Solo Tabletop RPG Actual Play – Supersworn Part Five

Supersworn Pre-Alpha
Designed & Written by Ben Adams

You can check out this game and many other hacks of Ironsworn here.

Read part four of our Supersworn actual play here.

Once again, I used Mythic GM Emulator 2ed tools to set up this session along with Starforged’s built-in Start of Session move. That latter move generated this for me: “Unforeseen aid is on the way or within reach.” I got this at the start of the last session in the context of a comic book adventure; I interpret this as another hero guest-starring. I had a list of names and randomly picked one: The Forever Kid. So at some point, we will meet The Forever Kid and learn what he is about. Then, I decided the Chaos Factor from the last session had gone up from 7 to 8 and rolled on Mythic’s scene table. I was told to go with an Altered Scene with the prompt “Remove a character.” This was the moment I decided to just reveal the phone call from Aunt Laurie was an illusion removing her from the moment.

Slingshot is powering across the city, panicking about Mari, his sister, having been hurt by the armed soldiers that flooded their home. He’s pushing his energy tendrils to their max capacity to get to the hospital faster.

(Secure an Advantage + Edge +1 from Tendrils – rolled a Miss. Pay the Price: A new enemy is revealed. I decided to interpret this as building on an enemy previously seen.)

An energy blast strikes Slingshot in the back, his tendrils shut off, and he begins plummeting down into the canyon of skyscrapers in Forge City. Following him down are two soldiers wearing jetpacks and bearing the same angular “D” symbols glimpsed in Boss Frankenstein’s arena and on the soldiers that entered his house. 

(Battle with Iron – Strong Hit)

Slingshot can turn himself around in the air, light up his tendrils again, grab the jetpack soldiers, and pull himself to them, bringing them into the same freefall. He’s able to steer them to the ground with a crash landing and then quickly knocks them unconscious. A searing pain surges through the back of his neck, and Sling reaches around to touch the roughly stitched lump where Doctor Pandemonia had implanted her control kernel. A brief vision of Mari flashes before his eyes, seeming real but vanishing.

(Secure an Advantage with Iron – Weak Hit)

Slng grits his teeth and opens up the wound, reaching in and tearing out the capsule, his vision becoming like television static for a moment. He screams out in pain, tossing the kernel to the ground, noticing the angular “D” glowing blue on it. 

The air begins to ripple, like waves of heat on a summer day, but Sling doesn’t feel a temperature change. Matter begins to stretch around him, yet he’s stationary, standing in an alley around midtown. The outline of a person emerges from this warping; details become evident with each moment, though time feels like it is standing still. The outline becomes a young man, a little older than Sling. He emanates a sense of purpose, his face telling a story Sling hasn’t heard the beginning yet. 

“Greetings, Christopher Kelly,” the man says. Upon hearing Sling’s real name, the tendrils light up in an involuntary defensive posture. “You don’t have to worry about me, old friend. For you, this is our first meeting. For me, it is one of the last times I will see you. My name is The Forever Kid, and I hail from the 45th century.”

“I’m alive for that long?” Sling asks. The Forever Kid chuckles and shakes his head. “Time travel allows us to get to know each other. That is how I am appearing to you now, within this chronosphere. I saw you only moments ago, decades older. I am here now because I have always done this and come back to this point. The first reason is to do this.”

The Forever Kid reaches down, picks up the kernel with its glowing blue “D,” and crushes it in his hand. Sling notes a spark of energy crackles around The Kid’s hand when he does this. Palm open, and small bits of ground metal float to the ground. “The next thing I do is this.” He reaches out and casts a ray of energy over Sling, and the young hero can feel his body healing. Cuts mending, nerves soothed, bone fractures sealing up. “Now you are prepared for this.”

The Forever Kid points to the left, and a portal opens mid-air. Sling finds himself peering down at a boardroom table in a dingy room. Boss Frankenstein sits at the head of the table while his lieutenants nervously stammer out updates about their various investments for the crime family. “Your family is safe, by the way, Christopher. They were out of the house early because of your sister’s rehearsal. You have no need to worry about them…for now.”

“I have a lot of questions,” Sling interrupts. “If you’re from the future, you could clear up many things. Like, what happened to my dad? Who killed him? Where did my powers come from?”

The Forever Kid shakes his head. “You always ask these questions, and I can never answer them. You will learn the truth behind these things, but at the time, you are supposed to.”

Sling steps closer to the portal, looking into Frankenstein’s meeting; the ground beneath his feet seems to rotate, slipping from beneath him, and the hero finds himself tumbling through the window and landing with a thud on the large table. On his back, he looks up and sees The Forever Kid closing the portal and leaving Slingshot. A momentary stunned silence stops the gangsters’ meeting before Boss Frankenstein unleashes a roar. The lieutenants begin piling on Slingshot to hold him down.

