We Demand a Parlay
We Demand a Parlay 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.[1]
Description
While staying in Nassau, Edward witnessed the arrival of the British Navy and Woodes Rogers, who came to offer King George I's pardon to all pirates.
Dialogue
Edward had a flashback to his last conversation with his wife Caroline Scott. She spoke to him from behind the mostly-closed door of her parents' place. A tipsy Edward leaned close against the door frame.
- Caroline: I've an awful feeling about this. You'll be hurt out there. I couldn't handle that.
- Edward: I'll be careful, I promise. And when I'm flush with coin and set up, I'll send for you. I will.
Elizabeth Scott called from inside the house.
- Elizabeth: Caroline, come away! Don't exert yourself.
Caroline shook her head.
- Caroline: I can't promise I'll come, Edward. If you leave on this...fool's errand...I–I cannot promise anything.
She quickly closed the door on him before he could interrupt and say more.
- Edward: Don't give up on me, Caroline!
He heard the sound of the door's bolt being thrown, locking him out.
- Edward: Not when I need your faith the most...
He angrily pushed off from the door post and walked away.
Back in the present, Edward sat at a table in Nassau and picked up a feather quill but was at a loss for what to write in a letter to Caroline. Anne Bonny descended some steps from the tavern with two tankards of alcohol and walked over.
- Anne: Putting some shape to your sentiments?
She sat down across from him.
- Edward: Just a short letter home.
Edward scrunched up the letter and tossed it aside.
- Edward I reckon she's past caring anyway.
He took a tankard.
- Anne: Aw. You're a hard heart that should be softer.
Jack Rackham laughed from where he stood at the tavern's railing beside them.
- Jack: Or soft in parts that should be hard.
He climbed over the railing and landed on the table.
- Anne: And how is it you're so keen for his hard parts, Mr. Rackham?
He sat down and sidled up to her.
- Jack: You'd like to know my secrets, would you?
She smiled, amused as his demeanor.
- Anne: Oh aye. Give me a small hint, like. Or a large one, if you're an upright gentleman.
He took her right hand in his left and guided it towards his crotch.
- Jack: Open your hand.
At the last moment, he palmed his flintlock pistol in his right hand and placed it in her palm when she happened to look away. She yelped in surprise at his perceived anatomy.
- Anne: Oh!
Suddenly, a single cannon blast was heard through the bay.
- Edward: Who's shooting?
He rose and walked towards the sound. Anne looked back at Jack and saw his trickery with his weapon.
Edward made his way to the beach and stood behind a raised balcony.
Jack walked up behind him, a bottle in hand, leaned back against the balcony wall and waved the bottle to indicate the British Army's landing party on the beach.
- Jack: Well, I'll be hanged. King George has grown tired of our shenanigans. Who's the grim fella?
- Edward: That's Captain Woodes Rogers. Not a man I want seeing my face.
Woodes unfurled a scroll with Commodore Peter Chamberlaine at his side and read aloud the document.
- Woodes: We desire a parlay with the men who call themselves governors of this island! Charles Vane, Ben Hornigold, and Ed Thatch! Come forth, if you please.
- Jack: Here about the king's pardon, I reckon.
- Edward: What the hell is Hornigold doing?
Jack shouted in the direction of the beach, though he would be unheard.
- Jack: Lily-livered punk!
He pushed off the balcony and left the scene.
- Edward: What are you men up to?
Edward covertly tailed the party through the city.
- Woodes: I am grateful for your geniality, Captain Hornigold. I assumed our reception would be a troubled one.
- Benjamin: Don't mistake my decorum for deference, governor. I'm eager to hear what you have to say, but of uncertain mind otherwise.
- Woodes: Very well put. And it's a fairer shake than I expected to see from any pirate. But I promise fair treatment to all who hear me out.
Peter spoke up.
- Peter: Only wait a while longer, Governor Rogers! These rascals'll show their true colours in time.
- Woodes: Calm, Commodore Chamberlaine. I have given Captain Hornigold my word that we will be equitable.
- Peter: Won't do you a lick of good! Men like him are a blight on His Majesty's reputation, and a peculiar cancer afflicting the new world. The King wants them eradicated above all else.
- Woodes: Is this the town square?
- Benjamin: As close to one as we've ever had.
- Woodes: Incredible. It's no cleaner than a dog's kennel. Captain Hornigold, please call your men.
Benjamin stepped towards a raised balcony and summoned some of the men there.
The called-upon pirates joined the escort.
- Peter: Fan out, lads! And take this shantytown as if it were your own!
- Woodes: Aye, but the king has been particularly ineffective in bringing about this change, hasn't he? And has failed at all attempts until now.
- Peter: Careful how you talk about His Majesty, governor. You're here at his pleasure.
- Woodes: I have my methods, Commodore, and I expect you to honor them to the letter! Disperse, the lot of you. Make way for the King's emissaries!
- Peter: Out of the way, you bastards! Go on!
- Woodes: Our only aim here is to treat with the masters of this community. All others are encouraged to go about their usual business!
- Peter: Go on, move! Go!
The group left the city and began walking the path up to the Old Fort of Nassau.
- Woodes: Commodore Chamberlaine, please see that all merchants, masons, and carpenters are rounded up and brought to me this afternoon. We must see about repairing this fortress.
