Eat Humble Pied

an adventure starring Reine, Chico, and Robin.

## Short Episode Description

Chico, Robin & Reine are on the job to stop a cruel poaching operation targeting pied-morph minkbirds. Can they prevail against organized crime? Find out in Eat Humble Pied, an actual play podcast episode of Ironsworn.

## Non Player Characters

* Bixby Coppertongue
* Apollo Velvet
* Calvin Nickelsworth
* Chief Gordon
* Sigrid Andersen

## Plot Summary

It’s another typical morning in the Firebreathing Kittens Guildhall. Chico is enjoying breakfast with his new coyote friend and Reine is struggling with her inherent clumsiness. A mysterious package, left by Robin the delivery person, appears next to Chico’s coyote. Chico notices the package and opens it, revealing a bone, to which he gives it to his coyote friend. All of a sudden, Bixby arrives in the guildhall looking for help with a job. Recognizing Chico, he asks him for help, to which Chico agrees and asks Reine and Robin for help. Reine happily agrees, but Robin is reluctant, asking about payment. Bixby reassures her that he’s an envoy for a rich client that will pay handsomely for their work.

Bixby leads the party to a long, black, hi-tech, clockwork, horse drawn carriage. Driving it is a well dressed older man, immaculately dressed, with thinning hair and a pencil mustache. He politely beckons them into the carriage and drives it off to their destination. After the party has small talk with one another, Bixby briefs them on the basic info of the job. They’re heading to an unnamed village in the Misosu Woods. There’s been reports of poaching in the area. Specifically, the poachers are after a rare variant of an exotic animal known as the mink-weasel. They are long, slender creatures like minks, but have striking pigeon features such as beaks and talons. The specific variant has a pied fur pattern, which is white with dark splotches. The client wishes to stop the poachers and bring them to justice.

After arriving at the village, the party looks for the person in charge of the village. They meet the leader, who informs them of the poachers’ possible motivations, being for the exotic pet trade or their fur. Afterwards, the party was led to the residence of their client, who lives deep in the dark forest. The mysterious carriage driver opens up a hidden sliding door in the side of a tree, revealing an elevator. The elevator leads them to an underground hideout which appears to be the inside of a closet with chewed up clothing hanging around, but it houses hi-tech gadgets and scrying monitors. The carriage driver addresses someone sitting in a chair facing away from the party. The individual in the chair responds and addresses the driver by his name, Calvin, and reveals himself to be Batmoth!

Batmoth introduces himself to the party, and fortunately doesn’t recognize Robin through her disguise. He reaffirms that the party is aware of the situation, then proceeds to pull up scrying footage from within the woods. A flock, or mischief, of mink-weasels are seen snared by a net trap, followed by a group of 4-5 poachers collecting them. Among the poachers is a woman leading them who sounds like she’s barking orders at them. Reine tenses up as she immediately recognizes the tall, muscular woman to be her former best friend, Sigrid. After calming down, Reine and the others agree that the culprits must be brought to justice, but not before Robin makes sure that the wealthy client promises each of them 20,000 gold for their completion of the mission. Chico prepares some vegetables in case he has to fight, and is given a pinecone from Calvin, perfect for use against Sigrid.

The party returns to the village to gather info on the poachers and mink-weasels. Robin is reluctant to ask anyone in the village questions for fear of poacher plants, but Reine gets the idea to ask the children where the mink-weasels gather. She asks Chico to ask the children since he’s more approachable. Chico agrees and begins asking the village children about where mink-weasels gather, but the children get distracted with Chico being a rabbit, and he soon forgets what he was asking as he begins playing with and gifting dolls to the children. When he returns to the others, he realizes he never got an answer, much to the others’ dismay. Reine decides to transform into a crow and begin scouting the surrounding woods for mink-weasels. She happens to come across a mischief, however they just happened to spring a net trap. Reine hurries back to the others to inform them of what happened, and the three rush to the trap.

As the party approaches, they notice that a group of poachers has already begun dragging the net back to their camp. Robin assesses the situation and directs Reine to follow ahead and learn how many poachers are ahead while she and Chico sneak up behind the poacher dragging the net. Reine flies forward and counts a handful of poachers ahead. Robin hides in plain sight as a delivery person heading down the same path towards the camp. Chico attempts to sneak ahead, but gets seen by the poacher. Shocked upon being caught, he immediately attacks alongside his coyote. The poacher yells for help, and is soon assailed by Reine who transforms into a wolf to assist Chico. The two soon take out the poacher, but are soon approached by two other poachers, including Sigrid! The party braces themselves, but not before Chico rallies the trapped mink-weasels.

Reine is petrified upon seeing Sigrid, and Sigrid recognizes Reine and charges her with fists. Robin elects to attack the other poacher and leave Reine to face her rival. Chico sees that Reine is fearful and struggling to fight Sigrid, so he uses the pinecone from Calvin to weaken Sigrid. After getting bombed by the exploding pinecone, Sigrid transforms into a werewolf and charges Chico, grazing him with a powerful swipe. Chico yelps out in shock, causing Reine to bolster herself and transform into a werewolf herself, charging towards Sigrid, but not before cutting loose the mink-weasels. Reine pulls away Sigrid and locks hands with her to buy time for everyone to escape, but Chico continues attacking Sigrid while Robin pummels the other poacher with a frying pan. Sigrid dominates Reine and wrestles her to the ground, however the mink-weasels begin to peck at Sigrid. Although Sigrid could easily take out Reine, the mink-weasels are spoiling her moment, so she instead flees the scene to fight a more honorable fight in the future. Upon seeing Sigrid flee, the other poacher follows close behind. Reine and the others narrowly survive the fight, but were only able to take out one poacher, and are nowhere near strong enough to take on the entire camp. Realizing they’re way over their heads, they agree to report back to Batmoth with a reported failure, but hope that they can help by bringing him the incapacitated poacher.

Chico and Reine return to Batmoth’s lair, while Robin decides to disappear. Chico pleads for forgiveness, explaining that it was him that got everyone caught and forced them to fight against great odds. Batmoth sees Chico’s potential to fight for justice and brings him to a backroom where he keeps high quality knit sweaters. He directs Chico to retrieve a sweater embroidered with the letter “R” and gives him the new title “Rabbit,” taking him under his wing as a crime fighting apprentice. Batmoth recognizes the good work the party did to help stop the poachers, and rewards them with 5,000 gold each, entrusting Robin’s share to Chico to pass on later. As Chico and Reine return to the guild hall, they reflect on their adventure. Chico reassures Reine that everyone in the guild will be ready and willing to help her with her troubles.

Back at Batmoth’s lair, Calvin asks why Batmoth didn’t go after Robin when he had the chance, to which he replies that he believes he can reform her into a good person, which he believes would be the best outcome.