a large raid. This... This was war. They hurled a bomb over the wall, killing one defender and carving a hole for us. Once we got inside, our numbers proved too much.

All but Den and one girl named Gyo were killed. Those two were stripped of their gear and led away. We broke Darcy out and the three of us were asked to go back to this group's base. We said yes, and were given one catamaran each. Yeah, a catamaran. This group was pro. We were told they were ours to keep, and I burned the left outrigger as a recognizable feature on The "Curium" as I called her. The small fleet, of six ships including us, set out for their base leaving the ruins behind us as a warning.

Turned out this group was based out of Spire, my personal favorite island, so I was amazed by what they had accomplished there. Using the floating city invention on this wiki presumably, they had a huge, multi-level settlement built on the peaks. The first level was only a few bridges and a military checkpoint at water level, which gave us room to dock. Once we wound up through the cave, we came out on a sort of street. I hate myself for not taking a screenshot, but I'll describe it best I can here.

On the first Spire, the one with the entrance, there was a large catwalk built all around it, and on that were a forge, a pair of huts, and a well. All around the parts not shielded by buildings were pallisade walls. Two towers stood on the corners farther from the remainder of the island. One gate stood at the bridge to the next spire.

The next spire was quite similar, but the higher area was mideaval walled-off, with only one gate and a narrow ladder to it. The buildings here consisted of three huts, a granery, a bakery, and another well.

The third spire had a much more military air about it. Pallisade walls, a gratuitous number of towers, etc. The main features were five huts in a line that I now knew were cells, and a lighthouse connected to a small platform with one more hut. The prisoners were taken up there, so I assumed it was a warden of some kind.

We weren't allowed on the last Spire. But oh man was it cool. There were platforms and mideaval walls all the way around, and forges, quarries, and huts full of materials aplenty. And it was then that Darcy, Klei, and I parted ways. Darcy was joining the guard at Spire, I had heard about a food-producing settlement on Harbor that I wanted to live in, and Klei just wanted to return to his old home on Spring. We said our goodbyes, and went our seperate ways.

This turned out much longer than I expected, so I'll continue in a seperate post. Thanks for reading, and if you were the genius behind that Spire city, props man.