Scarlet Empress' Revenge

Description

The Scarlet Empress' Revenge is a fast corsair vessel, with a sleek crimson-laquered hull. Its single deck supports two gaff rigged masts with square top sails. An onager is positioned towards the bow, firing in a forward arc, with stowage for gravel shot to either side... this may be dumped, moved, or replenished from the ship's ballast depending on the ship's balancing needs. A sailcutter is mounted towards the aft, on a swivel mount, to counter any attempt to flee when the ship approaches its target for boarding. A ship's skiff is stored on deck between the masts, which can be fixed with a mast, to allow crews to return to the vessel after selling off captured vessels.

Below deck, officers' quarters are located aft and supply stowage fore, with two long oardecks between, allowing the vessel to deploy oarsman for a burst of speed to close with its targets. While the ship requires only a fraction of its complement under sail, additional crew are carried to man the oars and crew captured prizes. The Scarlet Empress' Revenge is not a transport vessel, and has minimal cargo space, requiring the capture rather than looting of prizes.

History

The Scarlet Empress' Revenge was originally commissioned from the shipyards of Azure in the Coral Archipelago by a Western pirate, as the Sea Father's Trident. A fast ship with a durable iron palm hull, the Trident spent many decades preying on independent merchants and Great House vessels in the waters between Wavecrest and the Blessed Isle. The vessel was a nuisance, avoiding Imperial Navy sweeps, but piracy was largely accepted as a reality of shipping in the West, until its captain made the error of targeting a lone merchantman of the Realm's Merchant Marine, which had failed to raise its proper ensigns. This ship's cargo, cowries and painted conch shells, was a disappointment to the pirates, but of import to the Realm, having been a tribute payment from the residents of The Neck given in praise of the Scarlet Empress and her triumph in saving Creation from the Fair Folk and the Seven Tigers. With the vessel and cargo missing, Dynastic officials who had encouraged the gift were free to outline to the officials of the Thousand Scales and Deliberative the great value of the gifts, their priceless and exquisite artistry, the great loss to the Realm. The Sea Father's Trident needed to be stopped for such a grievous affront to the ruler of the Realm.

While diplomatic arguments became mired as officials from Coral and the Realm debated cargo value and jurisdiction, it was decided that an extrajudicial solution was called for, and Peleps Kaizoku was quietly instructed to mete out fit punishment to the pirate vessel.

It was not long before the Trident failed to return to port as expected. The sea is harsh for sailors, pirates particularly, so this was not unusual, but aspersions were still cast that the Realm had used some trickery to achieve ends it could not manage legitimately. These were silenced when, a year later, the Trident was sighted once more on the seas, infuriating the merchants of the Skullstone Archipelago when it struck and seized a cargo ship filled with valuable ores being shipped to Skullstone from the South. This marked an energetic return to piracy, with a much broader swathe of targets, the vessel trading ships and goods in Azure and Wu Jian.

The Trident finally met the justice of the Realm only recently, according to the Realm's official accounts (upon which none save the most base of Threshold barbarians could cast doubt), when it happened upon a small pleasure craft piloted by a group of young Dragonblooded Dynasts from the Realm's House Peleps, enjoying the fine winds of the Western oceans. Righteous in the eyes of the Immaculate Dragons, those Dynasts seized the vessel from its pirate masters, renaming it the Scarlet Empress' Revenge in memory of its first great crime. Picking up crew and charts from friendly Realm vessels, the renamed ship set out for the Blessed Isle, where recovered remnants of cargo might be returned to the diplomats of wronged powers such as The Guild and Skullstone.

Enroute, the vessel encountered yet more dastardly pirates, perhaps in league with the ship's former master, for as its new officers were righteous this second pirate vessel was debased, led by a vile Anathema known as the 'Shark of the West' whose stolen power burst forth across the deck to sear friend and foe alike before the gallant efforts of the Dragonblooded felled the beast. A triumph of the Princes of the Earth, saving Creation from those who seek to destroy it. Surely, this Anathema had long commanded the vile pirates who had plagued the shipping of the Realm and the other powers of the West, kept back from loyal satrapies as it was fearful of the might of the Imperial Navy and Immaculate Order.

Today, the Scarlet Empress' Revenge has come to berth at the shipyards in Vatamu, where it is undergoing repair and refitting to better serve in the fleet of House Peleps in the duty of hunting the corsairs all righteous folk seek to oppose. To honour the Empress and its new name, the Revenge's black hull is being repainted with gleaming crimson laquer, its sails emblazoned with the mon of House Peleps. From a past of infamy, the vessel has at last come to serve the cause of righteousness!

Notable Crew

Peleps Nyabe (current captain and sorcerer), Peleps Saiki (former First Mate, deceased), Peleps Amidus (current Second Mate), Radical Ostentation (current ship's boatswain), Intolerable Sapling (current ship's cook), ? .

Statistics

Type: Large Yacht

Speed: 14/28 mph (under sail), 15/35 mph (under oar).

Maneuverability: -3S

Endurance: Winds and currents, or the fatigue limit of the rowers.

Crew: 4 (+5); skeleton 2.

Passengers/Cargo: Captain’s luxury cabin plus chart room/salon, 2 comfortable cabins for one or two officers or passengers, two oardecks that become (leaky) bunkrooms for 15 crew each. Minimal space for transporting cargo. Masted skiff carried on deck between masts.

Armor: 6L/12B

Health Levels: Ux10/Mx5/Cx4/I/D

Measures: 24x6x4 yards.

Draft: 4 yards.

Armament: 1x light onager (foredeck, gravel shot), 1x sailcutter (aft deck, swivel-mount).