Solo Tabletop RPG Review – Ironsworn: Starforged Part Four

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Ironsworn: Starforged (Mophidius)
Written & Designed by Sean Tomkin
Art by Joshua Meehan, Jeff Zugale, and Sarah Dahlinger

You can purchase the game here.

Read part three of this series here.

The Vigilant nears its first destination on its first shortened FTL jump. Kei Becker searches the ship’s supplies for anything that might help Rozhan Kane’s damaged eyes but comes up short. Kane weakly assures Kei that he will be okay; they will reach Lyra and find sanctuary there. Astrid is watching the sensors as they get closer to ending the jump while Jorruns is trying to brainstorm ways to keep the engines running a little longer. Kei notices those two keeping their distance from each other, with Astrid not attempting to hide her dislike of Essence-using laborers from the Trade Enclave. In better times, Kei might address this tension, but now, people seem to focus on their tasks, and more significant threats are happening.

When the ship finally comes out of the jump, Astrid hits the comms and tells Kei he must come to see this. When he enters the cockpit, Kei understands the urgency in Astrid’s voice. Floating before them and taking up almost the entire viewscreen is a blasted and derelict Renkat Manowar with massive energy scorch marks across its hull. The port side has been completely blown off, revealing the decimated decks. Astrid lets Kei know her scan for life signs has come back nil. 

The Renkat are an unrelenting warrior race, making their relations with the more diplomacy-focused United Planetary Alliance difficult. The presence of this ship raises a few alarms for Kei and Astrid. First, there are no permissions granted to the Renkat to have ships in this sector, so this must have been a piracy vessel attempting to ambush corbomite shipments or a spy ship trying to intercept communications. Second, the ship that took out this Manowar doesn’t seem like anything Kei would be familiar with. He asks Astrid to check the general comms channel for anything about a Starforce ship intercepting a Renkat one here, and she returns with nothing. 

Kei pushes the Vigilant for a more detailed scan of the damage to the ship, and the scorching doesn’t match anything from a vessel in UPA space. The attack also seems to have happened in the last three hours. There’s a distress beacon that must have been activated before the ship’s crew died, letting it be known that it is The Tip of the Spear, a Renkat pirate vessel, and they do not know who is attacking them. This causes Kei to hit the comms to the engine room and ask Jorruns how long he thinks it will be until the FTL is powered up again so they can make their next jump. Jorruns says he’ll need a good thirty. Not good.

Astrid points out some distortions in the scans she’s doing, and Kei makes adjustments but is shocked by what he finds after filtering through these distortions. It’s telling him there is an object approximately 130m long nearby. He pilots the Vigilant away from the Tip of the Spear but gets no visual even when the ship is pointed in the direction the scans are telling him this ship is. He and Astrid exchange worried looks. Comms to Jorruns again, “Any chance we can cut that thirty in half?” Jorruns responds, “I know we just met and all, but I need to make this clear; I’m not a magician; I’m a mechanic. Anything wrong?” Kei: “Possibly.”

This is when Astrid shouts out as space appears to ripple and shift, and suddenly, a horrific sight comes into view. It’s a large black vessel made of organic carapace-looking material. Before Kei can react to any of this, he’s struck by an intense sense of calm. He needs to pilot the Vigilant into the docking bay of this larger vessel, of course; nothing else really makes sense when you think about it. Astrid is yelling something at him, but it’s distant & muffled. Then she suddenly stops and sits calmly in the co-pilot’s seat, staring blankly at the viewscreen as the Vigilant gets closer, and the ship seems to grow a hatch that allows Kei to smoothly steer his vessel inside.

Kei feels searing pain but not the kind he’s familiar with. The image of a man’s face appears in his mind. The man is pale-skinned, ghostly, with blue veins visible beneath it. Yellow eyes and a smirk that reveals filed & sharpened teeth. A voice says to Kei, the Kamino…did you see him in Glimmer…what did he tell them? Kei responds, realizing he isn’t speaking with his voice but his mind; I don’t know what you’re talking about. The pain stabs deeper and unfolds like the petals of a flower. Quick bursts of images: a city that covers an entire planet, beams of red & green light whipping through the stars and clashing, a fleet of damaged ships making FTL jumps one right after another, a crumbling temple against a red sky of storms and lightning. The pain subsides, and the man’s voice emerges from the agonizing throb that remains; where are you taking the Bamiri? You have encrypted disks of the Kamino’s interrogation on Glimmer? Who are you working for? Kei struggles to speak with his mind, and it comes out broken: Hurting me…know nothing…please…stop.

