It’s no short hike out to Saltrock Cove, but after receiving that S.O.S, you set out as quickly as you could. Thankfully, though remote, it’s not exactly uncharted territory, and your journey to the humble seaside settlement was a relatively easy one.

The road leads you to the top of a cliff overlooking the sea, its edge lined with salt-worn stone buildings along a cobblestone path. It appears this level of the settlement has become something of a refugee camp—there are bedrolls and small camps set up along the sides of the path; old sails and linens strung up to act as temporary shelters. Things appear to be just as dire as the letter suggested.

A grizzled old fox ineki nursing a sprained wrist helpfully points you towards your contact: a female cat Ineki with a bent cigarette hanging from her muzzle. She’s quite preoccupied with feeling along a whimpering kelph’s tail, meticulously checking for any breaks, and doesn’t even spare you a moment’s glance as you approach.

“Doc?” you ask. She glances up and looks you over briefly—almost dismissively. You recall that look from the last time you were in Saltrock Cove. It felt like you were bothering her then, too. “I got your S.O.S. How can I help?”

“Down by the docks, at the base of the cliffs,” she says simply, suddenly tightening her grip on the kelph’s tail and bending something back into place. You wince, the poor kelph wails, and she immediately sets about bracing and binding. “You’ll find my sister coordinating our efforts down there. She’ll be the one you wanna talk to. I’m just the one who thought askin’ for help might be wise.”

. . .

When you finally arrive down at the docks, they’re in chaos. The harbor is littered with half-sunken ships, buildings are in ruins, and the sea just beyond the sheltered cove is churning. Every once in a while the pop of a cannon echoes in the distance, sometimes followed by the unearthly shriek of some abyssal beast. Mycenians of all shapes and sizes—from seaspray-worn pirates to neighbors you recognize from home—mill about the place, passing along supplies and weapons to others who load them onto whatever seaworthy vessels remain.

A sharp whistle pulls your attention to a young cat ineki perched upon an upturned crate, clipboard clutched to her chest. You recognize her almost instantly—Adelaide “Clipper” Halsey, one of Captain Crookskale’s former crew, and twin sister to Doc. “Don’t just stare—get over here!” she snaps, startling you from your recollection. You make your way over and apologize; ask what you can do to help.

“Here’s the gist of it,” she replies, tone sharp and impatient as ever. “Those scum-slurpin’ monsters have wrecked just about every ship we got. Most of our fleet’s sittin’ pretty at the bottom of the harbor. We got volunteers diving down to scavenge whatever they can carry; throwin’ together some improvised weapons.” She motions to a pile of scrap nearby, several Mycenians working diligently to piece together anything sharp or explosive. “Then, anyone who knows the first thing about sailin’ loads up any seaworthy skiff they can find with whatever they can carry and heads out to give those slimy so-and-sos a right ol’ sailor’s welcome.”

She punctuates this last statement by curling a fist and giving her opposite paw a solid punch, her one golden fang gleaming as she grins. “Now get goin’—and knock a few barnacles off those beasties for me, aye?”

• This event will begin at 12:00 ST on October 4th and run until 12:00 ST on October 18th.
• The event style is similar to previous years’ collection events, with a couple of new twists thrown in:
  • Every 15 minutes, you will be able to go diving to collect spare parts from the shipwreck in the harbor.
  • You will then be able to combine your collected parts into various weapons.
  • Once you have at least one weapon in your arsenal, you will be able to set sail and hunt some monsters! 
  • You will be presented with a map of the waters near Saltrock Cove, beneath which lurk several monsters. Each weapon has its own power level - that is, the number of shots/clicks you can make before it is depleted.
  • The setup is similar to the game Battleship, and your goal is to hit as many monsters as you can.
  • Defeating a monster will award you its unique monster booty, which can then be given to another Mycenian as a morale booster. Each monster’s booty has a different effect!
• The prize shop will open on October 11th and remain open through October 25th. There will be 10 items and 3 coats in the prize shop.
• We will once again be allowing the purchase of event prizes with gems once the prize shop is open.
• As always, if you have any questions or encounter any issues, please let us know!

ngl I am lovin’ the premise and the altered mechanics for this event. *u*
^{let’s get kraken pfft}

Pat’s the table enthusiastically.

Time to play game.

Yasss! I love battleship and this is gonna be fun. >:3

Also hunting monsters is cool.

Now that we’re off and collecting, I’d like to thank the staff team for their support in putting another event together!! Below are some specifics about who did what for the major elements of the event! <3

• Event planning and orchestration - Crow
• Various flavor texts and posts - Crow + Prose
• Coding and implementation - glitch
• Event header - Crow
• Event banner - Meru
• Siege Map and monsters - King
• Components and weapons - Loon + Myla
• Monster booty - Myla
• Shipwreck collection background - Myla
• Event Coats - Meru, King, Eluii, Myla
• Event Items - Meru, Loon, Eluii, priz, Myla

eee very excited for battleship!! loving the items!!!

to clarify, tho, we’re only getting points for building the weapons and the first daily dive? defeating monsters is *just* booty, yes? and the hits are the X’s and the misses are the O’s? i think i got that backwards at first and missed a bunch of shots haha

Ollieshark That’s correct—points are only given when crafting a weapon! When you land any hit on a monster (which will show a red X on the map), you get some time off your timer. Defeating a monster completely gets you a monster booty which you send off to other players and the player gets some sort of boon (e.g time off their timer) they can apply whenever they like. :D

I made a fancy little spreadsheet to map out a bunch of data about the event, as well as making a little calculator for planning points with the shop:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1TKrn3mlCWDzf_iIfR70KuSzy80ZWFmoihzztoBX-gv4/

raus
Glad you like it! Tend to make these each event, but this one seemed to have more stuff in it enough to be worth just posting here. ‘Twas fun to make, and hopefully useful as well. :D

glitch
I can’t seem to get any monster booty (heh). I definitely shot five monsters but didn’t get any trophies to send to other people.

I can’t remember exactly, but I may have used the top banner to return to the main event page rather than hit the “return to shore” button.

Jacq you need to return to shore.

Head back to the battleship page https://www.mycenacave.com/saltrock/hunt and click the red “Return To Shore” button just above the hunting grid.

glitch
I remember there being a logic introduced in a prior event that prioritised items you didn’t have (or deprioritised items you had a lot of? I can’t quite remember) and I and my army of fuses were wondering if that had made a return.

I need no more fuses! I have 12 of them. XD

I am loving the event though. :) It’s fun!

I love the booty system, where you can activate the bonuses you have as you need them! No more waking up at 4 pm with 20 minutes off my timer lol. I like that booty has to be sent to be used c: Buff my friends!

If this continues in future events (and I truly hope it does) I would love the ability to send my received bonuses onto others as well, in case I have a “pick what you want” bonus saved for myself but a friend needs it now or some such!

edit: Here is a Give a Booty, Get a Booty thread for anyone looking to swap!

Hyasynthetic The logic is still in place! We discussed whether we should remove it or not with the addition of the boons to help out, but ended up keeping it in place for this event to see how it plays out.

Lala We’ll be doing a survey at the end to see how players liked the new mechanic and what our plans for it in the future should be (e.g. keep it as a mechanic in this style of event or develop it in some other way). I’m really happy to hear you’ve enjoyed the mechanic!