Chapter Summaries

The Undertow Pirate Crew scuttled one Cutlass Gang ship and drove Kerry to retreat while fighting aboard the others. Gus and the Garrote Pirate Crew arrived with two double-masted ships and began boarding the Black Pearl and the remaining single-masted ships.

• Bruce cast a Darkness Spell and slaughtered pirates aboard one Cutlass Gang ship as Charles attacked them with Bone Needle Bees and the Abyss Kuo-toa flooded its hull.
• Quake, Dalle, and the Tide Warriors overwhelmed Kerry's crew aboard another ship, while the sinking vessel forced Bruce and its surviving pirates into the sea.
• Kerry escaped to the Cutlass Gang's third ship and ordered it to withdraw, abandoning the battle and blaming Gus for his losses.
• Gus arrived with two double-masted ships and ordered his pirates to attack the Undertow Pirate Crew and the Cutlass Gang.
• The Garrote Pirate Crew rammed the remaining single-masted ships, threw grappling hooks, and began boarding as Gus headed for Charles's Black Pearl.

Charles and Bruce led the defense of the Black Pearl as the Garrote Pirate Crew boarded, and Charles’s sorcery helped turn the battle against them. With Gus mortally wounded, the Undertow Pirate Crew pressed its advantage in the continuing melee.

• Bruce gathered the remaining defenders beneath Charles’s cabin as Gus and his elite pirates boarded the Black Pearl.
• Charles cast Dawnlight Arrow Rain, killing nearly twenty Garrote pirates and sending others into the sea.
• Bruce charged the enemy pirates while Abyss Kuo-toa climbed aboard and attacked them.
• Charles struck Gus with Soul Strike, leaving him unable to dodge Bruce’s blow.
• Bruce split Gus’s chest with his weapon, and Gus collapsed, mortally wounded.
• Bruce led the Undertow pirates forward as Charles used Bone Needle Bees to strengthen their advantage in the melee.

After Gus's death, the Undertow Pirate Crew overwhelmed the leaderless Garrote Pirate Crew and began capturing its ships. Charles stopped one ship from escaping, while Bruce boarded the other and drove its pirates to fight, flee, or surrender.

• Quake and Dalle's forces beat back the Garrote pirates aboard the sloop, and Charles ordered them to seize the twin-masted ships.
• Charles promised the Undertow pirates Golden Shells for capturing the ships, raising their morale as the Garrote crew's resolve collapsed.
• A Garrote Tide Warrior tried to escape with one ship, but Charles killed him with a Kinetic Cone spell.
• Charles ordered Bruce to board the ship that was preparing to flee, and Bruce leaped aboard with two Tide Warriors.
• Bruce crushed the pirates who attacked him, while some Garrote pirates jumped overboard and others surrendered; the fighting on both ships ended with similar routs.

After the Undertow Pirate Crew defeated the Garrote Pirate Crew, Kerry fled aboard the Cutlass Gang’s last ship, leaving the remaining Garrote pirates stranded in the water or surrendering. Charles ordered prisoners to clear the corpses and set sail with the captured ships before the blood attracted stronger Magic Beasts.

• Kerry watched the Garrote Pirate Crew fail to seize the Black Pearl, then ordered the Cutlass Gang’s sloop to flee.
• Charles let Kerry’s ship escape because the Undertow Pirate Crew had no vessels available to pursue it.
• Garrote pirates who had jumped into the sea found themselves stranded as fish and unranked Magic Beasts gathered around the bloodied ships.
• Dalle and Quake selected a dozen surrendered pirates to live and ordered them to throw the corpses into the sea.
• Quake warned Charles that the blood could attract powerful Magic Beasts, so Charles ordered the captured ships to sail with prisoners serving as laborers.

Charles returned to Bloodsail Ship Island with five ships and expanded the Undertow Pirate Crew by selling the captured Garrote pirates and buying trained slaves. After more than half a month of recruiting and assigning crews, his forces grew to over three hundred people.

• Charles ordered Dalle to free the imprisoned Garrote pirates and put them to work sailing the five captured ships back to Bloodsail Ship Island.
• Charles's fleet reached the island, where Kerry saw that the Cutlass Gang's captured sloop now flew the Undertow Pirate Crew's flag.
• Charles told Quake and Dalle to recruit more pirates and ordered Bruce to sell the captives and buy obedient slaves.
• Charles haggled with a slave trader and sold all the Garrote pirates, then bought one hundred and ten trained slaves from several traders.
• Quake, Dalle, and other Tide Warriors recruited more pirates, and Charles's crew expanded to over three hundred people assigned across the five ships.

