Athena's Fortune (novel)

Sea of Thieves: Athena's Fortune is a 264 page novel written by Chris Allcock, released on October 23, 2018 and is currently available in both Kindle and paperback editions.

Description
from Simon & Schuster :


 * Dive into a world of pirates, plunder, and peril with this novel based on Rare’s thrilling adventure game, Sea of Thieves.


 * Long ago, at the height of the Golden Age of Piracy, the infamous pirate Ramsey and his shipmates sacrificed everything to embark on an impossible journey into the Sea of Thieves.


 * In the present day, Larinna, an ambitious stowaway determined to leave her mark on history, joins forces with a wild and adventurous captain seeking the greatest treasure ever buried. 


 * Separated by time but united by their drive to uncover the secrets of the Sea of Thieves, both crews will face tricks, traps, and malevolent horrors unleashed from the depths of the sea as each draws nearer to Athena’s Fortune.


 * Take a deep breath and dive into an epic story based on Rare's thrilling shared-world adventure game Sea of Thieves, where aspiring pirates can set sail on exciting voyages. Discover the tales of famously fearsome pirates whose legends endure and whose plunder still lies buried, ready for the taking.

Ramsey's Story
Ramsey Singh, also known as the Pirate Lord, was a successful pirate in his prime. Like most sailors of the era, Ramsey knew well of the ominous crimson mists sitting in the Caribbean known as the Devil’s Shroud. Despite rumors and theories of what may lie through the fog, Ramsey happily left it a mystery until meeting another pirate named Mercia who had a resolve to figure out how the Shroud worked. Ramsey had the Magpie’s Wing commissioned and himself, Mercia, Rathbone and Shan braved the trip into the Devil’s Shroud on a days-long journey before making land at present-day Thieves’ Haven.

The crew of the Magpie’s Wing sailed under new stars for a month before returning, with plenty of loot, to a crowd of onlookers; some amazed, some skeptical. Later that same night in Rowenna’s tavern, Ramsey recalled to an audience their journey into the Shroud, omitting the details of the crossing. Rathbone approached Stitcher Jim, a skeptic of the story, after Ramsey’s story and offered a map to him for his loyalty. Jim agreed and sold copies for profits. The Sea of Thieves got its name in the year following with the influx of pirates coming in. With the rising danger, Mercia suggested the crew find somewhere to settle and decided on Thieves’ Haven. The hideout didn’t last for long, however; on a trip away from the island, all valuables in the hideout were burned to cinders.

Ramsey changed course at this; him and Mercia would research the sea’s magic and how to control it under cover of trying to replace what they lost. Eventually, Mercia heard of a tiny island on the rim of the Devil’s Shroud housing a palace. The pair followed the lead, where Mercia was offered earrings by the Mer that allowed her to understand them. The Merfolk hadn’t seen humans in ten-thousand moons, they explained, and two of their kind who tried to approach what they believed to be the Ancient people they were familiar with were kidnapped by the crew of Captain Douglas. The crew of the Magpie’s Wing launched an attack on the island Douglas and his crew were hiding, saving the Merfolk and entombing Douglas in the process.

In return, the Merfolk led the crew to the Old Mother’s corpse and unwound the unbreakable chains from her bones. As part of the agreement, the Mer would also help pirates fallen off of their ships. Ramsey used these chains to forge unbreakable chests full of gold with locks that could only be unlocked by his own keys. He invited some of the sea’s most notorious captains to assemble at Golden Sands outpost; Eli Slate, Gideon Graymarrow and Briggsy. Ramsey proposed an alliance of pirates under his flag and demonstrated what he had to offer; the magical chests, some cursed, with keys specific to the owner to store loot in. During the meeting, a Kraken, woken by the Merfolks’ disturbance, swam to Golden Sands to feed and attacked ships there. The Kraken was blinded by Ramsey during this attack, but his leg was broken in the process. At this, Rathbone seized his opportunity, stealing the silver keys to the chests and dropping Ramsey overboard.

Rathbone used these keys to establish the Gold Hoarders with the help of Stitcher Jim, locating Ramsey’s buried chests and selling the contents to the wider world. After the risk of locating the chests became too much to bear, the Gold Hoarders began to employ pirates to locate them using maps and take a cut of the profits. 20 years after the Kraken attack at Golden Sands, Rathbone was told about a secluded island in the Wilds containing a glittering vault of treasure. Rathbone made the trip to investigate present-day Tribute Peak himself, blowing the entrances open with powder kegs, Rathbone loaded his sloop with all he could, and realized two things as a cadre of galleons closed in; he was cursed, and he had sprung a trap. Rathbone’s sloop was sunk by Mercia and Eli Slate, leaving him to scramble for his gold before succumbing to the Skeleton Curse.

Ramsey came to Tribute Peak an unknown amount of time later with the Alliance of the Athena’s Fortune. Members of the alliance constructed a bridge across the chasm in the old ruins before being sent back to the surface, and Ramsey went to approach Rathbone for the final time before crashing the Athena’s Fortune in a hidden cavern, creating the Pirate Legend Hideout.

Trivia

 * It is implied that the Magpie's Wing marked the basis for the standard Galleons used in the Sea of Thieves in the present day.
 * A map used to pass into the Sea of Thieves can be found in the vault of the Magpie's Fortune on Old Sailor's Isle.
 * Shan is the inventor behind the Eye of Reach, as well as the model of cannon that can shoot pirates out without harm.
 * Much of the architecture of Thieves' Haven was built by the crew of the Magpie's Wing.
 * The Kraken that we fight is the same one mentioned in the novel; Briggsy comments during Ramsey's recovery that it had been seen using ink to hide its body and would only fight with its tentacles.
 * Ramsey says that he would send a gift to Rowenna for her tavern, which is later revealed in the comic series to be a cursed pistol that would prevent the igniting of gunpowder around itself.
 * The Old Mother is said to be bigger than any outpost. A galleon could easily sail through her ribs.
 * Gripper, one of Douglas's crew, is later seen with Captain Graymarrow.
 * The name of Graymarrow and Briggsy's ships were The Twisted Horn and The Homeward Dove respectively.
 * The locked chests referred to are the chests ranging from Castaway's to Captain's, and the Chest of a Thousand Grogs.
 * Shan created a Chest of Sorrows using an incantation during the encounter with the Kraken at Golden Sands.
 * Briggsy does not use her real name; hers is a title given by her profound ability to break into, or out of, anything or anywhere.
 * The Order of Souls is briefly mentioned in the novel. They are described as 'an up-and-coming gang of soothsayers' who the Gold Hoarders could buy maps from. A similar scene to the one described shows up in Visions of Order comic from the perspective of a younger Olivia.
 * Stitcher Jim's camp can be found on Smuggler's Bay, near the northern summit of the island.
 * The Athena's Fortune was named after Ramsey's wife who he left behind to pursue a life on the seas.
 * Ramsey wears a necklace bearing the Reaper's Mark that he found next to Mercia after she died. Attached to it was a note saying, "This will suit you." The necklace allowed him to persist after death.