Iron & Gold
17 - The Ransom
Usurp a Plot - Move Toward a Thread
“Brede is what?” asked Felewin.
“Kidnapped,” said Losdur. “Yesterday, Mother Pudding, the dog, showed up, so we knew they were near. Just before dawn today, a piece of hide was stabbed to the door with Brede’s knife. He’s got a knife from the Kolat district, near Westport. The tang and handle are distinctive. Painted on the hide, in Brede’s handwriting, are ransom demands. 50 gold pieces and instructions, with ‘Guards don’t do it’ at the bottom.”
“But you’re going to do it?” asked Ninefingers.
“We need the men,” said Losdur. “I don’t expect the provisions back but people—”
With six gone, the tower had only six guards left. Yes, they had Ubert, Dopkin, and the others that Felewin had met at the Villain’s Lair, but they weren’t soldiers, and that made a difference. Everyone was taking a turn at watch except the Margrave, the Lady, and the prisoners.
There were two roads that lead to the Tower but the orcs had blocked one, and probably both.
Felewin looked at the ransom note again[144] (he found Brede’s handwriting much easier to read than the calligraphy he had learned on), then grinned. “Has Onomaclus seen this?”
“Not yet. I’ve, uh, been holding on to it.” Losdur looked ashamed.
“I don’t read well, but I bet the orcs don’t read at all. There are twelve orcs.”
“Even with you, we don’t have twelve fighting men.”
“I don’t think they are operating with the rest of the tribe. First, that’s too little money for a tribe. Second, here Brede says ‘Just these dozen orcs’ have him and the others. And here, he says a landmark on the North Road where they were ambushed. ‘The split pine’ is where he was ambushed.”
Losdur said, “The split pine isn’t visible from the road. It’s by a small cave.”
“I’d guess that’s where they’re hiding. Now, they have to watch the road all day, so two shifts of six are watching the road—one in the morning, one at night. So Really it’s more like six to our force. How far is it from the split pine to the road?”
“Not far. Two hand-widths of the sky.”
“We could do it. We sneak into position, attack by surprise in mid-morning, and then take the second shift.”
Hrelgi said, “Don’t you parley for a prisoner ransom?”
Losdur said, “Not if your crossbows cut down any orc who comes near before he can show the flag of parley.”
“To be fair,” said Uthrilir, “who ever heard of orcs doing a prisoner ransom, except for a noble?”
Felewin said, “So they asked Brede to write the note. He doesn’t read all of it to them.”
“So is he expecting us?” asked Ninefingers. “He didn’t even know if we’d survive our time in the woods.”
“He said in the note that guards shouldn’t do it. I think that means we should.”
“You and me?” asked Ninefingers.
“We’ll ask the others. Their answers determine our plan.”
#
Kagandis was willing, and Onomaclus eventually conceded.
Hrelgi would do whatever Uthrilir said, and Uthrilir took a long time to answer.
“This is what I learned from Odend,” he said. “In the gorge came to stay a great gnome carver named Ambrade Whistlehard, who was able to infuse his creations with a semblance of life. One of those creations accepted the curse of the relic. Odend knew that this was one of Ambrade’s aims, but no creation could take more than one curse.”
“What happened to the curse that Odend trapped in the carving?” asked Ninefingers.
“He does not know, for on receiving the curse, the manikin began to walk and it walked without heed of water, so it entered the river and was never seen again.”
“This river?” asked Felewin.
“Farther upstream, but yes.”
“It’s in the Ironwood Gorge,” said Ninefingers. “The river goes through there.”
“It might have been washed farther…” began Felewin.
“I believe the worst, and I believe this,” said Ninefingers.
“If I am to put this relic’s curse in a manikin by Ambrade, I must find his workshop in the Gorge and find a manikin to accept the curse.”
“That’s probably where the cursed manikin was heading,” said Ninefingers.
“You’re letting your imagination get the worst of you,” said Felewin.
“You mark my words,” said Ninefingers.
“Still,” said Urthilir, “if I’m to go into the gorge, the Tower must be my base. It cannot be my base of operations if the area is overrun by orcs. Helping you is helping my long-term goal.”
“That means yes, right?” asked Hrelgi.
“It means yes.”
“But I want to know what happened to Ambrade!” asked Hrelgi.
“He died,” said Uthrilir. “Age happens to all, even gnomes.”
“Eww,” said Hrelgi. “That makes this less charming.”
“Back to the immediate problem,” said Felewin. “The exchange of ransom and hostages is supposed to be tomorrow night. So we plan tonight and take action first thing in the morning.”
