Iron & Gold
Credits
This is a solo play-through of the adventure “Ironwood Gorge” by Eric Jones, published by Ludibrium Games.
Because I am not really an old-school guy, things have been converted to (originally) Iron Gauntlets by Precis Intermedia Games and after about chapter 6, Iron & Gold, also by Precis Intermedia Games. Where necessary, I use Mythic Game Master Emulator by Tana Pigeon, published by Word Mill Games.
This is the second Ludibrium Games module I’ve used for these characters, and I enjoy them. (The first was “The Sanctuary Ruin.”)
As usual, rules misunderstandings are mine and I try to present it as (bad) fiction, with game mechanics in footnotes. The italicized subtitles after the chapter title are prompts from Mythic Game Master Emulator; I try to work the intent into the scene. I am not always successful, but it keeps me a bit more honest.
“Ironwood Gorge” is meant to be the basis for a campaign, where the Bleak Tower is a home base for adventures. I have not yet decided whether I will do that; there could be additional Bleak Tower adventures, or they'll wander away until the third adventure in the trilogy is published.
We are finally in the titular gorge, and there are only four chapters left.
21 — In The Cavern
Trick Goals (PC Positive)
“Most likely traps are pitfalls,” said Ninefingers. “Deadfalls are also good in this kind of environment. You’re probably not going to see arrows shooting from the walls.”
“Obviously, the traps are easy to disarm from the far side — those orc sentries walked out of one of these,” said Felewin. “Unless there’s another exit.”
“We walked along the top of the gorge,” said Uthrilir, “so it’s very unlikely.”
“Easy-peasy to cross that gap,” said Hrelgi. “There are holds to traverse.”
“For you,” said Felewin.
“What I do is, I go across and then impel you all over. Make you fly, like I did with the boulder.”
“No offence, but I don’t trust your aim well enough,” said Felewin. “That’s a pretty narrow ledge for you to throw us to.”
“Oh, the spell brings things to me or away from me. I go over, get rid of the brambles, then bring you over. If that was a mistake, then we do it again.”
“And sitting here, we’re just waiting for the next orcs to walk out of that cave,” pointed out Ninefingers. “Or that one.”
No one had a better idea.
Hrelgi spent time planning her route, but it turned out to be easy[182]
Once she lowered herself to the ledge, they saw her flipping through her grimoire, and[183] the brambles turned to water and splashed over the ledge. She held it that way for a moment and then let them turn back into brambles, scattered down the side of the gorge. Some roots stayed in the ground, but they were not the impediment that they had been.
More page flipping. She tried an incantation but nothing happened.[184] She danced around a bit.
“She does that, after a failure,” said Uthrilir. “Gets time to pass, puts her in a better frame of mind.”
“In combat?” asked Felewin.
“That or she burns out for a bit, I think. I’m no wizard.”
She tried again, and nothing happened[185] again.
“Who will she bring first, if this ever works?” Ninefingers peered into the cave once more. Between the goggles and the sunlight, he could see nothing.
“Uthrilir,” said Felewin. “They’ve been together the longest.”
Another attempt, another failure. This time Hrelgi climbed part of the way up the gorge wall and dropped down.
A fourth attempt and Uthrilir flew across the space between them; she dodged him at the last minute, and the dwarf fell heavily to the ground with a clatter of armor that they could hear, followed by her laughter.[186]
Rocks fell, but they tumbled through the space where the ledge was missing. They saw Hrelgi cover her mouth.
A moment later, Ninefingers was lifted through the air. He also landed heavily, but he rolled.
This time a few pebbles danced down the side of the gorge.
There was a noise from inside the large cave mouth. Felewin pressed himself against the wall of the gorge, still around the curve and out of sight.
He held his breath.
Nothing happened; perhaps an orc had looked and seen nothing; perhaps it was something else.
Hrelgi tried three more times, and on the third try, Felewin flew through the air to the far side of the ledge.[187] He had experience with being moved by spell, so he managed to land on his feet, taking a few steps to slow down.
“Told you I could do it,” she said.
“I believed you then and I believe you now,” Felewin told her.
“You better.”
