Brotherhood of the Coast

The Brotherhood of the Coast is an organization in the Om campaign.

Flag of the Brotherhood of the Coast

The Brotherhood of the Coast is a pirate organization that operates the waters in and around eastern Elira. They are led by self styled pirate king Silas “the Fox” Thatcher. The Brotherhood is a powerful outlaw group with several ships and men at their command. They have allied with Orlesea and participated in the war against Gildorn.

## Background

Little is known about the origins of the Brotherhood, but by 465 they were ruled by Silas “The Fox” Thatcher who styled himself a pirate king and his right hand, “Bloody” Anne Adler. They had a small fleet of ships and many men at their disposal.

## Operations on Socortia

By the summer of 465, the pirates had set up a headquarters on Socortia, operating the port town of Darsah and building amenities and services expected of those from Norium. They had formed an alliance with a leader of the native Umani people named Akembe, and supported him in a war to claim the throne from his cousin Aziza. In exchange for this assistance Akembe sold captured Umani loyal to Aziza to the pirates who enslaved them to work in the emerald mines that were plentiful on the island.

In addition to their slavery and emerald operations, and normal piracy on the high seas of course, the Brotherhood was in search of Irda artifacts and documents that related to The Triad and the five gates that held them. Thatcher would plunder any Umani tombs he came across for the information as well as bribe any tribal chieftains, such as Orro, to do the same and hand him over any Irda artifacts or documents found.

Thatcher had also initiated talks with the Kingdom of Orlesea to form an alliance that included attacking only Gildornian ships and shying away from Orlesean vessels on the high seas. The talks were fruitful and a meeting was scheduled between Thatcher and the ruler of Provonce, the Orlesean colony on Elira.

## Opposition from the Royal Explorers

The seeds of the Brotherhoods fall would be planted, ironically, through the plunder of a pair of ships sailing nearby Socortia. In mid Dragon of 465, after a bad storm, Brotherhood ships sunk attacked two independent sailing ships in separate engagements, the *Derry Boy* and the *Morning Star*. Sinking the former, they captured several of the crew and passengers as slaves, and capturing the latter they likewise impressed the crew and took the ship to their port as a prize

As the fates would have it, the Royal Explorers were passengers on the *Morning Star* and had gone ashore just before the ship’s capture. Likewise Wu Xen was a passenger on the *Derry Boy* and had survived the shipwreck to wash up on shore. The Royal Explorers joined Wu and conducted a series of operations to seriously cripple the Brotherhood’s operations on Socortia.

### **The Raid on Darsah**

On 22nd of Dragon, 465, the Royal Explorers, joined by Wu and an Umani warrior named Jubal who had defected from Akembe’s service, launched a raid on Darsah. The group attacked the prison where the crews of the *Derry Boy*, the *Morning Star* and an Orlesean merchant ship called *Sea Horse*, were being held.

The Royal Explorers slew the guards and freed all the prisoners, making for the docks and setting fires in the town along their way. They slew the pirate captain called “Blackbeard” as well as several other pirates along the way, and attacked the *Scourge*, the flagship of the Brotherhood, once they reached the docks.

The Royal Explorers and the escaped prisoners stormed the *Scourge*, killing many pirates and forcing the rest, including “Bloody” Anne Adler, to flee. They then set fire to the rest of the ships in the dock and sailed away.

### **Attack on the Emerald Mines**

Not content to merely bloody the nose of the Brotherhood of the Coast and flee with their lives, the Royal Explorers formed an alliance with Queen Aziza and joined a force of her warriors to attack the emerald mines, freeing even more slaves and slaying several pirates. Among the slaves rescued was an old shaman named Wyzad, whom the Umani believed Aziza would use to perform a ritual at the Temple of Shadow and Light to help secure her rule of the island.

### **Ruining the talks with Orlesea**

While some of the Royal Explorers attacked the mine, three others took the *Scourge* to the scheduled talks with Marquis Luic Dargent, the ruler of Provonce. Their plan seemed to be to ruin the talks, but the Orlesean officials were eventually able to see through the ruse and the Orlesean ship *La Flèche* promptly attacked as soon as the Marquis was safely aboard. However, the Royal Explorers were again able to escape, somehow besting the *La Flèche* and forcing her retreat.

### **The Battle at the Temple of Shadow and Light**

Akembe led a force of Umani loyal to him and pirates of the Brotherhood to the Temple of Shadow and Light to attempt to deny access to Wyzad and any forces loyal to Aziza. They took up position to block the causeway, and the only safe access to the temple. As expected, they were attacked by a force of Umani warriors and former slaves who the Royal Explorers had freed from the emerald mines. However even with the surprise addition of a small force of Centaurs to help Aziza's forces, Akembe still had his enemy badly outnumbered.

