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The Blackwake Companies

The companies’ first years were spent escorting small craft and recovering cargo that richer operators considered too costly to retrieve. Their reputation changed during the Ashfall Break, when a captive-labor carrier lost control near a field of shattered hulls. The companies were hired to retrieve its cargo, but boarding crews discovered chained passengers among the freight. Some captains wanted to honor the written contract and take only goods; others cut the restraints. The ensuing fight freed dozens, destroyed the carrier’s command deck, and left two Blackwake vessels broken beyond repair. This watershed moment defined their public claim that rescue outranks salvage, but it also left a lasting split over whether the companies had become rescuers by principle or by accident. In later years, the Blackwake crews became valued for recovering people and property from ships others could not safely approach. Their work drew the attention of the High Route Patrol, which tried to force them into licensing. The companies rejected the demand and lost several lucrative contracts. A quiet period of mutual aid followed, during which they built their current anchorage and standardized tether signals. Recent discoveries at Tern Shelf have reopened the Ashfall matter: fragments of the carrier’s route records suggest the vessel was carrying more than captives, and that someone in the companies concealed the true reason for its journey.

Factions
Faction · Pragmatic and divided

The Blackwake Companies

To ordinary crews, the Blackwake Companies are dangerous but dependable: the people who come when a vessel is broken and the official rescue is too far away.
Type
Independent mercenary…
Size
154 members
Reach
Moderate on the high…
Base
The high-route anchorage called Tern Shelf, a busy but precarious mooring ground built along the ribs of an old wreck.

Overview

The companies’ first years were spent escorting small craft and recovering cargo that richer operators considered too costly to retrieve. Their reputation changed during the Ashfall Break, when a captive-labor carrier lost control near a field of shattered hulls. The companies were hired to retrieve its cargo, but boarding crews discovered chained passengers among the freight. Some captains wanted to honor the written contract and take only goods; others cut the restraints. The ensuing fight freed dozens, destroyed the carrier’s command deck, and left two Blackwake vessels broken beyond repair. This watershed moment defined their public claim that rescue outranks salvage, but it also left a lasting split over whether the companies had become rescuers by principle or by accident. In later years, the Blackwake crews became valued for recovering people and property from ships others could not safely approach. Their work drew the attention of the High Route Patrol, which tried to force them into licensing. The companies rejected the demand and lost several lucrative contracts. A quiet period of mutual aid followed, during which they built their current anchorage and standardized tether signals. Recent discoveries at Tern Shelf have reopened the Ashfall matter: fragments of the carrier’s route records suggest the vessel was carrying more than captives, and that someone in the companies concealed the true reason for its journey.

How it began

The Blackwake Companies began when three crews from a distant storm coast arrived in the sky routes with mismatched vessels, a damaged supply ledger, and a shared grievance against the merchant house that had abandoned them. The founders joined their names on a contract simply to divide the cost of repairs. They expected the arrangement to last one voyage. Instead, a patrol blockade trapped their vessels above a broken cloud shelf, and the crews survived by passing lines between hulls and fighting across a tumbling wreck. They took the name Blackwake from a word in their homeland’s old sailing cant, where it referred to the dark track left by a ship that had crossed dangerous water. The term was slightly wrong for the open sky, but the founders kept it. Their first charter declared that no company owned another, that rescue obligations outranked salvage claims, and that a crew could refuse a contract. They have argued about all three clauses ever since.

How to know them

MottoA line for the living.
EmblemA white hooked line crossing a dark circle, with a small brass notch where the circle is broken. Members interpret the mark as a boarding hook catching the rim of a vessel. Critics say the broken circle is a reminder that the companies never truly close ranks.
Colours

Deep blue-black, Salt white, Dull brass

Signs
  • A hooked line crossing a broken dark circle.
  • A white knot tied with one loose end, worn by members who have completed supervised service.
  • A brass notch on shared equipment, marking it as available for rescue use.
DressThere is no required uniform. Members commonly wear dark blue-black work coats or harness wraps with salt-white stitching at the cuffs and a small dull-brass hooked mark. The stitching is practical: a crew can identify a Blackwake member in poor light without mistaking them for a uniformed authority. Company captains often add a personal patch or colored cord, and some crews deliberately avoid the shared colors when working covertly.

