"Violence is a tool to be used with discretion. Do you get more milk by flogging the cow?"
-from a conversation with Virth Blackhand
Overview
The Black Company was the most successful pirate band in Greyspace, with a fleet of perhaps half a dozen ships. The Company approached piracy much like a business: a great deal of effort went into researching potential prey beforehand, identifying those ships that presented the best balance of risk versus reward. The Company gained a reputation for targeting trading vessels laden with loot or unescorted treasure ships - well armed and well crewed they may have been, but sailing alone they were especially vulnerable.
Various groups from Oerth and other worlds have attempted to trap the Black Company using bait ships - merchantmen with concealed armor and heavy weapons, and filled to the gunwales with marines. All such attempts failed, either because the pirates simply ignored the ships, having evidently discovered their true nature through their informants, or they were destroyed during attacks mounted with overwhelming force, with the loss of all hands.
Tactics
On the whole, members of the Black Company weren't unnecessarily bloodthirsty: after all, excessive violence was bad for business. If every merchantman in Greyspace believed the Company were going to kill everyone onboard, then every prospective target would fight to the death, perhaps even scuttling their ship if they felt they had no hope of escape. As a result, the Black Company was well known for sparing the lives of those who surrendered to them. So, instead of emptying a captured ship and burning it to ashes, the pirates looted only the most valuable items from any cargo, disabled their helm, and left most of the crew alive but marooned on a disabled ship. Often, the pirates would go out of their way to report the location of the drifting ship - discreetly of course - so that the stranded survivors could be rescued. With this in mind, why would the crew of a merchantman not surrender if they believed they were outmatched but unlikely to be killed out of hand. This simple tactic worked remarkably well and paid off in dividends.
Sometimes, however, violence was inevitable, and the pirates of the Black Company were well aware of this. Whenever a punitive or military expedition was sent against them, the pirates of the Black Company took no prisoners. Everyone onboard an attacking vessel was slain. Again, tactically, this was a sound decision, as it played merry hell with the morale of crew who knew they were facing the Black Company.
Base of Operations
The location of the Company's main base of operations was unknown, or even if they had one, though rumors did persist that they maintained a hidden base either somewhere in the Worldspine Mountains of Raenei, or on the south face of the Spectre. Thus far, no definitive proof of the existence of either base has been made public.
Ships
The Black Company was unique among pirate bands in Greyspace in that they possessed a fleet of up to half a dozen spelljamming vessels: most other bands consisted solely of a single ship and its crew. Of course, no one was sure exactly how many ships the Company owned or the exact number of warriors they had at their disposal. The Black Company's flagship was a mammoth named the Grim Reaper.
Relationships
Enemies
From time to time, the Black Company have faced military expeditions from Oerth and other worlds, as well as confrontations with various adventuring companies, including the Sentinels and the Steelhands.
Members
The Black Company was led by Virth Blackhand, with the assistance of his senior officers, including his sister, Leanne Blackhand, and his second-in-command, Grilak.
Rumors
Rumors persisted that the members of the Black Company worshipped Iuz the Old, and dedicated the souls of those they killed to his greater glory. However, most spacefarers considered this to be propaganda designed to harden ship's crews against surrendering to the Black Company.