Kei emerges from his haze and finds he’s strapped to a chair tilted forward. To his left stands the man he saw in his mind, looking a little less grand than the image being projected. He looks older than in his mind’s eye, even more hateful. Kei can’t manage to say anything; the part of his brain that speaks feels like it’s been through a blender. He has a name in his mind; it must have been left by this man: Dreng Wraithus. His name? Or who he is looking for? Kei isn’t sure. Two armored guards unlock Kei from the table, carry him by his arms through a series of dark corridors, and roughly toss him into a cell. They step over to Rozhan, who is silent and curled up in a ball in the corner and take him. The door slides shut with a heavy click after they leave. 

Kei lays there for an indeterminate amount of time, his senses dulled and warped. At some point, he begins to come to and reaches around in the dim light. He touches a leg and hears a groan. “Astrid?” It’s her, and she’s leaning against a wall, staring off hollow-eyed. Kei talks to her a little more, and eventually, she turns to look at him, still partially somewhere else. “Any idea what’s going on?” Kei asks. She just shakes her head no. Kei notices Jorruns sitting on a bench that appears to grow out of the wall. He seems to be the most cognizant of them all and explains all he remembers was things going hazy on the Vigilant and then waking up in here. He doesn’t seem to have been subjected to the interrogation Kei & Astrid have, and which they can assume Rozhan is undergoing. 

“We…we have to get out of here,” Kei insists. “We need to fake it like one of us is badly injured. If we can get out, you need to take Astrid to the Vigilant and see if you can get her running and ready to jump. I think I kind of remember where they took me. I can probably retrace my steps…I hope.” Jorruns shakes his head and replies,” I mean, I don’t think we have many options, so I guess go for it?”

Kei starts banging on the door, shouting about Astrid being hurt and having a stroke. After enough commotion, the doors slide open, a guard standing with a pulse rifle drawn. “What are you shouting about?” his voice crackles through the filter of his helmet. Jorruns has recovered faster than the others, potentially due to the Essence in his system, and brings all four of his arms down on the guard with a sickening crunch. Kei picks up the pulse rifle, takes a moment to figure out how to operate the thing, and then exits to find Rozhan. Jorruns picks up Astrid and carries her the opposite way, his enhanced mental abilities guiding him toward the docking bay. 

Kei encounters a pair of soldiers on his way and exchanges pulse fire, killing one and sending the other running for reinforcements. He finally reaches the doors where he believes he had been taken and taps a panel on a wall that slides them open. Inside, Rozhan is strapped to the same table with Wraithus leering over him, mumbling something under his breath. A guard in the room lets out an exclamation when he sees Kei there, but Kei fires a blast that sends him to the floor. Wraithus snaps out of his trance, and with a wave of his arm, Kei finds himself slammed against the opposite wall in the hallway like an invisible fist punched him in the chest.

Kei feels Wraithus sliding his tendrils into his mind, but before he can latch on, Kei fires another pulse bolt which hits the lighting in the interrogation room, sending sparks raining down. He decides to drag this ghoul away from Rozhan and double back when possible to get his friend. Kei races down the hallway looking for a door that will open for him. Behind, he hears the sliding door torn off its supports and crumpled like a can. Wraithus steps out, the air around him seeming to boil. A group of guards comes off the lift and open fire just as Wraithus emerges, and he’s accidentally struck by their pulse fire. He cringes and then gestures, crushing them into a bloody pulp mass instantly, seeming to float down the hall towards Kei. 

