@JGoldman10,
JGoldman10 wrote:
Pirates. The bad sea-faring kind. Maybe they would steal fish from local fishermen and fishing fleets or hold people hostage and demand treasure, and the heroes go and fight them.
In the olden days, pirates would steal treasure from other ships.
The pirates could raid cruise ships, or commandeer other people's ships or sailing vessels. They could commandeer these ships or vessels to smuggle and transport their booty and/or steal cargo from them. That would work.
Or maybe they run a black market for (smuggled) nautical weaponry.
There could be samples of those unusual elemental mineral substances I mentioned earlier in this thread that they are after or have hidden somewhere, and they have to fight off certain people to get it.
These are villains my heroes could fight.