Colossus Part III (Ironsworn: Starforged Rules)

 Hi and welcome back to my blog. I know it's been a while since the last update on Iris and Sora's adventures, so I wanted to continue them with Part III. I hope you enjoy and I hope this inspires your own Ironsworn and Ironsworn: Starforged games!

Colossus Part III

Goose offers Iris and Sora a room at his apartment here in the city. Iris accepts. He shows her the best place in the local market to barter and resupply. He then goes to tell the mayor of the city about Inlet and the cult while Iris and Sora settle into his apartment and await a message from Parrot. The next morning she finally receives a message from Parrot by way of a courier bot. The message says he knows of Crowley by the name of Jay, a former Scout and scientist with Lotus. Jay was Sparrow’s mentor. Jay performed experiments for Lotus, including on himself. Jay eventually went rogue and Sparrow was hired to hunt him down. Jay has not been seen since he killed Sparrow. That is all Parrot knows, but he could be persuaded to ask around Lotus if Iris does something for him first.

He asks her to meet him in Quiet City to help with something. Iris says goodbye and good luck to Goose and heads out of Arid Acropolis back to Quiet City. She and Sora make the long trek across the Sale Lands and the Smokeys without incident and find Parrot at the saloon. He sits there awkwardly with a cup of water. In his white lab coat he looks out of place among the rough-and-tumble types who hang around this saloon. He looks almost relieved when he sees Iris and Sora.

He explains a gang of raiders hijacked him on the road and stole a package he was meant to deliver to Crystal Heights. He needs the package back. The raiders make their home in an old shopping mall a few hours outside the city. He suggests they sneak in, grab the package, then the two of them can take an airship to Crystal Heights, with Sora of course. He looks at the cougar uncomfortably.

Iris agrees to help him. They leave Quiet City for the old mall. As they travel down the road, a territorial cougar almost twice Sora’s size appears. It immediately tackles Parrot to the ground. Iris stabs it, but it doesn’t let up. It swipes at her while still on top of Parrot, but Iris dodges. She stabs it again, but it doesn’t let go of Parrot. He screams as the cougar’s claws rake through his clothes into his flesh. Worried for Parrot, Iris tries kicking the cougar in the side, but it still doesn’t let go. She stabs at the cougar’s neck furiously and manages to kill the giant cat. It falls off of Parrot, dead. Parrot, bleeding at the shoulders, thanks her. She helps staunch the bleeding with her first aid kit. Parrot seems a little shaken, but they continue on down the road.

They find evidence raiders passed this way, so they know they’re going in the right direction. They can see the mall in the distance. There is plenty of cover around the mall. They notice a side door with only one guard.

Iris quickly knocks him out with a piece of rubble to the head. Another guard steps out from behind an old car. He was just relieving himself. He spots the two Scouts and Sora and reaches for his communicator. Iris shoots it out of his hand with an arrow. He screams, drawing the attention of two more raiders. Iris unleashes a volley of arrows at them. She kills one of the raiders. They do not have guns, only machetes. Before they can jump behind the old car for cover, Iris fires at them again, killing another raider. The last raider ducks behind the car. Sora leaps behind the car and rips the raider’s throat out.

The Scouts take the time to hide the bodies under the car and then enter the mall through the side door. As they navigate the mall, they must move slowly and stick to cover and to the shadows to not alert any wandering raiders. It is stressful to move so slowly.

The Scouts discover the package is in the raiders’ vault, which guarded by two raiders. Parrot uses one of the communicators he took from a defeated raider outside to raise the alarm about intruders outside the mall. The guards leave their post to investigate. The Scouts enter the vault and find the package. Parrot puts it in his backpack. They leave the mall.

