Astrid Rackham

Captain Astrid Rackham on her new sloop, the Broadside Ballad.

**Captain Astrid Rackham** is the Pirate Captain of the Gilded Gunpowder Pirates that is semi-well known across Eldham for her various exploits. She swears loyalty to all those who swear loyalty back to her, and has a strange moral compass that is hard to decode. She seemingly has no problem robbing people blind, but if an item has sentimental value, she tends to leave such things unharmed. Many victims of her raids, muggings, piracy, and kidnappings have taken note that anything with a portrait of a lover, urns, or even claims of land have remained completely intact despite their monetary value. She is rumored to be more than human....

### Early Life.

Astrid Rackham was born in a small port town outside of Eldham 18 years ago. Soon after this, her father passed and her mother left, leaving her to be raised by her sisters. Because of this, however, Astrid Rackham is a talented sailor. From a young age, she would accompany her sisters out at sea where they would teach her how to operate different kinds of sailing boats with proficiency. None of these boats caught her fancy as much as the sloop, however. A fast scouting boat that took few men to crew and could easily outrun any warship in any class.

### Piracy.

Astrid found herself sailing with a small crew on a sloop. It was black as pitch and the captain slept in his quarters. She played a game of cards with the men at the table, a small but heavy sword on her hip. As they talked over their game, they began to discuss the captain. He hoarded their wealth for himself, giving it all to a crown that doesn't effect any of us. "All this work, and we see none of the fruits of our labor?" She began to orate. Rousing the men from their lazing about, she stormed to the Captain's quarters and drew her Flintlock Pistol at him. It was mutiny. They would not punish him severely, simply marooning him on an island in which Rum Runners frequent, as not to damn him to starvation. This act of mutiny placed Astrid Rackham as the captain of a ship for the first time in her life, and her piratical ways have not changed since.

### To Eldham!

Sailing in her personal sloop, the Screaming Devil, Astrid drank a tankard of grog lazily as she sat near the poop deck of her vessel. Nothing of note nor excitement was happening. Wind in their sails and a false flag flown high, they appeared as a completely innocuous little boat. In her laziness, however, she failed to notice the waters turning red with blood. A great beast, a leviathan of rotting flesh and bone, charged from the waters and began it's assault on the sloop. She ordered her men to open fire on the beast, but with each cannon taking up to five minutes to reload, there was little hope. She began operating the firelock rifles mounted onto the gunwales, and as she opened fire, everything went to black. She awoke on a strange shore, vibrant with life and story and history. Eldham. She now lives each day in spite of the sea devil which damned her original crew to die, vowing to slay the Rotting Leviathan, no matter what it takes.

## Gunpowder Cay

### Discovery

While scrolling through the various maps and charts she kept in her quarters, she found a suspiciously empty sea north of Barbossa and in the middle of the Empire of Valreach-Simulami. Dropping the sails of her sloop and sailing towards the empty spot, she found an uncharted island with mud-huts and a group of unfriendly men on the island. Whilst not technically discovering it due to the clear signs of life already on the island, she found out about it herself. She immediately begins to find higher class and political forces in the Empire to begin negotiations with taking over this island. Though it was only *technically* on Valreach-Simulami land, it was safer to not pick a fight with one of the largest empires in Eldham

### Obtaining the Island

After many talks with the Imperare,Felöks Zeno Hrafn, a deal was struck. Drive out the men squatting on their land, and you may have their land. Captain Astrid Rackham thought this resolution was far better than the island being razed by some far away government that would barely benefit from the hunk of dirt, so she did exactly as asked. Ripping apart the buildings of the squatters who once lived there, she was reportedly very excited to see the natural lands of the isles being unearthed. Eventually, after all that remained was salvaged, construction began on docks, small fishing huts, and of course, her personal fortress atop the skull cliffs.

## Raids in Eldham

### The Coastal Falka Assault

Her love of a very simple people is very paradoxical. While the Koro people can't help her very much, after all, they don't even have money in their culture, she still pledges loyalty to these simple farmers. Of course, this loyalty turns violent when she hears about the souring relations between Korosechev and a nearby nation known as Aerius. Naturally, she and her crew sailed to one of their ports, geared up with swords, rifles, pistols, and even a bow and arrow for one of her men. They ran through the town, slaughtering anyone who stood in their wake and stealing all the alcohol they could get their hands on. She cut the heads off of men and threw them at other men, she gutted people in the streets, she blew people apart with a pistol filled with pellets. It was a terrifying ordeal that was only stopped when StickmanPrime stepped in whilst geared in full Netherite Armor. While Stickman and Captain Astrid Rackham are on amiable terms now, even doing business with eachother, their first meeting ended with Astrid and her crew sailing back to their island with a sloop full of loot and blood.

