The Keep:Pirate Cove

Description
Doing things the pirate way... Enter if you dare!

Our guild wasn't created by us - it was boarded, taken over, robbed of its gems, and renamed by our pirate crew. You can still see the wreck of one of its old challenges inside. Yarrrrrrr!

Our captain is Mara the Marine Marauder.

Challenges
Most of our challenges aren't inside our guild (except @Sphinx's Robin Hood challenge, and the old sunken football challenge, and currently a long-term booty challenge for @Sphinx) but outside in the guilds we conquer or engage in battle with, or in the Tavern or The Bulletin Board 📌.

The challenges regarding the conquered guilds are mostly either about distributing shares of the booty (guild banks gems) among our crew, or about holding the guild for ransom (finding a new captain for the conquered guild - not necessarily a pirate). If you want to create a guild but don't have the gems for it, the occasional ransom challenges in the Tavern or The Bulletin Board 📌 (and posts in Tavern and The Bulletin Board 📌 chat about a guild being held for ransom) might interest you!

When we battle another guild, there's usually one battle challenge in that guild (with two habits, one for the pirates, one for the other guild, but otherwise identical). When the fight is over, there are "badge" challenges for the winners and the other participants, so everyone who participated in the guild-vs.-guild battle can have them in their profiles.

Current Actions and Adventures

 * Former captain @Jameson officially abandoned The Abandoned Camp (it had had that name even before, being more unofficially abandoned) and named @Mara the Marine Marauder the new captain, and was even generous enough to deliberately leave his gems in the guild. Let's not disappoint him in his hopes of hearing wild stories and rumors about that camp in the near future! Meanwhile, booty/treasure challenges are up. There are no plans yet as to what will become of the guild. There's a guild chat discussion going on about adding a pirate island (with a cove, a camp, a duelling ground, and a volcano) to the official map of Habitica...
 * @Riverstone boarded the long-dead "Lolz" guild and turned it into Pirate Foley - a guild dedicated to making a piratic soundscape Habitica audio theme, with amazing results so far! Contributors welcome!
 * @Riverstone has taken over the abandoned "Movie Lovers" guild and has transformed it into a PvP/duelling guild called The Duelling Grounds which is already proving to be very popular. The Duelling Ground's Grand Opening! (a Tavern challenge to introduce the guild) is still running.
 * @orschiro gave @NightOwl leadership of the Sustainable Living guild. Apparently this is only temporarily - to quote @NightOwl, "It is on rent from its original owner, so it will not be captured, per say, more shaped into sailing form." Nonetheless, @NightOwl plundered the guild bank and set up booty challenges with eco-friendly tasks. @NightOwl also promoted the guild in all the right places, and guild chat and number of members has increased a lot since.
 * Habitica admin transferred captaincy of the long-dead "Forocoches" guild to @Mara the Marine Marauder (who temporarily called it ForoNaves, turning cars into ships). Booty (4 gems) was divided, then, with lots of teamwork, the guild got transformed into the Guild Leaders & Challenge Creators. Current guild leader is @Riverstone who will probably try to find a new guild leader by vote.
 * Once, there were two public guilds named "Cute and Cool Things on Tumblr" - an active one (more or less) and an inactive one that basically just said "Go to the other guild". Habitica admin transferred captaincy of the inactive guild to @Mara the Marine Marauder, who changed the name to Tumbling Pirates (Let's Rock this Boat!). Booty challenges will soon be up, then the guild will be held for ransom.
 * @Riverstone wondered into Camelot and, finding it empty, claimed it for the crew. The castle's jewels are being distributed to pirates who prove themselves worthy. No word yet on what we plan to do with the castle itself.

Guilds We Fought in Battle
So far, we have only fought one guild-vs.-guild battle:

As far as we know, this was the first guild-vs.-guild battle in Habitican history, and contributed to one of Captain Mara's contributor tiers in the "Challenger" category.
 * 1) We attacked Gryffindor Houseon June 15, 2015, and did battle with them for 13 days. As weapons, we used habits asking the participants to "Bravely complete, or work for half an hour on, a terrifying task!". The Gryffindors fought very bravely, and both groups were ahead at several times, but in the end, the pirates won!

We're hoping to do more battles in the future! If your guild (or other group of people) is interested, please let us know!

