Mercia/Journals
The Shroudbreaker journals
Mercia's The Shroudbreaker journals are found exclusively while the The Shroudbreaker Tall Tale is active.
What is the Devil's Shroud?
Found on Uncharted Island (N-13) stashed between three rocks on the beach.
Finally, a balmy day, and a chance to document my research before it all spills out of my head and overboard.
Ramsey has been thinking again, and that usually means I'm the one due for a headache. He called for me late last night...
"Mercia. How might we stay safe in the Devil's Shroud?" I just stared at him. We all know how dangerous that fog is.
It surrounds the Sea of Thieves, but it ebbs and flows. Sometimes it swallows whole islands for months or even years at a time.
Sail into that mist, and you'll start to choke. The deck beneath your feet will splinter. The Shroud feasts on ships and sailors alike.
Being me of course, I told Ramsey I'd find a way. I've left my notes tucked away at Ancient Spire. I'll see what I can learn...
An Ancient Clue?
Found in a cave atop Ancient Spire Outpost.
Did you ever walk into a room thinking about something so hard, you couldn't see it right in front of you? The truth is like that, sometimes.
While filling my tankard below deck, I happened to glance down at the map table. Ancient Spire. In the Ancient Isles. The truth...
I've asked to set course for Devil's Ridge, nearby. If I'm right, the key to breaching the Shroud has been in front of me all along.
We like to think of ourselves as being the first to find a way of reaching the Sea of Thieves, but that isn't the truth. Not one bit...
Comings and Goings
Found in a camp by the northern cannon on Devil's Ridge.
The First Ones. The Lost Tribes. The Ancients. Whatever you call them, they lived here, in what we now know as the Sea of Thieves.
Signs of their civilisation can be found all over the place, even on islands that were once claimed by the Devil's Shroud.
They built temples, altars -- places that were important to them. They couldn't simply pack up and leave when the fog drew in...
I'll need to cross-reference some of my oldest notes, stashed away back at Thieves' Haven. Our first hideout! How nostalgic.
The Shroud Breaker
Found inside an overgrown shack in the middle of Thieves' Haven.
It exists! Proof lies in some of the most obscure places (Ramsey won't let me write down where) but the relic's real enough.
As near as I can tell, they used the artefact like a beacon to protect their homes and places of worship from the Shroud's effects.
At other times, it was taken to a vault to recover its powers. When I told Ramsey, he replied "Ah, so it's a shroud breaker, then!"
All of this seems to have inspired him. We're making for Plunder Outpost on Ramsey's orders, to see a man about a map...
The Shores of Gold?
Found near a campfire on Plunder Outpost.
Well. This escalated quickly. Ramsey remembered the drunken ramblings of some old salt who'd sailed too close to the Devil's Shroud.
The old man claimed he'd glimpsed a glittering island... One where the very ground was made of gems and precious metals.
It sounds impossible, but as Ramsey likes to say, that's just another way of describing something we haven't seen yet.
At first light, we'll be setting out to find that Shroudbreaker. If these Shores of Gold are real, it's the only way we'll reach them.
I should get to my bunk and try for sleep. From now on, Ramsey's voyage journal can tell our story...
Shrine of Hungering journals
Mercia's Shrine of Hungering journals are found hidden in the Shrine of Hungering.
1. Shrine of Hungering
As I sit here writing these words, I still can't quite believe I'm here. And, if I'm totally honest, I still don't fully understand why.
I heard the song of the merfolk from the earring they had gifted me. They said they had important information they wanted to entrust to me. Information I was to share with 'my kind'.
They seemed concerned that if this tale remained untold, then one day, a great evil would be released back into the Sea of Thieves.
So I set off by myself, following the bearing the merfolk gave me, and now here I am, in the Shrine of Hungering.
2. The Warrior
As I've travelled from island to island, I've seen images of a warrior holding a spear. He's mostly shown vanquishing animals and sometimes with a bird.
I've often wondered if he was a real person or, a folktale designed to instil virtues into those who saw or heard it.
It was the merfolk who revealed the truth to me: he was an Ancient.
An Ancient who fell in love with the Sea Queen, no less! Not only that, but she returned his love.
3. The Warrior - Unmasked
This Warrior is not the hero I first took him for! His love for the Sea Queen was so all-consuming that he was willing to try anything to be by her side.
The Ancients believed that it was paramount to live in harmony with the powerful forces of the Sea of Thieves.
Yet the Warrior was attempting to harness them for his own selfish ends.
It looks like the ruler of the Ancients began began to fear the forces he was dabbling with, and took measures to put a stop to his rituals for good.
4. The High Priest
The Ancients lived in harmony with the powerful forces of the Sea of Thieves.
Any member of their society who threatened this harmony had to be removed. So the ruler called upon the High Priest, a man learned in the art of potion and poison brewing.
He created a draught that altered his voice to mimic that of the Sea Queen. With this he lured the Warrior to a remote island.
He hid himself out of sight on a cliff overlooking the sea and, catching the Warrior off-guard, shot him with a poisoned dart.
5. A Great Evil
The Warrior was strong, though did not fall. On discovering who shot him, he killed the High Priest and flung him from the cliff top where he had been hiding. This story seems so familiar to me.
But I am at a loss, why did the merfolk want me to come here? What great evil do they fear?
It can't be related to sharks; they seemed to revere them rather than fear them.
Did the Warrior become a merman and somehow upset the balance of the Sea of Thieves?
Or did the Ancients manage to restrain him and the Queen, and it's their return to the Sea of Thieves that the merfolk fear?