Adventures Ahead: ‘The Secret Wilds’

If there’s one thing that can travel across the waves faster than a Galleon at full billow, it’s gossip. Grog-houses across the Sea of Thieves continue to buzz with stories and speculation, discussing strange areas of lush growth and sapphire skies that have mysteriously appeared throughout the normally desolate region known as The Wilds.

Over at The Unicorn tavern, however, Tasha is in no mood to join in with rumourmongering as she continues to face a private peril of her own. Her last few weeks have been spent waiting impatiently for answers to arrive, however indirectly, from an old friend…

Testing Times

There are many different kinds of transformative curses that can plague pirates going about their business, but not all of them are entirely unwelcome. Some crews will even go so far as to accept an affliction willingly as a sign of dedication to the likes of Captain Flameheart, while the Gold Hoarders consider a glittering finger or two nothing more than proof of a hard day’s work.

Tasha, on the other hand, never asked to be cursed, and while she remained oblivious to the root cause of her cadaverous conversion (discovered shortly before the events of ‘The Rogue’s Legacy’), she was not about to sit back and let it consume her without a fight. Recalling tales of a cure told by her friend and mentor, the notorious Captain Briggsy, Tasha set out for Plunder Outpost to confide in the Order of Souls, hoping that they’d be able to provide her with more concrete information.

Unfortunately for Tasha, Briggsy’s skull had been drained of its memories years ago, after her own skeletal transformation led to a fatal confrontation with pirates who knew little of Briggsy’s tragic past. This complication forced Madame Olivia to gather the knowledge she needed in a much more unorthodox fashion...

The Eye of the Beholder

Briggsy had buried many keepsakes throughout The Wilds, intending them to be discovered by Tasha once she was old enough. Madame Olivia wisely recruited pirates who were willing to retrieve several of these guarded gifts on Tasha’s behalf, uniting the mementos with a paranormal process intended to extract memories of days long past. Much to Tasha’s relief, that ritual has finally been completed, granting Olivia fresh insight into Briggsy’s time in The Wilds – and setting the stage for another expedition to uncover the truth.

Unwilling to risk bestowing any kind of power upon the skull of a Skeleton Lord, Madame Olivia has instead chosen to transfer these memories into Briggsy’s distinctive mask, ready to be wielded by pirates prepared to undertake this Adventure. Whoever dons the mask will hear the wisdom and insights of the Cursed Rogue herself as they follow in her footsteps, scouring The Wilds on the hunt for a cure to Tasha’s curse.

And yet, as is always the case with the legends of Captain Briggsy, all is not as it seems. The distinctive jewel in Briggsy’s mask, which Madame Olivia once assumed to be little more than an ostentatious decoration, has proven to contain knowledge of its own. In fact, the gem is a star map created by the Ancients, and has been used to chart constellations that appear strangely different to the night skies today’s pirates have come to know.

Starring Roles

As Sudds would explain at length if given the opportunity, the Ancients sought to preserve their folklore and so enshrined many of their most important legends in the heavens. Wherever these strange constellations may have originated, Briggsy clearly believed that the mythology behind them was closely tied to the curse that affected her and now attacks Tasha – and, perhaps, the means to reverse it.

If Tasha is to be saved, it will be up to pirates to complete Briggsy’s odyssey and decipher the meaning behind these strange stars, not to mention any connection the constellations might have to the recent revitalisation of The Wilds itself. Crews will get their chance to see the world through the eyes of a Legendary Storyteller when ‘The Secret Wilds’ launches on January 19th. What happens next is written in the stars…

Previously
Adventures Ahead: ‘The Rogue’s Legacy’
Adventures Ahead: ‘Return of the Damned’
Adventures Ahead: ‘The Herald of the Flame’
Adventures Ahead: ‘The Sirens’ Prize’
Adventures Ahead: ‘A Hunter’s Cry’
Adventures Ahead: ‘The Forsaken Hunter’
Adventures Ahead: ‘Lost Sands’
Adventures Ahead: ‘The Shrouded Deep’
Adventures Ahead: ‘Forts of the Forgotten’
Adventures Ahead: ‘Shrouded Islands’