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1-Smugglers
1+"Long Ben is worried his tavern will run out of wine. The smugglers are in trouble, too many people gone missing, and too many caches turning up empty."
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3+Smugglers is the faction-tier follow-up to the Underground Network introduction questline. It runs the player through a full smuggling-recovery loop: receive a tip from Long Ben at the tavern, sail to the Smugglers of Port Royal cave base to consult Marita, board a captured smuggler vessel, and clean out a Blackbeard pirate camp in the Foothills to recover the stolen wine.
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5+Quest Overview
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5-Long Ben is worried his tavern will run out of wine. The smugglers are in trouble—too many people gone missing, and too many caches turning up empty.
7+Quest type: Side quest, faction chainFaction: Smugglers of Port RoyalRecommended level: 9Region: Tortuga, open sea, FoothillsPrerequisite: Underground Network must be completed firstQuest giver: Long Ben, tavern keeper on TortugaReward: 150 Piastres, 10 Letter of Favor, Iron Lamps (decoration)
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7-Category: Quests - Faction Quests
9+How to Start
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11+The Smugglers quest auto-offers from Long Ben at the Tortuga tavern after the player turns in the final stage of Underground Network. Walk back into the tavern and Long Ben will hail the player with the wine-shortage opener. Accept the dialogue prompt to add the quest to the journal.
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13+If the prompt does not fire, confirm Underground Network is fully closed in the journal. Talking to Marita before clearing Long Ben's intro stage is harmless but does not advance the chain.
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15+Walkthrough
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17+Stage 1: Speak with Marita
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19+Sail back to the Smugglers' hidden cave base, the same location used in Underground Network, and speak to Marita inside. Marita reports that one of her own ships, The Hunchback Pilgrim, left harbour carrying Long Ben's wine shipment but never made it home. She marks the ship's last known position on the map and sends the player to investigate.
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21+Drop a Fast Travel Bell near the cave entrance during this run if one is not already placed. The Smuggler base is the central pivot of the quest and will be returned to twice more.
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23+Stage 2: Investigate The Hunchback Pilgrim
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25+Sail to the marker. The Hunchback Pilgrim is found drifting, with a Blackbeard boarding party still aboard. Pull alongside, board, and clear the deck of pirates. Below decks, more pirates and an empty cargo hold confirm that someone hijacked the wine before the ship could complete its run. There is no captain or crew left alive on board.
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27+Standard naval boarding rules apply: disable the hull with cannon fire if the ship is still moving, then queue the boarding prompt to cross over. Bring Bandages and a long-arm sidearm. Below-decks fighting tightens the corridors, so a Blunderbuss outperforms a Musket for clearing rooms.
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29+Stage 3: Return to Marita
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31+Sail back to the Smugglers' base and report to Marita. With confirmation that the cargo was stolen rather than lost, Marita names Eddie Lowe, a Grenadier in Blackbeard's organisation who knew the Hunchback Pilgrim's route. Eddie has set up a pirate camp on the Foothills mainland; Marita updates the map with the camp's coordinates.
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33+Stage 4: Hunt Eddie Lowe in the Foothills
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35+Travel to the Foothills coast and locate Eddie Lowe's camp. The encounter follows the standard Foothills pirate camp template: a perimeter of Deckhands, one or two Sergeants, and Eddie Lowe himself fighting in the centre as a Grenadier. Open with a long-arm shot on Eddie before he has a clean throw line, then clear the camp's brutes.
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37+After the camp is clear, search the storage crates inside Eddie's tents to recover the stolen Contraband Wine. The wine spawns as a fixed quest pickup; do not walk past the cargo crate without searching it. Any incidental Contraband looted during the camp clear is bonus inventory and does not satisfy the quest objective.
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39+Stage 5: Return the Wine
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41+Sail back to the Smugglers' cave base and hand the recovered wine to Marita. The handoff closes the quest and triggers the reward block.
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43+Rewards
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45+Completion grants the following block from the in-game quest log:
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47+150 Piastres10 Letter of Favor, the Smugglers' faction reputation tokenIron Lamps decoration plan, placeable on a ship deck or at the player's base
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49+The 10 Letters of Favor delivered here are the largest single Smugglers reputation payout in the early-game faction track. Cashing them in at the Smugglers Bounty Agent on Tortuga pushes the player meaningfully toward Reputation Level 2, which unlocks the Smugglers Provisioner's higher-tier inventory. Consider holding the Letters until after a clean reputation gain, since they cannot be re-earned from this quest.
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51+Tips
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53+A few practical notes that shorten the run:
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55+Drop a Fast Travel Bell at the Smugglers' cave on the first visit; the quest sends the player back twice and the sail in is guarded by pirate patrols and storms.Bring repair materials before any sail leg. Wood, Wooden Plank, and Tar cover the standard hull-patch loop at the Wharf if the patrol fights tear the ship up.Eddie Lowe drops a small Homemade Gunpowder stack on death; collect it before sailing home if the player is mid-restock.Underground Network's reward block (50 Piastres, 5 Letter of Favor, three drink crates) is a separate payout. Smugglers' 150-Piastres / 10-Letter reward stacks on top, so completing both back-to-back is the standard early-Smugglers grind.
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57+What Comes Next
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59+Smugglers is one of the early-tier Smugglers of Port Royal faction quests. Completing it qualifies the player for the next chain in the faction's reputation ladder, which scales into bigger contraband runs and better Smuggler Provisioner inventory. The wine-recovery loop also seeds the player's first repeat exposure to the Foothills pirate-camp template, useful preparation for the Blackbeard chain that runs in parallel.
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61+See Also
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63+Underground Network the prerequisite questline that introduces Long Ben and MaritaMarita the Smugglers' faction contact who runs the investigationEddie Lowe the Blackbeard Grenadier who stole the wineSmugglers of Port Royal the parent factionLetter of Favor the faction-reputation reward tokenContraband Wine the quest pickup recovered from Eddie's campFoothills the region where Eddie's camp is locatedTortuga the staging settlement