Ironsworn campaigns get started with fairly straightforward character creation that includes a background vow. My character (Amarelle) is a young orphan who sells herbalism reagents and potions to scrape by an existence. She eventually wants to avenge the death of her parents, but prior to the campaign timeline she hasn’t been in a position to take action on that vow.
The story starts with her making a foraging run to the lower levels of floating islands, which is covered in mists and very difficult to navigate for those who aren’t used to it.
I’m playtesting homebrewed apothecary rules, so Amarelle first gathered some herb and mineral reagents, then headed home to her humble shack.
She prepared her reagents & packed them up for sale.
Then she traveled to Tira City, where an avuncular trader welcomed her. He’s known her since she started making a living on her own, took pity on her and always tried to give her a fair deal.
While looking through his uncommon “back room”supplies, Amarelle found a potion that took her breath away. Not only was it a potion that so rare that her mother was the only person she ever knew who could make it, but the bottle also carried her mother’s mark.
When Amarelle was even younger, she came back from foraging to find her house ransacked. Her father, bloodied and dying, told her that “men” had killed her mother and taken the body. She’s believed herself to be an orphan since that time.
But perhaps her mother is still alive and her father was trying to protect her by making sure Amarelle didn’t go looking for her mother.
My roll to “Gather Information” about the seller of the potion was a strong hit…so we’ll see what Amarelle learns that will set her direction for the adventures to come.