NPCs · Scenario Based · Technical
Ian "Ironwing" Farthing
The only son of Dr. Nicholas Farthing, Ironwing has dedicated himself to the destruction of his father's Fabulous Engine.
Quest entry
Quest entry
Quest - Steampunk
Steampunk! Any sort of steampunk at all from thaumatech to simple old-fashioned steamtech. Wind up your imaginations and start the kettle boiling! 15XP for each submission with 100XP for 1st and 50XP for second. Open the quest
Full quest brief
Steampunk!
Any sort of steampunk at all from thaumatech to simple old-fashioned steamtech.
Wind up your imaginations and start the kettle boiling!
15XP for each submission with 100XP for 1st and 50XP for second.
Appearance
With his silvery scales of steel, his vast, and shining wings, and long and terrible claws, Ironwing is a sight to behold, a great dragon made all of iron and brass, belching steam from his fanged mouth.
History/Background
Born well after Dr. Nicholas Farthing built his first Fabulous Engine, Ian Farthing had succumbed to the strange sicknesses that raced through the lands where his father's factory stood. His body was a twisted, and awful thing, even as an infant, and his crabbed arms and legs would never walk, nor would his malformed mouth ever speak. And to give birth to this monstrosity cost his weakened mother her very life.
Enraged at the gods for taking away his wife, sickly though she was, and twisting his son, Nicholas swore that Ian would not die, but rather, transcend mere humanity. And he began to draw his plans, and to build. A new body he built for his twisted son, in the form of the most powerful creatures of myth, and at its heart he placed the most refined of his Fabulous Engines, before splicing his own child into the machine's head.
It was long before Ian learned to appreciate this vast, and powerful body, spending much of his time shying away from the fear of the town's citizens, though his ability to work with this new form was surprisingly great, and he never quite lost his kinship with those who suffered from the strange diseases and maladies.
For a time, his father used him as an enforcer, the only human who seemed to appreciate him, to protect his factory, especially against the new idea of 'unions', until the reason for the sicknesses became understood. The "magical" material at the heart of the Fabulous engine was poison. Enraged, he turned upon his father, and slew him, destroying the very factories that birthed his mighty body. He swore that his father's engine would die, and began the process of hunting for them, and for the engineers that knew to build them...
Roleplaying Notes
Ian "Ironwing" Farthing is on a mission, and the accomplishment of that mission is everything to him - Even the lives of individuals mean nothing, if they stand in the way of saving humanity from his father's legacy. Unfortunately, lacking any particular way to sense the presence of the Fabulous Engine, he must rely on allies and spies to find them, so he cannot simply rampage over cities, much as he would prefer to - it would likely cost him his helpers.
He is able to identify each of those directly taught by his father to build the engines, and the engines themselves, when in operation, but will require additional information to find any further passings of the art.
Indeed, Ian's senses are relatively poor, due to the primitive, clockwork organs that are spliced inefficiently to his own to provide him with sight, sound, scent, and a parody of touch. Even so, he is formidable in combat, his mechanical construction lending him a strength and durability exceeding even that of the legendary beast he is patterned after, only enhanced by the broiling, radioactive steam he can discharge from his mouth, as if he were breathing flame.
Scrolls
Twists, chapters, and details meant to stream with the submission — not general discussion.
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Award XP
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Discussion
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Continue the path
Three more steps through the hall.
- Verdichtung, Reaver of Steam by Siren no Orakio Same quest
Other takes
No other takes yet — the best compliment on the Citadel is a Retelling.
Bonds
Curated bonds across the Citadel. Kindred Favors are another thread in the same weave.
No bonds yet.
Also for this quest
Other entries under Quest - Steampunk.
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Verdichtung, Reaver of Steam
As the world grows and changes, so to do the gods. One such creature is Verdichtung, Reaver of Steam.
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Clockfolk
"It's important to remember, when dealing with the clockfolk, that they only LOOK like toys."
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Melders
The followers of the mechanogod Whrrrm, those who could never have come about until the advent of steamtech.
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Mech-Undead
The grinding of gears in the dead of night is a precursor of an unforgiving danger. Survivors remember little, save the smell of metal and death.
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Conversion Warhead
"If the radiance of a thousand suns were to burst at once into the sky, that would be like the splendor of the mighty one. Now I am become Death, the destr…
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Steamwalkers
In the deep of night, even the most jaded of criminals will look over their shoulders for the telltale scarlet glow of the steamwalkers.
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Potential Cannon
"It was as if, for a heartbeat, the world awoke, and lashed out in rage at those who disturbed it."
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Aetherometer
Odd little devices, almost ubiquitous in any city which relies on thaumatechnology.
Inspired by Anne McCaffrey: The Ship Who Sang, and related books.
Wow!
Nicely done Siren! Kudos indeed.
The image that I have is less shining steel and brass, and more, after his obsession has truly set in, a monstrous creature of a rusty and tarnished hue, looming suddenly from a thick pea-souper fog.
Imagine, as rad-sickness and cancers set into him, being trapped so close to a live and leaky nuclear reactor all the time; each encounter, he gets weaker and weaker, until, in an encounter, he suddenly collapses, stone dead.
And as the party exchanges looks, bewildered, they hear a thin, raspy voice. "I ain't done yet..." And the mechanical abomination lurches upward again, tougher than ever because now there's nothing /alive/ in it to get rid of.
I've got a question. Wouldn't it have made more sense for him to keep his father alive so that the old man could have been tortured into divulge the locations of the other reactors? Killing the inventor of the machines strikes me as a rather wasteful way of disposing of such a potentially useful resource.
Only in as much as he knows who he's sold them to. However, blind rage is not always the most ... sensible of emotive states. One of the things that may drive Ian as he goes on in his mission is running from the guilt of patricide.