The alliance I was in all left and with my skull but only two colors, I decided to do the mercenary voyages, but I wanted to collect the colors to kill the special skeletons. After collecting the two from the fort left by my alliance, then acquiring two myself on snake island, I came back to the fort to get my skull I left behind, and I see the other flames were all there. Somehow the fort lit them itself. So I slapped that skull in there and went to town.
The later waves were tough but the blunderbuss helped. Eventually the Skeleton lord spawned and I killed him using the cannon from my ship. The instant he died, I sever merged.
Once I took the key to the vault, I realized it was open and full. So I had all the treasure and the key. I loaded up everything because it felt like a shame to leave it behind even though all I wanted was the gems and reaper chests. I even took the kegs which I don't normally do unless I plan on using them.
As I finished turning in my gems to Merrick, I see a brown sloop with white sails heading towards me. Usually the sign of a PVPer. Since I don't care about anything I have except the reaper chest, I go to offer up everything else for an alliance. I was even going to give him my key and log off. I was forgetting however that I have 4 large explosives in eye sight, and as soon as I make my offer, he snipes them.
I spawn near by and make it back just in time to see him leave. A chase ensues and he boards a couple times before we have a ship to ship battle. We were pretty evenly matched in hand to hand combat and ship combat. I know I made some mistakes that I was aware of even before I did them. I was playing risky. Eventually I was knocked off my ship by a cannonball as it was in a tight turn but close enough to an island that I didn't get a mermaid in time before it sank. I then watched him sail off with most of the treasure and possibly a key.
I should have taken the important stuff and left. I definitely shouldn't have taken the kegs. I should have dropped off the reaper chests first. I'm not mad for losing it all. It was an awesome experience. That guy was half lucky and half worthy. I showed up on his server, I made stupid decisions leaving myself vulnerable. In the end though, it was his skill and knowledge that helped him succeed. I wanted those reaper chests back, but if I wasn't going to get them, I wasn't going to let him have them so easily. I gave him a good battle for them but he won, and I salute him.