Bestowal Dialogue
"Your efforts to cleanse the evils from the corrupted necklace have returned you to a forsaken ship..."
Background
Umín has returned with you to the forsaken ship where the Spirit of the Necklace was defeated, hoping to aid you in cleansing the corruption from the necklace you found in Mordor, and perhaps to find some measure of peace for himself.
Objective 1
Umín stands outside the docked ship, waiting to speak with you.
- Umín: 'See? It is just as I said: whatever force gave life to the traps within these caverns has fled. Was it the Spirit of the Necklace, or some other power? Whatever it might have been, it is gone now.
- 'But I hear voices ahead. Who else has come to this forsaken ship?'
Objective 2
- Investigate the forsaken ship
Others have come to the lost ship for some unknown purpose, and you should learn what they intend.
- Umín says, "Cutthroats! Cutthroats and villains!"
- Umín says, "What are they doing here?"
- Mal Stackwort says, "<name>!"
- Mal Stackwort says, "How's this for a turn of luck, boys?"
- Mal Stackwort says, "Kill the Brawler first!"
Objective 3
- Defeat Mal Stackwort's crew of cutthroats
Mal Stackwort, former minion of Bill Ferny, leads a crew of cuttroats intending to free the forsaken ship from its trapped berth.
- Mal Stackwort says, "What is wrong with you slugs?"
- Mal Stackwort says, "No wonder Ferny kicked us out of the gang!"
- Mal Stackwort says, "Get them!"
- Umín says, "Stop! Why are you doing this?"
- Mal Stackwort says, "I thought this ship might be my way back into Ferny's gang, stranger."
- Mal Stackwort says, "But with <name> hanging from the prow, it's sure to be!"
- Umín says, "You cannot take this ship! It is a place of evil!"
- Mal Stackwort says, "Is that so?"
- Mal Stackwort says, "What is he talking about, <name>?"
Objective 4
Mal Stackwort has no idea of the meaning behind Umín's words, and has asked you to explain them.
- Mal Stackwort: 'Well? Why does this fellow say I shouldn't take this ship and go a-pirating?'
- You briefly describe Umín's experience with the Spirit of the Necklace, which culminated with the shade seizing control of the poor adventurer's body and turning him against his allies on this very ship's deck, before the spirit was finally defeated and Umín freed from its influence.
- 'He can't have been completely freed, can he?' Mal muses wryly. 'He came back here, didn't he? Are you certain this spirit was truly defeated? It sounds powerful.'
Objective 5
Umín's words have had an effect on Mal Stackwort, but whether they will last remains to be seen.
- Mal Stackwort says, "Yes, it sounds powerful indeed..."
- Umín says, "How would you even get this ship out of here?"
- Umín says, "It lay hidden in this cleft for so long, its evil undisturbed."
- Umín says, "Should it not stay here, and trouble the rivers of this land no longer?"
- Mal Stackwort says, "Maybe I don't need the ship."
- Mal Stackwort says, "Maybe I just need... this!"
- Umín says, "No!"
- Mal Stackwort says, "Lend me your evil! Come to me, Spirit of the Necklace!"
- Umín says, "Do not do this! You do not know what it was like!"
- Mal Stackwort says, "Hear me, O Spirit! Give me your strength!"
- Umín says, "This is a mistake, Stackwort!"
- Mal Stackwort says, "Come to me, Spirit! Tell me what to do!"
- Mal Stackwort says, "Bah! Lies!"
- Stackwort's Crew says, "Maybe we shouldn't mess with such as that, Mal!"
- Stackwort's Crew says, "And the stranger's right: we can't get this ship out of here."
- Mal Stackwort says, "Giving up, are you? How will we get back into Ferny's gang?"
- Stackwort's Crew says, "Maybe we don't need to. The way I see it, he never cared for us."
- Stackwort's Crew says, "We were just a means to an end, weren't we?"
- Stackwort's Crew says, "He was quick to toss us out, wasn't he?"
- Mal Stackwort says, "But what will we do? Where will we go?"
- Umín says, "You'll find a place, Stackwort, if you try to do right by your men."
- Mal Stackwort says, "What do you know about it?"
- Umín says, "I... I know."
- Umín says, "I know how empty it can feel to lose direction."
- Umín says, "When the Spirit's hold on me was gone, I thought I would never find that purpose again."
- Umín says, "But it wasn't my purpose. It never had been."
- Mal Stackwort says, "So? Are you saying you survived, and I will too? Is that supposed to inspire?"
- Umín says, "I cannot claim it will be easy, or that I have found it for myself."
- Umín says, "The necklace was a chain around my neck, and it bound me to a cruel master."
- Umín says, "With help, I was able to cast my necklace away. Will you do the same?"
- Stackwort's Crew says, "Maybe they're right, Mal. What do we need Ferny for?"
- Stackwort's Crew says, "Banditry was always a losing game, and it never led to anything for such as us."
- Stackwort's Crew says, "What do you say?"
- Mal Stackwort says, "I'll think about it."
Objective 6
Umín has collected the necklace from where it lay, and he wishes to speak with you about it.
- Mal Stackwort: 'I'll think about it, but I make no promise that you will not see me again, Brawler.'
- Umín: 'I know not how this necklace came to the land of Mordor, <name>, but I am certain now that this is the very same artifact that caused me so much trouble and grief on the deck of this very ship. What servant of evil could have brought it to that place, and for what purpose? I cannot say, but this I know: the Spirit of the Necklace is well and truly gone. I feel its absence as strongly as I feel the wooden deck beneath my feet.
- 'Gone too is the corruption that enveloped this necklace as a result of its stay in the Black Land. I think it is fitting that you take it now, and make whatever use of it you deem right. It no longer has any hold upon me, and I am left in peace at last. I hope Mal Stackwort and his fellows will find freedom from their own controlling spirit, Man though he be.'
- You thank Umín for the gift of the necklace, and tell him you believe Elrond of Rivendell will be able to imbue it with some force for Good.
- 'I hope so, my friend. Go to Rivendell with my good wishes.'
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