Guilds Conquered So Far
So far, we have conquered 21 guilds in total.

It merits mentioning that @Castanwydden had practice: While still being a land-based Welsh bandit, she single-handedly seized a guild named "Splash of Colorz (Adult Coloring Group)", then invited us pirates to join the fun, generously divvied up the plunder (4 gems), and challenged people to fight over guild leadership. @Gryffindor prismaticjill won, and that guild is now The Mindfulness & Stress Relief Guild. (It just doesn't count in our piratic tally because the whole thing happened on land and @Castanwydden was a highwayperson at the time - I guess that's the politically correct term for highwayman?) And even before that, @Castanwydden unanimously got voted into captaincy in the Welsh-themed Dragons of the Valley / Dreigiau'r Cwm guild (the old guild creator having long gone) and turned it into a living guild. We shared the booty, and also tried to find a new guild leader, but no one showed interest. So we set this spaceship on autopilot into the nearest star (by asking admin for guild deletion). It was the first of our captured guilds that we destroyed (closely followed by the Job Seekers Guild only a few minutes later).
 * 1) The pirate crew of the "Ching Shih" conquered the Pirate Cove (formerly a fantasy football fandom guild), robbed it of all its gems (except the one in the old sunken football challenge), and made it our home port.
 * 2) We boarded the guild now known as Ghost Ship (also wiki page) and found neither crew nor booty in there. It was formerly a Hearthstone fandom guild, now it is about topics related to organ (and blood and stem cell) donation and generally preparing for death (making a will, etc.).
 * 3) The captain of the Gaming Addicts Anonymous guild surrendered the guild to us. (Actually they just unexpectedly made Captain Mara guild leader without any reference to piracy, but joyfully agreed afterwards that we can count it among our conquered guilds.)
 * 4) We captured a Korean guild (with a Korean name Google translator couldn't make much sense of), shared its 4 gems among us and held the guild for ransom until brave marine @Fear came to the rescue (and renamed the guild Hellblazers). While in our hands, it had a poster of this Korean pirate movie as its logo.
 * 5) The leader of the "Challenge Yourself!" guild surrendered to us before we had even started attacking. We held that guild for ransom, too, and another scurvy (and, at that time, sniffly and sneezy) pirate named @Bloody Jenny Flint won it and turned it into The Ship of the Dread Pirate Roberts. It has ongoing "Merry-Go-Round" challenges now where people can win guild captaincy in turn, then make the next "Merry-Go-Round" challenge.
 * 6) Bosun @MEmry single-handedly captured the leaderless vessel Toothpick Factory (having obtained a letter of marque from the admins) and is now captain of said ship!
 * 7) We found another ghost guild that wasn't just memberless, but also nameless. After sharing the booty and enjoing this obscure hideout for a while, we lured potential new captains in from the Tavern (by challenge made by Bosun @MEmry). Now its new leader is @Castanwydden, its name is Venture outside your lair, and it's dedicated to venturing outside every day. It has a nice swimming pool, men serving pie, and occasional goats.
 * 8) The captain of Conscientious Consumption just gave up and left, and since Captain Mara already was first mate there, we got the guild automatically. @Lord Vlad boldly (and successfully) volunteered as new guild captain (keeping the guild's topic), and has steered it well since!
 * 9) We took over the famous old Habitican guild 📜 Library of Shared Lists! The admins (particularly LadyAlys) desperately sought a reasonable, responsible and capable new librarian - but no one volunteered. So we pirates made the gallant offer to rob all the guild gems, wreak havoc and mayhem (and possibly burn the library down), shanghai a random guild member as the next librarian against their will, then sail off into the sunset. The admins found this acceptable. We did indeed rob all the four guild gems, and even gave some of them to those who helped us burn down part of the library (i.e., helped us find and delete, move, or change some of the old outdated challenges there). Then we got bored with all this paper, kidnapped and shanghaied Breadstrings as the new librarian, and took to the high seas again. Breadstrings (probably corrupted by the frustration of having to clean up the mess we left) has since revealed herself to work for the Ministry of Magic and look very much like Dolores Umbridge.
