The Salt Coast Corsairs

Throughout the Autumn of 803, minor settlements along the Salt Coast were ravaged by a series of pirate raids. Shipping lanes had always been a target for piracy, but these raids on coastal settlements were unprecedented in recent memory. Rumors stirred among the local peasantry of a "Pirate King" who had unified the unsavory corsairs and formed an armada of destruction. They claimed the ships were impervious to flame, and the sailors thereon incapable of pain or human emotion.

After much consideration, on the second day of Ready'reat 803, a coalition led by Duke Ricordea of House Hallow Evanescence, Master of the Iron Hills, swayed the small council of King Harold I to vote in favor of commissioning an Inquistion by the Church of the Celestial Flame. The Realm Priest of King Harold's court immediately sent word, and within the day, an experienced Inquisitor was dispatched by boat to the Port City of Newham in Kedwin where refugees from the most recent raids had been sheltered.

The dissent within the council, led by Lord Carolan, Duke of Vrelect and Protector of the Seas, advocated for the mustering of a small fleet under the royal banner to conduct defensive reconnaissance of the coast, thereby showing force to the pirates and the affected locals alike while simultaneously gathering information to determine if further action was required. Though support for this course of action was considerable in the council's debate, the duke's allies failed to lend him the political support necessary to win the vote. The master of House Carolan stormed from the council chambers and returned to Vrelect to see to the defense of his own coastal territories, feeling betrayed by his peers and the crown alike.