Elstan of Stormfall (Ironsworn)

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Name: Elstan 

Where: Stormfall village, Oronsea lands, extreme northern Hinterlands region of the Ironlands

Stats:

  • Edge: 2
  • Heart: 2
  • Iron: 1
  • Shadow: 1
  • Wits: 3

Scores:

  • Health: 5
  • Spirit: 5
  • Supply: 5
  • Momentum: 2

Bonds:

  • Solana, younger female first cousin, like a little sister
  • Nebmetwe, foreign mutant witch from the Old Empire

Assets:

  • Improviser
  • Archer
  • Long Arm

Vows:

  • Background: watch over Solana (broken, but not really)
  • Immediate: return the relic Twinmoons to the war queen's tomb (achieved, sort of)

Commentary:

I'm pulling an already made-and-played character from the last four years of exploring games I missed decades ago and games that have appeared in the last decade or so.

Most Powered by the Apocalypse style games are just not for me. The liberation that many modern players experience with these games is stifling and suffocating to me. That's not a judgment. Just a matter of taste.

It took three tries, but I did finally grok Ironsworn.

That third Ironsworn journey turned out to be a very grim, dark, Arthurian journey into the perils of oaths made with noble intentions, pure hearts, and true conviction. Not grimdark as in excessive violence and torture porn, but as in no good deed goes unpunished, and then the only deeds left are ones of grim necessity.

Elstan encounters first a dying man with a secret to protect - a magical relic of a warrior queen is being sought by the servants of the Vine King, a local man whose family is growing exceedingly rich selling wine to other lands and also buying farmsteads and ships. Next he encounters Nebmetwe, a foreign witch and mutant, beaten and hiding in a small boat to avoid her attackers - more servants of the Vine King. Together they set out to Spear Point Tower and the caverns beneath to retrieve not just Twinmoons but a lost Old Empire amulet -   

They manage to return to Stormfall, sneaking back to Elstan's farmstead, only to discover the house has been torn down to the foundations. They cross the fields and forests to his aunt and uncle's homestead where he is greeted with accusations of abandoning his cousin to outsiders and working with reavers driving by an Old Empires witch. He flees, but is apprehended on the strand as he made for the small boat he and Nebmetwe had used. 

He is publicly tried as an oathbreaker and worse - for selling Solana to the reavers. Two of his friends help him to escape the gaol as they know Solana ran away with her lover, but the entire story is supported by her parents who know the truth but are loyal to the Vine King. They were awarded Elstan's farmstead as recompense for his "betrayal". 

Elstan and Nebmetwe then steal a boat and head for other lands with the two relics in hand.

Interestingly, half way through this Ironsworn game I started a Basic Fantasy game and was attempting to fill in my new character's background oracle results started to line up and lo and behold my new cleric was actually Elstan, going by the name Ansel, living a second life far from the Ironlands. 

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