Charles trained the Undertow Pirate Crew’s pirates and slaves while sailing toward the Garrote Pirate Crew’s lair. After promoting Qiu Qi to a Tide Warrior and freeing him, Charles offered the other slaves a chance to earn their freedom through loyalty and hard work.

• Charles had Qiu Qi train the pirates and slaves aboard the ships, despite some pirates fleeing and others only going through the motions.
• Charles promoted Qiu Qi to a Tide Warrior, freed him, and made him a member of the Undertow Pirate Crew.
• Charles gathered the slaves and promised to return their freedom if they proved their loyalty and served him well.
• Qiu Qi and the trained slaves continued teaching the others as all five ships sailed toward the Garrote Pirate Crew’s lair.
• Bruce had revealed the locations of both the Garrote Pirate Crew’s public lair and its secret lair under interrogation, and had dealt with pirates who knew the secret location.

The Undertow Pirate Crew captured the Garrote Pirate Crew’s public lair and found dozens of enslaved people living and working there. Charles promised the slaves better lives and ordered the captured pirates interrogated and then handed over to them.

• The Undertow Pirate Crew’s five ships approached the Garrote Pirate Crew’s island, and the pirates guarding the port mistook them for returning ships until they recognized the strangers.
• Quake ordered the landing party to capture the guards, and the Undertow pirates revealed that Gus and the Garrote Pirate Crew had been defeated.
• Charles inspected the island’s huts and fields and saw that its forty or fifty slaves had been mistreated and underfed.
• Charles told Qiu Qi to offer the slaves a choice between joining the pirate crew and staying on the island to farm, promising that no one would bully them.
• Charles ordered Bruce to interrogate the captured guards and then hand them over to the island’s slaves to vent their anger.

Qiu Qi gave the island’s slaves weapons to take revenge on their former captors while Charles assessed the island as a possible base. After resting and training the crew there, Charles selected thirty slave sailors to learn the Knight Breathing Technique, hoping to strengthen them for future land conquests.

• Qiu Qi armed the island’s slaves and the Undertow Pirate Crew restrained the remaining guards, prompting the slaves to attack their former tormentors.
• Charles inspected the island and decided they could build an Outpost Base there if it proved better than the Garrote Pirate Crew’s other lair.
• Charles and Bruce planned to rest on the island, while Qiu Qi and Bruce continued training the pirates and slave sailors.
• Charles selected thirty loyal slave sailors, gave them Knight Seeds, and taught them the Knight Breathing Technique in secret.
• Charles prepared resources to help the slave sailors advance toward Great Knights and eventually Blood Ring Knights.

Charles assigned Quake, Dalle, and Qiu Qi tasks to strengthen the island and find a merchant convoy to raid, then sailed with Bruce and his trusted crew to investigate Gus's true lair. They reached a barren, reef-ringed island and carefully steered toward its dangerous waters.

• Charles ordered Qiu Qi to continue training the crew, Quake to rebuild and secure the island camp, and Dalle to seek a small merchant convoy to raid.
• Charles sailed aboard the Black Pearl with Bruce, slave sailors, and trusted pirates to search for Gus's hidden wealth.
• After nearly ten days at sea, Charles's ship reached the small island marked on the chart, whose jagged rocks and submerged reefs made it difficult to approach.
• Charles took the helm and slowly guided the ship into the island's waters.

Charles led the Black Pearl to the island where the Garrote Pirate Crew had hidden its treasure and cleared the traps guarding the cache. He began transporting the valuable loot back to the ship, a process expected to take several days.

• Charles stopped the Black Pearl as close as possible to the island and took a small boat ashore with several pirate sailors, leaving Bruce aboard.
• Charles followed the map through a narrow cleft to the Garrote Pirate Crew's hidden lair in a sinkhole.
• Charles used his psychic power to trigger the traps, and a giant bolt smashed a box and spilled Golden Shells across the ground.
• Charles inspected the remaining boxes and found Golden Shells, antiques, magic stones, rare materials, and sealed Magic Beast remains.
• Charles ordered a sailor to bring more hands, and the pirate crew began ferrying the treasure from the island to the Black Pearl.

