Tales from the SMP/The Beach Episode

The Beach Episode is the third installment of Tales from the SMP. It was streamed on January 9, 2021 at 8 PM EST, and starred Karl Jacobs, Dream, Sapnap, GeorgeNotFound, BadBoyHalo and Ranboo.

The Beach Episode involved a group of participants going on "Captain Block Beard's Treasure Hunt." This involved the groups going to multiple locations to discover clues, along with some minor audience involvement.

Poster
The poster has the name of the show, alongside the title of the episode and the day and time the episode occurred. On the side, it shows a list of people that were meant to appear in the episode. They appear to be at a beach, with Dream in the center, Sapnap to his right and Quackity to his left, all standing behind some flora. Further in the back - on the right of the poster - Karl is seen sitting on the beach reading a book. In the background, the sea can be seen, with the silhouettes of both a ship and some birds flying.

Details
The group arrived at the beach and played a bit of volleyball with George serving as the ball. After playing volleyball, the group saw a pirate ship nearby and swam towards it. Inside the ship, they discovered a chest with a journal belonging to a pirate named Blockbeard:

"Captain Blockbeard's Journal Entry Number 1: If you're reading this, you either took over my pirate ship, or I died in an attempt to keep the secret of my all powerful treasure chest.

If you have either the power to take my ship over or the luck to stumble across it potentially during a Beach Episode in the Tales of the SMP, I believe it is safe to say you may be the right person to have the ownership of this elusive treasure. But, nothing as rare and sought after as these treasures should be easy to obtain, so i will send you on a bit of a treasure hunt to find it.

Your first step is simple; find a good use for this pressure plate and that will reveal the next step on your new fantastical journey"

In summary, the first journal entry told the group that he left a treasure somewhere, and that they must follow his clues to locate where it is. Along the book inside the chest was a pressure plate, and they quickly figured out that the pressure plate must be used to open the iron door of the lighthouse.

After traveling to the top of the lighthouse, they found another journal entry by Blockbeard:

"Captain Blockbeard's Journal Entry Number 2: Well done adventurers, you found the next step. But, enough excitement. This is only your first triumph. To get to your next destination, use this lighthouse and try and scout out the ship that had the unfortunate luck of encountering me and the boys. Arr!

I think as he sunk, his internal lantern flung out of his ship. Try and find it like that. Good luck"

The entry indicated that from above the tower, they should find a lantern on the sea. The group easily discovered the lantern and a sunken ship with another chest containing another entry from Blockbeard and a pickaxe.

"Captain Blockbeard's Journal Entry Number 3: Ahoy! Yes, Yes, it doesn't really make sense that one of my journal entries is in my opponents pirate ship, but Karl was sick while writing this and couldn't think of an excuse, so don't overthink it!

Your next clue will be back at the local beach front within the lagoon. You'll notice a block out of place there, behind that block will be the next step. Be gone now!"

The group then swam up to shore to look for the block. There, they located the lagoon and the chest hidden under polished andesite with another entry.

"Captain Blockbeard's Journal Entry Number 4: Ahoy! Boy do I love this lagoon! The beach is here, the normies hang out with their friends, the volleyball, everyone playing loud music, getting sand in my eyes, not allowing me to lay on the coast with them, I hate this lagoon!

Travel on the coast towards and beyond the pier, till you come across the much much better lagoon. You'll see why it's much better, and when you do you'll come across the next clue. Go on now land lovers!"

The entry contained Blockbeard despising the lagoon they are in because of ambient noise, hinting that the next clue is along the shore and to find a 'Much better Lagoon'. Karl clarified that he meant lighthouse when he said pier, so the group headed towards the lighthouse and beyond, finding a secret cove in the walls behind it. The cove contained a chest with another journal entry from Blockbeard.

"Captain Blockbeard's Journal Entry Number 5: Why yes! This is much better. It's much quieter, easier to relax, and much much more peaceful. Well, other than that one thing. There's a massive skeleton with flames coming out of its eyes just of this lagoon. I genuinely don't understand how you missed it.

Nevertheless this next clue will be either the easiest or the hardest one yet. And it all comes down to just how much the audience wants to see you suffer. Go into the skeleton for your next clue."

They exited the secret room within the lagoon and traveled to where they had found the skeleton head carved into the hillside with an entrance through the mouth leading to a cave. The cave contained a chest and a sign which read, "CHAT DECIDES HOW MANY CLUES?". Within the chest came the next clue:

"Captain Blockbeard's Journal Entry Number 6: Ahoy! Shiver me Timbers! Scallywags! Audience: This clue can be as easy or as hard as you would like.

There are 3 chests, each with a clue that will make the next journal entry more and more easy to find. Karl will run a poll: just how many of the clues are the land-lovers allowed to open? Arr!

I know you're thinking 'A minute long poll! What can we do during this poll time? Well, Twitch Prime is a way to subscribe for absolutely free, so you can skip out on all the ads Karl is about to run on his twitch channel."

The majority of the audience voted only to give them one clue to let them "suffer" at 68% from 50,000 votes. The clue read:

"Audience chosen clue 1: Continue down the coast"

After moving down the coast, the group came upon a pier. Ranboo immediately found the next chest with an entry from Blockbeard.

"Captain Blockbeard's Journal Entry Number 7: Grab the boats from this chest; right beyond this pier there is an island. Don't go there, bunch of go-toad and hillbillies live there. But, before you get to the island, there should be an underwater shrine. This is where your's truly kept the map to my very own tomb!

