Atlas Tales: Stories of Ships Loved and Lost

[Vhalkyrie 38]

Inspired by the thread "For Salt and Glory, A Tale About Lessons Learned", I decided to share my stories about ships loved and lost in Atlas so far...

Read the thread here:

 

My sailing partner and I have traveled together in too many different worlds and too many time periods to count.  We beat the odds countless times because we've been hunting and fighting side by side so many times, we have a connection and trust about each other's moves.  I know his fighting style and strategy, and he knows mine.  We work synchronously as a pair.  We fight the land, the seas, and the stars; the past, the present or future. Wherever the adventure has taken our liking.

So when my matey told me about a world where we would build ships, sail the Atlas, and fight on the seas, I was immediately onboard.  Of course I would join him.

Note: We currently play on NA PVE and a small Dedi server.  We're trying some things out as a duo team, then we'll move to PvP once we find the right company.  These stories are from NA Hydra's Den.

The Silver Mermaid:

She was the first we brought into this new world, though she is a recreation of a ship from a very old and different time and world.  We built her, then immediately set her to sail across the regions.  We stopped at island to island, never staying for more than a quick look, then moving on to the next.  We felt the salt and the seaspray as we sliced through the deep blue water.  We marveled at the freedom of sailing the seas, and the beauty in the waves.  There was narry another ship during that time, so we felt the world open and secluded for a time, but it was soon to change.

While the Silver Mermaid enthused and excited us about traveling this great blue Atlas, we yearned to try a slightly bigger ship than the sloop.  After much exploring, we came across a region where we would temporarily set our hold.  We have no interest in staying in place for too long, and had no intention of claiming or defending any territory.  We belong on the seas.

We managed to claim an abandoned stretch of land long enough to build a temporary bungalow, and started work on the schooner: "Myth's Folly".  We listened and shook our heads as our neighbors argued over land and resources.  We paid it no mind.  As soon as "Myth's Folly" was ready, we would leave this region.  We are mercenaries.  We stay for a time, take what we want and need, then move on to the next.

As we plundered the land of its resources (amid our neighbors' frequent bickering), I noticed the frequency of storms in this region.  I inspected the Silver Mermaid daily and repaired minor damage.  She was taking minor damage during these storms, but I believed that she was well taken care of and safe.

My matey had laid down for the night, but I still had work I wanted to finish on Myth.  As I gathered resources and stored them, a powerful storm rolled into the region.  I noticed where we parked the Silver Mermaid was getting pummeled with several cyclones.  I counted about 5 cyclones that took direct hits on the anchored Silver Mermaid.  I became alarmed, but she was anchored far enough from me that I would have to swim several hundred feet through raging water and cyclones.  The storm stopped, and the sun appeared.  As I began swimming towards her to inspect the damage, I watched in horror as she split apart at the seams and sank.

I messaged my matey that the Silver Mermaid was no more.  He awoke, and joined me as we took the Silver Mermaid apart plank by plank.  We believed her sacrifice to the gods of the storms was to become a part of Myth's Folly.  While her end was unexpected, she was spared another fate...

To Be Continued: Ship #2 Myth's Folly

Edited January 14, 2019 by Vhalkyrie

[Vhalkyrie 38]

Myth's Folly Part 1:

As the the successor to the Silver Mermaid, she was born in a Storm of the Damned.  The very morning after my matey and I finished scavenging the Silver Mermaid and rebuilding her planks into Myth, I noticed a strange green glowing ship on the horizon.  It began firing on every ship anchored in the area.  It even fired on a shipyard where a galleon was in progress.  It had a focused hatred on all ships.  

As we were already recently shipwrecked, I watched in fascination as this Ship of the Damned sank ship after ship.  The residents of the region were helpless.  As none of us had seen anything of its kind before, few, if any, had fitted cannons on their decks.  If the Silver Mermaid had not been sunk the night before, it certainly would have been destroyed by the Damned.