Kei finds a door that slides open and discovers it’s some kind of laboratory, with the centerpiece being large floor-to-ceiling cylinders with glass tubes in their center. Within the tubes floats embryonic materials, some resembling humans and some not. The lighting is incredibly dim here, and Kei can slide beneath a counter, watching the door. Wraithus enters. Just as the man reaches out with his mind and turns to look at Kei, Kei empties the blaster rifle directly into his pursuer’s face. Wraithus collapses, screaming in pain, giving Kei a chance to run for the hallway, grabbing Rozhan, and making his way to the docking bay. A trail of unconscious guards acts as breadcrumbs left behind by Jorruns. Kei finds the Vigilant powered up and runs onboard. Jorruns takes the ship out of this larger vessel and hits the FTL, sending them hurtling to their next waypoint.

Kei finds his arm suffered a fracture when he was thrown against the wall. He tries to treat it with some surplus meds on the ship, but they don’t provide relief, so he slaps together a makeshift sling with some spare clothes he keeps in his quarters. Kei has some bonding time with Jorruns, who is piloting the ship. He checks on Astrid, who is still shell-shocked but coming around. Kei provides her with some equalizers to help stabilize her anxiety and takes some himself. Unfortunately, reaching into his mind left Kei with some intense psychological pain. 

When they come out of the jump, the Vigilant finds itself in the presence of an asteroid belt, but there’s no planet nearby. Kei posits it must have been wholly destroyed some time ago. Asteroids are an excellent place to hide and get their bearings. Jorruns says there’s something in the asteroids, and they fly deeper into the field. A few kilometers in, they discover an object resembling the same construction as the ship that abducted them. This is much smaller and emits a transmission that matches a buoy’s. Kei posits this is how their attacker monitors this area of space; they must have dropped these around critical areas.

Another jump after an FTL charge, and the Vigilant is in a vast expanse of nothing. Not for long, though, as sensors pick up a small, slow-moving ship nearby. Kei pilots the Vigilant closer, and they discover a junk ship making its way across the Regulak System without an FTL drive. Markings on the vessel make it clear this is Bamiri. Kei hails them and explains who they have on board, Rozhan Kane, and he requires medical attention. The junk immediately begins docking procedures with the Vigilant. A group of Bamiri helps bring Rozhan onto the junk and to a ceremonial healing chamber. Marya steps forward and introduces herself, an elderly and heavily tattooed Bamiri. She invites Kei, Astrid, and Jorruns to eat with her while Rozhan is attended to.

Kei inquires if Marya has been to Lyra anytime recently. She says no, but that she has contacts on board. She says she cannot go into too much detail, but much is happening there to shape the Bamiri people’s future. Two massive Imperium cruisers arrived six months ago carrying thousands of refugees. Among them were dozens of Calugar, the knights of the Mystic Order. There is a leader among the knights who is at the center of the trouble, but it’s here that Marya says she cannot say more. They finish their meal with pleasantries and small talk. Rozhan joins them later that knight, his eyes healed but still scarred. He takes Kei to thank him. When gratitude is shared with the junk crew, all four load back onto the Vigilant, headed for Lyra.

Coming out of the next jump, the Vigilant finds itself before the massive Lyra station. It’s a stark white object against the starry expanse around it. UPA insignia on its spire comes to a point. The base is a wide circle that narrows as the station goes up. Around the perimeter are various ships that have docked. Just a few kilometers beyond Lyra are two Imperium cruisers stationary but still active as their exterior lights are on. Kei hails Lyra flight control and is cleared to land at a docking bay. He communicates that they know Marya and were told to alert Lyra that Rozhan Kane is onboard. When they exit the Vigilant, a group is waiting to greet them. Three Bamiri are among them, and Kei guesses the other two must be Calugar because of their robes. One of them is a wolf-like alien Kei isn’t familiar with, while the other is a human woman, tall and imposing, with long styled red hair. She steps forward, signaling that she is in charge of this group.

“Lady Lila Thiff of the Mystic Order,” she says, extending her hand. Kei shakes it, and introductions are made all around. It’s surprising to our protagonist that despite being in a UPA-deep space station, he doesn’t spot anyone in a uniform anywhere in the spaceport. As Lady Thiff escorts the visitors to the medical bay for checkups before showing them their quarters, Kei keeps an eye out. Still no UPA uniforms on anyone. It has been a long time since he’s been anywhere without those, and he’s honestly a little unnerved.

Lady Thiff notes Kei’s fractured arm and takes him to a medic to fuse the bone back together. Kei decides to not play so coy and outright says to her, “I know you can read my mind; I can feel you floating around the edges of it. What is it you want to know?”