And if you're reading this and find that tomb, we will finally meet face-to-face. Good luck!"

Upon reading the clue, they spawned the boats and searched the sea until they came across the shrine covered by kelp. There, they uncovered the book inside and traveled back to the pier to read the next clue:

"Captain Blockbeard's Journal Entry Number 8: Enough horsing around! This is officially where this story will get much more difficult. This ain't for the faint of heart, so if you can't handle it, I'd log off now.

Go back to the coast and look to the left of the pier on your way back to the island. There should be an underwater tomb on the coast within the sands. Come meet me in person there."

After Ranboo worked out his lefts from his rights, the group walked around the coast and swam down to find an opening to the tomb underwater. The tomb itself was covered by a curtain of blinds, followed by pillars of lava leading to the skeleton skull of Captain Blockbeard. A chest contained the next clue:

"Captain Blockbeard's Journal Entry Number 9: Hi! Nice to meet you for the first time. I look as skinny as i ever have. Anywho, it's time to leave this cursed island. Go to my ship and find a journal that fell overboard on the front of it for the next instruction"

From the tomb, they ran back to the Pirate ship (apart from Dream, who used the boat to get there quicker). When they got to the ship, they located the chest chucked overboard containing the next clue. There, they found the journal along with a shovel.

"Captain Blockbeard's Journal Entry Number 10: Off to Turtle island. The scum of the earth Captain Crimson fled from my attacks and clearly went over there. Not like he'd be dumb enough to traverse the great barrier reef. Try not to forget, the treasure to be found is one of the greatest in all of the lands of the Dream SMP, and there are more valuables within. Good luck voyager and off you go!"

On the island, they tracked down a big red "X" and dug down to find another journal entry. The journal told them that the next clue was somewhere on Captain Crimson's ship, and they should find it.

"Captain Blockbeard's Journal Entry Number 11: What the heck?! He actually did it? Captain Crimson actually shipped straight beyond Turtle island in the great barrier reef? He's a gonner! Thing is, i'm sure he has the last clue. Go find his ship and retrieve it. I'm counting on you! Captain Crimson may have come close, but he is no match for unveiling the beautiful treasures quite like you"

The group traveled across the reef either by swimming or in boats to find Captain Crimson's ship and a sign which read, "CORAL ISLE: POPULATION: no one". Within the ship, they find found a journal entry from Captain Crimson themselves.

"Captain Crimson's Journal Entry Number 1: Cursed Blockbeard! He got the best of me! My beautiful crimson ship is destroyed! It would be worth it if I was closer to finding the treasure, but the final clue to where it is fell overboard somewhere in the great barrier reef. If you're reading this you're so close to having your hands on the...."

The group quickly split up and scouted the reef to find the next chest. After a long time of finding the area, George came upon the chest after passing by it multiple times. Inside the chest contained coordinates of the area to where the treasure is.

"Captain Blockbeard's Final Journal Entry: Congrats on all your hard work. The grand treasure is back on the beach party island. The co-ordinates for the entrance for the secret lair that holds all of my treasure is..."

George leads them back to the main island, where they then split up to find the entrance to the treasure. Ranboo immediately unearths the secret entrance and attempted to hide it from the rest of the group. This made the group suspicious of Ranboo, and they discover a button that activated a secret entrance to a small chamber where another "X" was marked in the sand. Before they could dig, there was another book to read first:

"Captain Blockbeard's Twist: Muahaha! You thought you got all this just to endure this pirate adventure together and split the treasures 50-50? That's not the life of a pirate! Audience, here's your time: vote in the poll on stream who you believed was the best pirate of the story and that person alone will get to dig up the treasure and keep the goods within. And while this poll is happening, Karl will have to run an ad as he's spending too much money on his streams. So remember if you subscribe and skip all the ads. Choose wisely audience, some of this treasure should never fall into the wrong hands."

The winner
Karl made the audience vote who they thought was "the best pirate". After the poll ended, he took the treasure and lead the group back to the gazebo in the center of the island. Karl read the result out loud - Ranboo won with the final vote of 73%. For his prize, Ranboo received:


 * "Blockbeard's Sword", a very powerful sword with Fire Aspect II, Knockback II, Looting III, Sharpness V, Mending, Sweeping Edge III, and Unbreaking III (enchanted by BadBoyHalo)
 * Fifty gifted subs
 * A graphics card (RTX 3080). Ranboo ended up gifting the 3080 to Sapnap since he already had a 3090.

For participation, Karl also gave twenty gifted subs to the rest of the group.

To finish, the group took a screenshot selfie next to the ship with all their beach skins.

Trivia

 * Quackity was originally supposed to star in this episode, hence his name and him being in the episode image. However, due to scheduling conflicts, Quackity was unable to star in the episode.
 * Karl originally planned for the episode to last three hours. The members completed it in under an hour.
 * There was no book for the Beach Episode in the library when the library was revealed during the episode titled The Lost City of Mizu.
 * The book for the Beach Episode later made its first appearance in the fifth installment of the series, titled The Masquerade. Therefore, Karl likely forgot to include the book in the fourth installment.
 * When Ranboo went to visit the prison for a second time, he accidentally destroyed his original sword after dropping it in front of a creeper. Therefore, he had to use Blockbeard's Sword instead.