Charles developed his plans to build a Forward Base and Teleportation Beacon while strengthening the Undertow Pirate Crew. After returning to Bloodsail Ship Island, he chose a Yaz Kingdom merchant convoy as the crew’s next target.

• Charles decided to expand his forces and begin building a harbor, an Outpost Base, and a Teleportation Beacon.
• Charles established a hideout on an island, where Quake oversaw construction and Qiu Qi and Bruce trained the pirates.
• Charles used Magic Beast resources to increase his Tide Warriors from nine to twenty-five, then sailed away with his crew after a month and a half.
• Charles returned to Bloodsail Ship Island and heard Dalle report that he had found a suitable merchant convoy to attack.
• Charles selected a Yaz Kingdom convoy carrying silk, with four armed merchant ships and two escort vessels, as a manageable target for the Black Pearl.

Charles planned an ambush on a merchant caravan while responding to rumors that his crew had taken a third-tier Demonbone Ship blueprint from the Claw Pirate Crew. After arranging to buy intelligence and leave Bloodsail Ship Island, he chose an interception point and prepared the Undertow Pirate Crew to lie in wait.

• Charles selected a merchant caravan with about 150 guards as a target and ordered Dalle to buy its intelligence.
• Dalle told Charles that rumors blamed a Tidal Priest and a black-robed Tide Warrior for taking the Claw Pirate Crew’s Demonbone Ship blueprint, and feared they would be exposed.
• Charles reassured Dalle that the rumors lacked specific information, told him to stay aboard, and assigned Quake to purchase intelligence.
• Charles examined the Demonbone Ship model and realized it was no more than a second-tier blueprint, despite the rumor calling it third-tier.
• Quake obtained the caravan’s intelligence, and Charles learned it carried silk aboard four armed merchant ships with two escort ships.
• Charles used the caravan’s route and sailing speed to choose an interception point, and the Undertow Pirate Crew set out to lie in wait.

Sherry led the Fergus family's merchant fleet through a dangerous sea route as Storm Month approached. A lookout on the escort vessel spotted an unknown ship changing course toward them, leaving the fleet on alert.

• Sherry ordered an escort vessel to patrol ahead and told the fleet's guards to stay ready for battle.
• Sherry gave the sailors an extra meal and promised they could go home once the voyage ended and Storm Month began.
• A lookout on the forward escort vessel spotted an approaching ship and sounded the alarm.
• The lookout reported that the ship had seen them and changed course, but neither he nor the captain relaxed.

Fergus's merchant convoy prepared for battle after an escort spotted a vessel, but the expected attack did not come that day. The Undertow Pirate Crew identified the convoy and gathered its ships, then sailed to attack at dawn.

• An escort ship spotted a vessel and alerted Sherry, who ordered the convoy to arm and stay ready for battle.
• The convoy waited through the day without seeing another ship, then anchored together in darkness while Sherry warned the crew to remain vigilant.
• Charles learned that his pirates had found Fergus's convoy and ordered the scattered ships to regroup for an attack.
• The Undertow Pirate Crew gathered at night, and Charles prepared to use the pirates' excitement while noting that they needed more training.
• At dawn, Charles ordered the five ships to close on Fergus's convoy, and the pirates accelerated toward the merchant ships.

The Undertow Pirate Crew caught the heavily laden Fergus Merchant Fleet at sea, and Captain Sherry prepared to fight after his offer of Golden Shells went unanswered. Charles ordered the pirates to loot the fleet, leaving both sides ready for the boarding battle.

• Sherry ordered the Fergus ships to change course, but their cargo slowed them, and the first mate could not identify the Undertow Pirate Crew's flag.
• The second mate told Sherry the pirates would catch them by noon, so the fleet's guards distributed weapons and prepared the sailors.
• The Undertow Pirate Crew's five ships surrounded the merchant fleet, and Sherry offered Golden Shells in exchange for being spared.
• Charles asked the pirates whether they would accept the offer, and they demanded a fight, so he ordered them to loot the ships.
• Sherry ordered everyone to prepare for battle as the pirates readied bows, grappling hooks, and ropes for boarding.

Charles’s pirates overwhelmed the Fergus Merchant Fleet and cornered Captain Sherry’s survivors aboard the three-masted ship. When Sherry threatened to burn the silk, Charles killed the sailors preparing to ignite it and ordered Bruce to lead the assault.