They return to Quiet City safely. They go to the airship office and set a course for Crystal Heights. After some negotiating with the captain by Parrot, Sora is allowed onboard. On the airship, Parrot gets Iris and Sora into First Class and Parrot admits he may have thought negatively about her at first, with her being a new Scout. He says she has proven herself a fine Scout. He says he even feels impressed by Sora, and laughs. He tells her when they reach Lotus Headquarters they can ask around about Jay, or Crowley. Maybe if they can get some insight into his past they can see where he will be in the future.

Iris has a sudden vision, a Miracle, about a name. Alisa Stark. Something about that name seems important. Iris asks if Parrot knows anyone by that name. He says she is a biologist with Lotus. They can question her when they reach Headquarters after they deliver the package.

Parrot is intrigued by Iris’s visions. He asks her questions about them, but she says all she knows is that she has had them ever since she was bathed in miasma. Parrot says that’s fascinating and that he doesn’t have many Miracles at his own disposal. Just some low-level cognition, more like a strong “gut feeling”.

The airship eventually docks in Crystal Heights. They visit Lotus Headquarters and Parrot delivers the package. Then they ask around about Alisa Stark. They learn she is doing field work at Soco. Iris thanks Parrot for all of the information he’s given her. She says that she and Sora must go to Soco now. Parrot says he can go with her. Alisa might be more willing to open up to a fellow scientist, after all. Iris thanks him.

Iris, Parrot, and Sora set off for Soco. As they follow a river, tentacles reach out and grab Parrot. Iris cuts them with her knife, but they lose some meds in the process as the tentacles splash water on Iris’s satchel. They escape whatever was in the water.

They reach an abandoned train car on an old train track and realize they can follow the track most of the way to Soco. As they cross the track, Parrot sets off a tripwire and an alarm is raised. Two feral mutants approach them from behind cover. Iris unleashes a volley of arrows at them. She hits each one several times but they still run forward. Parrot readies his dagger and Sora swipes at one with his claws. Parrot stabs one of the mutants and kills him before he gets too close to Iris, and Iris fires an arrow at the other mutant, killing him. They leave the bodies behind and remain vigilant for more tripwires.

As they follow the tracks, they find a dead scavenger. He appears as if he was killed by some kind of beast. They continue on, wary. Finally they see Soco in the distance. It is a walled town on the outskirts of the Soco Jungle.

They tell the guards they are Scouts and are allowed entrance into the town. They ask around for Alisa and discover she went into the Soco Jungle to research some new organism that was recently discovered. Two Scouts, Hummingbird and Tulip, went with her. She is set up in a camp in the jungle. The camp is called Camp Sliver and about five dozen scientists work and live there.

Parrot, Iris, and Sora cross over from Soco into the Soco Jungle. They come across a stream with a log across it. Iris, Sora, and Parrot carefully cross it. Just as they reach the other side, Parrot stumbles over into some thorny plants. He is not wearing the right shoes for traversing jungle terrain. Iris helps him pull the thorns out of his coat. They come across a rickety bridge over a chasm. Some boards in the bridge are missing. Parrot refuses to cross it and suggests they look for a way around.

After some time searching, they find a new path. As they continue on, Parrot seems stressed by the humidity, the bugs, and his ill-advised shoes. Iris tries to cheer him up by telling him jokes. It takes quite a few, but finally she manages to make Parrot laugh.

Suddenly two raiders with a vicious dog appear and hold them at machete-point. They demand all of the Scouts’ medicine and credits. Iris draws her knife before they can react and threatens them. A raider grabs Parrot and puts the machete to his throat. Parrot tells Iris to just give them the credits and medicine. She says she’ll give them medicine, but not credits. She keeps her knife out threateningly. The raiders exchange a glance and say “Deal”. They release Parrot and Iris gives them medicine. The raiders and their dog then run away into the treeline.

Parrot asks why she wouldn’t give them her credits and she says it sounded like they needed the meds more. They continue on and come to a beautiful clearing with wildflowers and butterflies. A butterfly lands on Sora’s nose and he sneezes. Iris laughs.

