Age of Pirates II: City of Abandoned Ships

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Peter Blood Beginning
(with maximum money)

The prologue in England is fairly straightforward, talk to Cloud Pitt and the buttler, then go upstairs to the left, enter the room, and walk towards the bed. After another round of conversations exit back to the hall. If you want, you can pick up a key from the table immediately on your left, go upstairs and get a sword, a gun, and some bullets from the chest on the balcony. Either way, moments later some soldiers arrive and after a brief chat with the captain one of them attacks you. You can fight but there's not much of a point, if you kill the soldier, two more are going to attack you, one of whom is a cuirassier. If you manage to kill them too, the captain attacks and he is invulnerable, so you're going to lose no matter what you do.

Next stop, Barbados plantation. The slave quarters, to be exact. After you distribute your stat points and leave the shack, you will be stopped by your owner, colonel Bishop. He tells you the governor's wife requires your services, so leave the plantation, go to the town and enter the governor's mansion. After you examine her you will need to fetch some medicine; you can stop by the audience room and ask the governor for some money to buy the potion. Feel free to ask for the largest sum, the governor says you're going to have to account for it when you return but you won't, so it's essentially free money. Leave the residence via the main entrance and turn right, enter the first house. You meet doctor Whacker there but learn from him that doctor Dan is not at home, and also that he has more to tell you later.
Go upstairs and grab a vial of medicine from one of the shelves, then exit the house. You will be stopped by doctor Dan, tell him you need some medicine, he will give you a second vial. Do NOT tell him you helped yourself to the one from his office, you're going to need both and he wouldn't give you the second one, leaving you one short.

You will be teleported to the tavern. Talk to the barkeeper and ask him about doctor Whacker, then go to the tavern back room. You learn that doctor Whacker and his colleague doctor Dan are willing to supply you with enough money to buy a small ship and escape. If you haven't already, go to doctor Dan's house and pick up the second vial of medicine, then head back to the plantation and talk to pretty boy Pitt.

Now you need to convince three of your slavemates to join you. Two of them are walking around, while the third is in a small house with a forge next to it. They're fairly easy to spot due to their distinct appearance: Dyke wears a brown vest and a beret, Hagthorpe wears dark blue and a tall hat. Talk to each of them and also to a slave with a spotted red cloth tied around his head, who asks you to get him some medicine. Lucky for him you already have a vial on you, which he will trade you for a dagger that the guards won't find and confiscate as long as you don't wave it around.
Hagthorpe will want you to kill a man who ruined his life. You can talk him out of it, but if you want an extra 1k in cash, agree to do the deed. Dyke has lost hope because Bishop is about to sell him, and Ogle feels bound to repay his debt. You will also need to secure some weapons for your escape.

Talk to Bishop before you leave the plantation to learn the name of the man who wants to buy Dyke, a certain Weston, then head back to town. The man you agreed to kill is one Stewart Winterwood, you can find him either drinking in the tavern or enjoying himself in the brothel's upstairs room. Talk to him and challenge him to a duel, which is to be held in one hour outside the city gates, more than enough time to finish the other business. Talk to one of the drunks in the pub, you find out a merchant, likely Weston, has rented a house in the town.
Note: If you have conned the governor and/or have some money on you and want to make the most profit possible, do NOT talk to the barkeeper about procuring weapons. Doing so alters the quest, allowing you to finish it without fighting but at the cost of money.
Exit the tavern, the house you're looking for is the first one on the right, past the moneylender. Do not attack Weston, he's invulnerable, instead wait for him to turn his back or go upstairs and loot the chest, then go to the moneylender and use the money you just 'found' to pay off Ogle's debt, killing two birds with one stone.

