The Adventures of Capt. Skull X 2 and the Missing Pirates

## Welcome!

The thrilling sequel to The Adventures of Capt. Skull X has finally set sail. Stay tuned for weekly releases of this epic saga that follows many familiar friends, foes, and places. The story picks up in the last days of POTCO and follows Capt. Skull X and his crew to save the Caribbean from a new elusive danger. Stay tuned for special behind the scenes trivia and references to be released along with each chapter!

## Chapter 1: Old Acquaintances

The birds began to chirp, as the sound of the ocean waves crashing onto the coast slowly grew louder. The sun was just peaking over the horizon on a warm Caribbean morning as Capt. Skull X awoke from his night of rest. His campsite was set up on the beaches of Rumrunner’s isle, and his ship anchored just off shore. Skull placed a few extra logs onto his camp fire to begin cooking his breakfast. As the flame roared to life he cracked 2 eggs onto a skillet and threw a few pieces of bacon next to them.

As the bacon sizzled Skull let out a sigh of nostalgia, “Ahhh, one of Roger’s favorite meals.”.  It had been several years since Skull had seen any of the marines. “Haha, Roger, Cherie, Sam and Tia woulda been losing their minds for a slice of bacon.”

After the battle in the village of Padres and the advancements made by Daggerpaine industries,  there was a reduced demand for the Skull’s Marines services. The Marines slowly became disbanded, and assimilated into various organizations and governments throughout the Caribbean. Despite the loss of the official title though, they always carried the honor of being a Marine and were willing to do what was right to help others in a heartbeat.

Without the Marines, Skull decided to enjoy a well deserved retirement. He began his relaxation tour of the Caribbean; sailing from island to island enjoying the beauty and new found age of peace. As Skull ate his breakfast, he slowly began to plan his journey for the day. He looked out on the horizon and admired the distant view of a ship sailing across the horizon. “I wouldn’t wanna be them.” He chuckled out loud, “They look like they’re flying through the ocean. That crew must be exhausted from working so hard”.  As he finished his breakfast, he pulled out a map to plot the course to his next destination. Skull was coming to the end of his 2 week stay on the beautifully peaceful shores of Rumrunner’s isle and needed to figure out where we wanted to visit next. He figured he would make a trip to Isla Perdida and re-visit the scenes where the Marines had a hard fought battle.

Now that Skull had his next route plotted, he had to clean up his camp, easily his least favorite part of traveling the islands alone. “Aye, I need me a bloody pint of rum before I start this project” he complained. He dug into his rucksack and pulled his flask out just to realize that he had finished his last bit of rum the night before. “Oh no! Not the rum!”. For a moment Skull quickly panicked, but then remembered that he specifically chose to be on Rumrunners isle because his say he was running low. “Ah yes, that’s right, there’s a whole cellar full of rum here!” He quickly extinguished his campfire and then raced into the woods to retrieve some bottles of rum. It didn’t take Skull long to find the cellar and grab as many bottles as he could, while simultaneously chugging another bottle. He took his time walking back to the camp still dreading the whole process of cleaning up. As he exited the woods and walked towards his camp he noticed… people… standing there in his campsite. People that looked strikingly familiar… Skull glanced back down at the bottle of rum that he had already drank half of “Well mate, I’ve had a lot of weird things happen to me while drinking…” he said towards the bottle “but I’ve never hallucinated… what is inside of you? Did you go back?”

“Sir!” Someone shouted from the campsite with excitement “There he is!”

Skull, still puzzled as to what was going on. “Now I’m hearing things too?” As Skull looked around he noticed the ship from earlier anchored just off shore. He began to realize that he wasn’t hallucinating, and quite frankly he hadn’t even began to feel anything yet from the rum. This was all real.

The small group of men scrambled towards Skull, as one of them emerged as their apparent leader. They were wearing the classic Skull’s Marines uniform of old. It had been many years since Skull had any contact from the Marines, or even seen their uniforms. It was at that moment when Skull recognized their leader as Doug, an old friend of Skull’s who stood by his side through every battle and helped serve the pirate community of the Caribbean.

“My goodness Doug?! It’s great to see you! What’re you doing here? How’d you find me?!” Skull bombarded Doug with questions due to the sheer excitement and shock of his presence, all mixed with nostalgia over not seeing him for so long.

“Skull! It’s about dang time! It’s great to see you too, but I really wish they were under different circumstances” Doug responded. “Ships have been dispatched across the Caribbean to try and find you. They’ve been sent to nearly every place we could think of!” There was a sense of happiness filled with urgency and panic.

“What’s going on Doug?” Skull asked.

“It’s captain Leon” Doug answered “He’s escaped from prison. Him, and a small group of other prisoners somehow put together an escape plan”

“Wow… that’s incredible…” Skull said with a tone of lament, remembering the difficult times Leon put the Marines through. It always brought him a sense of peace knowing that the menace was safely locked behind bars. However, with the age of peace in the Caribbean, and lack of major conflicts and power hungry groups trying to take over, Skull felt that there was little cause for himself to be involved. “And as annoyed as that makes me, I feel like it is little cause for this sense of urgency.”

“Well, here’s the thing” Doug began. “While most people agree Leon isn’t the biggest threat anymore, the urgency surrounds more of the people he escaped with… A small group of swordsmen that have unwavering loyalty to this dark witch.”

“Go on.” Said Skull, curious to see where this was going.

“This witch is responsible for being loyal to Jolly Roger and his lot. She has an expertise in cursing people and enslaving them to Jolly’s undead cause. While the Caribbean has enjoyed these last few years of peace and quiet, the Pirate Lords feel that there may be dark times ahead of us if this group isn’t quickly caught and stopped.”

“So what does this have to do with me?” Asked Skull.

“Well in times of need, the Marines have always been one of the strongest forces in solving crisis in the Caribbean, and who better to track down Leon than you?” Stated Doug with a grin across his face. “Plus with this new friend he has made, every former Marine is in danger of becoming a cursed slave of Jolly Roger and the undead. Or worse, a cursed monster forced to serve in a new army under Leon’s command. Intelligence information gathered by Lawerence Daggerpaine and Bill Plunderbones suggests they will strike Tia Dalma’s home in Cuba to gather rare and unique elements for spells to cast. Therefore, we have been gathering as many Marines as we can to meet on the island”

Skull pondered everything that Doug had to say. He was stunned of the grand threat and potential danger the Caribbean could be in, especially his old friends and guild mates. “You son of a gun, I’m in” responded Skull with a grin. “Lets go save our pals, and the Caribbean, one last time” as Skull and Doug aggressively shook hands and hugged.

“You heard the man! Get this campsite packed up at once, get everything aboard the ship on the double! We sail for Cuba immediately!” Doug ordered out to the group of men he brought with him.

“And don’t forget the rum you scallywags!” Shouted Skull

“Aye! Be sure to prioritize the Rum!” Repeated Doug, as him and Skull chuckled. “Just like old times…”