Akembe engaged Aziza's forces, however as the battle raged the Royal Explorers and Wyzad were somehow able to access the temple from an alternate approach and perform the ritual in Aziza's favor. Worse, the Royal Explorers were able to delve into the temple and emerge in control of five powerful golems that immediately began to tore into Akembe's forces. His army caught between two angles, the lines crumbled and many of his warriors and pirates were slain, the rest fleeing for their lives.

After their victory, the Royal Explorers handed the golems over to Queen Aziza and, along with most of the escaped slaves, sailed away from Socortia on the *Scourge*. The Brotherhood wasted little time in taking out contracts on the lives of the Royal Explorers and seeking to recover the Irda documents that had been in the logs of the *Scourge*.

## Rebuilding

With the *Scourge* stolen and all the other ships burned, the pirates focused salvaging what ships they could. Meantime, of the charred ships still in port, the *Inferno*, the *Morning Star* and the *Sea Horse*, only the latter could be salvaged. While efforts to make her seaworthy were being undertaken the Orleseans arrived on *La Flèche* to formalize their alliance with the Brotherhood of the Coast. Silas Thatcher hammered out a deal with them and in short order an Orlesean fleet was at Socortia, lending forces to take control of the island. Unfortunately, by then the Royal Explorers had fled, sailing to New Gildorn.

## The Battle of Socortia

By the time Silas Thatcher had managed to get the *Sea Horse* seaworthy, a Gildornian squadron arrived, forging an alliance with Queen Aziza and attacking the Orlesean fleet around the island. Silas commanded from the *Sea Horse*, but the battle was a loss as the Gildornians had caught them by surprise. The Sea Horse withdrew with the rest of the Orleseans, stranding some pirates on the island as the Gildornians made landfall.

## Operations in Elira

Forced to abandon their operations on Socortia, the Brotherhood returned to Elira and took over the small village of Headwater near their headquarters at Dead Man’s Cove. Silas Thatcher transferred his flag to the *Conquest* and “Bloody” Anne Adler seemed to lead the efforts to attempt to recruit sailors and other individuals with nautical skills. They had an arrangement with the bandit captain Goddard Brandik where he would hand over any of his own recruits with nautical skills. Additionally, Brotherhood vessels began boldly attacking private ships and impressing the sailors, successfully capturing the *Windsong* and the *Sea Dog*, and nearly capture the *Last Hurrah* as well.

The Brotherhood also arranged for the Black Hand to send an assassin after the Royal Explorers for their actions on Socortia and arranged a trap in Waymere to capture or slay them. Unfortunately neither effort met with success.

## Battle of Dead Man’s Cove

In Early Twins of 465 Orlesean spies informed the Brotherhood that Gildorn was sending a squadron of ships under the command of Captain Horatio Higgs to attack their headquarters at Dead Man’s Cove. The pirates worked with the Orleseans to prepare an ambush, an operation that worked perfectly. The Brotherhood and Orlesean ships captured all of the Gildornian vessels except Higgs’ flagship, the *Defender*, while only losing one vessel, the *Hangman*, in the process.

## Battle of Waymere

The Orleseans had formed an alliance with the Kythonian Imperium by this time, and planned an attack on Waymere, the capital of New Gildorn, on the 20th of Twins, 465. Much of the Brotherhood’s strength was gathered to join in an attack, and nearly all available men and ships were given over to the effort. Several pirates had sneaked into the city in advance and lay in wait to attack as the Gildornian Governor-General, Duke Marcus Cornelius Agrippa, was concluding a grand parade for the Gildornian troops.

Meanwhile all other available pirates were aboard the fleet, attacking the Gildornian harbor alongside the Orlesean and Kythionian ships. The battle proved to be a great success, as much of the Gildornian troops and navy had been directed elsewhere leaving the city lightly defended. Although the fighting at the docks, where the attacking forces landed, was stiff, the city’s defenses were soon overwhelmed and the city fell within a day, offering a large amount of booty for the pirates to plunder.

## Strength

The Brotherhood of the Coast's actual numbers of resources are not fully known, but they are known to have at least seven ships at their disposal, and enough men to crew them as well as field at least a company of men in the Battle of Waymere.

### **Ships in the Brotherhood of the Coast**

In addition to the below, known ships controlled by the Brotherhood of the Coast, it is probable that they control more, as they have previously captured the *Sea Dog* and the *Windsong*, and several Gildornian vessels were also captured by the combined Orlesean/Brotherhood/Kythonian forces at the Battle of Waymere

*Scourge*: Frigate. Former flagship of the Brotherhood, stolen by Royal Explorers and renamed *Sea Bitch*

*Conquest*: Frigate. New Flagship of the Brotherhood after the loss of the *Scourge*

*Abyss*: Sailing Ship

*Damnation*: Frigate

*Hangman*: Sailing Ship

*Inferno*: Frigate. Destroyed by the Royal Explorers

*Retribution*: Sailing Ship.