He sits back on his seat and adjusts his belt. He at least tries to stifle his belching - for now - and Argo is appreciative for that.. He refills both their tankards to overflow with rum and seems to down two thirds of it in one gulp before Argo has her tankard to her lips.
"Argo,Tell me a tale or two of your time in Avonmora", She takes a breath to reply but he barely stops and she remains silent listening. A busty wench lays more dishes on their table. Argo acknowledges her but is more intent on what is in the bowls. William however notices the wench a great deal more and clearly has some thought bc the wicked smile on his face says it all. And his eye wobbled all funny.
He continues: "I have some very fond memories starting off in the Iron Helm. It was still in its prime. Morgan, Sparrow, Lodswe, Lana, Dungeness. What a great crew to join up with to learn the ropes from. After a while a hunger for independence grew John Jacob Astor, Meliva, Shadowood, Myself and a few others split off To form a guild Named TOR with Napoleon, who turned out to be Rothchild, who most newer sailor will know him as Vane. I was new here, everything was fun, things were exciting and wild. The seas seemed very active and lots was going on.
TOR did not last long, Vane moved on to other projects and Astor, the second in command rage quit in a battle with Nelson, leaving no guild access to anyone. With no access to functions the guild quickly fell apart.
Shadowood and Myself formed the guild VUDU with Valar Morgulis and proceeded to see how much trouble we could cause and how many fights we could pick
About this time, I joined up with some equally despised rebels [FOX] Morningsun, Chaulbaud, not a pirate, supreme leader juicy p, mohammed ,Ghostand we tried to get Wales on the map. This was short lived as players moved to midways to help them fight a war. Wales started to fall apart.
He smoothly continues.
Wales divided into wales (Tzogos) and isle of man (Psaral)It was a blast for the very short time it lasted. Shadowood and myself then joined up in isle of man with a big spender named Big Tea that we knew from [HELM]was financing the start up of the nation and we got Isle of Man on the map. Big tea eventually got into an argument with Wales and took control of Tzogos
" All this was also short lived... Big Tea was quickly run off and quit the game, Leaving 2 relative new players running a nation holding two ports"
He paused briefly to raise his eyebrows and poke his spoon at the reporter's plate indicating Argo should eat.
Raising his bushy brows in a concerned frown, "The food is good, Argo. Aren't you hungry?" as he wipes up the last of it off his plate with his fat piratey fingers.. Argo shakes her head.
Again he raises his eyebrows and indicates her plate with his spoon. Spookily, as if he heard her thoughts,, William looks at her in genuine surprise and says, " Whats a matter, don't you like kelp and roe stew?"
Argo shrugs and nods giving him permission to take her meal as she pushes the plate over towards him. He nods and smiles and dives into it after finishing the rest of the rum and refilling once again.. He goes to pour more for Argo who covers her tankard with her hand and smiles an unmistakable 'no'.
With a twinkle in his eye and a big grin on his crooked toothy smile he was obviously enjoying the memory. Laughing all the while he says, " It be the best of times. Ye have not had a good time running a nation until its just 2 of you and you don't have the cards to hold the ports, so you just pretend you can and you talk a big game, while desperately trying to recruit any sailors you can to help.Eventually we recuited Noffin, then Meliva, than Pulpop, I think The Love Tiger and I believe Tom Lowe may even eventually joined up.
Eventually we grew it into one of the largest and most hated nations on the map, but that's a very long story."
His one good eye twitches strongly downward towards his plate, as his false eye continues its forward gaze, in a very unsettling way. He frowns as he pokes at something on the plate.. he flicks it out onto the tavern floor and proceeds to devour the rest. Argo dare not look, but accidentally catches a glance none the less. Its a grotesque shard of what appears to be jaw bone from some sort of sea monster......
His good eye returns to a forward gaze. “it was under this crew we attempted the first invasion of Chalkos by Isle of Man. It was a fun one that may have set the tone for the prolonged ongoing tensions with Spain that continued for many years to come. It was a very failed attempt to steal a port from veterans by a bunch of young sailors, we ..... lets just say we quickly sailed back home and were pretty happy no one followed us.
He quickly downs another tankard of ale and leans back on his chair fumbling around inside his coat for a moment too long Argo began to think. Just as she starts to feel a little uncomfortable he suddenly and with a flourish produces a wad of maps all rolled up and bundled together with expensive red ribbon. His expression shows pride and happy times ago. Peeling one out of the bundle he laid in on the table for Argo to see.
One by one the maps come out until they covered the entire table top! Pointing to the first one he says,
“ I fondly recall the pirate occupation of Akrotiri by Vane – this was the first time I saw a black port. I was busy trying to keep Isle of man together at the time so I did not have any direct part in it, Look Argo, Look..." his stubby fingers pointing to the map....." hehe -- but I made a bunch of money casting Voodoo to help support the pirates."
Most of the funds were used to support Isle of man and then we made a deal with vane as the pirates were on their way out to pursue other project for Isle to take the port. We had been in Psaral and had a somewhat contested hold on Tozgos.
Isle of Man was a division of Wales and the two ports we built up into wales and isle of man. If i remember correctly A few players were flying the welsh flag were there in Tozgos and they pissed off big tea so he stole it. We held on to it even after big tea was gone but our claim as a two port nation was weak at best.
However a negotiated occupation of Akrotiri put us in 2 ports undisputed and really put Isle of man on the map as a serious nation for the first time.”
