Owyn Stone's Legacy

I, Owyn Stone, having died heirless, entrust all my fortune to a project that will ensure my rivals remember me for decades to come.

— The Legacy of Owyn Stone, first sentence

Owyn Stone was a wealthy Alderian merchant and proprietor of Stone Shipping, known for his underhanded business practices and obsession with seeing his rivals brought to ruin. He fell ill in the final days of the Alderian Incursion, and, having no children, divided his fortune between five of the most notorious Privateers to sail the Eight Seas.

The Bequest

Knowing that such a windfall might otherwise enable these privateers to retire, he devised a complex system of agents to manage the funds. Funding will only be released to pay for the outfitting and repair of ships under their command, or the purchase of weapons, armour and other combat equipment for the crew, and it can be accessed through a network of agents operating out of most major ports within a month's sailing of Alderia.

Questionable Legality

For merchants, hiring privateers is already something of a legal grey area, particularly in cases where they impact trade of other merchants from the same city - a legal grey area that Owyn Stone had no compunctions about operating in while he was alive. His legacy, however, is considerably more questionable: being dead, he cannot be held liable for the actions of his employees, and he cannot be required to reign them in. Furthermore there is no system of contacting them, and the network of intermediaries managing the legacy is so complex that it is all but impossible to prevent the privateers from making their money. Many of those involved don't even know where specifically the money is going, and most of those who do are agents scattered around the world.

Principal targets

Additionally, the legacy provides rewards for attacks on certain targets. The biggest prize is for any ship sailing under a Caelestran flag, with a large bonus paid for each siege weapon the ship is outfitted with. Beyond that, the ships of specific merchant companies, including several major Alderian concerns, are mentioned by name. Most of these are longstanding rivals of Stone Shipping, while a few are companies that out-competed him on specific deals, including one that dates to before the Alderian Incursion.

Consequences

Since the death of Owyn Stone, the five beneficiaries have led their crews in a concerted effort to turn the Silent Sea into a pirate stronghold, taking Caelestran ships as they please. They took Fort Defiance shortly after the earthquake that ended the war eight years ago, and have turned it into a pirate haven. They have made numerous customizations to their ships, including the purchase of upwards of a dozen cannon apiece. Even the South Seas Company, which once sailed much of the known world with impunity, now sails in and around the Silent Sea only in escorted convoys, and gives the pirate fort a wide berth.