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.
20 — Into the Gorge
That next day, Hrelgi announced that she liked them and decided to tell them her life story. By noon, Felewin was wondering how she had had that much life. “I don’t mind people trying to kill me, had that since I was a kid because I was witchy. That’s not allowed in our town. But hiking, this part where we don’t bathe, that bothers me going. My mom used to make me bathe every day. Of course, we lived near a warm waterfall…”
Felewin stopped. When Hrelgi stopped too, Felewin said, “Keep talking.”
“See, Uthri? He likes my history. I like these guys.”
Felewin whispered to Ninefingers, who slipped away. Then Felewin said, “So they don’t like wizards there?”
“They hate’em. And I’m a wizard, so they hated me. Of course, back there I was just witchy; I hadn’t learned to be a wizard yet. It’s why I left.”
Felewin said, “We’ll stop for a moment and have a drink. Hating magic? That seems unusual for elves,” Felewin added.
“Well, we were kind of a … an experiment.”
“An experiment? That sounds kind of heartless.” Felewin was trying to hide how he was listening to the environment.[176]
“Oh, no,” said Hrelgi. “Someone thought that life without magic would be better and managed to convince enough people to create a settlement. The people trying to kill me were just really convinced.” She shrugged. “If the settlement fails, they’ll admit they were wrong.”
“And how long before the settlement’s fate is determined?”
“I’ll check in a century.” She thought for a moment. “They might have been angry because I’m impatient but probably not killing angry. I think it was the magic. I mean, of course I’m impatient: I’m an adolescent.”
Uthrilir said, “I thought you were forty years old.”
Hrelgi nodded. “Like I said. Adolescent.”
Ninefingers showed up again. “Got him.”
“What?” asked Hrelgi.
“There was an orc scout,” explained Felewin. “Ninefingers went to check.”
Ninefingers said, “Well, I killed him. I wanted to let you know.”
“Guard scout?”
“Couldn’t tell. He wasn’t carrying any food.”
“We’re close, or he might have a place to store food,” said Uthrilir.
“Kagandis doesn’t carry much food,” pointed out Ninefingers.
Felewin shrugged. “Could be either.” He scanned the terrain around the trail. “If I wanted to keep an eye on comings and goings, I might try up that tree, or maybe that high point there, if there’s a way to climb it.”
Uthrilir asked, “Why that tree in particular?”
“Low branches, easy to climb,” said Ninefingers. “No, not for me, but for an orc.”
“Dark clump at the top that might be a big nest. I’ll check it,” said Felewin.[177]
“Let me go,” said Hrelgi. “I’m better on trees.”
“If it’s a guard post…”
“Please,” said Hrelgi.
“If there is somebody there and you can capture the person safely, we’d like to question them,” said Felewin.
“If there’s an orc there, I’ll just impel it out of the tree. Living will be entirely up to the gods,” said Hrelgi.
“Can’t argue with that,” said Uthrilir.
Felewin looked like he could argue with that but chose to hold his silence.
They followed Hrelgi to the base of the tree, and she climbed[178] up. They barely heard her say some words and then an orc came plummeting out of the tree. He was unconscious but breathing when they caught up with him.
Felewin splashed[179] her with water from his waterskin — Ninefingers said it was a her — and she opened her eyes. She saw a human, a dwarf, and a goblin, and she stuck out her tongue and wiggled it. Defiance.
“Probably knows she’s going to die,” said Uthrilir.
“Probably,” said Felewin. “Ninefingers, orcs and goblins have the same language, right?”
“More or less,” said Ninefingers. “Accent will be terrible.” He knelt and asked questions.
The orc responded briefly.
“She says it was a mistake to become a split-tongue. There is no glory in being ambushed in your bed.”
“How many are there?”
“‘Many hands,’ she says. Those who are hurt rise again.” The orc spoke again. “We will die at the hands of the — I don’t know the words, let’s say monsters — at the bottom of the gorge.”
“Monsters?”
“And we should kill her, rather than leave her to the vampire of Blackmarch.”
“The what?” asked Felewin. “Is that metaphorical?”
Ninefingers tried to ask her more, but her eyes became blank. “Dead.” He stood again, brushed off his knees. “Odend was worried about a vampire.”
Felewin asked, “You think this is the same one?”
“Odend called the vampire ‘him’ so I’d figure yes. Odend has a history with a vampire,” said Ninefingers.
“Huh. You ever met a vampire?” asked Felewin.
“Met as in ‘ran from?’” asked Ninefingers. “If we heard about a tomb with a vampire, we avoided it.”
“Still…”
“There are old grave robbers and bold grave robbers, but no old bold grave robbers,” Ninefingers said.
“Fortunately, the gorge is not a grave,” said Uthrilir.
“Anything can be a grave,” said Ninefingers.
#
They ate the stored food from the orc’s “nest” and pushed on. A rock wall grew up the southern side of the trail and the mud trail turned into a rock ledge. The ledge dove down into the gorge. There was another ledge on the northern side of the gorge as well.
Uthrilir looked at it for a long time.[180] “Something heavy has used that ledge over there.”
“Heavy like a rockfall?”