They were now several hundred paces below where the orc sentries had been, and had walked the length of the gorge twice. Three dozen paces on, they started to hear the moaning sound. It was coming from ahead, from the waterfall where the river came into the gorge. They quickly fell into single file, with Felewin leading, Uthrilir next, Hrelgi following, and Ninefingers last.
As they rounded the next promontory, they were lashed by mist from the waterfall and their clothes were suddenly damp. Felewin looked over the ledge: it was only twice his height down to the riverbed, but there was no trail down to the river except by climbing.
There was also no bridge.
This part of the ledge had a huge cave mouth, dozens of paces across and tall. It was richly framed in vines and moss; the rock glistened with water.
“No bridge,” Felewin shouted to Uthrilir over the moaning of the cavern and the waterfall.
The dwarf shrugged. “Caves, then.”[188]
They quickly ducked in, but there was no relief from the noise. The moaning seemed to be coming from the cave itself. Felewin unsnapped the window of his lantern and put the lanyard around his neck.
Ninefingers gratefully lowered his goggles. Hrelgi picked a pebble and impelled it outside the cavern.
Felewin checked the cave out.[189] “Two passages. Cavern floor has been cleared and some debris put back for appearances. Ninefingers, do you want to scout those two passages out?”
Uthrilir said, “I can look.”
“We’re supposed to be helping you. Let us look. He’s small and the lightest of us: if there are pitfalls, he’s less likely to set them off.”
“I do wish I had a ten-foot pole,” said Ninefingers.
“We want to get across to the other side,” said Uthrilir. “We don’t want to go under the river, we want to go behind the waterfall.”
“There’s a cave behind the waterfall?” asked Hrelgi, pausing in her impelling of rocks out of the cave. “That sounds lovely. I bet there are blind fish there.”
“Maybe there’s a cave back there, but we care about something that goes to our right and across the gorge,” explained Uthrilir.
“Right passage it is,” said Felewin. “Careful, Ninefingers.”
“I trained for…well, something like this. How I lost the finger,” Ninefingers said.[190] He disappeared into the right-hand passage.
Ten minutes later he walked out of the left-hand passage. “The passages meet up in a bit. Good news is, it’s much quieter. Right hand passage is trapped, so let’s just go through the left hand one. Ahead the joined passages split again. There’s a passage that slopes down and to the right. The one straight ahead stays mostly level.”
Felewin fumbled through his pack and brought out what looked like a grimoire. He fished through his wallet and pulled out a small stick of charcoal. “I have no head for these things, so can you sketch it?”
“Is that a grimoire?” asked Hrelgi.
“I don’t know. I got it from the Tower. It has blank pages in it, so I figured I could use it for this.”
Hrelgi took it from him and flipped through it. “It is! It’s a grimoire.”
“I just asked Brede for a book to write in.”
“These are things I’ve never seen[191] before!”
“Great. Do you have room in your grimoire to copy them?”
“I do! I’m going to! Can I keep it?”
“No, we’re using it to map.” She looked sullen and about to say something when he added, “I’ll let you copy from it at breaks and when we’re done.”
“I guess,” she said and gave him the book back. “Hey, we’re on break now, can I copy a bit?”
“We’re not on that kind of break.” He handed it to Ninefingers. “If you’d draw, please?”
Ninefingers sketched it out schematically: quite small[192], then handed it back to Felewin. “This way,” Ninefingers said and led them down the left passage. “Do you want me to scout the deeper passage, too?”
Felewin said, “No. I’m worried about the tunnel diving down, so we’ll go with you. We’ll have you scout when there’s a choice.”
“Until then, strength in numbers,” said Hrelgi.
“Ninefingers in front, then me, then Hrelgi, then Uthrilir,” said Felewin. “People who can see in the dark both front and back.”
They came to a split in the passage quite quickly. They could hear the waterfall from the right-hand passage, and Felewin said, “Right.”
Ninefingers stopped to draw the choice. They walked for a long time; the sound of the waterfall grew louder and then receded. Finally they twisted around to a meeting with a passage. From it, they occasionally heard someone giving orders in the orc/goblin language.
They stepped into the passage to avoid being seen along the main passage. Ninefingers crept ahead to listen and then came pack.[193]
“Probably an orc and two slaves,” Ninefingers whispered. “They’re building something. Probably a fireplace…heard the word ‘flue’ twice.”