Kagandis knew the area (“Sheltered there a couple of times when dawn caught me”) and Ninefingers had a surprisingly logistical view of captives. (“Part of the family business,” he said, but declined to explain what part of the family business involved captives.)
As the smallest and sneakiest, Ninefingers would get into the cave while the other three kept the orcs busy. Ninefingers said, “No scale for me, then.” Hrelgi would blind them; at that point, Uthrilir would enter while the other three would provide ranged support. This would minimize the number of possible additional captives.
They discussed other options and then went to sleep.
#
Hrelgi walked slowly down the centre of the road. The passage between the town and the Bleak Tower was not the road that Felewin and Ninefingers had used weeks ago; this one headed more directly south and more obviously a road. The trees on either side were heavy with dark leaves or needles, depending on the kind. It was the kind of terrain that could hide fifty orcs.
She didn’t like acting as bait— it was a reminder of unpleasant parts of her childhood— but she wasn’t a scout like Kagandis or a threatening target like Felewin. And although her grimoire had instructions on turning herself into a cat, it also warned that it didn’t last long because there was so much to keep track of.
So she didn’t bother. Instead, she was ready with one of the spells she had memorized— a spell to heal herself. As long as an attack didn’t kill her, she would probably be able to heal herself. (Well, if other conditions were all right.)
Kagandis was moving stealthily in those tall trees. Felewin, Uthrilir, and Ninefingers were all behind her out of sight — not stealthy, no, but with luck both Kagandis and Hrelgi would draw out any hiding orcs.
There was a bird call — a nightcaw, not usually out in the morning — and two orcs stepped into the road ahead of her.
“Where are you headed, elf?” asked the left-most of the orcs. Oddly, he had some kind of mask on, and she could not see his eyes. Neither had bows.
Felewin and Ninefingers had figured that the actual blockade was about an hour up the road: the terrain was much more amenable to a blockade. If they were right, this pair of orcs were at the cave, who had presumably decided to shake down the passer-by because she looked like easy pickings. She had to assume that there were archers in the forest, watching…but maybe there weren’t. Ninefingers assumed that at least four of them were left in the cave at any time, though presumably some of them were asleep. They had to sleep some time.
“Why,” lied Hrelgi, “to my grandmother’s house, in town.”
“There is a toll for passage.”
“Like a bridge toll?” Let Kagandis be in place, please.
“Exactly like a bridge toll,” said the orc. “The Split-Tongue Tribe controls these roads now, and takes its due from travellers.”
“Well, two of you is certainly more than one of me. What is the toll?”
“All your money.”
“But how will I buy bread for my grandmother?”
“Or your life, and your grandmother still goes hungry. You choose.”
“Hmmm.” She added the words to the armour-to-lava spell,[145] and the orc (briefly) screamed. An arrow appeared in the other orc’s leg. Behind her she could hear the sound of the armor of the other two as they ran up; Felewin stayed behind, with his bow ready to shoot.
Hrelgi said the words again, and the armor of the second visible orc turned to lava and dragged him to the ground.[146] She could feel the fabric of reality resisting, and she knew that she would have to be very lucky to avoid backlash from the next spell; if possible, she would not cast one.
Two orcs in the woods fired at the armored figures who had just appeared.[147] One arrow went wide; another glanced off Uthrilir’s hauberk. Hrelgi cast out her arms to point in the directions of the archers.[148] Ninefingers said loudly, “We see you!” (He didn’t know about the other one, but he hoped Uthrilir or Felewin saw him.) “Best come out!”
Kagandis saw none of the orcs, concentrating on the centre of the road. She[149] waited to see if he would move. Uthrilir waited; Felewin loosed his arrow[150] and it landed squarely in his foe.
Ninefingers took a couple of steps toward the scout that Felewin had shot, hoping to scare him out where he could be hit.
Hrelgi reached into her pouch and brought out her grimoire, looking for the correct spell. In the meantime, Ninefingers ran the rest of the distance to the scout. “I told you we know where you are.”[151] He couldn’t quite hit the orc, but now everyone knew where he was. The orc hadn’t yet gotten his arrow up and stared at Ninefingers.
Uthrilir ran to his orc, hoping for the same result, but did not get as far. He knew, however, that Hrelgi would try to bring the orc to him.
The orc facing Ninefingers tried to fire but his shot went wide and he reached to his side for his axe. Hrelgi’s spell went off, and the orc found himself moved by magic, yanked toward Hrelgi and Uthrilir in the way.[152] Uthrilir hit him, hard.
Ninefingers[153] connected with his foe, but not as effectively.
His orc swung at him[154] and connected; Uthrilir’s foe also connected but weakly and did not hurt the dwarf.