- Peter: We should be confiscating weapons, Governor. Send these pirates a clear, strong message that the King's emissaries are not to be trifled with.
- Woodes: I have no wish to stir up animosity here, Commodore. And though well-armed, we are outnumbered by a decent margin. Slow persuasion is our best and most efficient weapon.
- Peter: Twaddle, governor. We should sink every goddamn ship not flying the King's colours. To do otherwise projects a certain weakness in our bearing.
They reached the fort.
- Woodes: Silence, Commodore! I am the goddamned governor here, serving at the King's pleasure, and I will make the bloody decisions. Is that clear, sir?
- Peter: Aye, sir. Your wishes are clear as crystal.
Woodes and Peter walked to the doors. Woodes knocked, and after a moment, a soldier opened it.
- Soldier: These are the charts, Commodore. We're in position.
- Peter: Governor Rogers believes he can make men of these monkeys yet. I do not. Return to your post and await my orders.
The group entered the fort. Still unseen, Edward infiltrated it.
- Woodes: ... we do hereby promise and declare that in case of the said pirates shall on, or before, the 5th of September, in the year of our Lord 1718, surrender him or themselves to any one of the principle secretaries of state in Great Britain or Ireland, or to any Governor or Deputy Governor of any of our plantations beyond the seas... Every such pirate and pirates so surrendering him, or themselves, as aforesaid, shall have our gracious pardon, of and for such, his or their piracy, or piracies, by him or them committed before the fifth of January next ensuing. And we do hereby strictly charge and command all our admirals, captains, and other officers at sea... and all our Governors, and Commanders of any forts, castles, or other places in our plantations, and all our officers civil and military, to seize and take such of the pirates, who shall refuse or neglect to surrender themselves accordingly.
Edward stole the Commodore's plans from where they were carelessly placed on a barrel outside the meeting building, pocketing them just in time to see the door swing wide open and hide on its other side as Woodes and company emerged.
- Woodes: I pray you take the prudent course, gentlemen, and accept the King's pardon as soon as your hearts allow. For until such time all of you will be confined in Nassau. I am sorry for this, but in lieu of a public trial, this pardon is your best bet.
- Peter: The Governor puts it far too brightly, maggots. Take this message home: accept the King's protection forthwith, or we will raze this town to its foundation and stretch your bloody necks.
Woodes huffed in exasperation at Peter's behavior, putting a hand to his mouth in irritation, before irritably rounding on him.
- Woodes: Peace, Commodore Chamberlaine. We are messengers, not executioners. Not yet.
Woodes and Peter returned to their quarters, and the pirates began to leave. Charles sarcastically replied to the closed door and dramatically waved an arm as if bowing. Jack lifted his hand and waved playfully.
- Charles: Oh, thank you, sir! God save you!
He and Jack lagged behind the group.
- Benjamin: Look on this as a stroke of fortune, lads. We should take the King's pardon and salvage what dignity we own.
- Charles: Oh, piss! I'll be hanged before I surrender to that bobbin.
Benjamin stepped closer to him, daring a confrontation.
- Benjamin: Check your head, Vane! We had here a rare opportunity; a chance to take something base and shape it into a government, made and maintained by men of vision. But in two years we pissed it away. I won't make that mistake again.
He stormed off. John waved an arm in his direction.
- John: It's truth he's telling. And you whelps can't handle it.
- Josiah: Adieu (Bye!), ye fo'c'sle-headed fuddlers! See you at the gallows.
They promptly followed Benjamin.
- Charles: You'll all be dead men! Bastards!
He turned to Jack.
- Charles: I need a drink.
Jack nodded and they headed towards the closest tavern.
Outcome
Woodes Rogers and Peter Chamberlaine came to Nassau to offer the King's pardon, and Hornigold and his men decided to accept it.
Behind the scenes
Despite the flashback implied to be happening at Elizabeth and Emmett Scott's place, since Edward recalled in the earlier memory "This Old Cove" that Caroline had said she would be moving back in with her parents, the scene reuses the Kenways' home model with its broken and misaligned wood planks, a building style that would ill befit the upper-class Scott family.
If the last checkpoint was loaded before Hornigold and Chamberlaine led the pirates into the fort, the entire group would occasionally glow red in Eagle Vision, instead of the gold that they had been previously. The exceptions to this were Rackham, who did not glow at all, and Vane, who would glow blue.
The lines Edward overhears from Rogers while in the fort is a word-for-word recitation of King George I's Act of Grace; or, A Proclamation for suppressing of Pyrates, as written in the introduction of Charles Johnson's A General History of the Pyrates.[2]
In regards to context, "parlay" is the incorrect word choice, as this word means to gamble winnings in an attempt to make more. The correct word for negotiations with enemies is "parley", from the French word parle, meaning "talk".
Gallery
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Edward infiltrating the fort -
Edward sabotaging the alarm bell -
Edward stealing Chamberlaine's plans -
Chamberlaine threatening the pirates -
Hornigold arguing with Vane
References
- ↑ Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag
- ↑ Johnson, Charles (14 May 1724). A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the most notorious Pyrates. p. 33–34. Charles Rivington, J. Lacy, and J. Stone. Retrieved on 30 August 2023.
Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag memories
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