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Here's a thought:

Currently dockside in the deep waters of Buccaneer Bay within the Isle de Provokan Sound that lies within the Caribbean, the crew of the 'Lady Washington' take some well deserved time off within the free port-village of Bridgetown. Having already laid in a years stores, careened the ship and having taken care of all make and mend work, the ship sits idly by while Captain Kurisutofa sees to the reconstruction of the neglected city walls and all that lay within it.

Rumor has it that there have been sightings of the British Navy's Man-of-War 'H.M.S. Indefatigable' within the ship's home waters of the Northern Pacific Ocean. With the Spanish out of South America and the French Interest having been lost upon the America's, the British have taken it upon themselves to establish trade with the settlements upon the Western Shores of Canada and the natives at Nookta Sound. Though with the British presence, merchantmen and West Indiamen grow bold. Forming convoys escorted by the British 110 Gun Ship-of-the-Line, they rendezvous off Valparaiso, round Cape Horn and make for San Fransisco. Selling imports to Mexican port's in California, the rich merchantmen then turn Coastal Traders and sail north to Nookta Sound and Victoria, Canada. Here they sell high and buy low, getting richer with every pelt collected. Once finished with their business, they sail across the Bering Sea unattended and make for China where the pelts and spices of the America's are rare and valuable. Once their holds are empty they make for home - back to England laden with fat golden bellies plump for the taking. Regular Treasure Fleets.

Needless to say, Kurisutofa is eager to make sail... but first he must rebuild what has been rebuilt so many times before.

The shore is scattered with a few old ships, once glorious and whole. The docks barely lay in tact. The Lady floats a distance off, and a small long boat makes birth at the beaches edge.

Bridge Town lays over grown. The cobble stones are coated with lichen, the vines have crawled over every building and the trees have created a canopy over much of the city of Provoka, growing out of buildings and over the deserted walls. A small river has decided to make its home in the old pirate town as well, running from the northwest walls to the southeast borders and ocean, taking a few buildings with it.

It has an air of beauty about it. But the town is not completely deserted. A door has been cleared into the old Spy Glass Inn and Tavern and latern light seeps out of the clouded windows. There are tents outside of the Governors Manor not far off and a familiar man has taken one of the old storage buildings as a fishing hut. There is also a tunnel entrance going into the mountain at the towns east side that seems to have been freshly carved.

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I like the idea of us slowly moving back into Bridge Town, creating tree huts, reopening businesses, ect. The forest over growing into the town gives it that enchanted feel, and will supply us with story opportunities and motivation.

While my leaving Gaia has taken a delay, it is still going to happen (hopefully sooner than later) so I'll avoid making a crew of my own. Instead I'll start up a little fishing hut to take advantage of the new river.

I've made a "to do" list that you may want to consider (don't take it as law, just some possibilities) Our goal is to get a fresh group of crews so we need to make the guild more presentable (old threads scare new members off)

-Clean up the forum:
Crew forum: The majority of the Council house threads should be chucked.
Fiddlers Green: Edit the starting posts of some of the ships, having them washed up on shore, sunk, or simply gone (toss the rest in the "lock up lagoon") We can make a record of every ship that's ever birthed, it's Captain, years of service, minor ship details and amount of crew for the lore book.
Adventures Abroad: Chuck the threads in the lagoon, we might want to consider find a new purpose for it.
Bridge Town: BURN IT TO THE GROUND! (I joke)
Keep the "Map thread". Get rid of the last two maps, keep the picture that Zam drew, then label it with key land marks. It'll look more professional. Chuck everything else in the lagoon. Like your old home thread or shop? Remake it to fit the new story. Then we can start anew with the Pub, the Governors house a shop (as an example)
Main forum: Keep a few treasures (like the comic or captains log) Send most of them to the lagoon, remake the rest (we can use different members who usually wear pirate garb for this to spice things up)

-Clean up the home page: Let's get rid of the "This is Provoka!", while it has it's humor it makes us look like children. We may want to add an expansion onto the intro as well, seeing as that was many years ago. Something like "It has been many years since Wickit first landed, and Bridge Town found itself deserted- until now. Provoka has a new Govenor, the island is being re inhabited by pirates and the Royal Navy grows closer by the day." Then add on a clever ending.
I'm sure Zam will be able to add it onto the picture, we want to keep things simple for new members.

I final note: We want to clean up as much as possible and rebuild with new members. We can add to the lore book to show some history, but this is a new age for the Island. There are two things I've seen scare new members of any level off: 1, really big foreign threads and 2, dead threads made years before on the top of the page.
We have both.

Also, I know that both of you have little patience for the newbies, but we need them. Once the guild is clean we'll need to personally go out to crews and invite them to the island. There aren't enough S-Grade RPers out there to keep this guild active, so we'll have to make our own.

Opinions?

I approve of all of those suggestions. An Ogubo invasion would be easy to pull off as well, at the beginning of it all (NPC "invasions" grow difficult with high numbers)

Aye, sir. Here are my thoughts on the town of the Bridge:

Governors Manor - keep as is. Have hints and trivial references of the previous owner. Such concepts are a few pictures of Gunns family, possibly artifacts, etc. Mainly now decorated in whatever means Kurisutofa sees fit. Its his house, afterall.

Spyglass Tavern - The towns version is long gone. However, the current one will be put under ownership of my nephew, as he has been happily resurrected for the better.

Hospital - Morgans ghost. That is all.

Rudd´s Wreck - abandoned, any owner who comes can make claim to it, as I plan to use Arthur Rudd on a later date.

As far as it goes for maps and the comicbook, I am more than happy to continue this; I have been stringing out ideas ever since I first saw it, and I did not like the direction it was going. To little text and good artwork do not a comic good make. The maps I have in mind will play into the D. Isle tunnel network. Of course, these tunnels will yet to be found. I am nudging at a renewal of the black market here.

Finally, above all, we need to make the town seem more /available/ in occupation. That, or indicate an area where rest can be found. Such as innrooms in the Tavern. idea

We need to burn the Tavern down. This shall be the starting event of the summer. As for everything else, I am well on my way to getting to it.

Toddling off...