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Iron Claws

Dwarven Mafia • Former Rulers of High Forge • Active in Greyport

Overview​

The Iron Claws are a dwarven mafia, marked by an iron-claw tattoo, that was led by Helja Ungar. After the dragon attack on High Forge they seized the city and ran it on the dragons' behalf. They put a bounty on Taco Cat and hunted Silas for years over the dragon orb. Silas and Bru killed Helja in Session 36.

Status as of Session 63:

  • High Forge: The organisation there is finished. Its lieutenant Grimjaw switched sides and now co-governs the city with Chalk Rock (Session 37).
  • Greyport: The gang is still active. Helja's mother has taken the boss's seat again, and the gang holds the old neighbourhood around the Cog & Steam (Session 53). Silas carries a coded map the Cog & Steam's bartender slipped him, which has not yet been deciphered.

Leadership and Members​

  • Helja Ungar: The boss. She was killed in her throne room in the Forge Heart in Session 36. Her journals show a mother who pushed her to get the dragon orb: "My mother said it would be the only way we were respected" (Session 38).
  • Helja's mother: The power behind Helja. She is back in charge of the gang in Greyport (Session 53).
  • Lieutenant Grimjaw: Helja's right-hand man, in heavy armour that leaks poison gas. Elspeth killed him at the V distribution centre (Session 27), but he came back sewn together (Session 36). After Helja's death he told the party "I just follow the money" and joined them (Session 37 transcript).
  • Triple C: Captain Corwin, Lady Corwin's cousin, who was turned by the Iron Claws (Session 30). He returned as an undead puppet (Session 36) and was last seen dancing among the ravers after a suggestion from Leliana (Session 37 transcript).
  • Car and Athena: Lieutenants who escaped the throne room with teleportation rings (Session 36). Their whereabouts are unknown.
  • Marta: An elite fighter whose teleportation ring Ohma stole before kicking her off a ledge (Session 36).
  • Lark: A former member who defected and guided the party into High Forge (Sessions 25–26).

History​

The Sisyphus Circle Betrayal​

Before the campaign, Helja hired the Sisyphus Circle, Silas and Bru's old crew, to steal an orb from the Pandora gang's vault in Greyport. At the handover in Blackwell Memorial Park she had her gunmen open fire. Silas had switched bags, so she got a medicine ball. He and Bru escaped through the storm drains with the real orb (Interlude XIII). This is why the Iron Claws were hunting Silas by name when the campaign began (Sessions 7–8).

Control of High Forge​

  • Early contact: The Twilight Company worked to "counterbalance" the Iron Claws in High Forge politics (Session 3). During the dragon attack the Iron Claws controlled the escape tunnels and charged tolls; Olivia talked their checkpoint down from 500 gold to 450 (Session 7).
  • Takeover: In the wake of the dragon attack, the Iron Claws took the city's gates and tunnels (Session 23). Helja became the city's shadow ruler under the dragons, who held the upper levels (Session 24). The gang collected protection money and heavy taxes, and put a bounty of 50,000 dead or alive on Taco Cat, with a larger personal price on Silas (Session 25).
  • Business: The gang produced the eye-drop drug V, and the party found human test subjects in its facilities (Session 27). It paid the dragons regular tribute, and the dragons obeyed whoever held "the orb", whom they believed to be Helja (Session 28).
  • Unravelling: The resistance bombed the V facilities (Sessions 27–28) and the party emptied a tribute vault (Sessions 28–30). Silas then showed the dragons that he had held the orb all along, proving that Helja had been deceiving them (Session 32).
  • The Great Hall: The Iron Claws held hostages over the Great Hall. With Helisanna's ravers swarming the guards, the party freed most of the hostages. Silas, posing as a traitor, was taken up to Helja's throne, where he and Bru killed her (Session 36).
  • Aftermath: With no one left to pay them, the Iron Claws in High Forge broke up. The party had the remnants put to work rebuilding and providing services, Grimjaw and Chalk Rock took over running the city, and Leliana spent the following month helping former Iron Claws rehabilitate (Session 37).

Greyport​

  • Sander found: Helja's journals showed that her people had searched Greyport for the Sisyphus Circle survivor Sander without success (Session 38).
  • The bakery bombing: When the party found Sander, the Gaines bakery exploded. The party chased Iron Claws across the rooftops, killing several, and the Order of St. George took one prisoner (Session 39). Commander Tannondel later admitted the Order had kept Sander at the bakery as bait, hoping he would be targeted (Session 40 transcript).
  • The old neighbourhood: Sander told the party the Iron Claws still held the old gang's neighbourhood, and Bru started planning "Operation Cogenstein" (Session 40).
  • The Cog & Steam: The party ambushed four Iron Claws, took their hats, and walked into the Cog & Steam, now a boarded-up gang bar. Bru set an Iron Claw on fire, Silas talked his way behind the bar, and the bartender slipped him a coded map (Session 53).

Session History​

  • Session 7 — The Iron Claws control the tunnels out of burning High Forge; Olivia bargains down their toll, and Silas is revealed to be wanted by Helja.
  • Session 8 — Silas and Bru's past heist involving the dragon orb comes out, and the gang is hunting Silas by name.
  • Session 23 — The Iron Claws have taken High Forge after the dragon attack, with bounties on the party.
  • Session 24 — Victor confirms Helja rules High Forge under the dragons.
  • Session 25 — The 50,000 bounty on Taco Cat brings the Jackals down on the party; the defector Lark offers help.
  • Session 26 — The party rescues Lark's family from Iron Claws custody.
  • Session 27 — The party bombs the gang's V facilities and Elspeth kills Lieutenant Grimjaw.
  • Session 28 — The party learns of the gang's tribute to the dragons and begins the vault heist.
  • Session 30 — Captain Corwin, turned by the Iron Claws, fights the party in Vault 7.
  • Session 32 — Silas proves to the dragons that Helja has been deceiving them.
  • Session 36 — The Great Hall hostage crisis; Silas and Bru kill Helja in her throne room.
  • Session 37 — Grimjaw joins the party, the gang dissolves in High Forge, and Grimjaw and Chalk Rock take charge of the city.
  • Interlude 13 — Flashback: Helja betrays and massacres the Sisyphus Circle in Greyport.
  • Session 38 — Helja's journals reveal her mother's pressure and her failed hunt for Sander.
  • Session 39 — After the bakery explosion, the party and the Order of St. George fight Iron Claws across Greyport's rooftops.
  • Session 53 — The party infiltrates the Iron Claws' Cog & Steam; Helja's mother is running the gang again.