Next the weapons. Two ways to do this: The weaponsmith or the smuggler.
For the weaponsmith way, head over to the weaponsmith's house, which is the second house to the left of doctor Dan's house (third to the left of the governor's mansion). Talk to the weaponsmith, then exit the house. A Spaniard will approach you; it doesn't matter what you say to him, he will go to the weaponsmith's house either way. Talk to a guard, then wait a few moments for a logbook update. Head back into the house and loot a sword from the slain guard. Save your game and enter the first room. Kill the Spaniard and talk to the weaponsmith, he will be more helpful this time. When you exit the house you will be approached by a guard demanding that you turn over your weapon. You may safely do so, he only takes the equippable weapon you've looted off the dead guard. The bundle of sabers and cutlasses that the weaponsmith gave you is apparently invisible.
Note: If you paid the barkeeper for information on how to acquire weapons, the first conversation with the weaponsmith will go differently. The Spaniard had already been there and stolen some of the weaponsmith's display weapons; you need to get them back. Head over to the fisherman's house (first house on the left, between the weaponsmith's house and doctor Dan's house). The Spaniard is already dead, so all you have to do is collect the weapons from his corpse and deliver them to the weaponsmith. He will agree to provide you with several unmarked weapons, for a price.
Alternately, you can find one Miles Raymers in the pub, who will supply you with what you need if you can get him a ring from the governor's residence.

If it's already been an hour, save your game and head out of the city gates (NOT back to the plantation, the other way). You will be approached by Winterwood and given a weapon. After you kill him, you can collect 1k in cash from his corpse and some bullets, which will come in handy later. He will also drop his sword and gun, but you might as well leave those since a guard will take them, along with the sword you've been given for the duel, as soon as you return to the city anyway. Having taken care of all the business, you can now return to the plantation and talk to all three of the slaves, then to Pitt.

It's tomorrow morning. Head back to the tavern again and speak to Whacker in the back room. Contrary to his promises he is only able to provide you with 18k, which is 7k short to buy a sloop. You will need to get the rest of the money elsewhere. You may find Nattal (white shirt) drinking in the pub, whom you're going to use as a middleman to purchase the ship. If he's not there, he's wandering around outside and you'll need to tell him to wait for you in the pub.
Either way, head over to the store. There you will meet captain Jacques Swallow, who needs transportation off this rock. Next up go to the fisherman's house, he needs you to find out where his competitor has been getting all those fish. And finally the moneylender, who needs some help tracking down a con man.
Back to the tavern. The tavern keeper will tell you where to find the con man, for a price, and the other fisherman will reveal his fishing spot if you treat him to a drink and then wait for him to tell you (don't pressure him, choose the "..." dialog option).
Next head over to the shipyard, you'll find the con man there. Here you have a choice, you can choose the third dialog option to get him to repay what he owes (30k), or you can con him in turn with the second one, netting you 55k for a slight drop in reputation. Either way you have a second choice to make as well: You can go and return the 30k to the usurer, minus ten percent that you keep as your reward, or you can simply keep it all, in which case you get a 25k bounty on your head from England later.
Note: This quest is bugged, even if you choose to keep the money, it will be taken from you next time you talk to this moneylender. 27k can be a big help in the beginning, though, while later you'll have more money than you'll know what to do with.
While you're there, speak to the shipyard owner as well and tell him Jacques Swallow needs a little help. He will direct you to a captain who might be able to take Jacques, you will find him wandering outside. Talk to him and this time don't use Swallow's real name. Collect your rewards from Swallow and the fisherman.
You should have more than enough by now, so find Nattal in the pub. Note that this is a point of no return, so if you have any loose ends you wish to tie up, you should do so now, before you give him the money. When you have done so and leave the pub you will be stopped by a guard, who will order you to return to the plantation. On your way there you will meet Hagthorpe, who will inform you that Pitt has been captured; you will have to set him free while the others make their way to the shipyard.

The game again advances time for you, it is dark now. You can use the dagger you obtained from the headache slave to kill the guards or you can try and sneak between them, either way make your way towards the far end of the plantation. You will find a chest there between stacks of planks with a saber in it. Pitt is over by Bishop's house, guarded by two soldiers. You can kill them easily one at a time by luring them into the narrow passage between the stacks of planks, or you can just show yourself to them and run away until they give up the pursuit - they won't return to their posts but instead start patrolling like the other guards, allowing you to slip back in and talk to Pitt. Either way, once you have done so head back to the city gate.