Hrelgi spoke a spell[155] Uthrilir’s foe fell dead, his armour converted to lava.
“Sure, she helps him all the time,” muttered Ninefingers. His foe[156] sprouted an arrow from Kagandis (Felewin’t arrow had missed). Ninefinger’s sword bit into the scout’s armor and killed him.
Uthrilir looked at Ninefingers’ injury and said a few words over it.[157] The wound closed.
“Thank you.”
“Thank the Lady,” said Uthrilir.
Felewin said, “That was the easy one. Now we do the same, with the hostage or hostages.”
“I hope it’s hostages, plural,” said Ninefingers.
“Me too.”
#
Kagandis and Ninefingers had a brief conference, and then Ninefingers said, “She doesn’t think she can scout inside the cave. Too small an area to sneak past monsters who can see in the dark. So we’re going in blind.” He started taking off his armour. “Hrelgi, would you carry this? I can’t sneak up on them with this on.”
“Maybe I can do something to help,” said Hrelgi. “I won’t know until I see it, though.” She made a note to herself to study the art of creating magical things, because it would be useful to provide an arrow that burst into flame, for instance.
The one grimoire that she had, inherited from old Relter, had no such information, and she knew no one who could do that sort of thing. To be honest, she had been lucky that Relter had taught her what she knew.
What she could do is turn something she could see in the cave into fire. Would she be able to see anything? Would she guess right about what it was made of? She didn’t know.
“Will you carry this?” Ninefingers asked again, breaking her reverie. “Please?”
“Since you asked nicely,” she said, mostly to hide the fact that she hadn’t been listening. People often misunderestimated how much she could carry, but Ninefingers was a goblin, less than half Felewin’sheight and two-thirds of her own; his gear did not weigh as much as Uthrilir’s did.
“Without you,” said Felewin, “we have no one who can talk to Kagandis.”
“Without me scouting, we have no one to look in the cave.”
“You think you’re better than she is?”
Ninefingers looked over at Kagandis. “Gods, no. But I’m apparently more stupid than she is.” He bundled the armour up and handed it to Hrelgi. “Or, as you said it,” and he repeated the Elvish word for “stupid” fairly well for a non-elf.
Hrelgi took the bundle from him. He was left in a leather cuirass, which he’d been wearing under his armour.
“Feel free to create a diversion,” he said, and then stepped off the road. In a half-dozen steps he was invisible.
Felewin said, “We give him to the count of two hundred and then we create a diversion.”
“Like?” asked Uthrilir.
Hrelgi saw Felewin’s lips move as the big man shrugged. She was impressed that Felewin could count that high. Most humans couldn’t manage more than ten, twenty if their feet were bare. Her mother used to say that.
Although that hadn’t been her experience. Relter had been human, and he could count; Felewin could, and so could most of the holy humans that Uthrilir had encountered. Maybe her mother had been wrong.
Uthrilir said, “We’ll throw in a torch. Then we can see what’s inside.”
“Won’t we also see Ninefingers?” Hrelgi asked.
“Orcs can see in the dark; the torch won’t make him any more visible.”
“Could we blind them?” asked Felewin.
Ninefingers said, “Like goblins, they’re quite sensitive to light. Being abroad in the daylight is quite a nuisance for them and for us. That’s what the eye-gear was about.” Hrelgi hadn’t even noticed that Ninefingers had picked up the eyepieces.
“I know that there are magical ways to make things emit light — my lamp works that way. It contains a stone that’s been ensorcelled to glow, and I open and close the shutters for light.”
“I can’t make anything permanent,’ said Hrelgi.
“Don’t have to. Dazzle them and give us an advantage. I’d rather you did it once it was inside, but if you can’t, you can’t.”
“Maybe I can. Maybe.” She started leafing through her grimoire. The spells were keys to tugging on the imperfections of reality: if you had the talent, the words could pull in just the way you wanted. The keywords and descriptions she had tried were copied over in elvish script, with the pronunciation guides that she found helpful — but those changed with each magician’s native tongue. And the longer you studied magic, the more nuance you could detect in the descriptions; a grimoire written by a hedge-wizard just wasn’t the springboard that a master mage’s could be.
Wizards needed talent, guidance, and practice. Relter had taught her what he could, so now she had to practice.
She found the right part of the grimoire, read it, read it again.[158] Finally she nodded and grabbed a fist-sized chunk of rock.
They sneaked up on the opening to the cave. Ninefingers had already slipped inside.[159]
She cast one spell: the rock began to glow, then shine, then glare.[160] She cast the second spell and the now-glaringly bright rock flew into the darkness of the cave.
