Round 3 Summer 2014 – Grand Prize Contest Winners!

Summer Time Celebration!

Congratulations To Our Grand Prize Winners!

It’s that time! Time to announce our round of Game Code Prize Winners!

Winners received a game code good for:
A Clown Fish Pet and 10,000 Crowns

This time we asked for everyone to put in a little extra effort and get creative! We set up some ground rules to follow:

Over in Aquila you’ll find Knossos, an island of Minotaurs, a labyrinth and legends. Take a little time to read up on the real place of Knossos and its many myths. Then write a short tale and share your own legend of myth and adventure.

Your story had to be at least 3 paragraphs and no more than 5. Here at the Portal, the three of us read them all. A number of them we read twice. And then it got hard. A few we read three times and we narrowed down the list again. And our winning stories are:

Congratulations to the Captains
Who Submitted Some Great Tales of Knossos!!

We’ve sent you an email with your game code and instructions for how to redeem the code online.
If you don’t receive the email or have problems, please let us know.

We received only 12 Entries. Of those, 9 shared stories with the elements we asked for from
the myths and Legends of Knossos (Wikipedia). From those 9 we had a time picking only 3 we
liked the most for our Grand Prize Winners. And here they are!

Captain Crazy Ryan Upham :
Brushing the dirt off my face, the wind rested in peace. Not sure of my location, I blinked in confusion. I couldn’t help but noticed giant walls on both sides. It touched me. The rocks and mud delicately holding it together while it stands infuriating the weak. A gate in front blocking me from entering. A sudden uproar from above startled me.“Greeting! Welcome to the labyrinth!” A man in black shouted. “Find the right path to escape and you’ll live. Find the wrong one, you’re stuck in there forever.” ‘Am I player?’ I thought.
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Crazy Ryan Upham & Libby

“You are a player.” he yelled. Much to my confusion, a distant man knew exactly what I was thinking. Suddenly, the gate slowly rise and a strange path was revealed. Walking into the path, i realized I was running for my life. Arrows from the wall were shot aiming for one person–me. I quickly casted walk in darkness. A snake hovered over me, making me fade and fade into invisibility. I knew I had 5 minutes before the spell would disappear. Looking for paths, I ran until I reached a dead end. Walls and walls in front, on the left and the right making me feel as if I was going in circles.
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Five minutes had passed. My invisibility left me as if my death bed was already waiting for me at the end. I looked for a new path and blinked. Once opened, a vicious monster appeared right before my eyes. Two sharpened horns on both sides of its head. A ring attached on its nose. Dark brown fur covering its skin and the scars that had been mistreated over the years of pain. In its right hand was a monstrous axe; ready to slay with delight. It was a minotaur.
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Arms shaking as if my end was finally here. Reaching for my sword, I bravely stood. The Minotaur eyes darkened with rage of fury. It quickly moved the axe. Swinging from left to right at a rapid pace, but I was faster. Stabbing the minotaur with my sword, I tried to move faster. Suddenly, a hidden sword it had been keeping was shown to my face. It lifted that sword with its left hand. I closed my eyes.
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“Arrrg! We’re almost there to the Aquila!” Boochbeard yelled with delight. “Crazy Ryan Upham, time to get off the ship! You’ve been sleeping this whole time.”
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THE END.

