The Undelivered Order
Found after a fight
5 scenes. Choices with a requirement only appear when you meet it.
An Admiralty Dispatch Tube
Right away1Floating in the wreckage is a brass dispatch tube sealed with week-old Admiralty wax. Inside is an urgent retreat order for a frontline port: no reinforcements are coming, strip the harbor guns, evacuate the military garrison, and leave the civilians behind with a list of small boats.
Because the courier crashed, the order never arrived—and the port is still holding the line on its own.
Because the courier crashed, the order never arrived—and the port is still holding the line on its own.
- Keep the dispatch tube and head for the frontline port.You slide the retreat order back into the brass tube and set course for the harbor named on the first line.
- Put it over the side.You toss the tube overboard into the clouds, leaving the port to hold out on its own.The questline ends here.
The Evacuation List
Right away2Rolled inside the retreat order is a second sheet: a civilian boat list assigning town families and children to fishing boats after the garrison transports leave.
Examining the brass tube, your crew notice the name of the courier vessel stamped on the cap: the cutter Prompt. You can either take the order straight to the port or track down the courier who lost it.
Examining the brass tube, your crew notice the name of the courier vessel stamped on the cap: the cutter Prompt. You can either take the order straight to the port or track down the courier who lost it.
- Copy the patrol chart on the back of the order and sail straight to the port.Written on the back of a frontline sector chart to save paper, the dispatch gives your helmsman the location of every patrol post along the front before you head into port.Reveal 4 waypoints
- Track down the courier cutter Prompt that lost the tube.Using the patrol sector chart on the back of the order, you plot a course for the courier cutter Prompt's search lane.
- [Quartermaster] Have crewmate reseal the broken Admiralty wax before finding the courier.Crew: Quartermastercrewmate heats the broken wax over a candle and presses the Admiralty seal back together so cleanly that the courier will never know the tube was opened.
The Harbor That Held
At a port3 Deliver the Admiralty's week-old retreat order to the frontline port.
Port Warden Rue Halloran reads the week-old retreat order twice while town bakers and schoolmasters man the harbor cannons behind her. Out past the breakwater, a Hollow warship waits in the gray fog for the wind to die.
"If this order had arrived on time, we would have abandoned the town a week ago," Halloran says quietly. "Instead, we held. What do you advise, Captain?"
"If this order had arrived on time, we would have abandoned the town a week ago," Halloran says quietly. "Instead, we held. What do you advise, Captain?"
- Advise her to obey the retreat order and help dismantle the harbor guns.Halloran calmly orders the evacuation. Refusing to leave good cannons for the Hush, she has the harbor batteries dismantled and mounts the first heavy cannon onto your ship.Weapon: a random weapon+1 The Crown standing
- Burn the retreat order and fight alongside the harbor against the Hollow warship.Halloran burns the order in a battery lantern just as the wind dies and the elite Hollow warship glides in over the breakwater to attack!Battle: Hollowed ship · Close range, Dead calmIf you win:The front falls back 1Upgrade: Ward Loom+1 The Free Captains standingThe questline ends here.
- [Veteran] Have crewmate show Halloran where a relief convoy can break through so she can demand reinforcements.Crew: Veterancrewmate chalks a tactical map on the battery floor showing where the Hush fog is thin enough for a relief ship to land. Halloran countersigns the order with a supply demand; three days later a relief tender arrives, and her armorer gifts you a ship's cannon.The front falls back 1Weapon: a random weapon+1 The Crown standingThe questline ends here.
- Have the courier lieutenant testify that the town held the line so she can demand reinforcements.Having seen townsfolk holding the cannons against the Hush with his own eyes, the lieutenant sails back to command with Halloran's demand for supplies. Three days later a relief tender arrives, and her armorer gifts you a cannon.The front falls back 1Weapon: a random weapon+1 The Crown standing+1 The Free Captains standingThe questline ends here.
- Leave it for now.You leave Halloran at her gun batteries for now with the dispatch still in your coat.
The Wounded Undertow Courier
Sail to The Courier Cutter Prompt (1–3 passages away)4 Locate the courier cutter Prompt and the lieutenant who lost the dispatch.
You find the courier cutter Prompt circling the sky with a patched mainsail. Her young lieutenant turns pale when he spots the brass dispatch tube in your hand.
"Is the seal intact?" he blurts out. "I'll pay you out of my own pocket for that tube—and pay double if you never mention that you opened it!"
"Is the seal intact?" he blurts out. "I'll pay you out of my own pocket for that tube—and pay double if you never mention that you opened it!"
- Sell the opened dispatch tube back to the lieutenant. (+50 silver)Wincing at the broken wax seal, he pays you fifty silver from his own pocket. He will deliver the retreat order tomorrow, eight days late, and claim the seal cracked in a storm.+50 silver+1 The Crown standingThe questline ends here.
- Hand over the resealed tube and take his hush money. (+90 silver)Relieved to see the wax seal intact, the lieutenant pays you ninety silver for its return and your silence before sailing off to deliver the order.+90 silver+1 The Crown standing−1 heatThe questline ends here.
- Tell him the port has held out for a week without his retreat order, and bring him there to see for himself.He slumps onto a cannon carriage. "They held the port for a whole week without relief?" Ashamed, he pays you a twenty-five-silver finder's fee and asks you to escort him into the harbor.+25 silver
The Evacuation Boats
Right away5With two of the town's fishing boats rotten and the military transports full, forty townspeople are left stranded on the pier in the dark.
Halloran has stacked heavy armor plating on the dock to reinforce your hull in thanks—but the iron weighs just as much as the forty stranded refugees.
Halloran has stacked heavy armor plating on the dock to reinforce your hull in thanks—but the iron weighs just as much as the forty stranded refugees.
- Load the heavy armor plating onto your hull and leave the forty refugees to the leaking fishing boats.Your crew bolt the heavy iron plating over your hull while the forty townspeople crowd into leaking rowboats behind the transports. Behind you, the Hush fog swallows the empty pier.+4 max hullThe front advances 1The questline ends here.
- Leave the armor plating behind and take all forty refugees aboard your ship.The forty townsfolk sit quietly on your deck all night until you land them safely at the next harbor, where the grateful harbor master pays you ninety silver.+90 silver+1 The Free Captains standing+1 The Crown standingThe front advances 1The questline ends here.
- [Quartermaster] Have crewmate jettison spare gear so you can carry both the armor plating and all forty refugees.Crew: Quartermastercrewmate tosses spare sails, empty casks, and your own cabin furniture onto the dock, stowing the armor plating beneath the feet of all forty refugees. Your overloaded ship flies like a brick, but every soul reaches safety.+3 max hull+60 silver+1 The Free Captains standingThe front advances 1The questline ends here.
Data from Magehold Fairwinds v1.9.26. Spotted something out of date? Discord