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44: The Son of Fluke

🎧 Podcast coming soon • February 27, 2026

Settling In: The Brownstone​

After the events at the Greyport Zoo, the party settles into their Twilight Company safe house—a three-story brownstone with six bedrooms and a rooftop garden that Olivia has already claimed for morning meditation and workouts. Scarlet arrives in the Broomfall (the party's van), having spent the journey with most of the passenger seats removed to make room for experiments. The van is parked in front of a fire hydrant. This is considered fine.

Scarlet immediately begins assessing the brownstone's living room as a potential experiment space, having left a trail of scorch marks across the van's interior. Brew looks at her with what can only be described as professional disappointment.

Brew: "Scarlet, I thought you were professional." Scarlet: "I'm an engineer. I have a PhD. Even worse."

Before Scarlet can claim another space for uncontrolled explosions, Brew mentions a better option: Fluke's Workshop, a crafting space down by the coast run by a man named Iro. It's free, open to anyone with a creative spark, and has facilities Scarlet actually needs.

Brew: "This guy totally loves me. I'll just go and make the introductions. Easy peasy."

The party piles back into the Broomfall. The double-parking situation resolves itself.

Fluke's Workshop​

The Dock District​

Greyport reveals its layers as the party drives toward the waterfront. The coast near the harbor is lined with trendy cafes and artisan furniture boutiques—the gentrified face of the district. But Brew directs them further, past the clean shopfronts and into older territory: buildings with more history than polish, blue-collar and unhurried. At the epicenter of this older Greyport sits Fluke's Workshop: a rundown shop with an old sign hanging above the door, clearly maintained with stubborn love rather than fresh capital.

Parking, for once, is not a problem.

Fidget and the Back Room​

Inside, the front desk is ancient wood held together by sheer maintenance and stubbornness. Nobody staffs it, but a small mechanical bird perched nearby begins screaming the moment the party enters.

Fidget: "Customers! Customers!"

A voice from the back room: "Come on back."

The workshop itself is a study in joyful improvisation. Workbenches aged to near-rot, machinery that has been painstakingly repurposed rather than replaced—clearly not because Iro can't afford better, but because throwing it out isn't the kind of man he is. Artificers in the party can tell immediately: it's all jerry-rigged, and all of it works. Craftspeople of every stripe work at their stations, dwarves and halflings and humans all chatting across socioeconomic lines with the easy camaraderie of people who share a common obsession.

Meeting Iro​

A large figure with his back to the party lifts his head and sniffs the air. He turns.

Iro is a human man, probably in his forties, standing well over six feet. His beard is the color of a thundercloud. His eyes are a startling, piercing blue—the blue of a lightning bolt. He is not, at first, pleased to see Brew.

Iro: "It took a week to clean all the brown out of the machinery. Damn it, Brew. You're still mad about this? Of course I'm still mad about that. I don't ask for money. I don't ask for credit. All I ask is that you respect this workplace."

His frustration with Brew is significant but ultimately finite. As it is a place of craft, and as the shop's doors are open to crafts people of all stripes, he reluctantly allows it—and then his gaze lands on Elspeth Cooper.

Iro: "Are you Elizabeth Cooper?"

He is, it turns out, a devoted follower of the racing scene. He introduces himself with visible pride: I'm his youngest son. A gesture toward the far wall explains everything.

The Memorial Wall​

One corner of the workshop has been maintained as a living memorial. On the wall:

  • A portrait of the Steve Squad—the legendary band of heroes who saved the world some 200 years ago
  • A portrait of Iro as a young man with his sister
  • A crudely but lovingly made gold statue of the Steve Squad (Steve is recognizable; he's iconic)
  • Newspaper clippings covering Shield's founding of the fight institute
  • Clippings of Gary's wrestling career
  • Photos and sightings of Caspian across the years—winter solstice appearances, Market Day wishes granted, news items
  • A write-up about Dane founding a new gnomish capital

And dominating the dock side of the workshop: an ancient steamboat, more rust than metal by now, with the name Iron Maiden still readable on the prow. It's polished to a high shine where it can be polished. Iro won a race on this boat with his father's crew.

Olivia: (rolling a 22 on history) "Wait—Fluke? The Fluke? From the Steve Squad?" Iro: (beaming) "The very same. I'm his youngest son."

He gives Elspeth a long, searching look—and decides he likes what he sees.

Iro: "I was sad to hear about all those accusations they made against you. Well—I learned long ago to make my own opinions about things." (bending down so his face is level with hers, eyes direct and blue as voltage) "You have honest eyes. You're no cheater." Elspeth: "I never paid taxes, but I have an accountant—" Iro: (laughing) "I look forward to you clearing your good name then."

