Seven Keel Stones

Anywhere in the sky

UncommonThe Shard CoastAct IIAct III

Found after a fight

Possible rewards: Emergency Keel Brace

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

Cut Stone Blocks

Right away1

Among the wreckage you find six massive blocks of carved gray stone, each the size of a sea chest and stamped with the same mason's mark. A shipping tag nailed to their crate reads PAID IN FULL and names a mason's yard at a port ahead. They are far too heavy for ordinary ballast and too finely dressed for paving.

Haul the stone blocks aboard and take them to the mason's yard.
Their weight settles your ship noticeably deeper by the stern. You lay in a course for the mason's yard named on the shipping tag.
→ The Mason's Yard
[Stone mage] Have crewmate inspect the stone blocks for magic.
Crew: Stone caster · Mage
crewmate lays a hand on each block. "Enchanted keel stones, cut as a matched set to sit along a ship's spine and absorb heavy impacts. Six are here, which means the seventh is missing." You set course for the mason's yard named on the tag.
+1 Casting skill XP
→ The Mason's Yard
Dump the heavy stone blocks overboard and move on.
Six heavy splashes vanish into the clouds far below.
The questline ends here.

The Mason's Yard

At a port2

Deliver the six keel stones to the mason's yard named on the shipping tag.

An ursine mason dusted in stone powder recognizes the blocks before your crane even sets them on the dock. "I cut those for the Grey Heron, but she went down before she could fit them. The seventh stone is still under my workbench. Her insurers have demanded all seven back, but I'd rather see them mounted in a living ship's keel. Installing them takes two days on the slipway, and my laborers need 35 silver in wages."

Pay 35 silver to have all seven keel stones fitted to your ship.
Costs 35 silver
He pries up your deck plates by noon and slings the first block into your keel by dusk. "Two days' work—don't let anyone rush me." That night, his laborers share a hearty mason's dinner with your crew.
Heal 20 HP
→ Two Days on the Slipway
[Stone mage] Have crewmate help the mason set the keel stones at no cost.
Crew: Stone caster · Mage
crewmate and the mason walk your keel together, tapping the hull frames and listening to the stone resonate. By the fourth frame, the mason is so impressed that he waives his laborers' fee entirely.
+1 Repair skill XP
→ Two Days on the Slipway
Decline the keel upgrade and return the stones to the insurers.
The mason sets down his mallet with a sigh. "Then you want the underwriters' office up the hill. Make sure they pay you before they thank you." He marks the office and the fair salvage price on your chart.
+1 The Guild standing
→ The Underwriters' Clerk

Two Days on the Slipway

Right away3

On the second morning, six keel stones are locked into your hull, and the seventh hangs in the crane sling over your open deck. An insurance clerk marches down the slipway waving a legal writ, with two porters behind him. "Those stones are the lawful property of the Grey Heron's underwriters! Unseat them at once!" The mason doesn't even look up. "Your ship, Captain. Your call."

Pay the insurers 30 silver in salvage value and keep the keel stones.
Costs 30 silver
You buy out the claim, and the mason seats the final stone along your keel. Your ship sits heavier at the dock and flies far sturdier in the air, shrugging off hits that would have cracked ordinary planking.
Upgrade: Keel+2 max hull
The questline ends here.
Defy the clerk and finish installing the keel stones without paying.
You tell the clerk to pull the stones out of your hull himself if he dares. The mason locks the seventh stone into place, reinforcing your ship's spine, while the furious clerk records your ship's name for the Guild authorities.
Upgrade: Keel+2 max hull−1 The Guild standing+1 heat
The questline ends here.
[Stone mage] Have crewmate magically fuse the seventh stone into the keel while the clerk argues.
Crew: Stone caster · Mage
crewmate and the mason seat the final block by hand and bind the entire set into the hull with stone magic. The mason refuses payment for work that taught him a new technique, leaving the clerk holding a useless writ for stones that are now permanently part of your ship.
−15 mana (the crewmate who acted)Upgrade: Keel+3 max hull
The questline ends here.
Surrender the keel stones to the clerk for the standard salvage payout.
Without a word, the mason unseats all six stones in an hour. The clerk pays you sixty silver in salvage fees and has his porters haul all seven blocks up the hill.
+60 silver+1 The Guild standing
The questline ends here.

The Underwriters' Clerk

Right away4

A clerk hurries down from the insurers' office with a claim file under his arm. "Seven keel stones, cut for the Grey Heron before she went down with all eleven hands. Her owners were already paid out, so whatever these stones fetch at auction goes to her dead crew's families." He counts the blocks twice. "I can pay you flat salvage right here, or you can haul them to our sale yard for a full carrier's share."

Take the immediate 75-silver salvage payout.
The clerk pays out the salvage fee and signs a formal receipt of thanks, while the mason returns to his workbench in silence.
+75 silver+1 The Guild standing
The questline ends here.
Take the contract to haul all seven keel stones to the sale yard.
The clerk seals each block with wax and pays you twenty silver in advance. The mason loads the seventh block aboard himself. "See that they go into a good keel," he says.
+20 silverNew job: Seven keel stones
→ The Sale Yard

The Sale Yard

At the delivery port5

Deliver the seven keel stones to the insurers' sale yard.

The stones sell in a single lot to a coastal shipwright building a fast courier vessel. After the yard clerk divides the sale money among the eleven bereaved families, he reads out your carrier's share. "You can take your cut in silver, or let the yard pay you in shipwright work: they have a heavy spare keel timber left over from the courier build that would reinforce your hull."

Take the silver.
You collect eighty silver along with a signed letter of gratitude from the eleven families.
+80 silver+1 The Guild standing
The questline ends here.
Take the yard work.
The shipwright bolts the heavy spare timber along your keel in a single afternoon, reinforcing your hull to hold together under heavy fire.
Fitting: Emergency Keel Brace+1 max hull
The questline ends here.
Donate your entire share of the sale to the dead crew's families.
The clerk pauses in surprise, then divides your full share among the eleven households. Word of your generosity spreads quickly through the coastal villages and Guild pilot halls.
+1 The Undertow standing+2 The Guild standing
The questline ends here.

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