This Old Cove

This Old Cove was a virtual representation of one of Edward Kenway's genetic memories, relived by a research analyst at Abstergo Entertainment in 2013 through the Animus Omega.

Description

Edward and James Kidd went on an exploration of the cove they obtained.

Dialogue

Edward had a flashback to when his wife Caroline Scott moved back home with her parents Emmett and Elizabeth Scott.

• Edward: Oy. Where are you going? To market?

A drunken Edward stumbled through the door of his home, slurring his words and interrupting Caroline in the midst of her packing. She answered his question in a voice that, though pained, would take no argument.

• Caroline: No, I...my parents have asked me to come live with them. And I'd like to.

With a cylindrical bag under her arm, she walked to the other end of the room and picked up a travel satchel with the rest of her stuff in it. Edward stepped inside, leaving the door open behind him, and was confused about her reply.

• Edward: What do you mean, live with them? You live here. With me.
• Caroline: I'm sorry, Edward. But my father is right. You had a decent wage when you worked the farm. Why can you not be satisfied with that? With me?

Edward shook his head angrily.

A drunk Edward returning home

• Edward: Decent wage? That job was near as dammit to robbery! You want to be married to a peasant the whole of your life?

She interrupted him, knowing he would retread the same financial points as he always did when angry and drunk.

• Caroline: All right, Edward.

She looked down and shook her head, Edward's outburst having finalized her decision.

• Caroline: All right.

She moved to the door but stopped at the threshold when Edward addressed her one more time.

• Edward: You leave now Caroline, you'll never know what's coming to us...

Seeing that Edward would not give up his delusions, Caroline shook her head and walked out the door, heading to her parents. Furious at being rejected and seemingly abandoned, Edward shouted after her.

• Edward: Caroline! Caroline!

When she did not return nor acknowledge that she heard him, he slammed the door shut, alone in his home.

James waking Edward up

Back in the present, a distressed Edward muttered in his sleep on an angled palm tree trunk and awoke to find James Kidd hitting him with a stick on Great Inagua .

• Edward: Mmm. Ah... Kidd.
• James: Wake up, Kenway.

James moved to hit Edward again, but Edward caught the strike, held onto the stick, and yanked it from James' hands before tossing it aside.

• Edward: Is Thatch about?

He sat up and rubbed his eyes. James walked away in search of the stick again.

• James: He left this morning with the galleon. Has faith we'll discover a good use for this old cove ourselves.

He found the stick and commenced swatting at the shin-high plant life.

• Edward: Aye. We'll make something of it in time.

He leaped down from the tree trunk and took a few steps to look around the harbor. James leaned against the tree Edward had just slept in.

• Edward: We could keep a fleet here, if we liked. And with a bit of fixing up, it'd be a decent place to call home. Might even convince my wife to come one day.
• James: You're married, are ya?
• Edward: In God's eyes I am. She left me some time ago.
• James: Even so, keep that fact hid away. Most of these pirates don't respect a man with higher commitments than rum and plunder.
• Edward: 'Pon my honour. Let me know if you find anything.

A little later, Edward met up with Kidd.

Edward and Kidd looking at a Mayan statue

• James: Edward! Over here! I found something. You must see this! Come on, man!

They arrived at an old Maya ruin.

• James: Odd looking things, aren't they? Old and weathered.
• Edward: Is this what they call Mayan? Or is it Aztec?
• James: Are you good with riddles, Edward? Puzzles and ponderings and the like?
• Edward: No worse than the next man. Why?
• James: I think you've a natural gift for it. The way you think and work. The way you understand the world.
• Edward: Well I don't know about that. You're talking in riddles now, and I don't understand a word.
• James: Clamber on top of this thing here, will you? Help me solve something.

Edward climbed on the stone pillar.

• James: Concentrate and focus all your senses. Look past shadow and sound, deep into matter, until you see and hear a kind of shimmering.
• Edward: A shimmering.
• James: You understand?
• Edward: I think so. I've seen its like before. Glowing like moonlight on the ocean.

He activated Eagle Vision and saw shapes secretly drawn on the ground.

• Edward: Ah! Right. I know this feeling. I have since I was a lad. It's like using every sense at once, isn't it? To see sounds and hear shapes. Quite a combination.

He mentally lined up the drawings with the surroundings and found they pointed to a dig site just feet away from the pillar.

• James: Every man and woman on this Earth has in them a kind of intuition hidden deep away.
• Edward: I've had this sense most of my life... only I thought it was related in some way to my dreaming, or the like.
• James: Most never find it. Others it takes years to tease out. But for a rare few it comes as natural as breathing. What you feel is the light of life. Of living things past and present. The residue of vitality, come and gone. Any man's senses can be tuned well past what he's born with. If he tries.

Edward dug up a Mayan keystone.

