The Circling Wreck

Anywhere in the sky

UncommonThe Reaches & the Free MusterAct IIIAct IV

From a tavern tip

A tip bought in a tavern for 15 silver.

“A ferryman says a ghost privateer has circled the same rock spire in an unending gale for a year while the captain's aged mother keeps vigil below.”

Possible rewards: Storm Sails Grounding Mast

5 scenes. Choices with a requirement only appear when you meet it.

The Endless Circle

Sail to The Circling Wreck (2–5 passages away)1

Find the ghost privateer circling the storm rock.

A circular gale whips around a jagged rock spire like a whirlpool, carrying the derelict privateer Good Hope around and around under intact storm-sails a year after her crew died. On the rock below, an elderly Ursine woman named Marta Hobb tends a watch-fire. "My son was her captain," she calls out. "Bring me her crew muster roll from his cabin, and you can keep whatever else she carries."

Match the derelict's speed in the gale and leap across to her deck.
[Boarding Harpoon] Harpoon the derelict as she sweeps past and winch her in.
Room: Boarding Harpoon
Your harpoon cable snaps taut, reeling the circling wreck smoothly alongside your rail.
→ Lashed to the Wheel
[Rigger] Send crewmate across on a line to shorten her storm-sails and slow her down.
Crew: Rigger
crewmate swings across hand-over-hand and furls her storm canvas, slowing the derelict so your boarding party can step across safely.
+1 Repair skill XP
→ Lashed to the Wheel
Leave it for now.
You pull back and watch the ghost ship complete another circuit in the gale.

Lashed to the Wheel

Right away2

Board the derelict privateer Good Hope.

The Good Hope's deck is bleached white by a year of storm wind, and her rigging lines are frayed nearly through. At the helm stands the skeletal figure of her captain, lashed to the wheel spokes with his own belt to keep her out of the rocks. Your mooring lines groan under the strain of the gale: you only have time to either cut the captain's body down and carry him to his mother, or ransack the officers' cabins below.

Cut the dead captain down from the wheel and carry him to your ship.
With the helm released, the derelict yaws and scrapes your rail as your crew carry the captain's body across wrapped in his boat cloak.
−2 hull
→ The Privateer's Prize
Leave the captain at his wheel and loot the cabins before the lines part.
Searching the cabins before the cables snap, your crew recover twenty silver, four crates of bolts, and the privateer's annotated navigation chart.
+20 silver+4 boltsReveal 2 waypoints
→ The Privateer's Prize
[Ursine] Have crewmate speak the Ursine death-rites and carry the captain across with honor.
Crew: Ursine
crewmate recites the clan burial words and lifts the fallen captain onto one shoulder while your crew fend off the swinging yardarms with boat hooks, keeping your hull unharmed.
+1 The Clans standing
→ The Privateer's Prize

The Privateer's Prize

Right away3

Recover the muster roll and salvage from the Good Hope.

In the captain's desk you find the muster roll listing all forty sailors who died aboard the Good Hope. Overhead, her heavy storm-canvas sails are still in prime condition, and her strongbox holds a hundred and ten silver in unshared prize money owed to the dead crew's families.

Bring Marta the crew list, fit the storm-sails to your ship, and take 25 silver.
Marta reads all forty names aloud beside her watch-fire while your riggers outfit the your ship with the privateer's storm-sails and twenty-five silver.
Fitting: Storm Sails+25 silver
The questline ends here.
Give Marta the crew list and pocket all 110 silver from the prize strongbox.
Marta accepts the muster roll without asking about the strongbox, leaving you with a hundred and ten silver that belonged to forty bereaved families.
+110 silver
The questline ends here.
[Quartermaster] Have crewmate divide the prize money into forty family shares according to the crew list.
Crew: Quartermaster
crewmate counts the prize money into forty labeled purses for Marta to distribute to the families. Deeply moved, Marta gifts you both the privateer's storm-sails and her copper lightning-mast!
Fitting: Storm SailsFitting: Grounding Mast+1 The Free Captains standing
The questline ends here.
Give Marta the crew list and offer to deliver the forty prize shares to the families yourself.
Clutching the roll to her chest, Marta names the port where the dead crew's families live. "Tell them the Good Hope paid her debts in full."
→ Forty Households
Lay her son's body beside her fire with the crew list on his chest.
Your crew gently lay the dead captain beside Marta's watch-fire wrapped in his cloak, with his ship's muster roll resting on his chest.
→ By Marta's Fire

Forty Households

At a port4

Deliver the Good Hope's prize money to the crew's families at port.

The families of the Good Hope's crew live along a single cobblestone lane behind the port rope-walk. Word spreads from door to door, and by the time your sailors set down the heavy prize chest, forty widows, fathers, and children stand waiting in the street to see whether a stranger captain will truly hand over a dead ship's silver a year late.

Pay out every single coin of the forty shares in full.
You spend the afternoon counting every family's full share into their hands. In gratitude, a dead gunner's sharp-eyed daughter signs onto your crew, and the neighborhood rope-walk repairs your hull and rigging for free.
New crewmate: Gunner+4 hull+2 The Free Captains standing
The questline ends here.
Deduct a standard 60 silver carrier's tenth and pay the rest to the families.
No one begrudges a fair ten-percent carrier's fee: you keep sixty silver for your ship and distribute the rest of the prize money down the street.
+60 silver+1 The Free Captains standing
The questline ends here.
Pay out every share in full and tell the families how you brought their captain's body home to his mother.
Hearing that their captain now rests beside his mother's fire, the retired gunners of the street bring out the Good Hope's spare copper lightning-mast to mount on your ship, and a veteran gunner's daughter joins your crew!
Fitting: Grounding MastNew crewmate: Gunner+2 The Free Captains standing
The questline ends here.

By Marta's Fire

Right away5

Speak with Marta Hobb beside her watch-fire.

Marta sits for a long time beside her son's body, then reads all forty names from the muster roll aloud into the wind. Overhead, the empty Good Hope circles the spire once more. "My boy is home, and his ship deserves rest too. Cut her sails and the gale will let her fall into the clouds—or strip the storm-canvas for your own yards before she drops. Anyone who brought my son home has earned the choice."

Strip the storm-sails for your ship and take 40 silver before letting the hull fall.
Your riggers strip the heavy storm-canvas onto the your ship as the bare hull drops peacefully into the clouds, and Marta presses her son's forty-silver purse into your hand.
Fitting: Storm Sails+40 silver
The questline ends here.
Cut the corner line so the Good Hope descends intact with her sails, and take her copper grounding mast plus 60 silver.
With a single cut, the Good Hope glides down into the clouds with her crew still at their stations. In gratitude, Marta gives you the copper grounding mast from her son's quarterdeck and sixty silver.
Fitting: Grounding Mast+60 silver+1 The Free Captains standing
The questline ends here.

Data from Magehold Fairwinds v1.9.26. Spotted something out of date? Discord