The Stormray Herd

Anywhere in the sky

RareAnywhere in the skyAct IAct IIAct IIIAct IV

From a chance meeting

Possible rewards: Storm Crown Grounding Mast Stormcaller Battery

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

Two Hails at Once

Right away1

A pod of a dozen stormrays glides high overhead, accompanied by a small kite-rigged skiff flying effortlessly among them. Her pilot hails you: she is a herder guiding the pod to its calving storm in the next region. Seconds later, a second hail comes from a heavily armed hunter ship astern. They are after the pod's ancient bull, and they are willing to pay for help.

Escort the herder and protect the stormray pod.
"Stormrays shed their crest plates after calving," the herder calls across. "Lightning cannot pierce a crest plate. Escort us safely to the storm, and the old bull's plate is yours." Astern, the hunters mark down your ship's name.
→ Flying with the Pod
[Avian] Send crewmate aloft to fly alongside the pod and earn the herder's trust.
Crew: Avian
crewmate flies with the stormrays for an hour and drops back to the deck grinning, having memorized the herder's route and won her complete confidence.
+1 The Clans standing
→ Flying with the Pod
Join the hunter ship's crew to help trap the old bull.
The hunter captain tosses a marked chart across to your deck. "The old bull peels off to feed in a thunderhead near here. Pin him in the storm until our ship arrives."
→ The Hunters' Terms
Stay out of it and fly on.
You hold your course as the pod, the herder's skiff, and the hunter ship pass overhead and vanish into the clouds.
The questline ends here.

Flying with the Pod

Right away2

The herder brings her skiff alongside your rail. She is a weathered avian with a carved ray-bone whistle hung around her neck. "There are two routes to the calving storm. The high road is fast and lets the rays feed along the cloud tops, but the hunters will keep us in sight the entire way. The low road winds through the deep valleys—it is slow and hungry work, and no hunter follows a pod down there twice."

Take the fast high road along the cloud tops and gather crystal along the way.
The stormrays graze along the cloud tops, shaking loose static-charged crystals as they feed. Your crew sweep four measures of charged crystal off the planks over two days, though the hunter ship shadows you on the horizon the entire way.
+4 crystal
→ The Calving Storm
Take the slow valley route to lose the hunters.
Costs 2 provisions
For two days you thread between sheer canyon walls on cold rations. By the second night, the hunter ship's running lamps have vanished from the sky astern. The herder warns that they will pick up the trail eventually, but you have bought precious time.
→ The Calving Storm

The Hunters' Terms

Right away3

The hunter captain rows across to settle your contract—a broad-shouldered lupine wearing thick ray-hide gloves. "That bull is old and cunning. Your job is to corner him; ours is to kill him. You can take silver—half now, half on the kill—or forgo coin for a cut of the carcass: horn, hide, and crest. Hide that thick will turn cannon shot." Behind him, his deckhands are oiling their harpoon guns.

Demand half the silver up front and the rest when the bull is dead.
He counts thirty-five silver coins onto your winch drum. "You get the rest when the bull is dead."
+35 silver
→ The Bull's Thunderhead
Forgo the silver and claim a share of the bull's hide and horn instead.
He barks a laugh and spits on his glove to shake on it. "A gambler, eh? If that bull slips past you, you'll have worked for nothing."
→ The Bull's Thunderhead
[Gunner] Take the silver advance and have crewmate inspect their harpoon guns.
Crew: Gunner
crewmate spends an hour aboard the hunters' gun deck and returns with your silver advance—plus a few sharp insights on how to lay a heavy barbed iron.
+35 silver+1 Gunnery skill XP
→ The Bull's Thunderhead

The Calving Storm

Sail to The Calving Storm in the next region4

Escort the stormray herd to its calving storm in the next region.

The pod circles beneath a towering thunderhead, where the first newborn calves—no longer than rowboats—are already testing their wings. Having tracked you across two regions, the hunter ship surges in under the storm cloud with her harpoon crews standing ready.

Position the your ship between the hunters and the pod and fight them off.
The hunters open fire through the crashing thunder as the stormrays close ranks around their calves overhead.
Battle: Sky pirates · Thunderstorm
→ The Shed Crest
[Air mage] Have crewmate read the storm currents and guide the pod into the thickest lightning.
Crew: Air caster · Mage
crewmate charts a channel where the lightning falls thickest and waves the herder into it. The stormrays ride the updrafts effortlessly into the heart of the squall. Refusing to risk the bolts, the hunters circle for an hour before breaking off.
+1 Casting skill XP
→ The Shed Crest
Use the lead you gained in the valleys to hide the calves deep inside the storm before the hunters arrive.
By the time the hunter ship reaches the thunderhead, there is nothing left beneath the clouds to shoot at. She circles until dusk with her harpoon crews sitting idle on deck, then finally turns away.
→ The Shed Crest
Betray the herder and stand aside for a share of the hunters' kill.
You pull clear and let the hunters harpoon the old bull and two cows. Their captain pays out your cut in silver while the herder watches silently from her skiff.
+60 silver−1 The Clans standing
→ The Hunters' Camp

The Bull's Thunderhead

Sail to The Bull's Thunderhead (1–3 passages away)5

Track the old bull stormray to his feeding thunderhead and pin him there for the hunters.

