The last leg

The captain stared at the great black-backed gull which returned the gaze with some equanimity. Its huge wings were folded to the body and it stood perched on the taffrail, its head turned slightly so that one yellow eye remained fixed on her, almost as if it was peering down the length of its heavy yellow beak.She scratched the back of her head as she pondered the request. It seemed simple enough... Barely a day out of their way if the herald was to be believed - and there they would find treasure. And why shouldn't she believe it? The servants of an eternal had little reason to lie. Even The Agramant could speak no word of a lie, or so a landskeeper had told her once. Yet something held her back.It was more than just the rough weather they'd had of late. Getting back to Meade was always a challenge, but now they were past Jotun waters and in the Gullet it should have been plain sailing. But the news from the mainland was dire and hearing it had settled a black mood over the whole ship. Many of them had friends and family in the marshes and naturally they feared the worst.Somehow, it seemed like the fog in the bones had only got thicker when this messenger had landed on the foredeck. It was hard to shake the feeling that something was amiss, a little ball of twisted nerves in the pit of her stomach that this was all going to end badly. Careful, she admonished herself, otherwise you'll miss the sea for the sand.It would be easier to turn it down. Make her excuses to the bird, keep on their current course and they'd be in Meade before the week's end. But even as she thought it, she was pondered the wisdom of such a refusal. The bird claimed to be a servant of the King of the Nine Tides. Anne Sailor didn't hold with kings, but she knew enough about the realms to know who that was and it didn't seem like an awfully good idea to risk getting on old Furole's bad side. Who knew when you might need a boon from the Regent of the Eternal Sea?"Very well bird. Tell your king that we'll sail as you ask and me and the crew will find this treasure for you. But it better pay well," she admonishmed, pointing her finger in the herald's direction.The bird squarked with obvious happiness. "Riches will rain from the skies" it promised in the same high trilling voice with which it had introduced itself.And with that the huge bird spread its great metre wide wings and left over the side of the rail. The creature plunged towards the water below, wings outspread, narrowly missing the waves as they rose to claim it."Follow me captain, follow me!" it called as it frantically beat its heavy wings in a desperate attempt to gain altitutude. "Limitless excitement and boundless opportunity... the horizen awaits"

Overview

After the Regent of the Eternal Sea was asked to sponsor a race around the Bay of Catazar, Sail Runner announced the Great Race - an impossible contest to travel to the four corners of the known world. The contest has taken ships all over the known world and beyond. Some turned aside from the race in pursuit of riches, some set sail in in search of discovery and excitement.

Now, with the great race finally concluded, three score captains who chose to remain straight on for glory have claimed the winner's laurels. To them falls the greatest prize, but all who took part in the expedition find that a touch of Summer magic has been permanently imbued in their vessels.

This season, those Imperial captains who refrained from committing themselves to the dangerous race also find unlooked for good-fortune coming their way in the shape a cold black pearl. It seems the eternal is eager to acquire these pearls and is prepared to pay a good price for them - they have asked offered to pay those captains who took part in the race but sailed in search of riches a small fortune to present the pearls at the regio at the Solstice.

A Touch of Magic

Those fleets that took every opportunity available to stay in the great race have been left with a touch of Summer magic permanently gracing their vessel. Not an enchantment exactly, this boon infuses the ship leaving it permanently altered by the dangerous expedition they undertook.

Captains that took every available opportunity to sail Deosil to Mystery find the boon ensures their ship will be more able to scout and explore in the future (OOC Note: +1 rank to scouting voyages). Those that sailed Straight on for Glory to the bitter end and were not distracted by other choices find their fleet is better suited to adventures in the future (OOC Note: +1 rank to questing voyages). Those who stayed in the race for as long as they could but chose to turn Widdershins by Riches in the early stages find their fleet now benefits when they choose to seize their enemies' wealth (OOC Note: +1 rank to raiding voyages).