• Bruce led the pirates in boarding the merchant ships, while Charles directed the attack and kept his men focused on the larger vessels.
• The pirates outnumbered the guards and forced them below deck, where Captain Sherry and fewer than forty survivors barricaded themselves aboard the three-masted ship.
• Sherry demanded a ship in exchange for sparing the silk cargo, but Charles refused and ordered the survivors to surrender.
• When Sherry ordered the sailors to set the silk on fire, Charles used his spiritual power to kill several men preparing to ignite it.
• Charles ordered the pirates to charge, and Bruce cast a Darkness Spell that blinded the sailors defending the passage.

Charles’s pirates defeated Sherry’s crew and seized the silk Sherry had tried to burn. After interrogating Sherry and studying the convoy’s records, Charles planned to use Storm Month to build a Teleportation Beacon and learned more about the merchants operating in the region.

• Bruce led the pirates in a charge that scattered the guards, then captured Sherry and dispelled the Darkness Spell.
• Charles’s pirates found the silk intact in the lower cabin and reported that the sailors Sherry had sent to burn it were dead.
• Charles claimed the silk, ordered Bruce to interrogate Sherry, and told him to hang Sherry afterward.
• Bruce tortured Sherry for information, and Charles took the books from Sherry’s room and reviewed the convoy’s voyage log and sea charts.
• Charles planned to sell the silk, buy supplies, and build a Teleportation Beacon during Storm Month so Anderson could begin teleporting to him.

After returning from a successful raid with eleven ships, Charles’s Undertow Pirate Crew drew the attention of Bloodsail Ship Island’s merchants and rival pirates. Iron Claw Marcus learned that the crew had risen rapidly by defeating several pirate groups and began to regard it as a serious force.

• Charles returned to Ship Island with the Undertow Pirate Crew’s fleet expanded to eleven ships, attracting merchants and brokers eager to buy its stolen cargo.
• Iron Claw Marcus and Bone-Shatter Isabel questioned the sudden rise of the unfamiliar Undertow Pirate Crew and ordered an investigation into its origins.
• Marcus’s subordinate reported that the Undertow Pirate Crew had started with one sloop bought from the Garrote Pirate Crew two or three months earlier.
• The subordinate explained that the Undertow Pirate Crew had defeated the Garrote Pirate Crew and ships from the Cutlass Gang, taking their vessels and killing Gus.
• Marcus learned that the Undertow Pirate Crew’s Tidal Priest had summoned Mermen to bore through enemy ships, and reacted sharply to the revelation.

Charles sold merchant ships and bought materials and supplies before leading the Undertow Pirate Crew away from Bloodsail Ship Island, intending to reach their lair before Storm Month. Marcus and Isabel suspected the crew was hiding a powerful backer, and Marcus ordered an investigation into the Undertow crew’s likely refuge.

• Charles sold the plundered silk and several merchant ships, then used the proceeds to buy materials and load them onto a two-masted vessel.
• Charles led the Undertow Pirate Crew out of Bloodsail Ship Island, publicly claiming they were going to raid another convoy while preparing to return to their lair.
• Marcus and Isabel watched the Undertow crew depart and discussed its rapid growth, wondering whether multiple Tidal Priests or a kingdom supported it.
• Marcus learned that Charles had bought unusual materials as well as food and water, and concluded that the Undertow crew was preparing to shelter from Storm Month.
• Marcus studied a sea chart and guessed that the Undertow crew would seek refuge at the Garrote Pirate Crew’s former lair, then ordered Isabel to find out where it was.

Charles returned the Undertow Pirate Crew to its island lair and began planning an Outpost Base to protect the Teleportation Beacon. Meanwhile, Marcus investigated the Undertow Pirate Crew and waited for a chance to seize its Demonbone Ship blueprint or a ship built from it.

• Marcus learned the Garrote Pirate Crew's lair location, but he delayed acting while he gathered information on the Undertow Pirate Crew and hoped to take its Demonbone Ship.
• The Bone Anchor Pirate Crew robbed a caravan and seized several merchant ships while continuing its investigation.
• Charles returned to the island with his crew and newly purchased slaves, bringing the Undertow Pirate Crew to more than four hundred and fifty people.
• Charles ordered the supplies unloaded and inspected the harbor and camp while the crew prepared to build.
• Charles chose a site halfway up the island's highest peak for the Outpost Base and planned a sturdy stone outer wall with the Teleportation Beacon at its center.