Standing

AlignmentPragmatic and divided. The companies prize autonomy, competence, and keeping a bargain, but disagree sharply about who deserves protection and what a bargain permits.
AgeThirty-one years since the first charter, though the companies trace their traditions to older crews from the founders’ homeland.
WealthComfortable but uneven. The companies own valuable vessels, tools, route knowledge, and salvage claims, but much of their wealth is tied up in repairs and operating costs. Individual crews range from prosperous to indebted.

What they say they want

Rescue people and recover property from dangerous places.
Offer independent boarding and escort services to clients who cannot rely on official patrols.
Keep trade routes safer by sharing hazard reports.
Preserve the right of each company to accept or refuse its own contracts.

What they are doing now

Recover the sealed navigational instrument taken during the Ashfall Break before its markings are decoded.
Negotiate a shared rescue beacon network with settlements along the high routes.
Stop a succession dispute from splitting the companies into rival fleets.
Find out who has been selling their boarding plans to a private security force.
Secure fair compensation for the families of crew lost in the recent wreck at Tern Shelf.

Where it leads

A network of free crews and settlements able to rescue people, share hazard warnings, and deny predatory employers easy access to isolated routes, without forming a state or private navy.

How others see them

To ordinary crews, the Blackwake Companies are dangerous but dependable: the people who come when a vessel is broken and the official rescue is too far away. Merchants value their skill and dislike their invoices. Authorities call them unlicensed mercenaries, while rescued passengers often regard them as lifesavers.

People

5 ranks

First Hook

Shessa

Watchful, dryly funny, and slow to offer reassurance. She hears every side before speaking, then states her decision in plain terms. She considers an honest refusal better than a generous promise a crew cannot keep.

  1. First Hook1 member

    Elected for a two-year term by company captains. Chairs charter meetings, speaks for the companies in public, and coordinates shared operations, but cannot order a company to accept a contract.

  2. Charter Captains7 members

    Captains of the seven chartered companies. Vote on shared policy, censure, and collective contracts. Each captain controls their own company and its discipline.

  3. Linekeepers24 members

    Experienced specialists who maintain tethers, map safe routes through wreckage, certify boarding plans, and train new crew. They can halt an operation they judge to be recklessly unsafe.

  4. Hooks46 members

    Qualified boarding and rescue crew trusted to lead a small team. A Hook may take a temporary contract with another company by mutual agreement.

  5. Deckhands83 members

    New and general members who crew vessels, handle salvage, keep watch, and learn the company’s safety customs. Their first year includes supervised work in unstable terrain.

Other key members

  • Bram Hedd Senior Charter Captain and Ashfall veteran
  • Olya Linekeeper and mutual-aid organizer
  • Tomas Vale Captain of a fast-response company and likely successor
  • Ulan of the Reed Coast Route reader and keeper of an old Ashfall witness list

How they are organised

How it is runLoose confederation of independent mercenary companies bound by a shared charter
Who comes nextThe First Hook serves a two-year term and may be reelected once consecutively. A successor is chosen by a vote of the seven Charter Captains, with each captain consulting their own crew before voting. If the First Hook dies or is unable to serve, the Charter Captains appoint an interim speaker until a full vote can be held. The process is vulnerable to pressure because a captain controls not only a vote but also a vessel and its crew.
How they recruitApplicants are attached to a company as Deckhands and serve a supervised season. They learn that every crew uses slightly different knots and signals, but shared emergency calls have fixed meanings. At the end of the season, the company captain and two working Hooks decide whether to sponsor them. The applicant then makes a public promise at the Charter Table to keep a line open for the living, a phrase understood as an obligation to attempt rescue when doing so is possible, not a guarantee of success.
To join
  • Complete a season of supervised service as a Deckhand, unless an experienced specialist is accepted directly by a company captain.
  • Demonstrate reliable use of tethers, hand signals, and emergency procedures suited to the crew’s equipment and operating conditions.
  • Accept the charter’s rescue-before-salvage rule for shared operations.
  • Name a crew member who will vouch for your conduct when you take a contract outside your home company.
  • Agree that no member may be ordered to accept a contract that their company has refused.

