I set sail aboard The Whailing Meg, heading southeast from Sanctuary outpost towards a red tornado above Cannon Cove. On the beach near the dock, I see a group of skeletons performing a ritual so I pull into the cove and head ashore. With a blunderbuss and a sword I hack into skeletons while slowly weakening Old Horatio, when suddenly I hear a distant cannon that grabs my attention, distracting me enough that the skeletons take me down.
On the ferry I hear more distant cannon fire above me. It seems there is a battle nearby. When I come back, I fire myself into the air over the island and spot a brigantine and a galleon just on the other side of the Northstar Seapost. I decide I need to speed things up while they are distracted with each other.
Once I get into the final portion of the fight, I switch my blunderbuss to my eye of reach to help keep my distance and put damage on the ashen lord while fire rains from the sky. As things feel like they are almost wrapped up, I take a trip to the ferry and notice that the cannons have stopped. Launching myself into the air again reveals the brigantine pulling around the south bend of Cannon Cove. I know my ship is done for so I plan to hide and attempt a steal once they finish off the boss.
Running back across the island, I find a keg and grab a vantage point along the southern ridge of the island when I notice that a sloop just made a pass on the brig docked near where my ship went down. Then I turn around and see that the galleon has returned and is coming around the island quickly.
Instead of using the keg on the brig after they finish, I decide to use the keg on the boss while the three ships are engaged. I think to myself that the keg might be enough to kill him by itself. I head back to the other side of the island and drop the keg at his feet, then I cut into him with my sword until he starts raining fire again, but I end up falling.
I sail back from a spawn at Shipwreck Bay and in the distance I see the sloop docked near the eastern beach as the tornado disappears. The brigantine looks to be a little bit northwest of the island and the galleon doesn't appear, possibly behind the island. As I pass by the Northstar Seapost, I fire off a long range shot towards a skelleon to have him join in on the fun and I drag him into the battle behind me. I thought the sloop had sank but I knew the brig was still there. I found them docked on the west side of the island where I anchored and fired until both my ship and theirs went down. The skelleon pummeled both ships until it dove into the ocean.
After a quick gunfight with a man on shore, I searched the water and the island for the ashen winds skull, but couldn't find it anywhere. I suspected the sloop had taken off with it, possibly in a rowboat.
Eventually the sloop comes back and I watch from a high rock to see if they stashed the skull. I tried to sneak aboard but ended up alerting them I was there. One at a time I killed them and searched the ship for the skull. When I couldn't find it, I hid on their sails. After a quick search and not finding me, they continued to load the treasure and set sail back to Sanctuary.
When both were on shore turning in an item, I jumped down and sold some silks before hiding behind the capstan. After selling everything and a minute of standing around, one left the game. So I stood up, said "Well played!" and started playing 1812 on the banjo as I slowly approached the remaining pirate. He looked confused for a moment before he shot and cut me.
I few moments later I get a message from him. He asked where I had been tucking. I told him and said I was looking for that skull. Then he confirmed that they sold it. I told him that the boss must have had hardly any health left when they killed him. He said it took them 5 cannonballs.
Almost had it.
