Zombie


 * During the Halloween events of 2005 and 2008, players themselves could be turned into zombies. See 2005 Halloween events and 2008 Halloween events respectively for more information.

Zombies are the rumbling equivalent of skellies, introduced with the Ye dread dead event. They can be found in groups on islands. There are various colors of zombies, but these colors are random and have no indication of difficulty.

Zombies are found in groups on islands. Anyone may join if they have 100 PoE. When they are defeated, they distribute 1000 PoE per zombie plus a share of all PoE previously paid to them by other players. When defeated, they leave the island.

Island zombies
Zombies can be found on an island in a group of 5 to 25, and may be challenged to rumble brawls. In order to challenge the Zombies, a pirate must wager 100 PoE. If the Zombies are victorious, they retain all wagered PoE. If the players are victorious, the Zombies pay 1,000 PoE per Zombie defeated and return all PoE they'd claimed from previous brawls to those players that defeated them -- they then leave to haunt another random isle. If Zombies on an island are not challenged in a rumble they will start leaving one by one and if you already joined the fray they will /tell you how many are left (how many zombies vs. how many challengers) in the current fray.

Finding zombies


If Zombies are present on an island, it will be cursed with darkness until they are defeated. Therefore, it is easy to tell when they're present. They often show up near an arrow, either the dock arrow, or a building arrow. If an island has buildings, they may be near multiple arrows. On uninhabited islands, they may occasionally appear near the island's inscription instead of the dock arrow, if the island has one.

Zombie mission
A "Defeat the Zombies" mission may also appear on any notice board, if you have all of the following:
 * A puzzle standing of Renowned and an experience level of Narrow in rumble
 * At least 100 PoE on hand with which to enter the Zombie battle

Zombie charms
Charms that will summon Zombies may be won from black boxes found at a black market. They come in three sizes: small (summons 5 Zombies), medium (summons 15 Zombies), and large (summons 25 Zombies).

Ocean Masters do not give out the location of Zombies.

Charms used to give a high bias to the summoner for the map, however this is no longer the case.

Starting up
To enter the fray, pirates must pay 100 PoE to the zombies.

When a pirate chooses to join the fray, a confirmation box will appear reading, "I'll be havin' 100 pieces of eight if ye lose."

More pirates can sign up for the zombie fray than there are zombies. When the fray starts, if there are extra pirates, the zombies will randomly pick a subset of the players, and refund wagers to the rest.

The fight starts once half of the people in the fray vote to start the fight.

Before the fight, if there are more pirates than zombies, the zombie sends a tell: "MMmuuaARRrRGHH! Soo maNY flESHees! Wee wILL piCK [number of zombies] tO rUMblE."

If due to lag / timing: voting while you're in the fray: the zombie sends a tell: "MuArARRrrG! mEeeEe pUnChInG YOoOu aLlRedDy! nOW hOlD sTIl!"

If there were excessive pirates, those not chosen receive a tell: "WeeE not FigHT you tHis time! TOOooo maNY HuMIES, Not EnuFF ZoMBIes! TakE uR shInEEs bAck!"

Getting bored
If no frays are started against a group of zombies for a set period of time, the zombies will get bored and begin to leave the island, one at a time, every ten minutes. This makes it easier to fill zombie fights should they appear in very large numbers.

After a zombie leaves, the "head zombie" says the following phrase in tells: "NnnnNNRrrranK! ZOmbEe gO LoOk foRR BBrraINses! noW jUSt [previous number of zombies -1] tO EETe [current number of pirates in the fray] hUmEeeS!"

The fray
The zombie fray is a lot like rumbles at the inn and sea, but zombies are a bit tougher than most barbarians.

Rumble skills and teaming are essential to a victory.

Victory!
Zombies give the pirates of the winning fray 1,000 PoE per zombie (ie. if there are fewer players than zombies, each player gets more money from frays fought) and all the PoE lost by others. They also add in a map to a random Cursed Isles, Atlantis, or Haunted Seas location. Pirates who survive are awarded a zombie hand, which may be held in portraits. It also appears that if the zombies arrive of their own will, the map is given to a random survivors. However, if they are summoned through a charm, it appears that the summoner will never be discounted if they join a fray with more pirates than zombies.

If a pirate survives a winning fray, a random zombie will tell the pirate the phrase: "Muuaaaahhhhrrrrggg!!! MeEE hAaaaAAAAAAaaaaaAAAAand!!!"

Ye be defeated!
If the zombies win, they take everyone's wager to distribute among anyone who beats them.

Thralls


Thralls are a specific type of zombie only seen while attacking the Cursed Isles. Thralls are zombies enslaved to an Enlightened One or pirate. Unlike normal zombies, thralls will fight with either rumble or swordfighting, depending on what kind of combat their master requires them to do. Enlightened Ones and their thralls board vessels attacking a Cursed Isle by colliding their raft with the vessel, then climbing aboard as the raft sinks - once aboard, the thralls either attack pirates or interfere with stations.

Pirates on board may cast a spell, represented by a maneuver which either banishes the thralls, or takes control of them away from the Enlightened One and transfers it to a pirate. When under the Enlightened One's control, the thralls all have names of the form Adjective Zombie, but when controlled by a pirate, their name changes to Piratename's Thrall. If the controlling pirate leaves the vessel, the thrall's ownership transfers to another pirate. Each pirate may only control one thrall, but an Enlightened One may control up to four. If a thrall is eliminated in battle, the control over it is broken, and it leaves the ship.

Players as zombies
Players can turn themselves into zombies by way of the necromantic amulet or the philter of putrefaction.

History
Prior to the release on 2009-05-27, zombies also required an acceptable item to be wagered in addition to the 100 PoE. That requirement was removed and zombies now deal only in PoE.