ThreeS - The Pirate Informant Network Protocol
Summary:
Across the Realm of Allenia, the Pirate King has set up a vast communications network between his pirate allies and his informants. This network is built using Sending Stones Switchboards Switchboards; these are referred to as the ThreeS. All Pirate Sending Stones look like Earrings and so the ThreeS operates out of the back of Jewelry Shops. The 3 main switch boards are located in Astrafell, Ravenbluff and Drakenwall.
The Pirates send in daily updates in a cipher/plain text combination that at the minimum include their Location and heading and message priority, but if there is information that should be shared it can be shared as well. Informants only broadcast an update when needed. At their local sunset, each switchboard combines all of the public messages from the previous day into a single message and relays it across the network, the pirates reply with their daily updates. If there are any private messages those are appended to the public message for the intended destination.
Limitations and mitigations
Sending Stones can only be used once per day and so the reports are only done at given times only the Pirate king can send out an urgent message that is delivered immediately by the Threes
Sending Stones can only send a 25-word message and so if the combined messages are more than 25 words then the lowest priority messages are dropped and sent when there is available bandwidth on subsequent days if multiple messages are queued up then messages will be delivered based on priority and time in queue. On Normal Reports Routing information may be removed to save bandwidth if the routing information was transmitted the previous day.
Sometimes Pirates don’t want to share their exact location: When this happens they still send which direction they are headed by obfuscating either their X coordinate or Y coordinate with a hyphen (-)
The ThreeS will have knowledge of ALL activity that passes through their switchboard and so they must be trustworthy.
The ThreeS each need to be artificers to be able to create their own sending stones, Each has a stone to communicate with the other ThreeS if needed and one to the Pirate King.
If a ThreeS is incapacitated a third of the network goes down, The Pirate King has a Sending Stone for each Network.
Pirates can only send directed or broadcast (EN) messages to pirates on their sub-network.
If the Pirate King decides that a broadcast message from one subnet should be broadcast to the others there will be an additional day delay, The ThreeS will automatically Recalculate any time period that is included in the message to be accurate for the day that the delivery is made.
The First rule of the PIN is to not tell anyone about the PIN (including other captains) If you do then you lose access.
Each Ship must have an Lvl2 Artificer to be able to create a Sending Stone, if that artificer dies or de-infuses the stone the ship is cut off from the network.
If a Captain loses their Earring then the Data Leak could be large. After 4 days without a report, the ThreeS disables their sending stone.
Sending Stones are also hidden in plain sight by being fashioned as earrings. All Pirate Crew are required to wear earrings to make them plain, commonplace, and unremarkable. Pirate Earrings are used to signify rank. This allows them to be more easily hidden in plain sight and makes it not weird that the Pirate King wears 4 at all times.
Communications Protocol:
Routing Information: Sender Code + Switchboard Code + Destination Code (PKS1MH) Pirate King + Switchboard 1 + Maiden’s Honor
Routing Codes:
SP - ThreeS 1 (Primary)
SS - ThreeS 2 (Secondary)
ST - ThreeS 3 (Tertiary)
EN - Entire Network
PK - Pirate King
MH - Maiden’s Honor
AS - Arline Soren
CS - Circle of Six
Report Information:
CurrentLocation + Location they are headed to + Message Type + Message Priority (A1A2NR0) Located at A1 headed to A2 Normal Report priority of 0.
Report Codes:
RE - Reply
FW - Forward
DR - Daily Report with Information
NR - Daily Report without Information
IN - Informational
WA - Warning
UR - Urgent
Location Information:
It will be grid-based probably based on the existing Map grid, but maybe something more precise. I haven’t decided on that one yet.
Message Body Cipher Text:
Wauab - We Are Under Attack By
Tita(Location) - The Treasure is at
Muwua(Location) - Meet Up with us at
Tiant - There is a new threat posed by
Ilfu - Is looking for you
Anfa - add new phrase abbreviation
IOI - Item of Interest
#W - Number of Weeks
#M - Number of Months
#D = Number of Days
Example Messages
ASS1MH A1A2DR3 Ioi muwuaA5
From Arline Soren sent to the Maiden’s Honor via ThreeS1 currently located at A1 with a heading to A2,
I have that item that you were interested in meeting up with us at A5
PKS3EN A-D-WA2 tiant ghost ship MUWUAC4 15D
From the Pirate King to the Entire Network currently heading South somewhere along the A Row to D Row. There is a new threat of a ghost ship and so you should register it as an enemy if you see it in the future. meetup with us at C4 in 15 Days because something big is happening.
MHS1EN C4A5NR0
Maiden’s Honor is telling everyone that they are traveling from C4 to A5 in a straight line and there is not any other info and it's not important at all that people know this information if there are higher priority messages to send.
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