 * 10) When pirate @Sphinx started asking what the guild name "Jambiis GSD Squad" meant, we noticed that that guild consisted of a weird name, a long-inactive guild leader, no chat before @Sphinx started it, three pirates who had all joined in hopes of taking over the guild, and four shiny gems. So we handed the comatose guild leader the black spot and voted @Sphinx into captaincy - and admin acknowledged the vote. @Sphinx renamed the guild "Captivated Squad", made booty challenges, a captaincy challenge, a treasure map challenge, and then went on a much-deserved sailing holiday. When @Sphinx came back, some ideas (and various kinds of peppers) had had time to simmer in guild chat - and as a result, the guild became This is a Silly Place, with @Riverstone as its captain.
 * 11) "A Motley Band of Misfits" (who were mostly sleeping and had no gems nor challenges) was taken over by a motley piratic crew of misfits led by @NightOwl, who is now the captain there. And we misfits came up with the mischievous idea to turn the guild into The Bulletin Board 📌- a guild where people can announce their new guilds, challenges, and other Habitican projects without the news scrolling into oblivion as quickly as they would in the Tavern.
 * 12) Welsh pirate @Castanwydden decided it was time for mutiny in a guild named "Killwaukee" where the guild leader and other members had been absent for over a year. And since @Castanwydden had already had plans to start a Long-Term Goal Accountability guild (as a sister guild to the popular Short-Term Goal Accountability guild), the guild became exactly that!
 * 1) The Star Craft II guild looked like one of those doomed to sink from the start - so, turning space pirates, we boarded it right away. The captain silently abandoned ship, leaving four gems as their only trace - we don't even know their name now. But we hope they got away safely in a snug escape pod and reached an inhabitable planet or ship!
 * 1) Some poor jobless Habitican created the Job Seekers Guild before finding out that The Jobseekers already exist, leaving the new guild (and all four gems) and joining the old one. @Castanwydden became captain there. Being Welsh and probably having a bit of Robin Hood in her blood, she sent four gems to the poor former captain, then set herself a challenge (with an actual task) to retrieve the gems from the guild bank. After winning that challenge, she sank the guild (by asking admin for guild deletion).
 * 2) @Riverstone boarded the long-dead "Lolz" guild and turned it into Pirate Foley - dedicated to making a piratic soundscape Habitica audio theme! Contributors welcome!
 * 3) Yet another case of a duplicate guild - @benoliver999 created the "Movie Lovers" guild (complete with challenge) before discovering the Habitica's Movie Enthusiasts Cluband moving over there. The abandoned guild (with @Mara the Marine Marauder as temporary captain) was then called Pirate Movie Lovers. Booty (4 gems) was divvied up. After that, @Riverstone got the guild and transformed it into a PvP/duelling guild called The Duelling Grounds. It has already become quite popular, with lots of action going on there!
 * 4) Former captain @Jameson officially abandoned The Abandoned Camp (it had had that name even before, being more unofficially abandoned) and named @Mara the Marine Marauder the new captain, and was even generous enough to deliberately leave his gems in the guild. Let's not disappoint him in his hopes of hearing wild stories and rumors about that camp in the near future! (This one clearly isn't a ship but a camp on land - probably some tropic island - but still a captured guild!) Meanwhile, booty/treasure challenges are up. There are no plans yet as to what will become of the guild.
 * 5) @orschiro gave @NightOwl guild leadership of the Sustainable Living guild. Apparently this is only temporarily - to quote @NightOwl, "It is on rent from its original owner, so it will not be captured, per say, more shaped into sailing form." Nonetheless, @NightOwl plundered the guild bank and set up booty challenges with eco-friendly tasks. @NightOwl also promoted the guild in all the right places, and guild chat and number of members has increased a lot since.
 * 6) Habitica admin transferred captaincy of the long-dead "Forocoches" guild to @Mara the Marine Marauder (who temporarily called it ForoNaves, turning cars into ships). Booty (4 gems) was divided, then, with lots of teamwork, the guild got transformed into the Guild Leaders & Challenge Creators. Current guild leader is @Riverstone who will probably try to find a new guild leader by vote.
 * 7) Once, there were two public guilds named "Cute and Cool Things on Tumblr" - an active one (more or less) and an inactive one that basically just said "Go to the other guild". Habitica admin transferred captaincy of the inactive guild to @Mara the Marine Marauder, who changed the name to Tumbling Pirates (Let's Rock this Boat!). Booty challenges will soon be up, then the guild will be held for ransom.
 * 8) @Riverstone wondered into Camelot and, finding it empty, claimed it for the crew. The castle's jewels are being distributed to pirates who prove themselves worthy. No word yet on what we plan to do with the castle itself.