Ninefingers was huddled behind a stalagmite. There was nowhere to go from here: it was a small pocket in the rock, too low to be a shelf and closed in above by a ledge of rock. It was close to the hostages and not particularly near anything else; it was a lucky break that the one orc had a fit of sneezing. However, if the orcs found him, he was dead.
The hostages were staring up at the front of the cave. They were manacled together; Ninefingers figured he could pick the locks on the manacles, but that would take time. The hostages would have to leave together once the—
“Hey, what’s that?” said one of the orcs as another cried, “My eyes!” and a third said, “Don’t look at it!” as a fourth said, “What?” and then screamed.
As Ninefingers squinted at the shadows on the wall, he thought, “They’re not the smartest, these orcs.”
The glare died down a little later. Ninefingers scrambled out to the hostages and whispered, “It’s me, Ninefingers. Stand up. We’ve got to get you out of here before they can see again.”
The nearest man said, “I can’t see.”
“I can,” said someone else. It was Brede. “Everyone stand, whether you can see or not.” To Ninefingers, he whispered, “Where are the others?”
“Outside. They haven’t got eyes to fight in here.”
“Single-file,” Brede hissed at his men. “Quiet as you can.”
“I can’t bloody see,” said one.
“Yer a whiner, Garfrey,” said the one that Ninefingers had approached first. “I can’t see either but I ain’t complainin’.”
“Shut up,” said Brede.
Ninefingers led them carefully. Despite their careful movements, the chains still jingled as they walked. One of the orcs was not blinded, and he moved between Ninefingers and the exit. He brandished his mace. “Stop!”
Ninefingers grabbed a sword from the ground. From its size, it was one of the ones looted from the tower guards.[161]
They each made a pass—no effect.[162]
Ninefingers solidly slashed the orc across the chest, and the orc missed Ninefingers.[163]
Ninefingers[164] struck down the orc with his next blow. The other orcs were startled into silence by the sounds and grunts of the fight, and then began to head toward it.
Ninefingers shook his head but before he could say anything, Brede said, “That’s right, you ugly monsters. We took one down and he wasn’t even blind. Who’s next to face us?”
The two prisoners who could see grabbed the blind prisoners and hoisted them over their shoulders. Ninefingers slashed at one that was in their way and caught him on the knee.[164a].
Before the orcs could see again the prisoners were out and Ninefingers guided them to underbrush to give them a little shelter before he set to work picking their locks.
“You alone?” asked Brede in a low voice.
“Felewin and the others are here too. I was just the one who went in.”
“Good job. Can you get us free?”
Ninefingers looked at the manacles in the light. He knew this kind. “Easily.”[164b]
Behind them were the sounds of bows and crunching bone. Hrelgi managed to make a stalactite glow for light.[164c]
“Come where I can reach you, you human!” snarled one of the orcs.
Uthrilir dashed his brains out in response[164d]
The smell of blood filled the cave and the orcs flew into a blinded rage. With their captain gone, they grabbed at anyone they could reach, which was usually another orc. One grabbed Uthrilir and his clothes became lava almost instantly, as if Hrelgi had been waiting.
“Uthrilir! Out,” said Felewin.
The dwarf replied by bashing another orc[164e]
In a few minutes, the orcs were dead, and none of the group injured. Uthrilir immediately dropped to his knees in prayer and supplication: the orc’s blood rage had been contagious — this was the price of the cursed relic — and Uthrilir had been no more able to quit killing than he had been able to quit breathing.
At the end of his prayer, Uthrilir got up and explained as such to the others, and apologized.
Felewin looked at Brede, who said, “He’s yours. I don’t want him.”
The guards retrieved all their weapons and armor. By great good luck, the orcs had not taken the provisions back to their lair: the provisions were going to travel with one of the shamans, and he had not yet arrived at the cave. The mule, however, was dead: killed and roasted by the orcs.
“They’re not really smart,” said Ninefingers.
Felewin grunted, annoyed that he had been pressed into service to pull the cart, as the biggest one there. Uthrilir helped, as an act of contrition.
Game Mechanics
[144] Felewin rolls a 3 on literacy (margin 2) so he reads it well.
[145] She rolls a 5, making her spell by 4. She can hold his suit as lava for 4 turns, but he’ll be dead in two. Does the other one respond or is he shocked? He rolls an 11 on composure; he does not move. Kagandis rolls 4 on her archery roll, and that makes her roll by 5; the other orc, the shocked one, takes 1 and armor roll is 5, so that’s really a 1 damage. The two scouts at the side of the road fail their composure rolls, so they don’t act. Hrelgi rolls 4 on her Reasoning Composure roll after a spell, and does not take any fatigue from this spell.