(Battle with Iron – Miss. Pay the Price: Create an opportunity for an enemy)

Sling is overwhelmed, two dozen guys pinning him to the table. Boss Frankenstein gets up from his seat and cracks his neck. Frank reaches into the dogpile to grab Sling by the skull. His meaty paw, larger than Sling’s head, begins crushing the young man’s skull.

(Face Danger with Iron – Weak Hit. -2 Health)

Sling is pulled, head first, from the dogpile, vision blocked by Frank’s hand, the pressure pushing down harder on his skull. The pain lights up his whole body, Frank slams Sling against a wall, and a tendril whips out, lashing across Frank’s hand. The pain causes him to let go of Sling, who crashes to the floor; he can feel blood dripping from his ears.

(Enter the Fray with Heart – Strong Hit)

Sling gets his bearings as Frank shakes off his oversized jacket, rolls up his sleeves, and flashes a grin of rotten-stained teeth. Sling takes a fighting stance, determined to not leave here until this enemy is defeated.

(Strike with Iron – Miss. Pay the Price: You create an opportunity for an enemy)

Sling’s tendril misses its mark, but Frank’s fist finds the hero’s center of gravity, a punch sending Slingshot hurtling across the room and through a wall. 

(Clash with Iron – Strong Hit)

Sling leaps onto his feet just as Frank chucks his oversized oak chair at the hero, reacting quickly enough to spin out of the way, snatch the chair mid-air, and throw it right back, splintering against Frank’s massive frame.

(Strike with Iron – Strong Hit with a Match)

Sling slides under the table, kicking his feet up, flipping the table so it comes crashing down on the gangster. Frank roars from underneath the pile of broken wood. The villain isn’t paying close enough attention, and Sling slams him on either side of the head with tendrils.

(Take Decisive Action – Weak Hit. It’s worse than you thought; make a suffering move. -2 Health)

Sling gets a little too cocky and tries to be fancy, not noticing the fist Frank is bringing down on his head until it is too late. Dazed and confused, Sling stumbles away from the fight.

(Clash with Iron – Miss. Pay the Price: You are delayed or put at a disadvantage)

Sling tries to grab one of Frank’s arms to hold him back, but Frank grabs our hero by one of the tendrils, enduring its painful sting, and chucks Sling through a window, down two stories to the concrete. Frank follows with a leap from the hole in the wall, landing on the concrete with a thunderous thud that cracks the pavement. 

(React Under Fire with Heart – Miss. Pay the Price: The environment or terrain introduces a new hazard.)

Sling scrambles to his feet, trying to distance himself from the hulking mob boss. However, each step Frank takes shakes the ground, cracking it further, causing Sling to keep losing his footing. 

(Clash with Iron – Miss. Pay the Price: Something of value is lost or destroyed)

Frank catches up to Sling and kicks him in the stomach. The hard drive Sling had taken from the drone that chased him in his neighborhood falls out, yet to be decrypted and analyzed. Frank cocks an eyebrow out of curiosity but doesn’t think much more as he brings his heel down on the slim black rectangle, grinding into the pavement. 

(Secure an Advantage with Iron – Weak Hit. +1 to the next move.)

Sling can get up but doesn’t feel confident enough to go toe-to-toe with Frank again. He starts whipping the tendrils around wildly, grabbing anything he can: trash cans, newspaper boxes, and even tearing a fire hydrant out of the sidewalk. Trying to get distance between him and his opponent. 

(Clash with Iron – Miss. Pay the Price: A surprising development complicates your quest. Oracle: an old enemy resurfaces)

A sudden explosion rocks the block, and Frank and Sling’s attention is caught by it. A volley of energy bolts strikes Frank across the chest, sending him stumbling backward and crashing onto his ass. Blue Bolt (Ezra Eaton) flies across the sky on his flying jet step. He descends to look down at Frank and wags his finger.

“Slingshot is mine to kill when I see fit, not some patched-together late show reject. You need to understand who controls Forge City, ‘boss.’ It’s certainly not you. I hope you enjoyed the weapons you stole from me.” Bolt taps a panel on his digital gauntlet, which triggers a series of massive explosions from the building Frank had been meeting in. “Seems there’s been a recall on those particular energy rifles. Something about a faulty self-destruct sensor.”

Bolt raises back into the air, firing a grappling rope around Slingshot’s leg and hauling him away. He dumps him roughly onto a nearby rooftop a safe distance away. “We’re not done, and don’t think I was saving you because I think you’re a ‘good guy.’ There’s a connection between us, Sling. I don’t know what it is, but I can feel it. You have something to do with Doctor Kelly, don’t you? You live for now because I wish to study you further. A day will come when my research is complete, and I will flay you alive then.” Bolt rockets off, and Sling lies on the roof, catching his breath, knowing his life is about to become even more complicated.

To end for now…