The International House of Mojo

No more than a month after The Secret of Monkey Island’s October release, Ron Gilbert and company submitted a pitch document for a sequel. Dated Friday, November 30th, 1990, the draft was structure-wise not a million miles away from what we saw in the final game, but there were some glaring story differences.

Note that LeChuck truly is gone and that his hellbent brother, El Carlo, is the villain with a right-hand man still known as “Lord Jack.” Below is the full document courtesy of Monkey Island Chronicles.

···

Monkey Island II is a game for all ages that enjoyed the zany one-liner-riddled Monkey Island. The game, once again, follows Guybrush on his continuing journey to become a respected pirate.

The most stunning feature of Monkey II is the ability to play the game in one of three puzzle packed skill levels. The game will essentially remain the same, but as the skill level increases, puzzles will be added. The three modes are: Simple (Reviewer mode), Normal (Normal people mode) and Complex (Never-Kissed-A-Girl mode). Normal mode will be at the same skill level as Monkey Island.

Guybrush Threepwood left the old world to search out his fortune and live the life of a pirate upon the high seas. Proving his worthiness to be a bloodthirsty pirate was not as easy as he once thought it would be. Now, after completing the three trails and, as an added bonus, defeating the dreaded ghost pirate LeChuck, Guybrush was bound to get the respect he deserved and to be treated as a true pirate. So he thought...

The ghost remains had barely dried on the dock before people started to tire of Guybrush’s relentless bragging and retelling of how he, Guybrush Threepwood, single-handedly defeated the dreaded ghost pirate LeChuck. About how he knocked LeChuck around Mêlée Island before doing him in with a bottle of root beer he had concocted himself while battling a herd of three-headed monkeys.

Not more then a few weeks passed before Guybrush was asked to leave Mêlée. The resentment had grown to the point where life on Méleé was unbearable for Guybrush and he was happy to see the island vanish over the horizon. He and his life-long true love, Governor Marley, set out together.

The relationship lasted only a few months. Elaine left one day, saying that the relationship had been plundered clean and there was nothing left to do but bury the treasure and throw away the map. So to speak. She quickly found an island that was in need of a good Governor and settled in. The truth was that she was tired of Guybrush moping around, trying to relive those last few minutes of his battle with LeChuck. She missed the Brushywushy who she had fallen in love with, the fearless (well, sort of) buccaneer who had stolen her heart and saved (well, sort of) her people.

Guybrush -- desolate, alone, and bored of retelling the dumb story (but not bored enough) -- drifted from island to island, and saw the bottom of a grog bottle more often than the bottom of a treasure chest. If the truth be told, he never saw the bottom of a treasure chest. Each time he wore out his welcome, which was just about the time he launched into his “LeChuck” story for the tenth time, he hitched a ride on the next ship out and found another island where they hadn’t heard his story yet.

There is one good thing about hitting rock-bottom; there is only one way to go and that’s up. Of course anyone who says this has never hit rock-bottom because there are plenty of ways to go besides up. Luckily for Guybrush, up was one of his options. As if by chance, Guybrush had stumbled onto a very strange place called Scab Island . It was an uncivilized little island inhabited by bands of down-and-out pirates just waiting for a break. There were no real buildings on the island, the towns were made up of old shipwrecks. Somehow this seemed appropriate for Guybrush’s current state.

The island seemed like the perfect place for a down-and-out Guy like Brush. The locals had not heard his LeChuck story yet, so it gave him weeks of endless storytelling before being booted to the next island. The people were nice, the food was good, and there was no pressure. So they could just sit back and talk about all the treasures not yet plundered. Everything was perfect except for this guy named Lord Jack.

···

···

Lord Jack was a mean sort of guy. He liked to storm around the island, kicking sand of the faces of pirates who all seemed unwilling to fight back. Guybrush overheard many conversations about how they all wished Lord Jack would let them be and leave the island, but no one ever did anything about it. Guybrush, being a take-action sort of guy(brush), decided to take matters into this own hands and rid the island of Lord Jack. How hard could it be? Nothing could ever compare to LeChuck and he had handled that episode flawlessly. Right? This is just what he needed to restore his pride in himself, and it wouldn’t make a bad story to start telling next.

One voodoo doll later, Guybrush had Lord Jack running for the water and off the island. Then Guybrush made a fatal mistake. ”That’ll teach you to mess with the guy who did away with the dreaded ghost pirate LeChuck!” Guybrush shouted at Lord Jack. Almost as if the spell from the voodoo doll had worn off in that instant, Lord Jack stop running, turned, and walked back to Guybrush. “You were the one that destroyed LeChuck?” he asked. “Yes, and what are you going to do about it?” Guybrush replied as he frantically stabbed pins into the voodoo doll. “You obviously don’t know who I am... My name is Lord Jack, the right-hand man to a very fierce pirate by the name of El Carlo.” “Nice to meet you,” said Guybrush, offering to shake hands. Lord Jack looked at Guybrush’s extended paw and said, “El Carlo was LeChuck’s brother.” The words “LeChuck’s Brother” echoed in Guybrush’s head. Lord Jack smiled and started to walk into the water towards his rowboat. “You’re a dead man Guybrush! El Carlo has been looking for his brother’s killer for many months, it looks like now we’ve found him. You should also know that of the two brothers, LeChuck was the nice one.”

···

···

Guybrush’s deepest fears were confirmed by the local pirates of Scab Island™, El Carlo was the biggest, baddest, meanest, dirtiest, rottenest, baddest, meanest pirate to sail the Caribbean. “If El Carlo wants you dead, you’re dead,” was what almost everyone told him. It was now clear why none of the other pirates had ever kicked Lord Jack off the island. “If El Carlo wants you dead, you’re dead.” “If El Carlo wants you dead, you’re dead.” The one exception to the doomsayers was the fortune-teller who sold him the voodoo doll and got him into the mess in the first place.

“If you want to live, there is only one thing left for you to do,” she said. “Run.” Run? This wasn’t the action of a fierce pirate, but it sure sounded good to Guybrush. “There is a legend,” the old fortune-teller continued. “A legend of a treasure so wonderful, yet so terrifying that the four pirates who found it over a hundred years ago quickly buried it again on a small island. They then took the map and tore it into four sections, each pirate departing with a piece. They never saw each other, or the treasure, again. The treasure is still out there, and it is your only hope of escape.”

Needless to say, this all sounded a little strange to Guybrush. Being in a desperate situation, however, G.B. was willing to try anything. The next day, with the help of the as-of-yet-unintroduced (but highly developed) Captain Dread, he set sail in search of the four map pieces. His only clue, provided by a little old lady in a red Buick, was that one of the Pirates who found the treasure was named Captain Marley. If only Elaine would speak to him again.