Captain Merciless Scarlet Ivey :
My crew and I had finally ventured to Knossos, a city which held so much history and told many myths in its toppled ruins. It could be understood how eager I was to explore it all,but my crew unfortunately couldn’t.“Why are we still walking?”“We go questing now…please.”
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“I’m tired.” Someone else grumbled in the back.“Well maybe if ye walked faster our sightseein’ could go faster.” I retorted.Bonnie nodded my way. “This isn’t so borin.’ Ratbeard snorted. “Do ye not know the meanin’ of borin’?”
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“Fine I’ll cut our tour short.”
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“Ah, Capt’n the best part.”
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“Ye didn’t let me finish. That over there ( I pointed to another crumbling structure in fair condition) is our last stop”
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The rest of my crews reactions were mixed; some cheered and others groaned. We advanced, but without any warning, I tripped. The low rumbling I heard from beneath me, was far worse.
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“Run!” Not a second later did the ground give out, and so plummeted Bonnie Anne, Ratbeard, and I along with it. A bone dropped sorely on my forehead. “Ow!”
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“Sorry Captain my Captain, but are ya alright?” A voice rang high above my head. Ratbeard gave a fake cough. “Don’t worry yer heads ’bout me. I’m fine.”
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Bonnie frowned. “But no one asked ye.”
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“I’ll fashion some sort of ladder to get ya out.” Grace’s voice rang out.” It won’t be too long.” There was a bit of arguing from above. “Why not use a rope?” I heard distinctly.
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“I don’t care what ye use, just get us out o’ here!” I added in such frustration.
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As the group above us dispersed, we dusted ourselves off and stood to survey our surroundings. “Davy Jones Locker!” I breathed. The walls towered over us, and from our angle there were two separate routes we could take. This was some sort of maze. Bonnie raised an eyebrow ” No need for that kinda language captain.
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“Sorry, but this…is the Labyrinth.”
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“Well, cut off me beard and call me a rat. It’s real!”
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I turned my gaze back to the both of them. ” I say it’s our duty to explore it.”
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“But shouldn’t we wait for the others?” Bonnie questioned. “Yes…For every 3 steps we take I’ll drop a doubloon. This won’t take up too much time.”
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So began the long and tedious journey through the maze.I didn’t have that many doubloons to begin with. Every twist and turn ended up nowhere. It was on one route, where the end had a small opening to it. Cautiously, we made our way in the tunnel, and I almost to this day regret going through. In the back dozed such a revolting creature,which was topped off with 2 horns. Worse part is, there was a door, possibly our exit over it. We tip- toed around and on the stairs too, but for the second time that day I tripped. We might as well have been stomping the whole way. I scrambled up to the door, where Bonnie and Ratbeard were frantically ushering for me. I slammed the door to the most hideous beast I’d ever laid eyes on. Panic surged through all of us as the pounding increased, but I’d registered that this was Deadulus’ workshop “Look for anything to get us away from this place! Quick!” I screamed.
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“There must be hundreds of things in here” Bonnie cried.
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“Ha! More than you can count..But look what I have.” Ratbeard held a set of feathery wings.
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Everything went by in a blur. I had awfully strapped on the set and grabbed the two, when the beast burst in. I think my heart nearly gave out. All I remember then is jumping out a window and soaring as high as the sun. Then falling and horribly landing in a patch of dirt. I think what makes this story sane, is the two feathers I was left clutched in my hand. Knossos isn’t full of myth.

Captain Fearless Iris :
Bull leaping. That was what Knossos was famous for. No—scratch that. Bulls are what Knossos was famous for. The Minoans jumped on bulls, painted frescos of bulls, worshiped bulls, and even sacrificed bulls. There wasn’t really anything the Minoans didn’t do that didn’t include bulls. If you ask me, it’s a bunch of bull…lonie (Yes I know that’s not how you even remotely spell bologna).
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Sure, bulls could be cool. They’re tough, I guess. I much prefer horses, but don’t tell anyone else; they would call me a heretic and chase me out. Bulls are that serious here. A shout echoed out, and I twisted my head to see what was going on. Someone, I didn’t recognize them, was charging at the bull, his face morphed into a look of determination. I squinted my eyes and looked closer, but I couldn’t pick up any trace of fear. Were these people crazy?
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I sighed. They weren’t just these people, they were my people. They were my family, my life. As a smile crept onto my face, someone called my name, and I looked at them. They gestured towards the bull pen, and my heart sank. I knew what they meant—it was my turn. I dragged my feet over to the pen, clenching my hands the whole time. A bell rang, signaling it was my turn. I jogged into the center, monitoring my breathing.
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The bull stood right across from me, staring me down. The wind whistled and snaked through my hair. My nerves were eating me alive. I was so tense that I felt like I couldn’t even sit down. The bull, a deep black color I noticed, snorted at me like I wasn’t a serious threat. I sucked in a breath and closed my eyes. The crowd grew silent, and I knew it was time. My eyes flashed open and I ran.
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It wasn’t really that much distance between the bull and myself, but it felt like a mile. I was calculating every step in my mind. I couldn’t mess up. I let out a small shout and pushed myself off the ground. Time stopped and I could see everything perfectly. I grabbed the horns of the surprised bull, who in turn jerked me even higher off the ground. I pulled my legs into my chest, and spun once…twice…three times before I hit the ground. I slowly stood up, looked at the cheering crowd, and smiled. I was definitely one of these crazy bull worshipers, and no mere horse could change that.

And Our Random 1,000 Crowns Winner:
Captain Gruesome Angel Underwood

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We hope you’ll send us a picture of your captain with your new prize so we can post it here on the Portal’s winner page!

Thanks to everyone for participating in our Pirate101 Summer Time contest. Follow our blog, or on Twitter @PiratesPortal for more announcements, news and contests from KingsIsle and Pirate101!