For some reason, the shipyard housing Myth's Folly was spared.  I watched the Ship of Damned sail around the island firing with uncontainable hatred, but it did not take notice of our fledgling schooner.  This was curious since the cursed ship brazenly sank the galleon in progress.  The company owners of the galleon were not present when it was being sunk, so the bewilderment was intense when they made the discovery.

Perhaps the sacrifice of the Silver Mermaid, as a ship damned by a cyclone, spared Myth's Folly from the Damned's glowing gaze.

When I told the tale to my matey, he chuckled in amazement.  Traveling the seas were about to become much more interesting.  No more pleasure cruising.

As we continued to work on Myth, we discussed our strategy in order to avoid trouble with the SOD.  We had little experience with cannons, so we decided to build Myth for speed.  We wanted to observe them and learn more about how to handle them.  Perhaps this was OUR folly; we built more for comforts with a cozy cabin and kitchen, than for truly handling the new danger.

Finally after approximately 3 days, we were able to release Myth from her drydock.  In the process of provisioning her, we noted chaos in the global region.  Dozens of horrified residents discovered that the deeds on their land were not valid.  Something had gone wrong, and they found their claims had been taken over by others.  My matey and I only focused on our ship.  Even our land that we used was being contested, but we paid it no mind.  They could continue to fight over it; we were ready to sail.  We dismantled everything of value to either take with us, or dump into the sea.  We got notifications that continued over several days of our former land being contested as we sailed away...

To Be Continued: Myth's Folly Part 2: The Folly of Myth's Folly

Edited January 14, 2019 by Vhalkyrie

[Olthoi 65]

LOVE IT!!!

I cant wait for the next tale.  Any others want to share?

[Vhalkyrie 38]

Myth's Folly Part2: The Folly of Myth's Folly

Arrr...Myth's Folly.  She was a fine one.

Our maiden voyage with her was a blast.  She was fast...very fast.  But also a bit of a big bottomed girl that wasn't as nimble in the turns as the Silver Mermaid.

With my matey captaining the wheel, and me in the lookout mast on the sails, we deftly dodged the SOD patrolling the areas from region to region.  Our destination was the tundra regions just below the polar zones.

We had been in the tundra once before in the Silver Mermaid.  We were underwhelmingly equipped for our first voyage into the tundra.  Sailing there during the early days was easy because the Ship of the Damned had not appeared yet.  There was plenty of room available, but no fiber.  We had issues with vitamin D deficiency.  Fishing requires sap, which is oddly missing from the tundra regions.  While I spearfished in the temperate zones, the water was too deathly cold in the tundra for spearfishing.  We needed bait for fish, but no bait was available.  Thus, we repeatedly died from exposure to the weather, vitamin D deficiency, and unrelenting wolves.  We had to abandon it, but we vowed to return.

Myth's Folly made stops in several island chains while we acquired saps and fibers.  Our plan was to go into the tundra, and become Nordic privateers.  We would bring the saps and fibers, and make regular missions to reprovision when necessary.  Perhaps we would bring these resources to the region and trade with other residents.  Part of our provisioning before leaving the tropical island was crafting fur armor so we could survive the cold, cold travel.

What a plan!  We congratulated ourselves on our foolproof planning and our masterwork dodging of the SOD.  We weren't engaged once.

Once we reached the tundra zones though, we noticed a stark change.  The global messaging was as coldly silent as the air.  We noticed miles and miles of unclaimed flotsam.  Interesting...all this unclaimed treasure.  We had plans of returning to collect the flotsam, but first, we needed to find a place to settle.

We quickly realized why it was so quiet.  Half dozen of Ship of Damned appeared into view, one after another.  A menacing whale was splashing around.  With me in the crow's nest, I navigated us through to the nearest land.  It was tense, but we made it without being engaged.

The land had changed quite a bit since we last visited.  All of the open land was claimed, however, no one built any permanent structures.  They claimed the land, then abandoned it.  We found a place that we found suitable, then took one of the abandoned spots.  No one contested.