The party disperses into work. Scarlet finds the catalytic chamber she needs and immediately starts running trials on the pocket village. Liliana and Elspeth settle on the couch by the warmth and get out their knitting and crochet, debating audio book recommendations and romance novel prospects. Olivia makes herself a coffee and relaxes. Brew and Silus work on something that turns out to be sensory candles calibrated to Liliana's concert aesthetic.

Liliana: "So, Elizabeth. How do you feel about pushing romance novels? There hasn't been a big name in romance since Caspian."

Elspeth: (gesturing toward Iro across the room) "How is there not a romance about that guy?"

The book begins to write itself.

The Developer​

Fidget Has Opinions​

A short time into the work session, Fidget breaks from his usual script.

Fidget: "The a****** is here. The a****** is here."

Mr. Dunbar enters: a diminutive man in a seersucker suit, bowler hat, round glasses, and a smile that has never encountered sincerity. He is a real estate developer, and he has come, as he apparently does every few weeks, to make his pitch.

Dunbar: "Yoohoo, Mr. Iro. I thought I told you to stop coming here. But you must see sense someday. Surely you understand that you're sitting on a gold mine—waterfront property. What will it take to convince you to sell? We could beautify the area, bring in new capital, new investment. This rundown neighborhood would finally see the rejuvenation it's frankly been two centuries out of."

Iro does not change shape. He does not raise his voice. But something shifts in him—the air in the room seems to lower in pressure, the floorboards creak as though suddenly bearing a much greater weight. He projects the energy of something immense.

Iro: "You come into my home—my father's home—and you speak to me of rejuvenation. Of beautification. You would take this place of craft, a place that fosters the creative spark, a place that carries my father's legacy—and you would take the very soul from it, digest it, and s*** it out like you have everywhere else in this waterfront. I am tired of telling you no. As long as I am here, you will never have this place. It's not a place just for me. It's a place for all these people to add to the world. A place for thinkers, where true creatives can do their good work. And I will be damned before I sell it to a parasite like you."

Dunbar retreats with a thin smile and a vague threat about safety regulations before making his exit. Iro exhales through his nose; the air crackles.

Iro: "A******."

The regulars burst out laughing. Liliana and Elspeth are frantically scribbling notes. Iro notices and, quietly amused, informs Olivia that Dunbar has been escalating beyond words: the power has "mysteriously" gone out several times, a brick came through the window, and there was a fire in the alley that he strongly suspects was a Molotov cocktail. He cannot prove it—but the pattern is unmistakable.

When Olivia asks how he keeps the grid running without power, he taps the side of his nose and gives her a wink.

The Attack​

Fire at the Caspian Center​

The calm breaks when a breathless child runs in through the front door.

Child: "Mr. Iro—the Caspian Center, it's on fire! A bunch of dudes came up with those bottle things. They threw them. The whole place is burning!"

Iro's brow drops into shadow. His fist clenches. You can hear the bones. Then, immediately—he thinks. They're trying to get him out of the shop.

Iro: "I can get there faster. But that place has a legacy too. The good work of my aunt Caspian is there. You—" (to the party) "I don't want to share my burdens with you. But I appreciate it." (to the other craftspeople) "Get somewhere safe."

He heads upstairs. The roof groans under enormous weight. A crack of thunder. A flash of lightning. And then the beating of immense wings as the Iron Maiden's dock doors open and something large takes to the sky.

Elspeth: "How's... there not a romance about that man."

The party immediately gets to work.

Perimeter Defense​

The party splits into teams and begins preparing. Brew and Scarlet set up Home Alone-style defenses:

  • A can of Brew's signature brown material rigged above the front door
  • Greased basement stairs
  • A superheated door handle by the knitting area
  • Scarlet's catalytic chamber repurposed as a nearby explosive deterrent

Liliana and Elspeth take the roof. Silus establishes a psychic party link. Olivia takes the front entrance with Bob, her fay sheep.

The Ground Assault​

From the roof, Liliana spots a group of burly men moving with purpose toward the shop—and one figure cutting into the alley with a pair of shears, heading for the power cords. She relays this instantly over the psychic link.

Elspeth lines up the shot, waits for the moment the man pulls back to cut, and fires. The bullet deflects the shears into the pavement with a spark.

Elspeth: "Back off, punk."

He runs. The others, seeing their power-cutting cohort flee, charge across the street toward the front door.

Olivia summons Bob and bursts out the front door at a full gallop before they can reach it. Both attacks land—a combined 22 and 24 to hit—gouging deep wounds into the lead attacker. He retreats, trailing blood.

