Changing the Story
Eustace's role as a pirate prince controlling the waters between two kingdoms can be easily moved to many other parts of Mythic Europe. His name needs to be altered to suit regional cultures.
The story comes down to one or two set piece battles. Characters lacking direct skill in combat can use their magic to reduce the difficulty faced by mundane forces fighting these battles.
The historical Eustace died in 1215, and some troupes who prefer strongly historical games may need a reasonable explanation to return Eustace to the saga. The options given below alter the primary antagonist, and may suit some player character groups better than the version of Eustace given later in the text.
• Eustace's brothers attempt to keep his pirate empire together after his death, and the lead character
is simply one of them. This allows the storyguide to run the scenario given here with minimal change.
Eustace's nephew, William le Moine (or Guillaume in Frenchspeaking areas) takes control of the remnants of his uncle's fleet. William is not a diabolist, so his fleet lacks many of the supernatural surprises discussed later in the chapter. Eustace's successors take le Moine ("the Monk") as their title, to mark their inheritance of his power, even if the name is not literally correct, in that none of them have been monks.
Eustace's daughter, described later, was not successfully executed by King John, and she takes control of the remnants of her father's fleet. Eustace's daughter survived incineration, so she has magical abilities, but they may not match his.
An impostor may take Eustace's name, since it strikes dread into nearby noblemen, and uses it to add cachet to his own operation. This impostor may be a simple pirate, another diabolist of Eustace's type, or a faerie.
After his defeat, Eustace's head was struck from his body and taken to Canterbury. His body was cut into tiny pieces, and these flung from his ship as it was sailed to England. This sort of ritual is identical to that used to defeat certain types of vampire. Eustace may have the Infernal ability to regenerate his body from fragments
of his corpse. One of his followers may have stolen his head from Canterbury, or retained one of the pieces of his flesh.
Eustace may have died, but has been returned to the world by his Infernal masters as the lord of a fleet of undead pirates.