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| Action Id: 1431 | Crisis: | Participants: Harald(RIP), Victus, Calypso, Lark, Valery, Halsim, Darrow(RIP), Valdemar, Caelis, Sameera(RIP), Edward, Wash, Gideon, Titania, Regla, Ian, Aethan, Faelan and Porter | |
| Status: Resolved | Submitted: Dec. 4, 2017, 9:26 p.m. | Public: True | GM: Apostate |
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Economic Resources: 12 Action Points: 386 |
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Action by Harald(RIP)
Watchwords are circulated to allies, to be given when any Isles warship approaches. Allies are also encouraged to group their merchants into convoys for ease of protection and inspection. One week later, to allow this new policy to spread, Mourning Isles patrols will begin challenging all ships in Kennex waters. If the watchword is wrong, the ship in question will be boarded and inspected, to be confiscated if evidence of smuggling or piracy is found (inaccurate ship's ledger suggesting smuggling, illegal cargo, goods suggesting trade with Abandoned, etc.)
The warships of the Grim Fleet will spread into smaller squadrons of 2-3, in order to patrol more widely among the thousands of merchant ships coming and going from Stormward.
Action by Regla
Yet again, The Grim Duke calls, and yet again, House Navegant answers. As voice, the lady navegant will mobilize her forces in suport of the dukes actions. The Navegant fleet, instead of protecting it's own traders, will instead be forming a picket and defense line of patrolling vessles. This new "Mourning Watch" will dedicate itself to full spectrum maritime patrol operations. This includes, escort, anti-piracy actions, rescue operations if needed, and Watchword questioning with Visting, board, search, and seizure operations as needed. To see the boarding operations in case of a failure to utter the correct watchword, Regla has detached Navegant Marines with each warship.
Action by Victus
Victus will be committing the full might of the Thrax Fleet to hunting down these smugglers and false flag pirates. Ensuring to learn of the proper watchwords and pass them through the crew. Much like in dealing with the Thralls and Mutineers, Victus will be personally there for this. However he will not be bringing the Red Serpent, as to not immediately reveal that the High Lord of the Mourning Isles has re-entered Kennex waters. Rather he'll be taking more of a backseat role, standing in as a Lord to ensure no international incidents are going to happen if one or two vessels ends up forgetting their watchwords. Or even if the smugglers may learn of one themselves.
Action by Edward
Edward will accompany boarding crews that are to inspect ships for smuggling to check manifests and other ships documentation for signs of deception or malfeasance. In addition, given this was part of his job for House Redreef he will apply his know how to searching ships for hidden compartments and where cargo may commonly be stashed - as well as the types of tricks that smugglers may use. Such as towing, barreling, keel riding and so on.
Action by Sameera(RIP)
Sameera is doing as she normally does on missions Harald undertakes: She is managing inventory, keeping track of the people and organzing things on the ship to run as smoothly as possible. She has the added duty of checking ship ledgers and trying to find any suspicious activity. Anything that might give cause for concern is reported to Harald. As per normal for her all other duties are disregarded if a Thrax or Grimhalll family member is at risk (AKA has a potential of dying or running off to do something dangerous alone) and she will put her life on the line to protect them.
Action by Faelan
Faelan is going to be leading one of the longship squadrons in the hunt for more pirates and smugglers.
Action by Valdemar
So, not much into the sneaky stuff. But as soon as one of these pirates gets caught? I’m gonna axe him a question.
Action by Ian
Ian, hopefully along with Wash, Porter and Aethan, will be setting up a small task force that adds actual hunting and deterrence to Harald's strategy of pirate isolation. They'll be setting up a 'bait' ship, ie a ship that seems like a lone merchant ship or trader, a plum target for pirates. The 'merchant sailors' of course will be Kennex pirate hunters, and any pirate who takes the bait and tries to board the 'merchant ship' will live (or not live, as the case may be) to regret it.
Action by Porter
Porter will be accompanying Ian on a task force to attempt to bait the pirates into attacking them, and then fight back! Porter will be laying in weight with the ambush crowd.
Action by Aethan
Aethan will be taking part in the pirate hunting expdition with his brothers and Wash.
Action by Calypso
Duchess General Calypso works closely with Harald Grimhall and his fleet to support this new policy. Her captains have been given the Watchwords and been instructed to cast out any pirates, smugglers or otherwise undocumented and unwanted travelers on her ships. This only pertains to the fleet she had originally sent out in to Kennex waters.
Action by Titania
Titania will be supporting Harald in this and leanding aid in whatever way she can with both Kennex Soldiers and Ships. She will be making sure that all work with Harald so that the situation in Kennex is not taken advantage of and Smuggling and Piracy will be stopped and dealt with.
Action by Lark
Lark has forwarded the watchwords to her vassals to use as needed. So as not to confuse the issue, however, she has reduced Grayson naval footprint in Stormward waters to nilch, and suggested that her vassals similarly reduce their traffic there while Grimhall deals with pirates and criminals.
Action by Wash
Wash will disguise himself and his personal vessel as a merchant ship, load it down with armed sailors from other Kennex vessels and attempt to lure the pirates into a raid. He will spread word through the lower boroughs (through proxies) of the wealth the ship is bringing to Stormward. Wash will be in command of the vessel, despite his usual disinclination toward hand to hand combat.
Action by Darrow(RIP)
Darrow joins the efforts in the Stormward March with his marines and ship, the Reaper, to sail in the efforts of Harald Grimhall. He himself and a squadron of the Lament marines place themselves on the bait ship, knowing that it is likely to draw the most interest of pirates, smugglers, or any other submarine forces that might be lurking. This bait will not be easy prey with Darrow on its deck.
Action by Valery
Valery is researching how to improve her smoke bombs, adding pigments so the smoke will come in different colors. (Action 1435) She's been told that could be used for signals!
She's handing Harald a few of these experiments, 3 of three different colors (red, yellow and blue) and another 3 white, making a total of 12.
(Added ap and resources for their cost)
Action by Caelis
Once watchwords are distributed, the Valardin navy will offer aid in light of increased piracy to escort and defend merchant vessels that are confirmed to be pirate free in the spirit of protecting and bolstering trade while giving the small and growing navy some opportunity to hone it's teeth on pirate vessels.
Action by Halsim
Watchwords are better than nothing, but actionable intelligence is what Halsim deals with. While everyone else is handling naval issues, Halsim goes pro-active and consults with informants across the Isles about pirates and probable false flaggers, sending any serious leads to Harald for him to actively hunt down. Narrowing the wide net to actual problems.
Action by Gideon
is going to take a different approach to the smuggling issue. Most lords think the problem is at the sea, that boarding will solve the problems, and often they're right. However, the Crimson giant and his men will be at the ports, stopping anything that they can that falls through the cracks. If contraband is spotted, he will threaten and beat his way to the source, and in turn he will turn over those hiding spots to the boarding parties, as not to let them be tricked twice.
Result
201 ships participate in the massive pickets surrounding Kennex waters. The watchwords catch a number of smugglers off guard, and at least in the initial weeks, 4 longships and 2 galleys are captured running false flags, with their crews turned over to House Grimhall and the ships confiscated. Piracy dies down overnight, and if there were more than that they are definitely avoiding Kennex waters at present.