Liliana catches a second attacker's gaze and speaks a single word of Suggestion: Go home. Go to bed. He stands there—genuinely thinking it over—and begins walking away.

The remaining thugs make their last stand tangled in Elspeth's Web spell (which also catches Olivia, who accepts this with the dignity of a veteran). Scarlet casts Fireball at fifth level. Thirty-five fire damage, plus 2d4 from the web burning away. The smaller thugs don't survive. The largest breaks free of the smoldering web and runs.

The Water Assault​

As the street clears, a new threat announces itself from the harbor side of the building: three boats have positioned themselves in the water outside the shop, and their crews are hurling Molotov cocktails from slingshots rigged to the rails.

Elspeth, on the roof, shoots one cocktail mid-flight, detonating it against the boat's own deck. Scarlet casts Slow on a second crew, freezing them as the Molotov lazily tumbles out of a half-cocked sling.

Then Liliana and Olivia do something wonderfully reckless: they get in the Iron Maiden.

Iro left the keys in the ignition. Liliana rolls a 27 on Insight—and understands the boat immediately, almost instinctually. The Iron Maiden moves as though it wants to defend its home, veering toward the attackers with supernatural ease. Olivia brings her axe to bear, swatting Molotov cocktails out of the air like tennis lobs. They rain fire back down onto their launchers.

Beneath the hull, the situation grows stranger. Olivia spots a Saojun—a four-armed, green-scaled fishman with a large trident—directing a pack of twelve sharks at the shop's support pillars. She dives in.

Olivia: (swimming like a barracuda, water-aerobics training finally paying off) "This is fine."

She takes one hit from the trident—12 damage, though Scarlet's Haste means three of his subsequent attacks miss entirely against her 23 AC. Underwater, with disadvantage on the axe, she still hits three times. On the third strike, empowered with divine smite against a fiend, she removes one of the Saojun's forearms. On the next exchange, she removes his head.

The sharks, suddenly uncompelled, look around in confused circles. Elspeth's Web spell catches them before anyone decides to re-engage. Once the Saojun is confirmed dead, the sharks are released. They tip their metaphorical hats and disperse into the harbor.

Elspeth: "Canonically, we have gentleman shark friends now." Tyram (DM): "Canonically, yes."

Meanwhile, back inside the shop, the booby trap goes off.

The Barlura​

Two Barlura—massive gorilla-like creatures with red fur and glowing eyes, wearing trench coats—have crashed down the stairway from the upper floor. Nobody can identify them on a religion check. They look horrible and are clearly not here for the yarn.

Liliana casts Mirror Image and runs at them with Silus as interference, springing through cabinet doors and off workbenches in an extended Benny Hill sequence that captures their attention completely. Brew, given a few rounds to work in the workshop, rigs his force ballista to a power amplifier and sets up a recording of a threatening gangster voice playing from behind a closed door. When the Barlura investigate the noise—

They get riddled with amplified force blasts. Both collapse.

Iro Returns​

The flapping of great wings. The roof groans again. Iro comes downstairs in a now very wet white shirt—he created a thunderstorm over the Caspian Center to put out the fire—and surveys the damage with quiet satisfaction. He picks up one of the dead Barlura with one hand and tosses it off the dock into the harbor. The water splashes. His shirt, thoroughly soaked, is fairly informative about the musculature underneath.

Olivia turns to Liliana and mouths: chapter one.

Iro: "I'm eternally grateful I managed to save Aunt Caspian's community center. And I see that you all managed to save my home while I was out. Hopefully they've learned their lesson." (a beat) "Thank you."

He is not one to let debts go unpaid.

Rewards​

Iro takes Elspeth's axe and gun. He carries them to a special forge—no furnace, no visible flame—and breathes into it. Not fire. Lightning. The forge crackles with contained electricity, channeling the energy directly into the weapons.

Iro: "Those should serve you better from now on."

Elspeth's axe and gun are now infused with lightning breath. Each hit deals an additional 2d6 lightning damage.

For Silus—and the party at large—Iro produces several of the grappling hooks from the old Sisyphus Circle heist days, now stocked in the workshop. Three go into party inventory, each usable as a bonus action to close up to 30 feet of distance once per reload.

For Brew: Iro goes upstairs and returns with a worn leather case.

Iro: "Direct your mischief with those who deserve it."

Inside: Shield's prank kit. A hand buzzer. A set of whoopie cushions. Cans that spring snakes. And what appears to be a complete set of knives optimized, according to the original inventory labels, for stabbing someone named Joel.

The craftspeople filter back in as Iro returns the workshop to normal. Somewhere outside, Iro briefly intervenes to help a woman in distress, gets splashed by a passing cart of hot wax, and walks back through a sudden rain shower. Olivia taps Liliana's shoulder.

