It was no small thing for a lone ship to sail towards a Pirate Lord’s fleet head-on.Dozens, if not hundreds, of war-scarred naval crafts filled the water around the dreadnought capital ship. Each was a heavily armed vessel crewed by bloodthirsty Chosens and chained slaves, ready for battle at the first sound of cannon fire. Black sails and crude flags choked the horizon, and as one came closer to the hostile fleet, other horrors could be borne witness to.The armadas of the Pirate Lords were known to each bear distinct features that reflected their allegiance to their masters. Lord Baroque’s corsairs armoured their vessels with enchanted steel and volcanic engines, churning the skies and seas with thick shades of oil and smoke. Lord Drake’s most trusted retainers were prone to hull massive bronze ramming heads into the prow of their frigates, each shaped like horned dragons to better venerate the matriarch of the Wild Hunt. Lord Augustus’s men adorned their ships in gold and silver, revering the true creed that commanded all corsairs of the West: wealth, and wealth alone.And as for Oleander’s fleet… To honour the infamous fleshmonger, feared within the Slavers’ Isles as the Necromancer Lord, the corsairs stapled the flayed skin of monsters and men alike onto their ships’ masts and hulls.Perhaps that sordid nature shared among the fleet was why the pirate vessels at the perimeter of the armada did not fire upon the biovore corvette as it crept closer to their formation. Though the flags of Eri’s warship now carried the colours of House Halsworn rather than House Elathion, the heir had known there was always a good chance the ill-disciplined corsairs of the West would immediately fire upon the strange, alien-looking vessel approaching them, especially since (...)