“One orc? If we’re fast, we can deal with it,” said Felewin. “Hrelgi watches the entrance, we take the orc.”
“We don’t need to save the orc. The goblins can tell us what we need to know.”
“True enough.” Felewin readied an arrow and stepped into the larger room. It was not lit, but Felewin’s lamp showed him enough.[194] Felewin loosed the arrow but the orc was so big and burly that he did not seem bothered by it at all.
Uthrilir dashed in and smote the orc[195], and then Ninefingers finished him off. The goblins stared, and they dropped the rocks they were holding.
“Fear not,” Ninefingers told them. “What lies ahead?”
The goblins stared at him.
“I need to know.”
The smaller orc said “That passage goes behind the waterfall in one direction, and to the great hall in the other. In the same direction, there’s also a path to the upper level on the left, and a tunnel that no one uses on the right.”
“And do you know anything about Ambrade Heardwhistle or some other exceptionally dangerous residents?”
“Uh…”
The larger one said, “We don’t know anything about either of those.”
“Thank you. Can you escape from here? We’re heading into more trouble, I’m sure.”
The goblins nodded.
“Any idea when someone will come looking?”
“They might bring him beer from the Great Hall.”
“How many are in the Great Hall right now?”
“Um…all my fingers and toes, maybe more.”
“Uh…Then you get out, get safe,” said Ninefingers.
The goblins dropped what they were holding and ran.
Felewin said, “What did they say? What were they building? Where are we?”
“That’s the Great Hall dead ahead. There are twenty orcs or more in there. They had no idea about Ambrade.”
“What else is ahead?”
“Cross passage. On one side, they go up; on the other, nobody uses that path.”
“Do we want to go up yet?” asked Hrelgi. “You said down was good.”
“We’re already past the waterfall,” said Felewin. “It’s your quest, Uthrilir. I haven’t any real idea.”
“It’s not a quest.” Uthrilir considered it. “Stay on this level,” he said.
“But we think the manikin was on the higher level.”
Uthrilir nodded. “But Ambrode would want to be closer to the vein of Kirly marble, which takes magic better. Kirly marble is usually found at the lower levels.”
Hrelgi said, “Huh. I’ve never heard of Kirly marble.”
“It’s rare but prized,” said Uthrilir.
“I wish I’d had a proper magical education.”
“To the great hall, then. We’d best go without light to avoid the orcs, so someone must guide Hrelgi and me.”
Darkness made it much harder to be stealthy, and Felewin consoled himself by remembering that he was awful at being stealthy.[196] He brushed his head against the ceiling once and then ducked down in case of other low ceilings.
But it was Hrelgi who dislodged the rock that clattered down the tunnel. They stood silently to listen and then they heard someone from down the tunnel speak to his raucous companions. Ninefingers whispered, “Move! Move!”
They started running (slowly, given that neither Hrelgi nor Felewin could see). They turned right after some time and there was a snap ahead, then a clatter to the left. There was a terrible smell — apparently the orcs used this tunnel as an outhouse — but the floor seemed walkable. Ninefingers did not stop until they had made what seemed like a hairpin turn deep in the tunnel. “Now you can turn on your light, but shuttered,” whispered Ninefingers.
The walls of the cave were damp, with sections mottled with green algae.
Behind them, through the bends of the tunnel, they could hear shouting and suddenly more footsteps.
Ninefingers whispered, “We move before they have the bright idea to search here instead of the corridor up, where I threw a bit of wire.”
They were able to move faster, now that Felewin and Hrelgi could see.
Finally they stopped. “Well, that explains why they don’t use this tunnel,” said Ninefingers.
Before them was a blanket of mold, yellow in Felewin’s lantern light.
“Bad?” Felewin asked.
“Well, it’s not good,” said Ninefingers.
“Have you got a charming goblin folk remedy?” asked Uthrilir. “Because we burn it and that won’t work here.”
“And sooner or later they’ll come down this tunnel.” Felewin played his light over the walls. “Hrelgi, can you climb this? If you can, we can do what we did with the ledge.”
Hrelgi took the lantern from him and examined the walls on both sides, slick with algae. “Nope. Too slick.”
“You get over that stuff and the fumes poison you anyway,” said Ninefingers.