Edward holding a Mayan keystone

• James: You are a gifted man, Edward.
• Edward: Has a strange look. Is it worth something?
• James: Nothing you can spend. But if you find all of 'em, it'll lead to something grand.
• Edward: How many?
• James: A few dozen, I think. This way. I've something else to show you. I found something else just here. I think you'll take to this secret much faster.

Edward followed James through a cave to a room with a few treasure chests scattered about it and on an exposed rock, the basement of the manor aboveground.

• Edward: Now this has the makings of a mystery.
• James: It's good, innit? Only wait 'til you see what lies at the end! Here we are. What do you think?
• Edward: I think monsieur Du Casse was a man of many secrets.
• James: Aye, and look here: a solid staircase leading God knows where. What do you suppose lies at the top?

Edward began looting the chests he could access.

• Edward: From what I knew of Du Casse, wouldn't be surprised to find eclectic instruments of torture and villainy. An iron maiden, or a collection of thumbscrews.
• James: Or a pear of anguish!

Edward laughed. They reached the stair top, at which was a hidden door built as a false bookshelf. It led to the mansion's study, decorated with fine wallpaper, many potted plants, sitting furniture, and a globe. Edward noticed a skeleton behind a locked gate embedded in the wall.

• Edward: Not a nice way to kick off. But that is some damn fine gear.
• James: Try the key you took from Du Casse.
• Edward: That's one. Only four left.

Edward and Kidd looking at the map

James leaned over a map on the main desk near the wide window.

• James: Aye. It might be that these four Templars have them. See the names here? They've been sent to kill these four targets.

Edward looked at the map. Reading clockwise, he saw the names Upton Travers at Nassau, Antó at Kingston, Opía Apito at the Cayman Islands, and Rhona Dinsmore at Havana.

• Edward: Hang me. That's the map I sold to Governor Torres in Havana. He said it marked the locations of "Assassin" encampments.

James give him a sidelong look.

• James: You think maybe you owe them a bit of a warning then? If you have any kind of heart beating in that chest?
• Edward: S'pose I could. If it leads me to the other four keys.
• James: A bad excuse is better than none at all.

Edward met with Kidd again near the docks.

• Edward: Leaving already?
• James: I think this cove suits you best, Edward. Better than that costume does.
• Edward: Oh, come on now... we're pirates, Kidd. We take as we please and become who we like. Self-made men!
• James: But that look ain't you. It's not who you are.
• Edward: Who am I then?
• James: Hard to tell some days. All I know is, you like dangerous prizes.
• Edward: Like the Observatory? I think you know more about that than you let on in Nassau.
• James: You noticed that, did ya? Meet me at twenty degrees, three minutes latitude, just off the coast of Yucatan. I'll have something to show you there in a few weeks time.

After Edward boarded the Jackdaw, Adéwalé approached him.

• Adéwalé: Ahoy captain. We found a trove of nautical maps and ledgers and the like scattered about the village. You'll find them sorted in the captain's quarters of the Jackdaw. Quality stuff.
• Edward: Nautical maps and ledgers? Might come in useful if we decide to build up a fleet of our own.
• Adéwalé: Exactly my thinking, captain. Have a look for yourself and tell me what you think.

Edward went into the captain's cabin to inspect the maps and ledgers. Returning to the helm, Adéwalé about their next moves.

• Adéwalé: What's our course today, captain? It's a fine day for any kind of mischief.
• Edward: What's your feeling?
• Adéwalé: I'll make no secret of wanting to see the British brought to heel. If we can take some their gold and put it to use ourselves, I'd be a happy man.
• Edward: Spoken like a true Welshman, Adé.

Adéwalé laughed.

• Adéwalé: And what's your aim?
• Edward: Master Kidd hinted at a prize he was eager to show me down in Tulum. Quite some distance, mind. On the Yucatán Peninsula.
• Adéwalé: You trust him to play it fair?
• Edward: I can't be sure. But he has a way of picking away at my conscience that gives me pause. I should go see him. Soon.
• Adéwalé: So long as we take some prizes along the way, I'm sure the crew will understand. I'll set a course for Tulum.'

Outcome

Edward claimed the cove for himself, and learned of both the Mayan stelae and the Templar keys. He and Adéwalé also discussed sailing near the Yucatan.

Behind the scenes

The ship James departed on reuses the same model as Benjamin Hornigold's vessel, the Benjamin.

Although this memory introduces the Mayan stelae, they are accessible from the moment the player can sail freely. The stelae and other Mayan style ruins are anachronistically spread throughout the Caribbean at places where Mayan cities or just their culture had no reach.

Gallery

• 
  Caroline leaving Edward
• 
  Edward following James through the manor's basement
• 
  Edward and James looking at the Templar armor
• 
  Edward using du Casse's key on one of the locks
• 
  James telling Edward to meet him in Tulum