Devil pirates help

[dingle]

I am thinking about of an adventture based around a Pirate ship which uses Bearded Devils as a boarding party, Teleporting on the victims ship.
The pirate ship will get detailed information about which ship is leaving port by an Erinyes (with a hat of disguise or similar shape changing device or spell) teleporting to the ports and spying which ships leave with cargo and where they are heading.
The problem is why are the devils doing this, who is controlling the operation and why? How do they control the devils?

[papa_laz]

A powerful human wizard has struck a deal with the devils in order to undermine and disrupt the existing regime. The pirates, who are paid by the wizard, will serve both as thieves and terrorists, thus sewing the seeds of anarchy throughout the coastal cities. In exchange for their services the devils will be given 10,000 innocent souls once the coup is successfully completed.

[ajanders]

True story: Hiroo Onoda, 2nd lieutenant in the Japanese army during WWII, finally surrendered in 1974.
More relevantly the Confederate Ship Shenandoah was commissioned in 1864 in England, sailed round the Cape of Good Hope to Australia, then went north into the Arctic to raid the Union whaling fleets on the 5th of July, 1865.
On August 2nd, 1865 they attempted to raid the English ship Barracuda, only to find their commission and letters of marque were no longer valid since the Civil War had ended. By all accounts everyone was a little embarrassed.

The Emperor of Bael Turath comissioned the Black Storm as a large and powerful warship, then sent his best wizards to work dark rituals over it to strengthen it, to bind devils to it for a crew, and perhaps even to sail into the Shadowfell, the Astral Plane, or the seas of the Feywild.
It was turned loose with instructions to raid vessels and ports not flying the Turathi ensign.
Sadly, Bael Turath hasn't commissioned a vessel for about 5,000 years, so at this point everyone and everything is fair game.
The Black Storm has been at sea for a long, long time: stories of it are rare because it tends not to leave survivors. The devils are bound to the ship as long as it remains intact: while normally this would result in the captain crashing the ship into a reef as soon as his diabolic interest in piracy waned, being allowed to cruise around the mortal plane terrorizing innocents and stealing stuff is a pretty congenial job for a devil, so he's kept to the spirit of the agreement.
There's surely a few other ways to abort the binding ritual: those things always have freedom conditions, All you'll need to do is recover the original comission and letters of marque. Those should only be in the haunted ruins of Bael Turath's capital, deep in the library....

The party can either attempt to destroy the Black Storm (which should be a serious challenge) or try to find out its orders and commission in some obscure dungeon or other...then exploit them to banish the devils.

[Sigurd]

The noble captain _________ fought in the battle of _________ for the honour of the realm and the hand of his love.

He stood with the victors but his lady love died (or was near to death). Forsaking all for his lady love he sought to sail the seas with her for evermore. A terrible bargain was struck where the captain became lost in a dream - trapped in his cabin with the memories and nightmares of his lady in his arms. Meanwhile his crew have been transformed into demons and devils. So long as the captain sleeps the ship, now beaten and torn for it cannot make port. Sails, plunders and does the unspeakable.


Sigurd

[dingle]

All great ideas, thanks.
I am thinking of linking them. The noble captain (maybe a bit evil even then) could have been a wizard, the deal to save his loved one was that she was turned into a Devil. The ship has now been sailing the seas for a millennium using the old letters of marque as a pretext (Devils are lawfull). The captain is now a Lich his lady an Erinyes his city now an ancient ruin.