“No, you’d see the stones. No, the fractures on the ledge indicate something heavy used it. Not dragon-heavy, but heavy like a troll or a giant.”
“Or a big manikin created by a gnome?” asked Ninefingers.
“Ambrade had a workshop down here; we know that from Odend. He had to get his carvings out somehow,” said Uthrilir.
Felewin shook his head. “Manikin might have come from there, but the manikin didn’t climb back up there,” he said. “Look at the rockface there. You can’t climb that if you’re a huge manikin.”
Hrelgi said, “I could climb it.”
“Sure, but you aren’t a huge manikin either,” said Felewin.
“I can climb it,” Hrelgi insisted and shrugged off her backpack.
Uthrilir said, “Hrelgi. No. We need to get down, not prove if you can climb it.”
Hrelgi put her pack back on. “I can too climb it.”
Uthrilir said, “You can, but this is all loose shale. A wrong step sends rocks on us. You wouldn’t want to do that to us, would you?”
There was a pause. “No.”
“So we go on.”
At points it looked as though their way was blocked by brambles growing in dirt that had washed down to the ledge, but Felewin patiently uprooted them until there was a path for them.
“Well,” said Felewin, “the orcs didn’t come this way. Maybe up the other side? Is there a way to cross the river down there?”
“I don’t see it,” said Ninefingers, “but there’s a curve in the wall up ahead and I can’t see past it.”
“On we go, then.”
At the next rest, Felewin asked, “Is there any way for the two sides of the gorge to connect?”
Uthrilir thought for a minute. “It happens. Wouldn’t count on it.”
“So we’re probably looking for a bridge.” He picked up his pack. “So we’ll ignore any caves until we know if there’s a bridge to the other side.”
“Not ignore,” said Ninefingers.
“No, but we won’t go in.[181] Keep an eye over there, on that ledge: bald ravens—scavengers—and they’ve been gathering since we got on this ledge. I think they’re expecting us to die so they get something to eat.”
“You sure they’re watching us?” asked Ninefingers.
“None above us, no one else moving in this gorge. Must be us. Let’s go.”
#
The next stretch was so narrow they had to hug the wall. Felewin managed; the only one who was in danger of falling was Hrelgi: She chose to walk along the edge to show how much she didn’t need to worry. The section of rock crumbled under her feet and she stepped quickly, with the same air as a cat caught missing a jump.
The next ledge had a big cave opening, draped in vines.
Ninefingers lifted the goggles he was wearing. “I think it’s empty,” he said;
Felewin looked over at the northern wall of the gorge. The ravens were gathering. “I bet it’s trapped.”
Around the curve, there was another cave outh mouth, this one only a little taller than Ninefingers. Uthrilir pointed it out.
“Or maybe this one is trapped?”
Hrelgi said, “Why can’t they both be trapped?”
“She has a point,” said Felewin. He marched past the curve in the wall and said, “I don’t see a bridge yet. We keep moving.”
“Smart,” said Ninefingers. “The inviting one is trapped and the other one is trapped for people who are too clever to go in the big cave mouth.”
“Neither of them are a bridge to the other wall, though,” said Felewin.
“And,” Hrelgi said, “there is that.”
“That” a section where the ledge had crumbled away; it was farther than a man could jump; and a thick growth of brambles blocked the ledge when it did start again.
“We break for lunch,” said Felewin, “and figure out what to do.”
Game Mechanics
[176] First, stealth: Ninefingers makes his by 3, the orc by 2. The orc doesn’t spot Ninefingers sneaking up. Then Ninefingers gets a free attack, and hits (margin 2) but all three sword blows miss the orc’s armour, so the orc is at -2.
Reactions: Ninefingers has 8+6 and orc has 7+3
Ninefingers hits (margin 0 versus -2), only does 1 health level. Orc attacks (margin 2) but misses (Ninefingers’ margin 3).
Reactions are 8+6 and 7+2. Ninefingers (1) vs orc (-2), orc takes two more damage levels and is dead.
[177] Mythic: Is there something there? (CF 8, unlikely, so 75≥ is a yes) rolls 50%: yes. Is there another orc? 42% yes. Is that orc awake? 80% no.
[178] Hrelgi olls a 6 on Athletics and is Surefooted, for a margin of 3.
Hrelgi rolls a 3 on Fabrica motus, so the orc is falling, for ? Damage. Say he’s 7D6 feet up: 21 feet, that’s 3 points of injury damage. He’s not wearing his armour but he has toughness…all three get through. Does he wake up or does it make him unconscious? Mythic: Is he knocked unconscious? (Likely is 95%, rolls 57%).
[179] Him or her? 50/50, not Mythic terms, but really. 1D2, 1=Female, 2=Male: 1. It’s a she.
[180] He looks long enough to make the target difficulty -2, and then rolls a 7, which is good, because he has a 6≥
[181] Let’s try some observation; we’ll use survival, and it’s routine. Felewin gets a 7 (margin 1), Uthrilir fails by 2 Along the catwalk—let’s say it’s a trivial athletics roll. Rolls are Fel 5 Hrelgi 11 Ninefingers 7 Uthrilir 4
Hrelgi is sure footed so even an 11 makes it.
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