Thar He Blows!!!!

Dickey-Moe, giant shark of action, had not been idle during the pirate-induced carnage.  In fact, our large fishy friend had gotten peckish, and was looking for a snack.  Too bad for him the only thing nearby was a galley full of feisty Goblins!

Swimming with surprising quickness, he first rammed the galley with his hard, blunt nose, causing planking to buckle and break under the force of impact.  Then, as the ship bobbed helplessly on the waves, he lunged onto the deck, gobbling up Goblins as fast as possible!  Although the Goblin Navigator had prudently summoned some Undead helpers, even they were at the mercy of the beast!

Dickey-Moe continued to partake of the Goblin buffet, sampling crew, marines and officers.

He had no less than eight of the squirming creatures in his mouth before the rest of the crew were finally able to drive the beast away!

Unfortunately, it was too late for those already engulfed.  Not even Gepetto and a presto log could save them now. . .

Dickey-Moe gulped down his breakfast.  His pea brain realized that Goblins, in spite of their chewy centers, were an easy mark, and so turned back for another go.  The Goblin captain turned even greener when he saw Dickey-Moe heading his way, and quickly scrambled for cover.  Things were looking bad for the Goblins. . .

It was then that a brave dwarf pilot, flying his puffing and hissing Velocicopter, made a mad dash for the back of Dickey-Moe's head, hoping to fire his single rocket at point blank range and thus claim the kill.  Unfortunately, the rocket had other ideas, and looped off into the distance, impacting an airship full of Halflings which quickly burst into flames.

Dickey-Moe, upon hearing the sound of the Velocicopter behind him, turned and, driving himself up with the thrashing of his mighty tail, managed to get his teeth on the surprisingly shoddily-built machine.  Although he lost a few teeth in the bargain, he soon had a Dwarf (and quite a lot of wood and metal), taking up space next to the Goblins in his vast stomach.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the Keyes, several ships had made an attempt at getting the treasure from the isolated huts.  The first ship there was a Chaos sloop, and the crew quickly ran ashore under heavy fire from nearby ships.  Their sloop was quickly sent to the bottom, and, treasure in hand, they sprinted for the abandoned galliot.

They were about to make their get away when the First Mate discovered that the galliot might be somewhat less than sea worthy.  Unfortunately, the Captain ignored his mate's advice, and ordered the ship to be cast off.  100 yards from shore the ship began to take on water, and, in a matter of minutes, it had gone under, taking the treasure and most of the crew with it.

It was not long before the surviving pirate captains decided to set aside their differences long enough to pour some shot into Dickey-Moe.  The poor shark didn't stand a chance against all that firepower.  After taking several broadsides, during which he sank a cog, Dickey-Moe breathed his last, and went belley-up in a pool of blood.

Dickey-Moe himself was made from a Great White Shark model purchased at the Monterey Bay Aquarium.  The original model was approximately 2' long, and made of solid plastic.  The model was then lovingly butchered into three parts:  The head, the dorsal fin, and the belley/tail, the later being used as the "dead Dickey" model.  All of the parts were based on doorskin which was painted to look like water.

The Hunt for Dickey-Moe is another example of what you can do with Pirates!  Every player had his or her own ship, except for a handful provided by the GM.  This meant that each players investment was minimal, limited to a single ship and a few crew figures.  A few players even scratch built their own ships (including the Snapper Organs)!