In the last milestone players discovered that the Dread Saint was none other than Bartholomew Roberts, the notorious Black Bart. Roberts has decided that its time for him to come out of the shadows and publicly take on the mantle of the leadership of the Dread Saints. His presence is felt immediately and that is the subject of Black Bart’s Revenge, which is Chapter 3 of the Black Flags and Dread Saints storyline and goes live with 1.14.

Bartholomew Roberts isn’t as well known Blackbeard, but he deserves to be. He was one of the most effective pirates of the era. Blackbeard was ferocious and charismatic to be sure, but Black Bart got down to business. In a four year career he ranged from Africa to the Caribbean to Canada and captured over 400 ships. Captain Kidd, on the other hand, captured less than 5. You can understand why in the world of Pirates of the Burning Sea Black Bart would not want to join the Brethren and serve under Captain Kidd.

The pirate buffs amongst you may know Black Bart’s most famous flag. It shows him standing on two skulls, which are labeled ABH and AMH. These acronyms stand for “A Barbadian’s Head” and “A Martiniquian’s Head”. Roberts was actually in the Caribbean in 1720 and while there he had to contend with pirate hunters from Barbados and Martinique. He swore vengeance on these two islands and created the new flag to show his intentions.

When I was creating the story of the chapter in 1.14, I took inspiration from these events and the flag. I decided that this milestone would feature unique content for each nation. The British missions are in Bridgetown, the French in Fort-de-France, the Spanish in Santo Domingo, and the Brethren in De L’isle. The British story is A Barbadian’s Head and the French story is A Martiniquian’s Head. A guy like Black Bart was surely even more vengeful than that though, right? So I made the Spanish story A Priest’s Head and the Brethren story A Turncoat’s Head. All the stories involve Black Bart and the Dread Saints trying to take vengeance on their enemies, which is satisfying itself but also serves as a warning to others. Black Bart has big plans for the Burning Sea and he wants citizens of all nations to stay out of his way.

It was nice to be able to do unique missions for each nation, and the mission designers took it a step further. The various stories they created actually cross over each other at certain points. Each remains its own tale, but it is impacted by the others. So an event in one mission is seen through different eyes in another. A fleet that’s an ally to one nation appears in a different story as an obstacle. Folks of different nations should have fun comparing notes in the forums, and overall it helps Pirates feel more like a living, breathing world.

Black Bart’s Revenge reveals the opening moves of Bartholomew Roberts but does not divulge his long term strategy. What does he want in the Caribbean and why make his move now? You’ll discover all this and more in future chapters of Black Flags and Dread Saints. Until then enjoy a taste of Black Bart’s Revenge!