[146] She rolls a 5 on her spell, which makes it; and she rolls a 6 on her composure roll, which is exactly what she needs (because it becomes more difficult for each turn she casts a spell).
[147] First scout rolls 11 and misses by a lot; second just makes it against Felewin (less than 15 meters away but Felewin is moving, which adds 2 diff…it has effectively 7≥, and it rolled 7. The arrow fails (roll of 2 versus armour).
[148] Huh: Uthrilir rolls 5, Ninefingers 3, and Felewin 6 — so all three of them spot the archer scouts. Felewin has a bow, so he spends a turn aiming: his shot will be at -1 difficulty.
Uthrilir casts protection on Hrelgi and rolls 7 (difficulty was 2, so effective skill was 7≥ (a 9≥ difficulty 4 is 5≥ but with a holy symbol up to 7≥), if I’m doing this right. Hrelgi now has protection 2 for 4 turns.
[149] Rolls a 4 for Tracking, so yeah, she sees 1, the one that Felewin hasn’t spotted.
[150] He rolled an 8, which made it: 9≥, difficulty +2 for distance, -1 for aiming: he needed an 8 and got it. Amour roll for orc is 6, so that orc takes 1 level.
[151] He’s trying to be dodgy, and he’s moving. He rolls 8 on his athletics, so that does nothing but he is moving, so he’s difficulty 2 to hit.
[152] Hrelgi makes her reasoning+composure spell. Uthrilir makes his mace skill (both roll 6). Uthrilir swings for 3 and all three get through (6, 6, 4). This orc is now sprained (-2).
[153] He rolls a 5 to hit, but only 1 of three damage gets through the armour.
[154] Orc needs a 7 to hit him and gets a 7; 2 levels of damage get through.
[155] Hrelgi rolls a 5. Her composure roll is 6, which is the same as 7-1. No fat this time.
[156] Felewin misses, with an 11 (he needed 8≥); Kagandis rolls a 6≥ and that hits, and rolls 4 for damage, so it’s a real hit.
[157] He rolls 6; he needs 7, so the healing blessing works. It gives Ninefingers 2 levels of healing, and that’s all that is needed.
[158] She puts in four extra turns of concentration for +2, which offsets the -2 for “blindingly bright.” She’s trying a materia task: She rolls a 6: she needed 9≥. For composure she rolls a 6 versus difficulty -2, and then 9 for the motus task — it will stay blindingly bright for 4 turns. Her composure succeeds as another 6 is rolled versus difficulty 6+1, or 7.
Because she put the effort in, the orcs suffer a +2 penalty for seeing for 5 minutes (1d6) and humans are only blinded for 2 minutes.
[159] And how did he do? Awareness vs stealth They’re awareness 3 but I’m going to give them the subterfuge roll at +2 diff (so 6≥), and he’s 9≥ on stealth, with difficulty on his part -1 because he’s taking his time. He gets a 2, the orcs get 12, 8, 7, 7, 9, 7, 7, 6. I’m going to rule that his 2 makes that tougher.
[160] Hrelgi made the Fabrica spell, and the motus spell. Did I roll for composure?
[161] Ninefingers has the higher reaction roll, but both have a margin of 2.
[162] Orc gets 7 (margin 3) on his attack but Ninefingers rolls 4 (margin 6)
Reaction rolls — Orc gets 7+3, Ninefingers 8+3, Ninefingers has 8 margin 1, Orc has 10 marginn 0
Ninefingers gives 3 wound levels; Orc misses.
[163] Reaction: Ninefingers gets 8+6 orc gets 7+3-2
Orc’s attack was margin 3, Ninefingers defense was margin 6
[164] Ninefingers attacks, margin 3 and orc got margin-3; orc attacked with Margin 2 ninefingers margin 6. attack rolls 6 3 4
[164a] It’s not tough to hit a blind orc, and Ninefingers does three wound levels: 6,3,3 Guess what? I tried in-line comments for a bit and forgot to fix it, and I don't want to go back and re-do all the numbering. So these are a, b, c, d, e.
[164b] He rolls a 3, which is margin of 6 on his manacles. The lock is routine, so he gets it open in two turns.
[164c] Hrelgi: margin 5, composure roll 10 but difficulty was 11; Felewin’s bow succeeds (margin of 4, difficulty 0, and hurts his opponent; Kagaindis hits, margin of 0, and hurts him; Uthrilir hits his, margin of 7 versus margin of 2, and does 3 levels of damage.
[164d] He rolled a 2. Yup, that’s what he did.
[164e] Close: he rolled with margin 0, but the orc rolled a 12. So, you know, bye-bye orc with a 3,3,4 and a calamity.
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