Victoria Harwood

Captain Victoria Harwood is the commander of the SS Harkonnen. She is a tough-as-nails, no-nonsense sailor with a hate boner for pirates. Under her leadership, the Harkonnen has tracked and destroyed more pirate vessels than any other ship on record.

Character Knowledge
Other than Riot Woodhouse, the player characters have no knowledge of Victoria Harwood.

History
Harwood attained her naval commission at the age of 17. She was a driven and capable sailor, becoming an officer within a few years and gaining her first command by the age of 22. She took command of the Harkonnen, a prize every captain in the fleet had their eye on, at the age of 29, inspiring envy throughout the fleet. By her late thirties, when Riot Woodhouse came aboard her vessel, Harwood had become an expert on naval warfare and getting the most out of her sailors. To achieve the latter, she employed an effective good cop/bad cop routine alongside her first mate, Lieutenant Pip Bernadotte, whose command style used a lighter touch with the crew. Together, they inspired a greater loyalty from their subordinates than most sea captains see in their wildest wet dreams.

On 22 Autumnal 1042, Harwood commanded a two week mission to the pirate island of Gildart, to clean the place out. While the mission was a success, it was very hard on her crew; many of them could not reconcile the horrible things they saw there with their own humanity. Harwood remained a strong beacon of duty throughout the arduous process, inspiring her charges to keep going in the face of tremendous adversity. Inside, however, she was screaming; there had never been a more evil place in the world than Gildart, and no one in their right mind would want to go back. However, three years later, when rumors began to swirl that pirates were rebuilding Gildart, Harwood secretly pined for the opportunity to get back in there and destroy them again.

Though he commanded the greatest pirate fleet that ever was, Harwood had never heard of Commodore Montana Max until the day Riot handed her his resignation, in Lilyanne 1046. Max had been very clever, keeping his identity hidden all those years, though names are rarely important when hunting pirates. Harwood posited that, though the name escaped her, she was sure she would recognize his ship if she saw it.

Harwood took Riot's resignation to heart. He had been one of the best sailors she'd ever had the privilege of commanding, and left the offer on the table to resume his duties if ever he needed someplace to go. After dropping Riot off at a small port near Slaver's Bay and picking up supplies for a full month at sea, Harwood sailed her ship off to the northwest. Riot has received no news of the captain or the ship since.