Thiff responds that she doesn’t do that without permission, but her abilities continuously operate like human senses do. She just chooses to not let her ability do as it pleases. It’s an ambient aura always running in the background. Kei admits they encountered someone like her on their way here and relates the story of the strange ship that abducted them. Thiff’s face betrays her concern, and she asks for permission to read those memories and only those. Kei agrees, and there is silence as she enters his mind and sees what he saw. 

“We’ll have to speed things up,” she finally says, breaking the odd but serene silence. “My brother,” Kei interrupts. “You knew him? You know how he died?” Thiff casts her eyes down, sadness & shame. “Yes, I knew Tomo. I will tell you his story, but we do not have time now. So please believe that when we have attended to the most pressing matters, I will sit down, and you will know everything.”

Kei isn’t having it and shouts about everything he’s gone through, watching his parents sob and fall into depression over not being able to bury their son, how he doesn’t care about whatever the hell these people are doing. “Tomo died helping me,” Schiff says. “Once he understood what was happening here and in the Old Imperium, he couldn’t stand by. Captain Selassie ordered that my Calugar and I be locked up, and he refused. That is why Tomo died.”

Kei is stunned. He can’t understand why Tomo would turn on Starforce like that. It doesn’t make any sense. Comms alert Lady Thiff that there is an urgent message waiting for her. She excuses herself and points Kei towards the Leisure tier, where he will find his friends and some food. Kei eventually finds Astrid (who is looking a bit better). She and Jorruns are actually talking, which seems like progress. Kei tries to eat some food but can’t get what Thiff told him out of his mind. 

A sudden queasiness tears through Kei’s gut, and he looks at the other people in the Leisure tier and notices everyone showing signs of some malady. Then a voice comes through all their minds, one Kei has heard before. It says, “Denizens of Lyra Station. Turn over Lady Thief, and we will spare you all. Refuse, and we will obliterate you completely.” People begin rushing out of the cantina, alarm klaxons sound on the station. Through a massive window wall, Kei turns to see the carapace ship shimmer into view beyond Lyra. As a show of intent, its cannons power up and fire on one of the Imperium cruisers, completely obliterating it. This was a warning.

Something in Kei clicks, and he looks at Astrid. “We need to get on the Vigilant. We need to get on that ship.” She looks at him like he’s crazy; Kei looks at Jorruns. “I’m not going back on that thing,” he states flatly. Kei looks at Astrid; she just nods. “Where’s Rozhan?” asks Kei, and they explain he left with the three Bamiri, probably somewhere in the Temple tier. The three rush to the docking bay, and Jorruns helps out as the station powers up its small fleet of zip fighters. Some other visiting pilots have the same idea as Kei and are ready to help run interference for the station. 

With a burst, the motley crew of ships swarm out of Lyra and begin speeding like a massive torpedo toward the attacking vessel. The larger ship sends out a volley of heat-seeking objects that begin tearing through some of the vessels in the Lyra swarm. Kei manages to steer the Vigilant clear, and Astrid opens fire as he makes a pass. The damage seems negligible, but it has Wraithus’ attention off of Lyra for a bit. A bolt of energy strikes the Vigilant, whose engines are already questionable, and comes to a drifting dead stop. Kei bangs his fist against a control panel. Quick thinking has him hailing Lyra flight control.

Kei asks them to do something risky. He’s been on this ship before; they can check with Lady Thiff. Lyra needs to use its teleporters, lock onto Kei & Astrid’s signals and port them onboard the attacking ship. Kei says he could at least create problems within the vessel. A few moments pass, and Lyra flight control says they can do it. Seconds later, Kei and Astrid are back on the nightmare ship. Klaxons sound as Kei knows they’ve been detected; he and Astrid hole up in the cargo bay as he rifles through his pack. There he finds something that might turn the tide. (Rolled doubles on a Strong Hit to find something useful in my Supply)

We cut to the image of an automated orbital factory decades ago in the UPA home system. A factory line of EMP grenades is being produced. Jump cut to a battlefield somewhere on the fringes of UPA space. A pair of soldiers lift a carton of these same grenades to be brought to a skirmish. One tumbles out and rolls into a hole in the trench that the soldiers dug. Flash to two decades later, a scavenger and his son digging through the old battlefield and finding scraps. The son discovers the grenade and hides it away in his cloak. Cut to the son at his workbench late at night, carefully cracking the EMP open and tinkering with it. On his tab, we can see a file he’s scrolling through about overlocking Starforce grenades. Later, his father discovers the grenade and chastises his son, tossing in with the rest of the recovered weaponry he plans on selling. Kei stops at a floating market orbiting a gas giant on his way to The Regulak System and picks up the EMP as an afterthought, unaware it was overclocked.