After setting down on land, we ran around inspecting the resources.  We admired the view.  It sure was open, free, and... **desolate** ...compared to the tropical region we had just come from.

Quiet.  Very, very quiet.

As I was running around admiring the vast openness and the beautiful snowy vistas, I saw a wolf in the distance.  I thought I should dispatch it before it caused trouble, so I pulled out my pistol...

...and was promptly killed by an alpha wolf.  With daytime light and snowblind, I did not see its telltale glow.  I revived on the boat, but now I was without my protective fur clothing.  I could not run to the area where I died without bone chilling exposure that killed me within minutes.  My matey attempted to retrieve my items, but he had the misfortune of running into a wolf pack that also killed him repeatedly.  We managed to retrieve his items, but not mine.  We ended up abandoning it; with the spare saps we brought, I crafted new armor.  We decided this was not going to work for us after all.

We wanted to explore a different area down south.  The winds were blowing to the west, so we planned to go over one region, then head southernly.  We dodged the SOD as before, but we ran into a very large cluster near the region boundary.  My matey and I were both on edge as we skirted so close to them.  How close was close?  We weren't really sure, but each one we dove through felt like we were cutting the knife's edge.

Normally when passing through region boundaries, I jump off and take a look in the next area.  Because there were so many ships at the border, we skipped this safety process.

So we zoned over...and promptly ran into trouble.

There were two green and one yellow Ship of the Damned on the other side.  Despite our best maneuvering, we clipped the notice of one of them, then all 3 were in pursuit.  We already had full open sails and were running as fast as we could.  Myth's Folly was a fast girl, but in this case, we were overwhelmed.  Our inexperience with ship repairs did not allow us to react fast enough, and she was taking on too much water.  We should have made an emergency stack of replacement hull plating.  We were sinking and we didn't know how to save the ship.

Myth's Folly sank to the bottom of the deep water in the Tundra.  My sailing matey and I drifted in the sea.  The island chains were too far away to swim to.  We would surely die of the freezing water or sharks first.

The 3 Ships of the Damned were still floating between us.  After they sank our ship, they no longer cared about us.  Since we were going to die anyway, we pulled out our pickaxes and attacked their corrupted hulls.

Eventually a shark came along and ended us, but we were satisfied with our final FU to the forsaken ships.

I sometimes think about the treasures that went down with Myth's Folly.  Did anyone ever find our sunken ship with gold and thousands of pounds worth of jewels, crystals, and saps?  Or did it disappear forever under the darkness of the deep sea?

Despite this, I think of returning to the tundra.  A place so inhospitable, it is a challenge to tame it.  Perhaps someday we will return again, and conquer it.

Edited January 14, 2019 by Vhalkyrie

[Hambo 34]

In a prior incarnation (Saturday Jan 12) I built my Sloop (SS Endless Sloop  ) And took my Lvl 5 booty to sea.  I ended up near an Island that from a distance looked like Stonehenge.  Being curious, I decided to head for shore.  After anchoring I swam for shore... Only to be one-shot by the Lvl 72 Cyclops that had appeared.

I respawned to my boat and was able to leave the island.  Not too long after leaving the outer pillars I spotted a red blotch on the horizon in front of me.  When I got closer I saw it was a Lvl 165 Drake hovering above the waves.  As I was staring at this marvelous sight a fleet of 5 or 6 SOtD materialized around me, one directly in front and so close I couldn't dodge.

I rammed that SOtD right in the bow, which drew fire.  Unfortunately that line of fire also included the Drake behind me.  Guess who got trampled between the fighting Elephants?  

Edited January 14, 2019 by Hambo
Spelling correction

[Vhalkyrie 38]

I haven't seen the Stonehenge or the Drake yet!  I could see this happening to me - lol.  I definitely have a tendency to think, "What is that cool thing over there?", then promptly have that cool thing kill me.

What an adventure!  RIP SS Endless Sloop.  

Edited January 14, 2019 by Vhalkyrie