2. Fort of Mysteries

Introduction

Have you ever been a pirate-detective on the Sea of Thieves? Last year, Rare announced that they would start adding mysteries to the Sea of Thieves. So far, there has only been one mystery, the murder of Demarco. But you don't have to wait for the next official mystery, because there are countless player-made mysteries that you can discover and solve in the game everyday!

Two days ago, my friend Poet and I joined a complicated battle for a Fort of Fortune (FoF). At least five crews got involved, and things were not always as they appeared. During our voyage and in the 48 hours since it ended, Poet and I have pored over evidence and videos trying to make sense of what happened. We've figured out most of the mysteries, but there are some that remain unsolved. Perhaps you can help us with them!

Who knows what adventures await us at the Fort of Fortune! (See the eclipse?)

Mystery #1: Who was the Red Skeleton? (SOLVED)

As we battled the final bosses of the FoF, a solo sloop captained by a red skeleton arrived on the scene. The red skeleton set his ship to circle the island while he harassed us on the fort. The skeleton was sailing the Eastern Winds Sapphire ship set. A few hours after our adventure ended, the Sea of Thieves official Discord channel posted this announcement:

From the Sea of Thieves official Discord

The red skeleton was using this ship set before it was available to the public! We assumed that meant he was a Sea of Thieves partner. The next day, Poet checked the live streams of Sea of Thieves partners on Twitch, and he found a red skeleton: Our opponent was none other than Flotsam! His recording of his perspective of the battle helped us solve a few mysteries, as you will see below.

Mystery #2: Who started the Fort of Fortune, and what was their fate? (SOLVED)

We joined the server through the new PVP matchmaking system, and emerged from the waves in the Devil's Roar. After sinking our opponent, we noticed there was a Fort of Fortune in the Shores of Plenty, and at the Morrow's Peak tavern we saw there was an Athena emissary on the server. Instead of diving again for another battle, we decided to remain on the server and investigate.

When we arrived at the Fort of Fortune, it was already almost complete. On the east side of the fort, we found treasure and supplies floating in the water. A ship had sunk here! According to their Captain's Log Book, the ship was a brigantine called "Blubber's Bane." There was also an Athena emissary flag, so this was likely the emissary we had learned about at Morrow's Peak.

We later learned that Flotsam had sunk the Blubber's Bane. You can watch their final moments here. RIP.

The Crew of the Blubber's Bane were the real heroes of this story. True pirate legends. It's a shame they didn't return. They will be remembered forever in shanty.

Mystery #3: Who was the Kraken Lord? (SOLVED... Well, mostly!)

Near the wreck of the Blubber's Bane, we found a Kraken Lord in a rowboat full of powder kegs. Poet dispatched him with a fire bomb. 😄 

Kraken Lord meets a terrible fate. Poor fellow! Was he planning to defeat the boss with those powder kegs?

But who was this incredible man? At first, we thought he might have been the sole survivor of the legendary Blubber's Bane. But upon further investigation, we found that he was unfortunately not a member of that storied crew.

The crew of the Blubber's Bane, as seen in Flotsam's Twitch stream

Our best guess is that Kraken Lord belonged to a sloop that we had seen on the horizon when we first approached the Shores of Plenty. When we scanned the horizons with our spyglasses, we spotted two sloops. Sloop A was close to Keel Haul Fort (the FoF), and Sloop B was sailing in from the Wilds. Sloop B belonged to Flotsam. As Flotsam's ship and ours entered the Shores of Plenty, Sloop A skedaddled to the south, never to be heard from again. 

Why Sloop A stopped at the skeleton fort, dropped off Kraken Lord, then sailed south is a mystery that we will probably never know the answer to. But I like to imagine that Kraken Lord was once the captain of Sloop A, and that his crew mutinied against him. They abandoned their former captain on a rowboat loaded with kegs, gave him a pistol with a single shot, and dropped him off at a fort full of angry skeletons. The mutinous crew is probably still partying at New Golden Sands to this day.