Relations

6 factions
The Glass IndexCAUTIOUS NEUTRALITYThe Harbor CouncilTRANSACTIONAL ALLYThe SkywrightsPRACTICAL PARTNERKeel and CrownCOMMERCIAL RIVALThe High Route PatrolOPEN ADVERSARYThe Cinder LedgerBLOOD FEUD
Ally · Transactional ally
The Harbor Council

The harbor council hires Blackwake crews to recover drifting cargo and rescue stranded sailors. The arrangement is strained by disputes over salvage rights and the companies’ refusal to submit to harbor courts.

Operations

What they do

Boarding flying vessels and securing their crews or cargo.
Rescuing passengers from damaged craft and unstable wreckage.
Recovering salvage from places too hazardous for ordinary crews.
Providing discreet escort and extraction services.
Training member crews in line work, signals, and combat in broken or weightless terrain.

How they do it

Approach targets using lines, grapnels, and concealed access points rather than relying on a direct assault.
Use paired teams: one secures the route and escape line while the other boards, searches, or extracts.
Exploit loose footing, damaged architecture, shifting debris, and interrupted lines of sight.
Favor capture, negotiation, or disabling critical systems when a contract does not require killing.
Train with custom company techniques for tethered movement, controlled release, and fighting in low-support environments. These are faction practices, not official D&D 5E (2024) rules or class features.
Share hazard reports and emergency signals, but withhold sensitive routes from employers who have broken past agreements.

Services for hire

  • Boarding DetailNegotiated fee, usually including hazard pay and a share of recovered cargo
    Boarding support for a vessel that needs a crew removed, cargo secured, or a breached deck controlled.
  • Open Line RescueFixed rescue retainer or a voluntary payment from the rescued party
    A small crew searches for and extracts people from damaged craft or unstable terrain. A retainer improves response time but cannot guarantee a safe outcome.
  • Wreck ClaimPayment, salvage rights, or an exchange of reliable route intelligence
    A crew investigates a wreck, verifies whether it is occupied, and recovers agreed materials while recording hazards.
  • Line LessonsA company favor or modest coin
    A Linekeeper teaches basic tether practice, emergency signals, and movement principles for broken terrain. This is nonmagical company training, not an official D&D 5E (2024) feat or feature.

What they can do

Experienced boarding teams able to approach and secure a target while maintaining multiple escape lines.
Practical knowledge of wreck fields, damaged structures, and hazards that do not appear on standard maps.
A shared signal system that allows member crews to coordinate across noisy or obstructed environments.
Custom, noncanonical techniques for tethered movement and fighting amid weightlessness or broken terrain. These are training practices, not claims about official D&D 5E (2024) rules.
A distributed rescue network that can move faster than a centralized authority when a member crew is nearby.

What they have

Seven chartered companies with independent vessels and crews.
A shared anchorage at Tern Shelf, including repair berths and sheltered stores.
Maps of unstable wreck fields compiled from decades of dangerous work.
A network of signal codes, line markers, and emergency caches known to member crews.
Experienced boarders trained to move and fight amid poor footing, shifting gravity, and sudden loss of support.

Where they are weak

Their companies can disagree over who has authority, delaying a response when time is short.
Their specialized training and equipment are less useful on stable ground or in environments without practical anchor points.
They lack the political protection and reliable supply chains enjoyed by licensed patrols.
A public revelation of the Ashfall cover-up could destroy trust in their rescue claims and expose people they once freed to retaliation.
Their contract culture can make them seem callous when a desperate person cannot pay or when rescue risks too many lives.
The loss of a few experienced Linekeepers can leave a whole company unable to operate safely in its usual terrain.

Territory

Headquarters

The high-route anchorage called Tern Shelf, a busy but precarious mooring ground built along the ribs of an old wreck.
KindMobile flotilla and wreckside anchorage

Their headquarters is not a single fortress but a rotating cluster of moored vessels, repair platforms, and tethered cabins. At its center hangs the Charter Table, a broad plate salvaged from an unknown hull. Companies meet there in harness, clipped to safety lines, while a clerk records votes on waxed slats. Visitors are searched, fitted with a tether, and told never to cut a line they did not tie.

Lands they hold

Tern Shelf and the surrounding mooring grounds.
Several known high-route wreck fields and salvage approaches.
No sovereign territory: the companies claim rights to their vessels, caches, and charter marks, not to the routes they travel.