### The Mugging of Dorian Haster

After reading an ad for a a man known as Dorian Haster, more commonly referred to as Lack, beginning a brewing service, Captain Astrid Rackham saw an easy opportunity to get liquor for free. After sailing a distance from her port, she snuck into the locked brewery in the town of Urbs Victoriam from a in-construction ladder atop the roof. Sliding down the ladder, she drew her rifle and pointed it at Lack with a wicked smile. "The liquor or your life!" she would shout. This simply made Lack laugh. While not the reaction she had anticipated from putting a landlubber at gunpoint, she did begin to respect Lack for his audacity. To top things off, Lack really did provide her with a bottle of the vodka he was in the process of brewing. This odd encounter with the violent brewer has firmly cemented him in Captain Astrid Rackham's head as a respectable and audacious man.

### The Raid of Silverport

Continuing her rum running and liquor loving activities, she stumbled into a town called Silverport. Walking into the town's bar and drawing her pistol on the bartender inside, she repeated what she had said many times before. "Your liquor or your life!" Except to her shock, this young bartender chose his life, which was swiftly ended by pistol shot as he attempted to run away after hitting her with a rock. Other residents of Silverport managed to end her siege on the town by giving her a brew known as Heisenberg, presumably named after a master brewer.

### The Flameton Massacre

Stepping off her sloop, the Broadside Ballad, onto the sandy shores of New Flameton, she drew her sword and robbed a young man named Galaxy, throwing him off shore soon after. She walked through the town, allegedly humming quietly to the tune of some song whilst drawing her pistol and blowing a man's head off in the dusty streets. As she rummaged through his pockets, the leader of the town, Allister, drew a sabre on her and threatened to kill her dead if she doesn't stop right where she is. Captain Astrid Rackham simply laughed this off, smashing him in the teeth with the guard of her sword and robbing him as well. This process continued for quite a while. The stench of burning buildings was hot in the air as fire rose from the peninsula. She walked back to shore where Galaxy lied quietly in the sand. She kicked him in the head with her peg leg and loaded her plunder onto her sloop in several trips, laughing nearly the entire time. Piles of gold and diamonds were stolen from Flameton.

### The New Flameton Massacre

Once again, stepping off of the Broadside Ballad, she admired the grassy shores of the island the settlers of Flameton decided to call home. However, drawing her blade and her piece again, she began to beat people in the sunny streets with the hilt of her sword. This time, however, the settlers were prepared. Five armed guards jumped from the shadows, chasing Astrid back to the boat. She stuck her tongue out at them as she dropped her sails, but before she had time to wipe the sweat from her brow, a guard had ender pearled onto the deck of the sloop. Jumping in surprise, she wildly shot at him with her pistol, missing, and then ran into the cabin below. The ship sailed away as more guards followed her until it's voyage was unceremoniously cut short by a sand bank. Astrid and the Guard were launched into each other below deck, before Astrid finally pinned him onto the bilge and shot him in the face. Water poured into the bilge from the collision, but there was not time to think about that. Running from the top deck to the bowsprit of her ship, she jumped onto shore and began sprinting along, deeper into land. The four remaining guards followed swiftly behind, Allister himself at the head of their formation. Skidding on her heels, she stopped in front of a massive quarry, an elevator to the bottom right in front of her. Standing in front of the quarry, she challenged the strongest guard before dodging to the right like a matador and kicking him down the mineshaft. As the strongest guard tumbled down, she took the elevator, reaching the bottom before the guard splattered across the stones below. Stealing the guard's weapons, she climbed back up the elevator and shot another guard, sending the final guard running. Allister was all who remained. She ran up to him, kicking him down and placing her peg leg on his chest, aiming the pistol at him. She then smiled, laughing, and walked back to shore.

## Notable Crimes

* Commits piracy across all of Eldham, sailing from nation to nation to put people at gun-point and steal anything valuable they may offer her.
* In an act of terrorism in the nation of Soolia, she grievously injured the High Councilman Constantine, then intimidated him into lowering the cost of a piece of land stolen from Korosechev from 3,500,000 coins to only 850,000 coins
* Routinely slays people for pay.