In almost all cases, the magic manifests in subtle but noticeable ways, all of which are unique. A vessel's prow might change shape, taking the form of different aspects of Sunlit Depths to give the crew warning of weather changes, while another finds the boards of the hull develop a scalloped pattern and a golden sheen like fish scales.

Pearls Before Swine

While many fleets have been sailing in search of riches and glory, the other Imperial fleets have been busy with other matters such as hunting monsters in the Sea of Snow, raiding the broken shore or trade with foreign ports. Despite their very different goals, each has had a single experience in common - the discovery of a strange black pearl.

In each case, at some point, while in Imperial waters, the fleet received directions from one of the eternal's heralds that led them directly to a single black pearl. In most cases, the diversion was short and in most cases it was uneventful, but not all. Some fleet owners ended up losing many days to the strange quest and in one incident a captain only narrowly averted disaster after one of the eternal's heralds, Second Strike, "forgot" to mention that the pearl was protected by one of the immature kraken released into the waters off Feroz.

The pearls seem to be a rare form of winter vis, like heart's blood. When activated, they count as three mana when used as part of a winter ritual. The pearls have a dismal aura of foreboding on them, but they seem innocuous, and they're clearly valuable to the right buyer. Why a Summer eternal would have any interest in such things, or indeed any knowledge of where they might be found, can only be guessed at. It is very clear that Coruscating Oarfish wants the pearls, yet the eternal's heralds absolutely refuse to touch them.

Perhaps the cold black pearls are simply part of the eternal's latest adventure for those who have travelled Widdershins by Riches. Those who sailed in search of plunder this season have returned with markedly less wealth than previous seasons, but they do receive a promise from Seadragon. The eternal is eager to destroy as many of the pearls as possible - so his heralds provide each captain who sought wealth with a magical scroll that will allow them to return a single pouch of up to thirteen pearls.

To use the scroll, a character would need to bring a pouch or small chest containing one or more pearls to the Imperial regio and activate it by casting operate portal on it. If that happens then heralds of the eternal will safely dispose of the pearls, providing the character with two crowns for each pearl returned, up to a maximum of thirteen. Heralds warn Imperial citizens not to attempt to deliver more than thirteen pearls at once.

Strange New Lands

Lorana i Maqez i Erigo is a member of the Purple Sails, a sodality of merchants, sailors, captains and fleet owners dedicated to encouraging trade. The sodality has got wind of the fact that ship captains who sailed Deosil to Mystery returned with scraps of parchment showing various parts of the known world, which hitherto have not been mapped. The possibility that the Empire might be able to piece these fragments together and produce a rough map showing the outlines of Jarm, Asavea and other lands is of considerable interest to the sodality - but of course they would need to lay their hands on a copy of this map.

To that end, the sodality have nominated Lorana, a capable cartographer and experienced captain, to come to Anvil during the Summer Solstice with instructions to buy the best possible copy of any map that they can find. Their intention is to take this map and provide it to a printing house in Tassato who will then make copies of it available in good bookshops across the Empire.

Lorana i Maqez i Erigo has let it be known that they will be in the tavern at 1:30pm on Sunday of the Solstice. They will have four thrones on their person - with the intention to pay the citizen who offers the best looking copy of the map compiled from the fragments. They will, of course, need a physical copy of the map - whoever has the best looking copy of the map who is prepared to sell a physical copy will receive four thrones and see their work distributed across the Empire. Lorana would like to know the name or names of whichever cartographers produced the map so that the work can be suitably accredited.

There is a final gift from Windweaver. Now that the race is over, there is a chance for any captain that visited strange new lands by sailing "Deosil to Mystery" last season, can now return there, if they choose to do so. Visiting this location will take a season, just as it might if one sailed to a port in the Sumaah Republic or the Commonwealth. Fleet owners must always consider their options carefully, but they can be assured that whatever wealth the location provided on their first visit will now be permanently available to them. It is not possible for a captain to teach another character how to reach this location, so these unique ports will only be available to the original fleet owners who discovered them, provided they have a fleet.

