So last night i solo brigantines a sloop with 2 players.
I chased them down, forced them to beach and boarded them.
Their ship sunk and i stole an ancient chest.
I had no idea they were doing tall tales but i had already committed to killing them.
Anyways i took their chest to ancient isles OOS tent, messaged them the shroudbreaker was there but i sold their chest.
You cant sell the shroudbreaker through.
Here is my suggestion.
Let players sell items tied to quests.
It will trigger the tall tale quest to fail for them, however it means that their shroudbreaker or whatever isnt going to get dumped into the sea, hidden or kept on the ship of the attacker as a method of trolling.
I doubt everyone would be a courtious as to leave it for them and message them, a proper pirate wouldnt, they'd try to sell it.
The person who lost the item will know that they will likely be wanting to cash in and being smart can take a guess at which outpost they will be heading to and try to intercept them.
The consequence of not being able to sell these artifacts is that they persist in the game way longer than needs be.
Technically if you lose it and fail to be the one handing it in, youve failed the tall tale. However you can always retry.
Who wouldnt buy the shroudbreaker?
Its got gold in it.