Suddenly a familiar face appears in the clearing: the Scout, Tulip. She is a Psychic Elf, bonded to her lover, Hummingbird. They do not travel far from one another. Tulip tells them to follow her to Camp Sliver.

It is almost nightfall by the time they reach the camp. Alisa Stark and Hummingbird are waiting for them next to a giant fire pit roasting a pig. Alisa tells them she was expecting them thanks to Hummingbird and Tulip’s visions. She asks Parrot and Iris to sit down with her at a picnic table.

Alisa says she is Kaito Crowley’s younger sister. They grew up in a Blessed Martyr’s commune, but were saved by Scouts when they were ten and twelve years old. They were raised by scientists and eventually became scientists themselves, though Kaito also became a Scout called Jay. He was working on a super serum that was meant to be administered to new Scouts eventually, but injected some into himself to test it. The serum drove him mad and he started talking about the teachings of the Blessed Martyrs more and more. He disappeared, tearing out his tracking signal somehow and going rogue. He’s been killing random scavengers and raiders ever since, sacrificing them to his inter-dimensional gods.

Alisa knows all of this because she still receives letters from her brother, though there’s no way to trace where they are coming from. They are carried by messenger ravens. Kaito uses Miracles to commune with animals, especially birds. Alisa tells the Scouts that he had an apartment in Crystal Heights that Lotus has likely already picked through, but he also had a house in South Spire not far from the Briar. Lotus doesn’t know about it and it might hold more answers.

Iris thanks Alisa, but Alisa holds up a hand to stop her. She says now Iris must do something for her. The organism she’s researching is a poisonous toad who excretes a venomous slime that may have healing capabilities. She needs the toad delivered alive to Crystal Heights. She gives them the toad in a glass container with holes as well as some food for it. Tulip and Hummingbird will travel with the Scouts. The toad could be the answers to miraculous medications. It must reach Lotus Headquarters alive.

Iris vows to protect it and deliver it. The four Scouts and Sora leave in the morning and start their journey. Shortly into their journey, a gigantic black jungle cat blocks their path. The Scouts quickly kill it, but Iris’s knife breaks. The blade cracks in half. Sparrow had given her that knife. She decides to keep it in the hopes it can be re-forged.

They come across a climbable tree and Iris climbs to the top and gets a good vantage point on the land. They are going in the right direction. She climbs back down. They come across smoke shortly after. They follow the smoke to a camp. The camp and the trees around it are on fire. People are running to a nearby river with buckets to try to put the fire out. Iris grabs a bucket and tries to help. Tulip and Hummingbird also try to help. Parrot starts evacuating people from huts and tents and trying to help save experiments. Eventually they put the fires out but the camp is in shambles. Iris wants to help but Parrot reminds her they have a current mission. They must move on.

They finally reach Soco and resupply. Parrot writes that they are on their way to Lotus. They spend the night in Soco and continue on their journey in the morning. On the way they come across a caravan with all of the farmers slaughtered. It looks like the work of raiders or feral mutants. They spend some time moving the bodies off of the road. They suspect this is a trap and take the long way around for several miles to avoid any ambushes. The long way around turns out to have plenty of flatland and easily-crossable terrain. They are making good time.

They come across a bunker. Inside is a cache of pre-war supplies like medicine and ammunition. Shortly after, they reach Crystal Heights.

They deliver the toad to Headquarters. Parrot receives a mission that requires him to stay at Headquarters for the time being. He seems hesitant to leave Iris and asks Tulip and Hummingbird to accompany Iris and Sora to Crowley’s residence near the Brier and to keep her safe. They say they will. Parrot says a stiff goodbye to Iris. He seems like he’s going in for an awkward hug, but settles for a handshake instead. Iris shakes his hand and they go separate ways.

Before heading out of Crystal Heights, Iris takes her knife to a blacksmith and has it repaired. Then she, Sora, Tulip, and Hummingbird head out into South Spire.