Shadows of War: Pirate Queen Teja Recruitment
Shadows of War: The Pirate Queen's Statues
Varga wants allies whose choices could decide the war. With only a small part of the Hero's power reawakened, they begin near home, with Teja, Pirate Queen of the southern seas. Varga describes a fearless captain loyal to her crew, who had her own eye transformed into a gemstone capable of turning people to stone. On the shore, the Hero sees the results of that power.
Teja already has an ally. She says Malgor struck down the Queen of Monsters and gave her a new crew after the Queen turned her old one against her. The Hero insists that they killed the Queen instead, but cannot explain how: apparently, they have not done it yet. Their attempt to explain time powers convinces Teja of nothing. She petrifies the Hero to hold them for Malgor. With Varga's encouragement, the Hero gathers the strength to break free.
They try a quieter approach. Blacksea armor provides a disguise, allowing the Hero to gather Teja's captain's log, an alchemy book and a letter to Ricky. Varga thinks restoring the old crew might weaken Teja's loyalty to Malgor. She reasons that the Queen's death should have ended her control over them. The Hero searches for the missing pages of the spellbook and follows its recipe: magically altered beans gathered from island monkeys, palm oil and sugar.
The mixture is spread over the statues' lips. Stone breaks away, but the crew beneath is still monstrous. Varga's expectation was wrong. She now suspects Teja's spell preserved the corruption in stasis rather than allowing it to fade. The Hero must contain the danger they have released, fighting Tattersail pirates and their formidable crewmate Blacktooth Bill.
Teja discovers what they have done. She deliberately tore apart her spellbook so she would not be tempted to reverse the petrification, and the stolen log should have told the Hero why. Their claim to be helping sounds hollow to her. The Hero fights to avoid being captured again, still insisting there is hope, while Teja sees only someone arrogant enough to make her loss worse.
Then Ricky appears. Teja thought her entire crew had mutated, but her former first mate remembers turning to stone while watching the others change. Her spell protected him in time. He tells her that she saved him, giving her a reason to believe hope might still exist. Most of the old crew has not been restored to health, but the friend she thought lost is alive and himself.
Shadows of War: A Favor Is Not an Alliance
Saving Ricky does not settle Teja's loyalties. She remains unsure what to think of the Hero. She offers a single favor: leave before Malgor arrives, and she will say they escaped. Yet in conversation with Bloodbone, she speaks as though the Hero's newfound trust will let her hold them for the Shadowlord. Her gratitude has not made her a dependable ally.
Ricky challenges her. The Hero brought him back, while the Shadowlord demands obedience from a captain who once answered to herself. Teja says she owes Malgor because he was there when everything fell apart. He promises to stop the fighting and prevent another disaster. Ricky sees the danger in the monstrous crew around them: if she refuses him, what stops Malgor from treating her as the Queen treated her sailors?
Rather than accept the offer to leave, the Hero helps Ricky investigate. Keys taken from the scallywags open treasure chests containing pure darkness. The Hero fights what emerges and questions the privateers. According to their answers, most came from the Bilgewater Crew, Teja's old rivals; the others are survivors of crews devastated by the Queen's forces. Why Bilgewater escaped that destruction remains a question, rather than proof of an answer.
Bloodbone is the next person to investigate. Ricky proposes entering the new first mate's quarters, using lockpicks taken from the scallywags. The Hero opens the lock, only to find Bloodbone waiting behind the door. He asks whether they escaped Teja again or whether she never imprisoned them. Either way, he intends to deal with them himself.
Ricky steps between them, determined to defend the person who freed him. Bloodbone catches him by the throat. Teja intervenes with her sword and orders him to put Ricky down. When Bloodbone reminds her whose side she is on, she calls him replaceable. He answers that the replaceable one is the captain.
Bloodbone holds up Teja's green jewel eye. With it in his possession, he says, they no longer need her. Her new crew's loyalty has reached its limit at the moment she refuses to sacrifice her old first mate. What began as an effort to earn her favor has exposed a betrayal she can no longer ignore.
Shadows of War: Count Me In
Teja treats the theft of her eye as an act of war. The Blacksea crew now follows Bloodbone, and the Hero helps her fight through them. She is ready to confront her former subordinates and recover what he has taken, even if the whole crew stands in the way.
The shadows offer Bloodbone cover. The Hero gathers spell reagents and brings Teja a mage willing to cooperate. The mage prepares light spells, which the Hero places in the keep's darkened areas. When Bloodbone still fails to appear, Teja turns to a more dangerous plan.
Pitch taken from the privateers is spread around the keep and set alight. The fires force the confrontation, but also block the way out. Teja and the Hero reach the roof, where she refuses to leave without her eye. Bloodbone arrives to demand what she has done.
Teja expects Malgor to punish this betrayal. Bloodbone says the Shadowlord never needed her, only her eye; cooperating with her had merely been easier than fighting her. Now he sees an opening for a promotion, and the pirates behind him make the mutiny plain. The Hero fights Bloodbone and recovers the gemstone. The account establishes its return without showing that the fight killed him.
With her eye back, Teja is ready to face Malgor immediately. The Hero points out how few of them there are. Varga explains that they are building an army, giving them a better chance than this handful could have alone. Teja agrees to join. Her decision follows the betrayal and the recovery of her eye, rather than the earlier, limited favor she owed for Ricky.
Malgor reaches the roof too late. Teja has already left with the Hero. Gar, still serving the Shadowlord, explains that the Warfury's army delayed them and promises it will not happen again. The Hero has gained an ally and escaped another attempt at capture, while Malgor remains in pursuit.