Let the future be as bootyful!

Guild-vs.-Guild Battles: The Technical and Organizational Aspects
A "guild vs. guild" (or "team vs. team" - not restricted to guilds) battle challenge can be made simply by making a challenge with only two habits which are identical except for one of them saying "Fight for team A!", the other saying "Fight for team B!". (Of course, the habits should also say what the participants are expected to do.) Then the Habitica Swagger API interface can be used to keep track of the overall values of the two habits. These habit values correspond (roughly, but close enough) to how often the habits have been clicked. The group with the higher habit value wins. The participants simply join the challenge, decide which team they want to fight for, and click the habit of that team whenever they do the work required by the habit.

If the challenge creator wants to find out who fought for which team, they can see this by looking at the CSV file which shows who clicked which habit. The CSV can be downloaded directly by clicking on the "Export to CSV" button in the challenge, or by using the Habitica Swagger API interface again. (Of course, you could also make a to-do "State your loyalty in the Extra Notes!" instead.) This can be helpful if you intend to make token challenges for all the winners (and maybe 2nd place token challenges for all participants of the other team) after the battle.

The habit values correspond to the sum total of work done. If you'd rather declare the winning team by average work done by each team member, you could also divide the habit values through the number of team members, then compare the results.

The mechanics are also discussed on this Trello card(in the April 29, 2015 comment).

The challenge should contain a disclaimer saying approximately this:

"Disclaimer: All this is supposed to be fun for everyone involved! You are not required to participate in the challenge, no matter which guild you belong or don't belong to. Also, if this challenge makes you feel uncomfortable, please talk to the challenge creator and/or the guild leader of [the guilds involved] and/or a Habitica moderator, and we'll try to fix it! We don't want to violate community guidelines and don't want anyone to feel really, non-fictionally, threatened."

If you are planning a guild-vs.-guild fight, it is good manners to contact the guild leaders of the involved guilds first (if they are active). If you're not planning a surprise attack, you can also ask the guild members first via guild chat. If you're not sure how to proceed (especially if one of the guild leaders is inactive), please read the community guildelines first, then contact a Habitica admin/moderator and ask.

The guilds involved should be chosen wisely - they should consist of members who actually like such a fight instead of feeling annoyed by it.

Different Flags
(Flags not shown to avoid spoilers and copyright issues.)


 * Standard: http://i.imgur.com/oOPGubk.jpg


 * Valentine: http://img0.etsystatic.com/058/0/8817204/il_340x270.716391514_krn0.jpg


 * Pi Day: http://i.ebayimg.com/00/$%28KGrHqYOKiwE5hhLRyDJBOep6qUI8!_35.JPG


 * Easter: http://s7.photobucket.com/user/Cookgirl/media/2013/EasterPirate_zps4e2c6e3a.png.html


 * Christmas: http://www.theflagshop.co.uk/ekmps/shops/speed/images/christmas-pirate-flag-5074-p.jpg


 * New Year: http://rlv.zcache.com/pirate_new_years_eve_party_invitation_postcard-r83e5412cda1d4e1886fbabd79d6db4b9_vgbaq_8byvr_512.jpg

Obscure Treasure Map to Pirate Music
Mara's recommendations:
 * Go look for Bilgemunky's old podcasts! (And then look for more from the bands mentioned there!) Try googling for "bilgemunky rss_feed_bmr", I found this to be the page with the best overview, and otherwise hard to find.
 * "Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag" has a nice piraty soundtrack that can be found in various places on Youtube.
 * Then there are "The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything" (original and cover version) - also on Youtube.
 * And, of course, all the Disney-copyrighted stuff for "Pirates of the Carribean". Chicken_on_a_Raft.png
 * Thanks to @Castanwydden for digging up Jimmie MacGregor's version of "Henry Martin"!
 * Then there's also the chicken on a raft.
 * And so much more...