Two Claims on One Prize

UncommonThe Reaches & the Free MusterAct IV

From a chance meeting

Possible rewards: Guild Master's Seal

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

The Disputed Prize

Right away1

A captured Trade Guild courier vessel floats between two Free Muster brigs, tethered by a tow line from each. Captain Ysolde Marr shot away the courier's rudder at dawn; Captain Dunmore Kell boarded and took her deck at noon. Under the Free Captains' Articles, testimony from an uninvolved captain breaks a tie—and your ship is the only other sail in sight.

"Come to the prize court in port and testify to what you see!" both captains shout across.

Agree to inspect the prize and testify at the port court.
Both captains immediately send a bottle of spirits across to your deck—which you are fairly sure violates the Free Captains' Articles.
+1 provisions
→ Two Bribes
Fly on and stay out of their dispute.
The two captains are still shouting across the captured hull as your ship disappears into the clouds.
The questline ends here.

Two Bribes

Right away2

Hear out both captains before the court for captured ships convenes.

Before you set sail for port, both captains row over in turn. Captain Marr brings a bottle of rum and a weary plea: after six weeks without a capture, her crew are down to half-rations. Captain Kell brings a finer vintage and sets a thirty-silver purse on your cabin table without a word. Between their brigs, the captured Guild courier hangs under a lone prize guard.

Hear Captain Marr's case and let her surgeon treat your crew.
Instead of trying to buy your vote, Marr asks you only to inspect the courier's severed rudder post before testifying, while her ship's surgeon patches up your wounded crew.
Heal 20 HP
→ Before the Prize Court
Pocket Captain Kell's 30 silver bribe and hear his side.
Kell recounts losing four boarders storming the courier's rail, and leaves the thirty-silver purse sitting on your table when he departs.
+30 silver
→ Before the Prize Court
Send both captains back to their ships and board the Guild courier yourself.
You dismiss both captains and row across to inspect the captured Guild vessel firsthand.
→ Bribe at the Gangway

Before the Prize Court

At a port3

Testify for Captain Marr or Captain Kell before the Free Muster's court for captured ships.

Three senior captains sit behind a trestle table before the assembled fleet. Between them stands the courier's open strongbox holding Guild silver and a Guild Master's Seal that guarantees top pay on every shipping contract. Marr's hungry crew and Kell's heavily armed boarders both await your testimony.

Testify for Captain Marr, whose long-range shot crippled the prize.
The court awards the prize to Marr. She takes the silver to feed her crew and gives you the Guild Master's Seal—though that night, Kell's angry boarders ambush and rough up one of your sailors on the pier.
Relic: Guild Master's Seal25 damage to a random crewmate
The questline ends here.
Testify for Captain Kell, whose boarding party captured the deck.
The court awards the prize to Kell. He pays you a fifty-silver witness share, and one of his veteran marines—fed up with Kell's temper—signs onto your crew.
+50 silverNew crewmate: Marine
The questline ends here.
[Quartermaster] Have crewmate read the courier's official logbook to the court.
Crew: Quartermaster
The logbook confirms the exact timestamps of both the crippling shot and the boarding. The court rules to split the silver evenly between both brigs, pays you thirty silver, and awards you the Guild Master's Seal.
Relic: Guild Master's Seal+30 silver+1 The Free Captains standing
The questline ends here.
Read the courier's logbook aloud to split the prize fairly.
Faced with the Guild captain's timestamps, the court splits the silver between both captains and awards the Guild Master's Seal to your ship.
Relic: Guild Master's Seal+1 The Free Captains standing
The questline ends here.
Slip out of court and sell the courier's location to the Trade Guild agent.
Leaving the captains to argue, you head up the street to the back room where the local Trade Guild agent operates.
→ The Factor's Delay

Bribe at the Gangway

Right away4

Inspect the captured Guild courier before the court for captured ships meets.

The courier's rudder post is sheared cleanly in two by a single long-range cannon shot. Her deck tells the rest of the story: bloodstains run from rail to rail from Kell's boarding assault. In the ransacked captain's cabin, the ship's logbook still sits in its rack.

Take the courier's logbook to present as evidence at the prize court.
The lone guard lets you take the logbook, in which the Guild captain recorded the exact hour Marr's shot crippled the rudder and the hour Kell's boarders stormed the deck.
→ Before the Prize Court
[Gunner] Have crewmate examine the severed rudder post and take the logbook.
Crew: Gunner
crewmate sights along the clean cannon cut in admiration—hitting a rudder post at extreme range is master-level gunnery. crewmate learns from Marr's angle of fire and brings the courier's logbook along as evidence.
+1 Gunnery skill XP
→ Before the Prize Court
Leave the logbook and loot the courier's pantry while no one is watching.
Tossing the prize guard a bottle to look the other way, your crew haul three crates of fine Guild rations, oil, and wine aboard your ship.
+3 provisions
→ Before the Prize Court

The Factor's Delay

Right away5

Sell intelligence on the captured courier to the Trade Guild agent.

Operating out of a back room above a chandlery to ransom captured cargoes, the Trade Guild agent listens intently. "Knowing where our courier is held is worth fifty silver to me—but if you also give me the names of the two captains who took her, I'll pay ninety silver. The Guild never forgets a debt."

Name both Free captains and take 90 silver.
He records both captains' names in his blacklist and pays you ninety silver, though the Free Muster soon hears of your betrayal.
+90 silver+1 The Guild standing−2 The Free Captains standing
The questline ends here.
Give him only the courier's location for 50 silver, keeping the captains' names out of it.
He pays you fifty silver and dispatches a truce boat to ransom the courier—settling the prize court's dispute in silver without betraying either captain.
+50 silver+1 The Guild standing
The questline ends here.

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