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 Zoomfall (the party's van), having taken out most of the passenger seats to make room for her experiments. It took her an hour to find a parking spot, and the spot she found is in front of a fire hydrant. This is considered fine.

Scarlet immediately begins assessing the brownstone's living room as a potential experiment space—her explosions keep leaving black marks on the van's interior.

Silas: "Scarlet, I thought you were professional. Have you been messing up our van?" Scarlet: "Oh, I'm not professional. I'm an engineer. I have a PhD. Even worse."

Then she mentions, in passing, that she hopes Bru didn't want to keep all that brown around—she mostly poured it out to make space. Bru looks at her with murder in his eyes. Nobody has ever seen him so angry.

Bru: "You did what with my brown? You're not working in the van anymore."

Before Scarlet can claim another space for uncontrolled explosions, Bru mentions a better option: Fluke's Workshop, a crafting space down by the coast run by a man named Iro, where he and his old Sisyphus Circle crew used to work. It's free and open to anyone who wants to do crafting work.

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

The party piles back into the Zoomfall. The hydrant 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 Bru 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 Bru.

Iro: "You have some nerve showing your face here again." Bru: "What did I do?" Iro: "What did you do? It took a week to clean all the brown out of the machinery. Damn it, Bru." Bru: "You're still mad about this?" Iro: "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 Bru is significant but ultimately finite. This place will always be open to craftspeople, so he grudgingly tells Bru to find himself a bench—and then his gaze lands on Elspeth.

Iro: "Are you Elspeth Cooper?"

He is, it turns out, a big fan who has followed the racing scene for a long time. He was part of a winning team in the Greyport Open boat race himself—not professionally, but with his family, on his father's boat.

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
• Sightings of Caspian across the years, including older photos from winter solstice appearances
• Images of Joel at the Market Day celebrations in his hometown, granting wishes
• 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. Iro has devotedly scrubbed the name clean.

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. I look forward to you clearing your good name then." Elspeth: "Some of the things I was accused of were crazy. I never paid taxes, but I have an accountant—"

The party disperses into work. Scarlet finds the catalytic chamber she needs and immediately starts running trials on the pocket village. Leliana 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. Bru and Silas work on sensual candles and flower-crown cannons calibrated to Leliana's concert aesthetic.

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: "Oh, yoohoo, Mr. Iro." Iro: "I thought I told you to stop coming here." Dunbar: "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. Iro only chuckles: the deed was his father's, his in perpetuity, and vetted by Governor Pike himself—200 years ago—and smarter men than Dunbar have looked for loopholes. Dunbar makes his exit. Iro exhales through his nose; the air crackles.

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

Elspeth: (to Leliana) "How is there not a romance about that guy?"

The regulars burst out laughing; Dunbar, it turns out, comes by every couple of weeks and has become a running joke among the craftspeople. Leliana and Elspeth agree the book is writing itself and start taking notes.

Olivia pulls out her notepad and questions Iro. Things have escalated beyond words since Dunbar was told no: the power "mysteriously" went out a few weeks ago, someone threw a brick through his window, and there was a fire in the alley—it appears someone threw a Molotov cocktail at a neighboring building, hoping it would spread. The authorities never found a suspect, and he cannot prove anything.

The power outage didn't bother him much, though: he is able to power the grid here without much trouble, he says with a smirk. When Olivia presses him on what exactly he is, he just puts a finger beside 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: "That place has a legacy too. The good work of my aunt Caspian is done there. I can get there faster." (to the party, when they offer to help) "I don't want to share my burdens with you, but I appreciate it." (to the other craftspeople) "Get somewhere safe."

He heads upstairs toward the roof. The roof groans under enormous weight. A rumble of thunder. A flash of lightning. And then the beating of great wings as something large takes to the sky.

The party immediately gets to work.

Perimeter Defense

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

• A can of Bru's signature brown rigged above the front door
• Greased basement stairs
• A door handle left superheating next to the knitting area

Leliana and Elspeth take the roof. Silas establishes a psychic party link and sticks with Olivia, who guards the front entrance.

The Ground Assault

From the roof, Leliana 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. With a Flash of Genius from Elspeth, her Insight confirms he is up to no good, and she relays it instantly over the psychic link.

Elspeth has the high ground. Rather than kill him, she fires into the pavement in front of him (Intimidation 21, with advantage).

Elspeth: "Back off, punk."

He freezes, looks up at the menacing figure looming above him, drops the shears, and runs. The others, seeing their power-cutting cohort flee, charge across the street toward the front door.

Olivia summons Bob, her fey sheep, and—Silas getting the door open just in time—bursts out the front door at full charge. Both attacks land (22 and 24 to hit, 27 damage), gouging deep wounds into the lead attacker. He scampers back with barely any fight left in him.

The remaining thugs get tangled in Elspeth's Web spell (DC 19), which also catches Olivia, who accepts this with the dignity of a veteran. From a hidden vantage point, Silas throws a knife into one thug for 29 damage, then ducks back inside to hide. Leliana catches the biggest thug's gaze with Suggestion: Go home. Go to bed. He stands there, genuinely thinking it over. Bob teleports Olivia out of the web, and she lands two more hits on the way.