Outposts

  • The Split MastA decommissioned platform above the trade lanesStores spare harnesses and rescue lines, and serves as a rendezvous point for crews awaiting contracts.
  • The Reed LockerA sheltered shelf beside a field of broken hullsHides medical supplies, food, and emergency tethers for crews or travelers stranded beyond normal patrol routes.

Secrets

The big secret · GM only
What they really want · GM only
Hidden plans · GM only
Smaller secrets · GM only
What insiders say · GM only
Trouble inside · GM only
Crimes · GM only

Plot hooks

5 hooks
  • 1
    A Name Left Off the Line
    Personal, adaptable to a low-level or introductory adventureReward: A trusted contact, modest pay, and access to Blackwake emergency signals
    A new Deckhand asks the characters to help find an older sibling missing after a routine salvage run. The official manifest lists the sibling as paid off and departed, but a Linekeeper swears the crew never returned to Tern Shelf. The search can reveal a falsified ledger, a hidden rescue, or a captain covering a contract violation.
  • 2
    The Courier in Pieces
    Local, suitable for a focused session or short arcReward: Payment, a rescue favor, or a written claim to the recovered cargo
    A settlement asks the characters to recover a damaged courier craft before the High Route Patrol does. The courier carries proof that the patrol knowingly abandoned a passenger vessel, while a Blackwake crew already claims the craft as salvage. The characters must decide who gets the evidence and whether the survivors can be extracted safely.
  • 3
    The Wrong Side of the Hook
    Regional, investigation with a factional decision at its centerReward: Influence in the companies, a specialist crew, or a dangerous secret about the patrol
    Someone has stolen the companies’ boarding plans and used them in a precise attack on a patrol vessel. Shessa wants the leak found before the companies are outlawed; Tomas Vale wants to use the crisis to force a permanent mutual-defense pact. The trail points toward a Blackwake member, but the evidence may have been planted.
  • 4
    What the Wreck Was Carrying
    Campaign-scale, with the potential to reshape trade routes and faction alliancesReward: A major ally, access to concealed routes, or leverage over several powerful interests
    Fragments of the Ashfall carrier’s route records surface at a public auction. Bram Hedd urges the characters to destroy them, while Ulan claims the records could identify the people who ordered the captive transport. Their purchaser may already be moving toward the hidden route marked in the instrument.
  • 5
    The Empty Locker
    Personal to local, focused on trust and competing needsReward: Community gratitude, recovered supplies, or a captain’s confidence
    A rescue cache has been emptied, and the only witness claims a Blackwake crew took the supplies. The accused crew is missing, the settlement is running short, and the evidence points both to a desperate act of survival and to a deliberate frame-up.

Work they offer

1Escort a witness through a contested route without surrendering them to either faction.
2Retrieve a crew’s lost tether beacon from a rotating field of wreckage.
3Investigate whether a supposedly abandoned vessel is truly empty before the salvage claim is filed.
4Train a settlement’s volunteers in emergency signaling and safe extraction.
5Carry a sealed message between two companies whose captains refuse to meet.

What gets in the way

The charter grants each company the right to refuse a contract, but the other companies can impose a public censure on crews whose refusal endangers a rescue or exposes a shared secret.
Some veteran boarders have adapted to weightless fighting so thoroughly that ordinary ground combat feels awkward to them. They are formidable in a wreck, but vulnerable when forced to fight on stable ground.
The companies’ independence makes them difficult to control, but also makes them easy to blame. Employers routinely deny having hired them when a raid goes badly.
A generation of younger members questions whether the old salvage customs are an excuse to keep the best spoils for senior crews.
Several crews accept work from opposing parties at different times. Their defense is that a contract ends when its stated terms are met, a position that has caused more than one feud.

Rumours

1True: The companies keep emergency supplies in places that do not appear on their public route maps.
2True: Some captains have hidden the identity of people freed during the Ashfall Break.
3False: Every Blackwake crew is sworn to steal the vessel of any employer who delays payment.
4Unconfirmed: The stolen navigational instrument points toward an untouched source of wealth.
5True but misleading: A High Route Patrol officer sometimes receives Blackwake warnings before a rescue. The warnings are intended to prevent deaths, not to inform on rival crews.

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