Stormfeather Lodge
Probably the least stealthy of the Ravenous Ravens lodges, the Stormfeather Lodge is based in the Vutara Bay. This lodge is almost completely ship based, pillaging and robbing both the ships in the bay as well as the towns and cities surrounding the bay. Constantly hunted by the authorities, the city of Freeport is the only place where they can feel completely safe - but where's the thrill in being safe?
Structure
There are officially a total of three ranks in the Stormfeather Lodge, from highest to lowest; Admiral, captain, and corsair. This does not include internal ranks on each ship in the fleet. In addition, the group of people running the infrastructure in Freeport are also members of the Lodge. These individuals are usually called Land Crabs by the other Stormfeathers.
Admiral
The admiral is the highest rank in the Stormfeather Lodge. This rank comes with the ownership of the complete Stormfeather fleet, although the day-to-day responsibility of each ship falls on its captain. The admiral spends most of their days in Freeport, where they do the paperwork that simply can't be delegated to someone further down the ranks, keep tabs on the captains, and generally runs the lodge.
An admiral sits until they die or get replaced through mutiny. A mutiny is hard to do successfully if most of the lodge isn't in on it, since the part of the lodge who isn't in on the mutiny will defend the admiral with their life. The mutiny system is used because it's close enough to a major vote. A new admiral is voted for in the lodge, and every member has a vote.
There can only be one admiral at any time, and the admiral answers only to the Raven Lord.
Captain
The captains lead one ship each, and although the ship is ultimately the admiral's property each captain is expected to treat the ship as their own. This is usually not a problem, since Stormfeather captains usually feel a strong ownership to their ships, and puts a great amount of pride into having a well-equipped, well-manned, and well-maintained ship.
Captains are mostly free to organize their crew and actions themselves as long as the admiral doesn't give them specific orders to follow. There is no set amount of captains, but the size of the admiral's fleet will determine how many captains who can have a ship and crew. If someone wants to be a Stormfeather captain and owns their own ship they can give their ship over to the admiral on paper, and even bring their own crew into the Lodge, but if the admiral finds some of this new crew unfitting to be a Stormfeather these individuals will have to leave the crew. A captain bringing their own ship into the Stormfeather Lodge have some rights concerning their own ship and can only be relocated to another ship if they agree.
Corsair
Corsairs are the rest of the Stormfeathers. They are the crew on the ships and the soldiers defending Freeport. There are the people the captains can recruit to their crew if they need more.
The corsairs all have the same rank in the lodge itself. Within their crew, however, they are ranked after function. This internal ranking does not apply towards other lodge members outside their crew, but can be important as experience if the corsair is considered for a new crew since captains usually want someone with the right skillset for the vacant position.
Corsairs report to their assigned captain if they have one, as well as internally higher ranking corsairs in their crew. Without a crew, the corsairs answer to the admiral.
Land Crabs
The land crabs are the people that run the infrastructure in Freeport, and although not part of any crews they are full members of the lodge and an important part of the lodge functionality. These people are bartenders, shopkeepers, innkeepers, carpenters, smiths, tailors, shipwrights - every needed function to keep a fleet and its crew running smoothly without having to go to the mainland. In addition to ordinary functions the land crabs also include fencers, informants and other positions relevant in the Ravenous Ravens.
The land crabs is not only responsible to keep Freeport running smoothly, they're also responsible to keep it supplied. A couple land crabs are functioning a suppliers, sailing to and from the mainland to stock up on supplies. It's important that these suppliers know the skill of choosing a sailing route that won't compromise the location of Freeport to outsiders, especially the coastal guard. This is easiest if the suppliers hide the fact that they're part of the Stormfeather Lodge when going to get supplies.
Public Agenda
While the other lodges often have public agendas trying to cover up their more illicit agendas, the Stormfeather Lodge doesn't have a public agenda that differs from their real agenda. They try to keep up a reputation of fear, using the speed of their ships to sneak up on trading ships and strike them out of seemingly nowhere, grabbing everything of value before sailing away, with or without the attacked ship, long before the coastal guard even knows what's going on.
Sometimes they hit coastal settlements as well, but that's a much larger operation and usually involves the admiral and several captains. Only two cities in the Vutara Bay is deemed too risky to hit, and that is Sakastro on the Kuprian side and Verraja on the Asharian side, since these two cities have more sophisticated defences than the smaller coastal villages.
The Stormfeathers don't always attack from ships. They might sail into coastal settlements or make landfall nearby nearby one, and do robberies and other heists from dry land. These operations are in general more stealthy than the ship raids, but more reliant on being stealthy during the whole mission.
Assets
The Lodge owns the city of Freeport, as well as the island it lies on.
The admiral currently owns a total of ten ships, including her own ship Siren's Wail.
History
The current admiral Eura the Siren has held the position since AE 2087.
"Treasure is Ours"
Maps
-
Freeport
Bloody pirates! (by the coastal guard)
Comments