Olivia: "These books are writing themselves."

Key Information Learned​

Iro and the Steve Squad Legacy:

  • Iro is the youngest son of Fluke—one of the Steve Squad, the legendary heroes of 200 years ago
  • His brothers include Shield (now runs the fight institute) and Gary (professional wrestler)
  • His aunt is Caspian, whose community center he protects
  • The Iron Maiden—Fluke's old steamboat—is still docked in the workshop and responds to defenders of the shop with supernatural ease
  • Iro can create thunderstorms and take to the sky; this implies something significant about his nature he has not directly addressed

Dunbar and the Property War:

  • A developer named Dunbar has been systematically harassing Fluke's Workshop for weeks, escalating from offers to power outages, property damage, and arson
  • Tonight's coordinated assault (street thugs, Molotov boats, Barlura, Saojun) was almost certainly funded by Dunbar or whoever is behind him
  • Iro holds the property under a deed vetted by Governor Pike himself, 200 years ago—Dunbar cannot close them legally

Gentleman Sharks:

  • The party now has gentleman shark friends in the harbor outside Fluke's Workshop
  • This is canon

Character Moments​

Elspeth Cooper: The recognition from Iro—a Steve Squad legacy who "makes his own opinions"—is meaningful against the backdrop of the racing scandal. Her marksmanship (shooting a Molotov cocktail mid-air) and her earlier intimidation of the power-cutter show the sharpshooter at full competence. The romance novel scheme begins here and is entirely her fault.

Olivia: Dives into a harbor in full armor to fight an amphibious monster, swims like a barracuda, and beheads the creature in three hits while hasted. The years of water aerobics were not wasted. She then cheerfully notes that Iro's shirt is wet and begins dictating chapter outlines.

Liliana: Pilots Iro's 200-year-old steamboat with a 27 Insight roll, suggesting the Iron Maiden is supernaturally responsive to those defending the workshop. Her mirror-image Benny Hill routine keeps two Barlura occupied long enough for Brew to kill them both with a trap. She is the de facto co-author of what is shaping up to be a multi-volume romance series.

Scarlet: Runs the first successful pocket village trial in the catalytic chamber. Also: Fireball at 5th level, Slow on a boat crew, Haste on Olivia, and detailed Home Alone trap engineering. Having access to proper facilities is doing her good.

Brew and Silus (NPCs): Brew receives Shield's legacy prank kit and kills two Barlura with a force-ballista trap baited by a gangster recording. Silus establishes psychic comms, kills a thug with a surprise knife, and participates in the mirror-image distraction routine.

Unresolved Threads​

  • Dunbar almost certainly didn't fund this out of his own pocket—who is behind the coordinated Barlura and Saojun assault on a craftsman's workshop?
  • Iro's nature (thunderstorms, wings, lightning breath) is unaddressed. He clearly is not simply Fluke's human son.
  • The Caspian Center: was it badly damaged? What does the community center mean to the city, and to the broader fight?
  • The party still needs to deal with Victor, the Twilight Company HQ beneath the zoo, and the Eldoran space station operation—none of which have become less urgent
  • Shield is apparently alive and running a fight institute. Gary is alive and still wrestling. Where are they?
  • The pocket village trials have started—what will Scarlet find?
  • The gentleman sharks will presumably be waiting if the party ever needs harbor allies

Notable Quotes​

Iro: "You come into my home—my father's home—and you speak to me of rejuvenation. Of beautification. You would take the very soul from it, digest it, and s*** it out like you have everywhere else in this waterfront. I will be damned before I sell it to a parasite like you."

Brew: "Scarlet, I thought you were professional." Scarlet: "I'm an engineer. I have a PhD. Even worse."

Elspeth: (on the roof, gun leveled) "Back off, punk."

Iro: (after Olivia obliquely asks how he powers the grid) (taps his nose, winks)

Liliana: "So, Elizabeth. How do you feel about pushing romance novels? There hasn't been a big name in romance since Caspian."

Elspeth: "How is there not a romance about that guy?"

Iro: (to Brew, presenting Shield's prank kit) "Direct your mischief with those who deserve it."

Iro: (tossing a Barlura corpse into the harbor with one hand) "Good show."

The session ends with the party settled back into Fluke's Workshop, new weapons crackling with lightning, a prank kit full of someone else's history, and three grappling hooks that will absolutely be used irresponsibly. Liliana and Elspeth have begun outlining a romance series that writes itself every time Iro walks through a rainstorm. The gentleman sharks wait patiently in the harbor. The brownstone is still available whenever they need it.