I had an amazing experience last night and I just had to share it and also thank Rare for allowing us the opportunity to experience/create such amazing tales! A friend and I (2 man sloop) had no voyages and I had noticed that there was a Skeleton Fort up and he had never done one before; knowing this we decided to investigate. We found a galleon parked way off shore for some reason (too chicken to get close to the constant barrage of the skeleton cannons I suppose) so we went ashore and found some pirates there doing the waves. We announced our peaceful presence and offered to help. They gave us a cordial Ahoy and we all fought the waves for some time. I had asked several times if they were cool cooperating and sharing some loot. They never replied nor had any voice chat going. So I suspected they would turn on us once the boss was dead; and they did. They took the key and got back to the boat (not sure how they swam that far with a key and didn't get eaten by sharks). I was up high and noticed one of their pirates swimming towards our sloop with a keg, I warned my friend and he went and intercepted - resulting in both of their deaths and a little dmg to the rear of the sloop which thankfully was only on the 2nd level. We repaired the ship and saw a galleon returning - prob 10-15 min after the boss died. We waited for them and decided we'd put up a fight for the rights to the loot. It was some back and forth but they eventually just out gunned us and we went down. Frustrated I'm sure, my friend took off; leaving me swimming near our merman alone. Their galleon was anchored not far off with the sails down. I decided to investigate the ship and found no one aboard; they must have been opening the vault and retrieving loot. So I decided to raise the anchor and see if I could get away with their vessel. What seemed like an eternity of slow clicking, I finally got the anchor up! Just as I finished doing so, I heard some swimming nearby. I ran to the ladder(s) with cutlass drawn just in time to see the dude who tried to keg our ship earlier and he was carrying the Stronghold Chest. I immediately gave him a few swipes of my blade which caused him to drop his chest at my feet and fall off the boat! By this time the ship had picked up enough speed to where he was unable to swim back to the ladder. I quickly checked the map and noticed I was headed toward Galleon's Grave Outpost. The fort was Shark Fin Camp, so it wasn't that far away. But they soon realized what I was doing and scuttled the ship - I didn't think they'd be so smart. Well the ship started going down and I was left with the Stronghold Chest swimming in shark country to the west of Plunderer's Plight (fitting I thought)! But there are these large rocks out there that don't really have any place to get up on but I figured I could make it to one before a shark got me. I managed to get to one of the larger ones and swam down to find a nice place underwater that was kind of back inside the formation a bit. So I stashed it there, hoping that because it was underwater and could not float back up that it wouldn't despawn. I grabbed a new ship thanks to my merman friend and decided it was too soon to go back - they'd undoubtedly be in the area looking for the ship remains and the chest. I spawned pretty far away and found a message in a bottle in a ship wreck nearby - completed that and decided ~30 min was probably long enough for them to have gone their way. I crossed my fingers I could find the correct location and that the chest would still be there. I stopped at a couple of rocks and finally found the one that I recognized. To my surprise, the chest was right where I left it! A random person matched in to take my departed friends place and got to share in the reward of ~3K gold I got from their chest! I think the greatest joy I received was picturing that the guy who met a face full of steel when he got to the top of the ladder soiling himself or screaming out loud at his PC or Console. I was also hoping that maybe they were sitting at the fort with no ship and all that loot and some other pirates came and gave em' the what-for and sailed off with the rest of the treasure! Revenge is sweet when you pull off the improbable with a great impact! I had no hard feelings about their betrayal as I myself am a pirate but I feel like they got what they deserved and I got what I deserved!
Again, I really want to thank Rare for the game and hard work they put into it! They've created a very unique experience that allows for these kind of unscripted adventures. I can't think of another game that quite captures this kind of magic!