Then Scarlet casts Fireball at fifth level: 35 fire damage, plus 2d4 more from the flammable web. The two smaller thugs don't survive. The last, badly hurt, 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, waits until one crew has its slingshot pulled to full tautness and shoots the Molotov cocktail in the sling (25 to hit), detonating it across their own boat. Scarlet casts Slow on a second crew, and their Molotov lazily wafts out of the slingshot.

Then the party does something wonderfully reckless: Leliana, Olivia, Scarlet, and Silas get in the Iron Maiden.

Iro left the keys in the ignition. Leliana rolls a 27 on Insight—and understands the boat immediately, almost instinctually. The Iron Maiden seems to shriek in delight as it moves, veering toward the attackers with supernatural ease, as though it wants to defend its home. Silas telekinetically pushes the third crew's slingshot until it snaps, dropping their Molotov onto their own deck. Olivia brings her axe to bear, swatting Molotov cocktails out of the air like overhead lobs in a tennis match. They rain fire back down onto their launchers, and all three boats burn.

Several cocktails did land, though, and the shop is on fire. At Olivia's telepathic suggestion, Elspeth and Bru open a fire hydrant: Elspeth redirects the stream with Mage Hand while Bru gives it extra oomph with his force ballista, and together they douse the flames.

Beneath the hull, the situation grows stranger. Bru and Scarlet spot a dozen large fishlike shapes and one humanoid moving under the waves toward the workshop. Olivia dives in and identifies a Saojun (Nature 16)—a four-armed, green-scaled fishman with a large trident, a fiend that bedevils seafarers—directing a pack of twelve sharks at the shop's support pillars.

Hasted by Scarlet and making a 26 on Athletics, Olivia swims like a barracuda, her water-aerobics training finally paying off. Underwater, with disadvantage on the axe, she still hits three times, pouring Divine Smite into a fiend for 44 damage and removing one of the Saojun's forearms. His trident strikes back three times; the Haste's extra AC turns the one that would have landed, and all three miss against her 23 AC.

Elspeth, in the water alongside her, casts Web between the pillars. The sharks are caught, and when the Saojun slips free, Scarlet's Portent rewrites his save and snares him too. Olivia swims up behind him and takes his head.

The sharks, glassy-eyed a moment ago, look around in confusion—they are just normal sharks. Once the web is dispelled, they reach into their pockets, put on monocles and top hats, and head back to their cigar club.

Elspeth: "And now we have shark friends, and that is canon." DM: "Canonically have gentleman shark friends."

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.

Leliana casts Mirror Image and runs at them with Silas running interference, springing through cabinet doors and off workbenches in an extended Benny Hill sequence that captures their attention completely. Bru, 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. A thud on the roof. Iro comes downstairs and investigates the damage. The party has only had five minutes to clean up—one Barlura corpse has already gone to the gentleman sharks ("Good show. Good show.")—and Iro picks up the other with one hand and tosses it casually off the dock into the harbor. The water splashes up and soaks his white shirt through, which is fairly informative about the musculature underneath.

Olivia: "Honey, these books are writing themselves."

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 puts a fond hand on the Iron Maiden. He is not one to let debts go unpaid.

Rewards

Iro asks to see Olivia's and Elspeth's weapons, and takes Olivia's axe and Elspeth's 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."

Olivia's axe and Elspeth's gun now have the quality of a flame tongue, infused with his lightning breath instead of fire: each hit deals an additional 2d6 lightning damage.

For Silas—and the party at large—Iro produces several of the grappling hooks that Silas and Bru's old thief crew used. Three go into party inventory (Silas keeps one on his person), each usable as a bonus action to close up to 30 feet of distance, once per reload.

For Bru: 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 a whole set of "Joel stabbers"—knives optimized for stabbing Joel, though really just normal knives.

The work resumes. A litter of puppies runs in and Iro scoops them up. Right outside the window, he intervenes on behalf of a kind-hearted woman being troubled by a rake, expecting nothing in return, gets splashed by a passing cart of hot wax, and is drenched by a sudden storm—which, it turns out, is exactly how he put out the fire at the Caspian Center: he created a thunderstorm over it.

Elspeth: "Hey, Silas. How do you feel about pushing romance novels? There has not been a big name in romance novels since Caspian."

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) looks like Dunbar's doing, or the work of whoever is behind him—though nothing is proven
• Iro holds the property under a deed vetted by Governor Pike himself, 200 years ago, and smarter men than Dunbar have failed to find a loophole

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 in its sling) 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, lands three hits while hasted, and beheads the creature once it is webbed. The years of water aerobics were not wasted. She then cheerfully notes that the books are writing themselves.

Leliana: 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 (Performance 28) keeps two Barlura occupied long enough for Bru 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, a Portent that seals the Saojun's fate, and detailed Home Alone trap engineering. Having access to proper facilities is doing her good.

Bru and Silas: With Justin absent, Bru is run by the table. He receives Shield's legacy prank kit and kills two Barlura with a force-ballista trap baited by a gangster recording. Silas establishes psychic comms, puts a surprise knife into a thug for 29 damage, snaps a Molotov slingshot telekinetically, 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 Twilight Company's plan to blow up the Eldoran spaceport—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."

Bru: "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: "I'm able to power the grid here without much trouble." (taps his nose, winks)

Elspeth: "Hey, Silas. How do you feel about pushing romance novels? There has not been a big name in romance novels since Caspian."

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

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

Gentleman sharks: (receiving a Barlura corpse) "Good show. 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. Leliana 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.