After some recent experiments, it’s becoming apparent that leaving the island is much more feasible than it used to be. Parties have successfully reached The Devil’s Fingers on numerous occasions now – only to turn straight back because there’s nothing out there except seaweed and angry birds.

Intrepid explorers have now successfully reached other nearby islands. Bloodly Useless is described as a big, slippery rock with absolutely nothing to recommend it. Mermaid Island does indeed have a large mermaid population, so no one disembarked there.

In light of these exciting discoveries, Captain Macko Castleton suggests that we revive piracy. “It’s a good old tradition,” he told the Vendetta, “and I think it’s really important that we keep our folk customs alive. They give a community a real sense of coherence.”

The island’s folklorists have been wholly supportive of this plan and are also investigating the possibility of starting up some smuggling rings. What exactly we could hope to smuggle from where is an interesting question, and if this is to be of any fun at all we’d really need someone to oppose it in some way. Discussions continue.

Meanwhile, Captain Macko has re-purposed one of the larger fishing boats for piracy and is looking to recruit a crew. You don’t have to make a full time commitment as the intention is to live on the island most of the time and go pirating when the weather isn’t too bad.

Captain Macko said, “I reckon the trick will be to get to ships before they wreck on the rocks, we’d get far more stuff off them that way and it wouldn’t all be so wet. We might not get so many people drowning, too.”

I pointed out to him that this sounded more like having a lifeboat than like piracy, but he assured me that the important bit was nicking people’s gear, and that the benevolent bit would just be a side effect of that.

Cosplay by Max Rueda, story by Nimue.