Ok hol' up. There is a good reason to assume that this attack is a diversion by some other threat that wants us to look at the North while it strikes elsewhere. Perhaps even to instigate a war with some Northern faction to their benefit. Why would pirates, who live by hit and run tactics and rely on the discretion of ports to ply their trade, do something of this scale in order to paint massive targets on their backs? Like, why was the patrol from King's End killed, if not perhaps by a land force that crossed their path and had to make sure they don't report their position? Nah fam. I'm smelling some fuckery up in this bitch, my duders.
Of course, we can't exactly ignore this threat, but what I'm saying is we should be measured about how we approach this ok
1. Send the letter
A few ships from our vassal's fleet is not a large loss and hopefully they can run some recon and confirm the suspicions one way or another.
2. Make sure the boy is adopted > Bring the boy to court
What's the rationale for leaving him alone? This is easy PR! Based queen saves peasant boi, +5 reputation with the underclasses. My only concern - and this may be a touch paranoid - is that as the sole survivor of the massacre the boy might be some sort of demonspy, so I would really prefer the adoption method over the uh court integration method.
3. Reconstruct the village
Again, what could possibly be the rationale for just doing nothing about the ruins? We've got the money (I think,
zaper post our stats pl0x), and settlements are industry that pays for itself. It's like that one game, Mountain Blade. You gotta get on that shit fast my guys.
4. Appoint 50 soldiers
Again, we can't do nothing just because I suspect that this is all misdirection. If 50 soldiers is what it takes to effectively patrol the affected area, fine. But let's not play into our enemy's hands by over-committing to protecting the norther coast when this situation smells more rotten than the dead racoon I watched burst open as a truck ran it over the other day right