The Borrowed Vane
From a chance meeting
Possible rewards: Windcaller's Vane Weathervane
6 scenes. Choices with a requirement only appear when you meet it.
The Fledgling
Right away1Out of a howling gale, a glider-kite slams into your rigging and collapses. Its rider is an Avian girl of about twelve with a bronze wind-vane strapped across her back nearly as tall as she is. "I only borrowed it!" she blurts out before anyone can ask. "From the aerie pole. On a dare. It has to be back before the dawn count!"
- Take her home.She points the way with a trembling wing. On your deck, the bronze vane hums and pivots ahead of every incoming gust.
- Keep the bronze vane and drop her off on the nearest ledge.She curses you the whole way down the gangplank. Her clan's patrol warbird spots her on the ledge within the hour—and then comes hunting for you.−2 The Clans standingBattle: Clan warbird · Gale, no escape
- Patch her glider-kite and send her back into the gale alone.She launches back into the gale with the heavy vane strapped to her back, crabbing sideways into the wind. You lose sight of her in the clouds.The questline ends here.
Hightalon
Sail to Hightalon Aerie (1–3 passages away)2 Return the fledgling and the bronze vane to Hightalon Aerie.
Hightalon Aerie is wide awake. Lanterns bob along every cliff gallery, and the great pole at the peak stands bare. Matriarch Skerry Hightalon waits on the landing stage with her arms folded. Behind your mast, the girl tries to make herself very small.
- Walk the girl down the ramp and tell the matriarch the truth.In the end, the girl blurts out the whole story herself in a single breath. Skerry listens without ruffling a feather.
- [Avian] Have crewmate fly the vane up to the peak unseen.Crew: Aviancrewmate slips aloft in the dark between two gusts and seats the bronze vane back on its spindle. At the dawn count, nothing is missing. At noon, the girl comes aboard with her bag packed, her mother's blessing, and a purse of silver for her keep.+30 silver
- Stand off for now.You hold position off the cliffs in the dark while the lanterns keep moving along the galleries.
A Bronze Vane
Right away3The clan warbird breaks off with its mainyard shot in two. The bronze vane is yours now, though it fights your ship: balanced for Hightalon's lofty spire, it swings a point wide when lashed to a mast. It needs a skilled vane-setter to rebalance it. Meanwhile, the girl is still stranded on a freezing ledge behind you—the warbird never had time to pick her up.
- Head for a port with a rigger's yard to have the vane fitted.You muffle the humming bronze vane in canvas sailcloth and set a course for the nearest port with a mast yard.
- Turn back for the girl and return both her and the vane to her aerie.She is right where you left her, blue with cold and too furious to cry. Refusing to speak a word to you, she points the way home with a shivering wing.+1 The Clans standing
The Bare Pole
Right away4 Answer the matriarch.
"She will scrub roosts for a year," Skerry says flatly. "That vane goes back on its spindle tonight, or this aerie flies blind through the gale. The wind has grounded my own riggers. Your crew are not clan, so if one falls, the loss is not mine."
- Send a crewman up the spire.
- [Rigger] Send crewmate up the spire.Crew: Riggercrewmate climbs the whipping spire like a mast in a squall, seats the bronze vane, and slides down the stay one-handed. Skerry watches every move, then unpins an heirloom storm-vane from her own hall beam. "It turned true for my mother. Fly it on your mast."Relic: Windcaller's Vane+2 The Clans standingThe questline ends here.
- Refuse. It is her spire and her gale.She pays the exact silver owed for the girl's passage and not a coin more. An Avian rigger climbs the spire at dawn once the gale subsides.+40 silverThe questline ends here.
- Offer silver to replace the mainyard of the warbird you crippled. (30 silver)Costs 30 silverSkerry stares at the purse for a long moment. "You shot away my kin's spar, and then brought my vane and my fledgling home. I do not know what to make of you." She takes the silver. Her riggers mount the vane at dawn, and she sends down an heirloom storm-vane from her own hall beam without another word.Relic: Windcaller's Vane+1 The Clans standingThe questline ends here.
The Fledgling's Bag
Right away5She stands on your deck lugging a kit bag nearly as big as she is. Her name is Pip Hightalon, she is twelve, and the dare was her cousins' idea. "Mother says a girl who can unpin the aerie's vane and fly it through a gale ought to learn rigging somewhere she can't reach our spire." She squints up at your masthead, sizing it up.
- Sign her on as a rigger.She is perched at your masthead before the watch changes. She may be twelve, but she flies better than anyone else aboard.New crewmate: Avian, RiggerThe questline ends here.
- Send her home—she is only twelve—and ask what else the aerie can offer.She trudges back up the cliff galleries dragging her bag behind her. That evening, an aerie rigger brings down her mother's gift instead: a smaller Hightalon weathervane that points toward developing storms a full day out.Fitting: WeathervaneThe questline ends here.
The Vane-Setter
At a port6 Find a rigger's yard at a port that can rebalance and mount the bronze vane on your mast.
The yard's master vane-setter is an old Avian with one clipped wing. He recognizes the bronze work before it is even unwrapped. "Hightalon's master vane. Their spire is bare, then, and the whole aerie is flying blind in the gales." He doesn't ask how you got it. He quotes one price to rebalance it for your mast, and a much higher price to buy it outright.
- Pay him to mount it on your mast. (35 silver)Costs 35 silverHe rebalances the bronze blades with a file and a lead counterweight, then pins the vane to your masthead. It pivots a breath before each gust hits, teaching your helm to lean into the wind.Relic: Windcaller's VaneThe questline ends here.
- [Rigger] Have crewmate mount it under the old Avian's supervision.Crew: Riggercrewmate handles the high climb while the old Avian shouts adjustments from the deck. Between the two of them, the vane is pinned balanced and true before dark. He charges nothing for his guidance beyond the pleasure of handling Hightalon bronze.Relic: Windcaller's VaneThe questline ends here.
- Sell it to him.He pays you in guild silver and rewraps the vane with far greater care than you showed. You suspect he knows an Avian matriarch who will pay him double to get it back.+90 silverThe questline ends here.
Data from Magehold Fairwinds v1.9.26. Spotted something out of date? Discord