16. Three Riddles for Captain Brackish Beard

Below is the tale of our encounter with Captain Brackish Beard and his scurvy crew!

1. Last Pirates Standing at Wanderer's Refuge

Last week, I joined my friend Poet's sloop. He was at Wanderer's Refuge. We were not yet in voice chat, so he used the in-game chat wheel command to warn me: "Enemy here!" (Poet plays on Xbox and cannot type custom text messages.)

I expected enemy pirates, but when I ran up to him I only saw ocean crawlers. 
I did not see any ships around the island. We seemed to be alone. Naturally, I concluded that he was referring to NPCs with his "Enemy here!" warning.

But suddenly a wild pirate jumped out of the bushes and attacked us! While chasing this intruder around, I noticed a great mountain of treasure. It seemed to be the treasure of an Ashen Lord from the Ashen Winds world event.

We managed to vanquish our foe, but I was low on health and died to the next ocean crawler. When I returned from the Ferry of the Damned, I was floating in the water and could see our ship sinking in front of us!

Our ship had sunk! We were now one-life pirates stranded on an island with a mountain of treasure.

I typed, "Our ship is sinking!" 

Someone else (not my crewmate Poet) typed a response: "Yes. He was a distraction." This mysterious voice must have been referring to that fiend who leapt at us from the bushes!

Poet returned to the beach and dispatched the scoundrel who sank our ship. With things settled down at last, he joined voice chat and explained the situation. Before I joined, he had discovered a sloop and a brigantine fighting over the Ashen Winds treasure. They both sank. And now we had sunk too. Was there anyone else on the island?

We climbed to a high point and scanned the waters around the island. There were no mermaids. It seemed we were alone.

We sifted through the treasure. No Ashen Winds skull. One of the enemy crews must have hidden it! It was probably buried, but we decided to scour the island just in case... and we found it hidden in the ruined fisherman's hut on the southern tip of Wanderer's Refuge!

BOOM! 

We heard a cannon fire in the distance.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

We climbed back to the top of the island and saw a sloop and brigantine duking it out in the distance. Surely it was the other two crews, and they had met on their way back to Wanderer's Refuge. They were fighting for the treasure and probably had no idea we were still on the island!

2. Designing a Voyage for Another Crew

We decided to have a bit of fun. Rather than fighting for the treasure or just running away with a few valuable pieces, we designed an adventure for the winners of the ship duel. If they could figure out our clues, they would be able to retrieve all of the treasure from the world event!

First, we buried all of the treasure... 

A good pirate should remain completely focused when burying the treasure!

Well, we buried all of the treasure except for the valuable Ashen Winds Skull. Poet found a rowboat on the shoreline and rowed away with the prized skull. Where did he row to, you ask? Well, matey, you will have to read until the end of the story to find that out! 😊

In the distance, we saw the sloop sink. The brigantine had won the battle! Alone, Jimi returned to the abandoned hut where we had found the Ashen Winds Skull. Poet suspected that it was the brigantine crew that had hidden the skull there in the first place. If that was true, surely they would return to the scene of the crime! 

Jimi hid in a barrel and waited. Sure enough, the brigantine came around the corner and one of the scallywags began poking around for the skull.

I typed a message from my barrel: "Looking for something? Answer my three riddles, and I will tell you where it is!"

Their response? Blunderbuss the talking barrel! 😢

Jimi should have kept quiet while hiding in the barrel. His chatter brought about a terrible fate!

As Jimi's ghost left his body for the Sea of the Damned, he had parting words for the vicious brigantine crew: "That's too bad... Now you will never know!"

Hearing what happened, Poet changed course for Golden Sands Outpost Port Merrick on his rowboat. He sold the Ashen Winds Skull and posted the treasure map on the Quest Board. Hopefully, some lucky crew checked and went out looking for it! We joined our friend Chomins on a brigantine and had another exciting adventure... but that is a story for another day!

3. Alternative Ending

In the Sea of Thieves, we write our own stories. This story ended with a blunderbuss to Jimi's face. But there were other ways it may have gone. Have you ever wondered what might have happened if a battle had gone differently, or if you had chosen to trust (or not to trust) a particular picaroon?

I thought our story was over, and that the brigantine crew would never know the fate of their treasure. But one day later, I got a very kind message from their captain, a fellow by the name of Brackish Beard. You can read his note below!

Apparently, Brackish Beard and his crew were overcome with curiosity about Skipper Jimi's final words. They wanted to know what kind of riddles we had in store for them and where we had hidden the treasure. They wanted to know the alternative ending to their adventure.

I was impressed that they reached out, and I started to write out the riddles we had in store for them. But as I typed, I realized that our little game might play out after all, even if not as originally intended. 

Captain Brackish Beard and his crew will search for their treasure, not on the seas, but on the Voyages of Skipper Jimi blog!

**The First Riddle**

So, Captain Brackish Beard, here is your first riddle:

On Wanderer's Refuge, a Glittering Ashen Treasure Sleeps.
25 paces south of Morningstar's Bane, the Ancient Riddle-master will teach you the way.

Tell me the location of the Ancient Riddle-master in the comments below. If you are correct, I will continue the story!