Captain Rabid Jack
| “ | I'm Rabid Jack, by god! I will be obeyed! | ” |
— Jack on himself.
|
| Rabid Jack | |
| Release date | 11 June 2008 (Update) |
|---|---|
| Race | Human, possibly a Zombie pirate |
| Members NPC? | Yes |
| Quest NPC? | Yes |
| Location | Unknown |
| Sells items? | No |
| Gender | Male |
| Examine | It's Rabid Jack! |
Rabid Jack is a pirate, and possibly a zombie. He is usually dressed in red (as in the Rocking Out quest cutscene). He seems to be in command of a number of ships within the Eastern Sea.
Rabid Jack has been mentioned by numerous characters. He seems to be in control of Mi-Gor and Captain Donnie, who have respectively laid siege to Harmony Island and Braindeath Island, as well as Mechanical Murphy. His goal remains unclear, but he is probably trying to take over the South-eastern Sea for the second time, and gain vengeance.
With the zombies, however, this proves hard to achieve. Therefore, he tries to make the zombie brains "un-rot", by swapping them with human brains. This attempt at brain-swapping was not successful, as depicted in The Great Brain Robbery quest.
History
Rabid Jack was once a pirate captain of The Scourge, a vessel and one of the primary defenders of piracy in the Eastern Sea. He commonly docked at Mos Le'Harmless, a pirate hub. Though his brutal methods were a cause for concern to some of the pirates, they reluctantly allowed him to remain, as he contributed greatly in fending off the port's many enemies.
Jack, however, wanted more influence in the Eastern Sea, and launched a massive attack on Mos Le'Harmless. Using his ship, The Scourge, he was able to cause significant damage, but was ultimately repelled and defeated. As he retreated to the south, he renamed his ship This Albatross, saying that it would be a curse upon pirates forever. He made his camp on the Cursed Archipelago, a group of islands filled with "wicked magic and evil spirits." For unknown reasons, these forces seem to have tolerated Jack's presence, despite their hostile history towards visitors. The rest of the pirate nation was hesitant to pursue him because of the archipelago's history.
Because of Jack's attacks on various commercial and military ships, the Customs and Excise Office began a campaign to crack down on piracy. The pirates of the eastern sea suffered so severely from this that they deemed it necessary to defeat Jack. He was eventually tracked to the Archipelago, where a fleet led by Captain Braindeath, Bill Teach, Brass Hand Harry, Cap'n Izzy No-Beard, and One-Eyed Hector engaged his forces in the Battle of the Archipelago.
They managed to catch the "This Albatross" at anchor and boarded it. All of Jack's people were killed, excluding Bosum Giles, before he was forced to fight. However, he killed Liżzie, the first person who attacked him, in a few hits. After that, Young Ralph shot a cannonball from Harry's ship, killing Giles and seriously wounding Jack.
It seems that Giles's death had upset Rabid Jack. He knew he had lost everyone, and it was no longer possible to defend his ship. He tried to wound Cap'n Izzy, grabbed the chest from the deck, and prepared to jump out, saying that the sea knows him, and he's given lives aplenty to her, it would not claim him then, - or ever. He cursed all of the pirates on deck with vengeance, and jumped.
This was the last time he was seen alive. All the pirates who took part in bringing him down took an oath that nobody would spill any facts about this event. The oath was not broken for a long time, until the zombies attacked Braindeath Island. It was discovered that it was Rabid Jack who had sent them. Captain Braindeath knew that Rabid Jack was about to return, or had returned, and this clearly shocked him. During The Great Brain Robbery, it is revealed that Mi-Gor is collecting zombies and transplanting human brains into their bodies to make them intelligent as new crew for Jack. These plans are thwarted during the quest, although vengeance is planned.
More information about this event are revealed during the ending of the Rocking Out quest, when the oath is broken by Young Ralph, after the agreement of all five captains.
Trivia
- The name of the ship, This Albatross, is a reference to the albatross in Samuel Taylor Coleridge's Rime of the Ancient Mariner. In that poem, a curse falls on a ship's crew when The Mariner kills an albatross that had led them through ice fields. Becalmed and suffering from thirst, the crew hangs the dead albatross around The Mariner's neck to mark him as the man who brought the curse down on them. The dead albatross has since become a common metaphor for a terrible curse. However, further in the poem a skeletal Death comes on a ghost-ship and takes the souls of the dying crew, while Life-In-Death claims The Mariner whom shot the albatross. That man, the Mariner telling the tale, is doomed to re-tell the tale of the events which took place on board the ship.
- An update on 26 October 2009 improved Rabid Jack's animations.
- Other pirates do not like mentioning Rabid Jack's name, and prefer to call him "You-Know-Who". This is similar to wizards from Harry Potter speaking about Voldemort.
- A Live stream session in November 2012 hinted a connection of Rabid Jack to the Underwater City