Mystery #4: The Curious Disappearance of the Duchess  (UNSOLVED)

Thanks to the efforts of Blubber's Bane, the Fort of Fortune was already on the Mutinous Helmsman phase when we arrived. After defeating the Mutinous Helmsman, we fought the Two-Faced Scoundrel. Upon his demise, the fort progressed to the final boss, the Ashen Lord Captain Grimm.

BUT WAIT! What happened to the Duchess? We never saw her! Usually she appears alongside the Two-Faced Scoundrel. Has the Duchess ever been a no-show for you?

The Duchess, the skeleton in the center of the painting, was missing at the Fort of Mysteries!

Mystery #5: Who killed Captain Grimm? (UNSOLVED)

Now that we were on the final boss, we decided it was time to deal with the red skeleton (Flotsam) a little more aggressively. While the three of us were fighting, something very strange happened: Captain Grimm suddenly died!

As far we can tell, the Ashen Lord was only on Phase 1. We never noticed him do a phase shift to Phase 2, and he never opened the sky to rain fire down upon us, so he had certainly not reached Phase 3. You can see the death of Captain Grimm from Flotsam's perspective here.

It is unlikely that a third party assassinated Captain Grimm because:

1. There was no sign of Phase 3.
2. They did not take the key or his orders.
3. He died on the beach near our ship, where we should have noticed any intruders.

What do you think happened to Captain Grimm? Did he have a heart attack? Did he get bored and server hop, leaving the key behind for us? Did his crew mutiny against him? 

Jimi sports the late Captain Grimm's colorful jacket! (The fellow on the left is Poet!)

Mystery #6: Who were the tuckers? (HALF-SOLVED)

After Captain Grimm's death, a brigantine appeared out of nowhere. We hastily hid the fort vault key in a bush and sailed out to fight. Somehow, we managed to sink both Flotsam and the new arrival and returned to the fort for the treasure, but the excitement was not over yet.

Returning to the island, we were attacked by two men dressed in black from head to pegleg. TUCKERS! 😲 One of them was on the beach. The second was at the vault entrance. We managed to kill them, but now we had a sixth mystery on our hands: Who were these tuckers and which ship(s) did they belong to?

 They have similar taste in fashion, but if you look closely you will see that they are two different picaroons! These dastardly desperados were probably trying to steal the fabled Chest of Legends from under our noses.

Our first theory was that they belonged to Sloop A, which I introduced above in Mystery #3. We assumed they landed on the fort and sent their ship off into the blue so no one would be suspicious. We guessed they had been hiding on the fort all along. However, we began to doubt this theory once we figured out that Kraken Lord was not a survivor of Blubber's Bane and was likely from Sloop A. Only one tucker could have come from that ship.

We now know that at least one of them was from the brigantine. He managed to survive the sinking of his own ship and attempted to board our sloop. Mistaking him for Jimi, Flotsam (who also survived the sinking of his ship and boarded ours) shot the man as he climbed up our ladder. As you can see here, the man survived Flotsam's blunderbuss shot. Instead of trying to board again, he swam to the fort.

 

Case closed...?

But what about the second tucker? Well, Jimi could only remember seeing one other person on the brigantine: a woman in a white swabbie dress. The second tucker was likely their third crewmate, and he was searching for the key during the fight.

That seems like the most straightforward solution, but nothing about this Fort of Fortune was straightforward. The two tuckers were not cooperating, so it's possible that they were not in the same crew. Perhaps the second tucker was from Sloop A after all (or another ship entirely!), and he is the one who assassinated the Duchess and Captain Grimm! I have seen Ashen Lords skip phase 3 before...

But... if that's the case, why didn't he take the key? Perhaps he wanted someone else to touch the Chest of Legends first, so that it would count as stolen for his "Legendary Thief" commendation and title?

Arrgh! There is no end to the mysteries!