The Sea of Stars

The last leg of the great race seems almost anti-climatic at first, especially for those who endured the terrible storm last season or the suffered the deadly encounter the season before. The wind and waves are high at first, but nothing skilled sailors can't manage. They soon abate however leaving vessels that were seeking glory adrift for days on calm waters.

These doldrums seem to stretch out for weeks on end, and fears mount as rations run perilously low and supplies of water grow short. Then, when hope is at its nadir, the sails fill with a strange wind that fills the ships sails but never reaches the surface of the sea. The ship is sprung from gaol, speeding over a perfectly smooth sea. As the sun sets the waters grow clear as glass and fill with a thousand brilliant points of light, a reflection of the heavens above. As the moon rises its twin sister appears just below the prow, seemingly close enough to touch.

The ship sails for a single day on the Sea of Stars before it vanishes as inexplicably as it appeared, leaving the crew with nothing but memories of this strange voyage and peculiar dreams. Some dream of being a gull flying over distant seas, others of being a porpoise leaping through the waves, still others of being a cuttlefish deep beneath the surface exploring a wonderful garden of coral and anemones and flitting luminescent fish. They will recall echoes of those dreams as long as they live, waking sometimes with a bittersweet melancholy that fades quickly but leaves traces of itself behind in waking life.

More sensitive mariners are permanently changed by the experience; some quit the sea forever choosing to move inland. Not from fear, but from the certainty that nothing will match this moment of sublime connection to something vast and mysterious and wondrous. Others become consumed with the desire to keep sailing, becoming uncomfortable on land for any extended period of time. They are content only when the waves lap beneath them, with the smell of the ocean in their nostrils. Even more hard-headed sailors will find, in years to come, moments where they fancy they scent brine, or hear distantly the wheeling gulls or the murmuring of the waves and yearn to be away from their cares flying across a sea flat as a mirror beneath endless stars.

Everyone who visited the Sea of Stars is left with a powerful feeling that win or lose, they have achieved something remarkable, that they have seen something that very few other people alive in the world have ever experienced.

Returned from the enigmatic sea, and with barely a week or more remaining before the equinox, the vessels turn for home. The race is over, only one final opportunity remains. The heralds extend an invitation for the ship's captain to join them in the Shallow Woods near Woodwych on the other side of Casinea away from Anvil. There is a minor Summer regio there, so that on certain nights one can hear the sound of the sea if one listens carefully. Spume Sailor and some of their heralds will meet the captains there; the borders of the regio will be open and allow any who attend to cross over to the chamber at its heart. The eternal is eager to celebrate the triumph and to discuss what new adventures the captains intend to seek next.

The invitation is just for those captains who have received the Straight on for Glory boon - but there is a conjunction for 65 people to go there on the Saturday evening at 10pm. The heralds ask anyone who needs one bring a chair to sit on, and everyone brings just enough food and drink to share with each other, in the hope that it will help create a convivial atmosphere. They provide a small jewelled broach to each captain and tell those planning to attend to wear it prominently as it will be important on the evening. Only captains with a broach will be permitted entry to the celebrations.

Well not quite only. Tide Dancer begs a boon of the Archmage of Summer - asking them to find one or two musicians who might be prepared to provide some entertainment by performing at the party. The eternal understands that the Summer archmage is very busy, but they hope that this request is a small thing that might be easily fulfilled without too much difficulty, given the many favours that the archmage asks of the regents of the Summer realm. The eternal offers a windborn pearl to each musician in exchange for their performance as well as a chance to be part of the evenings revelry and contemplations.

There is one final boon from Ocean Caller. The trials and tribulations endured by the fleets that did not deviate from the course that took them to victory in the race had provided lasting benefits to the crew. All fleets that received the Straight on for Glory boon have also been upgraded. Fleets that previously had two upgrades or less have been upgraded twice; fleets that had more than two existing upgrades have been upgraded once. These benefits reflect the skill and experience the crew have developed from the wonders they have seen on their extraordinary voyage.

Further Reading

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