The ancient bull feeds alone inside the thunderhead, bolts of lightning rolling harmlessly down his back and whipping off his tail like water. He is half again the size of any stormray you have ever seen—and he has already spotted your hull.

Attack the bull stormray and hold him until the hunters arrive.
Banking hard inside his storm cloud, the massive ray charges straight at your bow.
Battle: Storm-ray · Thunderstorm, no escape
→ The Hunters Pay
Call off the hunt and go warn the herder instead.
You break off and intercept the herder's skiff by evening. She listens quietly to your warning, then marks the location of the calving storm on your chart.
→ The Calving Storm
Leave it for now.
You back clear of the cloud bank. The bull continues feeding undisturbed in the heart of his storm.

The Shed Crest

Right away6

As the thunderhead thins, the herder brings her skiff alongside with a curved plate of horn as long as an oar resting across her knees. It gleams like aged copper and feels warm to the touch. "He wore this through forty calvings," she says. "Never once took a lightning strike. The sky-clans call it a Storm Crown."

Bolt the Storm Crown to your masthead to ward off lightning.
Your carpenters bolt the ancient horn plate to the mainmast peak. From that day onward, lightning strikes to port and starboard of the your ship, but never touches her spars.
Relic: Storm Crown
The questline ends here.
Let the herder keep the crest plate and ask for payment in silver instead.
She carries little coin herself, but the sky-clans fund her work protecting the herds, and she writes you a payment draft honored at any clan anchorage.
+110 silver+1 The Clans standing
The questline ends here.

The Hunters' Camp

Right away7

The hunters butcher the great bull as he drifts on the cloud bank, in high spirits over their prize. Their captain waves you closer. "There's more profit in this storm than horn alone. Live calves fetch a fortune from noble houses for their menageries. Help us net two of them and you'll double your take." High above, the herder's skiff still circles the spot where the bull fell.

Help the hunters net two live calves for the noble menageries.
It takes the entire day, and it is ugly work. Two struggling calves are hauled into the hunters' hold in heavy nets, still calling for the pod. The captain counts out your second share of silver beside the first.
+80 silver−1 The Clans standing
The questline ends here.
Refuse to touch the calves and leave with the share you already earned.
The hunter captain shrugs and has a side of salted ray meat slung across to your deck. "For the voyage. No hard feelings." The herder does not look up as your ship sails past.
+4 provisions
The questline ends here.
Cut the hunters' nets, put the your ship between them and the calves, and attack.
The hunter captain stares at you as though you had lost your mind, then sprints for his gun deck.
Battle: Sky pirates · Close range, ThunderstormIf you win:+2 The Clans standing+40 silver
The questline ends here.

The Hunters Pay

Right away8

The hunter ship arrives as the fight ends and her crew butcher the bull where he drifts. Their captain is well pleased. "We can pay your balance in silver, as agreed. Or you can take the grounding mast off our tender—it's sheathed in copper to the keel, and channels every lightning strike straight into your gun batteries."

Have the hunters install their copper grounding mast on your ship.
Their riggers step the copper-sheathed mast for you that evening and wire its leads to your gun deck. The first lightning strike it catches sets every cannon on your deck humming with charge.
Fitting: Grounding Mast+40 silver
The questline ends here.
Take the silver.
He counts eighty-five silver coins out onto the bull's own hide, paying his debt to the last piece.
+85 silver
The questline ends here.
Claim the bull ray's thick hide to armor your hull.
The hunters strip the bull's grey hide in a single massive sheet as thick as oak planking. Nailed inside your frames from stem to stern, it reinforces your ship like a second hull, and the hunters buy your share of the horn on the spot.
+5 max hull+40 silver
The questline ends here.
[Gunner] Have crewmate bargain for the bull's conductive crest plate to build a weapon.
Crew: Gunner
crewmate trades your share of the kill for the bull's crest plate and a night's use of the hunters' forge. By morning, a new Stormcaller battery sits bolted to your deck, capable of hurling three rapid blasts of compressed air.
Weapon: Stormcaller Battery
The questline ends here.

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