Chain 055: Princess Bride

Chain 055: Princess Bride
Location: Guilder Countryside
Age: 26
Identity: Drop-In
Drawbacks: [+600] ...Is This A Kissing Story?, They'll Demand We Go To War

[Free]      Storyteller
[100/1600]  Speed Reading
[400/1600]  The Death Of The Author
[800/1600]  You Killed My Father
[1000/1600] I'll Most Likely Kill You In The Morning
[1400/1600] Dread Pirate Roberts
[Free]      Library
[1450/1600] Mysterious Mask
[1500/1600] Bookcase
[1600/1600] Adaptinator

Once upon a time, there was a girl and a boy. A noble and a commoner. The girl was loved by the boy; he went away and was feared lost. The girl swore she'd never love again.

The ship the boy had been forced into bondage on, however, ran afoul of Guilder's navy. Prince Westley was found and learned of his birthright. Princess Buttercup engaged in a loveless marriage that would never be so much as consummated. An entirely different man became the Dread Pirate Roberts, and an entirely different story would be told in the ages to come. A story of a pirate who skirted the line between the two nations over the course of two years, recruited a Sicilian, a Spaniard, and a Giant as his crew... while his men braved the ice straits to pluck the Guilderian royal family from the middle of their armada, and he kidnapped Princess Buttercup and brought her through the fire swamp to his ship - and would have been caught if there had been any clue to his actions beforehand.

The war was as inevitable as it was futile, and many died on both sides, but the spectre of the Jolly Roger haunted the naval battles between the two nations, and the pirate fleet grew. The Revenge was the lead, but other corsairs joined it - at times whole ships might defect and join the pirate navy. In the meantime, the war simmered; on the ground, a Florinian attack led by Prince Humperdinck ambushed an army from Guilder and stole away their princess, a younger sister of Westley... and was shocked to find that she was as ruthless as he was, when she managed her escape from bondage almost effortlessly at the cost of three of his men's lives - and a scar of his own to remind him.

Meanwhile, Prince Westley and Princess Buttercup were being held for ransom; the news of this had enraged both kingdoms to the point that they called an armistice in order to focus their energies on the pirate fleet that was now plaguing them. Oh, most certainly one could say that the allied fleet was formidable, but they somehow kept slipping through their grasp for months, even years. In the meantime, the two royal families were quietly seething at the insult and the armistice stretched on, until it was announced at last that Count Rugen would lead the joint navy to attack and disperse the pirates once and for all, and rescue both the prince and princess.

The battle that was fought could justifiably be called epic. Dozens of ships were blown to splinters, although suspiciously few people actually died. The Dread Pirate Roberts himself led them, his Dread Lady alongside, for she had found an unexpected taste for adventure. The battle was masterfully planned by Vizzini, though - the whole point of it was to get Roberts' ship alongside Rugen's, and while Inigo Montoya engaged the Count himself, Fezzik dealt with the entire remainder of the crew. Once the Count was slew they withdrew, the bulk of their fleet had sunk by this point, and the two nations celebrated their victory.

The Dread Pirate and his Dread Lady celebrated their own victory, however. The bulk of the ships that were sunk were the naval vessels that had defected to the pirate fleet, and had skeleton crews that escaped in the confusion. They would live a life in anonymity on a quiet island surrounded by friends, sipping drinks with umbrellas. The previous Dread Pirate Roberts had handed Westley and Buttercup the reins months before, and the plan had worked for even better than expected; Guilder and Florin were allies after the smoke cleared. It seemed that the heartless prince and the cruel princess were a match made in heaven, and their countries were joined in the most unexpected way.