Back to the present. Kei clicks the EMP, tosses it toward the armored guards as they smash down the cargo bay door, and then…DARK. Every ship, weapon, and device is knocked offline and onto auxiliary power if they have it. Kei and Astrid push their way past the guards and race down the hallway. Kei knows that this ship could have its weapons back online in a matter of minutes, and Lyra may not. Then he feels the point of a blade against his back and Astrid’s voice telling him to turn around.

Kei can’t believe it. Astrid looks stern but not entirely confident. “I’m sorry,” she says. “But he…that thing…he showed me her,” Kei remembers the topics of Astrid and the other woman in her safehouse apartment back on Glimmer. “He told me that if I helped him, he could do something that would bring her back. I saw her Kei. I talked to her. It had to be real. It felt like it.”

Kei understands. “You don’t really mean this, Astrid. He found a wound. He picked at it. That’s all. He’s promised you a lie. He’s going to kill you.”

“She sounded so real…I spoke to her, and she talked to me…I don’t know…he’s been in my head since we escaped.

“I’m not going to hold this against you, Astrid. You have been manipulated.” Kei reaches for the hilt of the knife slowly. “We’re going to get him out of your head once we’re back on Lyra, okay?” He has the blade, and Astrid sobs, shamed and confused. Kei checks his pulse rifle offline but quickly gets it rebooted. Lights flicker in the hallway. “They’re coming back online; we must get to the flight deck!”

Kei feels something from Lyra, a push guiding him to the flight deck, and he suspects it’s Lady Thiff. When they enter, Wraithus sits in the captain’s chair, shouting orders to a scrambling crew. Kei lets off a few bolts taking out two crew members before concentrating on Wraithus. “I won’t hesitate to kill you,” he assures his former captor. Wraithus bears horrible scorch mark scars on his face from Kei’s earlier shots. What appears to be a grimace or a grin grows on Wraithus’ face. “I suppose you’ve won, Kei Becker.”

Wraithus and his crew are teleported from their ship into Lyra’s brig. Imperium refugees from Lyra teleport onboard this ship and pilot into docking with the station. Kei learns from some of the refugees this is a Skygge ship, the enemies of the Calugar. Kei has a moment with Astrid where he learns about her late partner Kayla who was killed while investigating illegal activity in the corbomite mines of Orcus. Kei says they will return to Glimmer and finish what Kayla started, but what’s happening now is more significant. Astrid agrees.

Kei finds his way to the Bamiri quarter and the Temple district. Rozhan emerges, explaining he had to go into a deep state of meditation to speed up the healing process of his eyes. He congratulates Kei on being the hero of the day. Then, Kei asks about the prophecy. Since he started studying the Bamiri diaspora and has observed their temples and rituals recently, there is also a mention of “the prophecy.”

Rozhan asks Kei to mediate, and he will be shown the prophecy. He warns that Kei may see things he doesn’t want to as he is an outsider and has not been prepared. Kei accepts and drifts into a trance with Rozhan. A rocky, nearly barren planet. A sky of yellow clouds and lightning. A monolith emerges from the clouds. Kei finds himself standing among Bamiri, who cannot see him. They look up into the sky as a red beam of energy comes from the monolith cutting across the planet, killing thousands of them. A door opens in the monolith after it touches the surface. From it emerges legions of armored guards like the ones on the Skygge ship. One figure follows, standing aboard a floating chariot, wearing ornate armor that distinguishes them from the rest. The figure removes the helmet, revealing a slightly older, scarred version of Lady Thief. Kei snaps out of the vision with a gasp.

“I am here to kill her, Kei,” Rozhan tells him.

To be continued…