“I got it,” said Hrelgi. “Can I have the light?”
She opened her grimoire and flipped pages. “Here we go.”[197]
Hrelgi got close to the mold, to the very edge, and touched the rock floor. She said an incantation, and the floor of the tunnel from her hand outward began to glow. The mold sizzled as it burned. In a few moments, it was gone, and Hrelgi let the floor return to normal. It glowed an orange-red, illuminating the area.
Ninefingers kept looking back. Sooner or later they are going to look in this tunnel, and the floor isn’t safe to walk on yet.
The ground cooled faster than an actual lava spill would. “It’s reality knitting itself back together again,” said Hrelgi. “Some created effects last longer, like the heated air above the lava, but the heat will go away faster than it would if it were real lava.”
“Whisper, please,” murmured Uthrilir.
“Sorry,” she whispered.
“When will it be safe to walk on?” asked Felewin.
“Depends on your boots, I guess,” whispered Hrelgi.
“You guess?”
“I’ve never done this before, okay?”
“None of us have, Hrelgi,” murmured Uthrilir, touching his hand to her shoulder. “My boots will be fine; they’re dwarven made. I will carry you each across.”
Felewin looked at him skeptically.
“You’re big,” Uthrilir told him, “but you’re not that big.”
“Then do it, because I think the sounds are getting closer.”
Uthrilir sprinted across the cooling floor, carrying Ninefingers, then back for Hrelgi, and then stood for a moment, cooling his feet against the wall. Felewin tried to remain calm, but the sounds really were closer.
At which point, a drunken orc wandered around the corner.
Felewin didn’t have his sword out — but he opened the shutter on his lantern and flashed the beam into the orc’s eyes. The orc grunted loudly and fumbled for his axe, but didn’t get it.
Felewin drew his sword and slashed once.[198] The orc fell to the ground…and then started to snore.
Felewin heard other orcs in the tunnel and checked behind him for Uthrilir, who was already there with his mace out.
The dwarf moved to the fallen orc, but Felewin whispered, “No time! We have to go!”
The dwarf nodded, holstered his mace, and picked up Felewin. Felewin was obscurely pleased that there was a slight grunt as he did so.
Uthrilir was just setting Felewin down when another orc came around the corner. He shouted something — the first orc’s name, perhaps — and then called to his fellows.
“Now we run,” said Ninefingers.
The orc dashed forward but he had only gotten a few paces when he suddenly shrieked, lifted his feet up higher and dashed back to safety and coolness. Uthrilir looked back and started to laugh.
“Don’t goad them,” Felewin said.
“He burned his boots clear off!” chortled Uthrilir.
Felewin was glad of his own boots right now; from the smells and from the feeling under his boots, orcs definitely used this end of the tunnel as an outhouse. He didn’t check because he was mindful that he needed to provide light for Hrelgi. Felewin was the slowest of them all: at the back, he could hear the shouts of the orcs there, but once they got around the next hairpin, the shouts became indistinct. Hrelgi and Ninefingers didn’t stop running, though.
Felewin lumbered to keep up; even Uthrilir outpaced him.[199] His consolation was that Hrelgi would have to stop when she couldn’t see any more.
The passage forked into left and right tunnels. Felewin watched her retreating back go right. Then Ninefingers went right after her, and then Uthrilir. Felewin slowed to a brisk walk; he dared not call after them and he wanted to be ready to deal with any orcs who found him.
From the sounds behind him, the orcs still couldn’t cross the cooling stone.
Got to thank the maker of Uthrilir’s boots.
When Felewin arrived, he found Ninefingers, Hrelgi, and Uthrilir standing over the body of a dead orc.
“We killed him. He was standing guard here, Hrelgi ran into him, I engaged him, and Uthrilir finished him off.”[200]
“You okay?”
“I was slashed, but Uthrilir laid hands on me and I was healed.”
“Thank you,” said Felewin to Uthrilir.
“Thank the Lady.”
“What was he guarding?”
“This tunnel down.”
“That’s where we go. But we hide him.” He bent over and grabbed the orc’s body. “If he’s here dead, they know we’ve been by. If he’s not here, maybe they think he’s joined the search.” He started down the passage, his light bobbing with every step. “Come on! I don’t know when the search will get here.”
Game Mechanics