Save your game and enter the city. A woman approaches, running from a Spaniard. After you kill him, the woman reveals that on top of everything the town has been attacked by a Spanish warship. Don't forget to loot the corpse, you will find a rather good saber, a pistol, and more bullets. Your objective is to get to the shipyard, but there are a lot of Spaniards in your way. The good news is that they don't respawn, so you can lure them to the gate one by one and kill them. Once you make your way to the shipyard, you will discover that the door is locked. You will need to enter the water and swim around the back, into the dry dock. Once in, your buddies will talk to you and start following you. Swim over to the ship, save your game, and go up the conveniently placed ramp. Make sure Ogle, the one-eyed guy, doesn't get killed, he'll come in handy later. Haghtorpe and Dyke will chicken out on you anyway, so you need not concern yourself with their safety too much.
Once all the Spaniards on the deck are dead, save your game and enter the captain's cabin. You need to be fast, draw your sword and IMMEDIATELY run towards the captain. If you hesitate, he's just going to pull out his pistol and with all probability kill you in a single shot. Unlike Winterwood and the Spaniard in town he does not always drop all his stuff, but he does have a chance of dropping a better pistol than you have, so if you don't mind savescumming, now is the time; you need to save before you kill him, as corpses aren't saved and will not be there if you reload. Don't forget to loot the chests and cabinets, too.
Once you exit the cabin, you will be greeted by Pitt, then talk to the officers. Ogle will join you, the other two will not. This right here is another good savescumming opportunity, as the ship stats are randomly generated when it is added into your ship list, which happens when Pitt talks to you. If you save right before he initiates conversation, you can reload until you get a ship that you like. Go into the character screen and assign Pitt and Ogle as navigator and gunner. Save your game and head back into the cabin.

You are now in sailing mode and all you have to do to regain your freedom is lose the two luggers that have just teleported in. The problem is that you have a huge ship with a minimal crew, so you don't have much of a chance in a boarding battle and reloading the guns takes awfully long. My recommendation is to use the two broadsides that you have to shred their sails and make a run for it. If you found a spyglass along the way, you can use it to find out the enemy ships' distance and speed; you need to be at least 850 meters away from the nearest enemy ship to be allowed to switch to the map. Contrary to what doctor Whacker told you, do NOT go to Curacao - the Dutch are at war with England and will shoot at you on sight. The nearest friendly port is the French colony of Basse Terre in Guadelupe; alternately, you can go to an English colony if you don't have a price on your head and haven't killed enough soldiers to lower your relation with England to "hostile".

That concludes your opening quest, from now on you are a free man and can do as you wish. Some notes in closing:
- The frigate you just commandeered is unique in the game, having better stats and a distinct appearance. If you sell it or lose it, it's gone forever. I would therefore recommend putting it in storage, which you can do at the port controller for about 20-40k. Note that you will need to leave an officer in charge of it; I would recommend hiring some bum for the task and keeping Pitt and Ogle around.
- You will notice your officers and crew demand ridiculous salaries. This is because the ship is too large for your navigator to handle (class 2 requires at least 80 navigation skill, Pitt has 50), which imposes penalties on your stats, which impact your skills, which in turn determine the prices you pay for stuff, as well as the effectiveness of pretty much everything else you do.
- For the same reason you won't be able to sell the frigate for a decent price, or indeed do much of anything else while you're in command of it. You can work around this by buying a tartane as a second ship (~1k), then switching to it. Commanding a large ship gives you stat penalties, having it follow you around does not (it gives them to its skipper, but who cares). That you should do no matter what you decide to do next.
- Once you get rid of the stat penalties, you can sell the frigate, should you choose to do so, for about 70k. Don't forget to remove the guns and sell them separately first, since they are not counted in the ship price - a ship with guns sells for exactly as much as a ship without, so selling them separately earns you more money. That you should also do regardless of whether you decide to keep the ship or not. The money you get for the guns will come in handy early on, while by the time you come back for the ship you will have more than enough to buy new ones.
- If you have a bounty on your head or a hostile relation to a nation, you can go to any pirate settlement and find a diplomat in the pub there. He will clear up those little misunderstandings for you, for a price, as well as provide you with trading licences and privateer patents.


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