Iron & Gold
Lost in the Borderlands is based on the module Borderlands of Adventure, by J (who I presume is Walter J. Jones Jr., the copyright holder) and published by New Realms Publishing as NRP 31001.
It was written for Labyrinth Lord and I have converted to Iron & Gold by Precis Intermedia Games. It follows a few other adventures with these characters.
Previous Chapter 2. By The Marsh —=— Next Chapter 4. The Mound
3. By The Bridge[1]
They were headed east, with the shadows in front of them. The insects of the marsh grew louder. They kept expecting the marsh to reappear but it hadn’t yet; it was still forest on either side of them.
“We’re lost,” said Hrelgi from near the back.
After Ninefingers cleaned his clothes, they had backtracked all the way to the men’s camp; there, Felewin and Uthrilir had picked up two thick short swords to use as machetes in cutting through the tall grasses. That was easier on the body but harder on the arms; Felewin was in front right now.
“You can’t be lost if you don’t know where you’re going,” pointed out Ninefingers helpfully. He was right behind Felewin.
“However, I agree with the young one,” said Uthrilir from the very back. “We’re lost.”
“Rostod, a herent of my father’s, used to say that he was never lost, but he was sometimes in some territory he didn’t know.” Felewin grinned. “I found this very annoying.”
“And yet you’ve become like him,” said Ninefingers.
“Why, thank you,” said Felewin. “He was an admirable man. But whether we’re lost or not, we need to find a place to stay.”[2]
“We have tents now,” said Ninefingers.
“If we have to,” said Felewin, and kept chopping. Ahead, the trees and grass disappeared, There was no marsh ahead but a small river. Each bank of the river had a stone base, supporting an old wooden bridge.
“You don’t mean to sleep here, do you?”
“No,” Felewin assured him. “Sometimes things crawl out of the river, and in tents we wouldn’t notice them until they were on us.”
“You’re soooo cheery,” said Ninefingers.
“I know,” agreed Hrelgi.
“Old bridge,” said Uthrilir. “Will it support our weight?”
“Ninefingers first,” said Felewin. “He’s the lightest, and he has some experience at navigating dangerous structures.”
“There’s a mouthful,” said Hrelgi. “What does it mean?”
“I used to be a tomb robber,” said Ninefingers. “That’s what he was trying not to say.”[3]
Felewin shrugged. “It seemed polite. Do you want your armor for this?”
“If it can’t bear my weight in armor, it can’t carry you. Hrelgi, you can fish me out if I fall in?”
“I’ll shoot you to the other side,” said Hrelgi helpfully. “Are your clothes dry yet?”
“No,” Ninefingers said. “And I’d rather not get wet again.” He hoisted his backpack higher and went to the bridge, poking wood with the haft.
“Me neither,” said Hrelgi.
As each plank seemed sound, Ninefingers slowly made his way up the bridge. The fridge was arched and he had gotten almost all the way to the top of the curve when[4] there was a rustling in the bushes on their side of the bridge.
Uthrilir said, “Felewin, your mind is on this, and Hrelgi is needed; I’ll check it out.” He cautiously approached the base of the bridge, and then backed up very fast as a crab as tall as him surged from the reeds.
Felewin called to Ninefingers, “Keep looking! We’ll deal with this.”
“Watch out for the pincers!” Ninefingers shouted back.
I know that, thought Felewin. I’ve heard of crabs! Oh— he thought as one pincer closed near him.[5] He struck back,[7] instinctively, and managed to hit one joint. Pale yellow-green fluid started to seep out. Uthrilir[8] swung as well — the thing was as broad as a bear is long — and also connected, but seemed to do no damage.
“Hold on,” said Hrelgi,[6] frantically flipping pages.
Uthrilir cried, “The crab’s too big to hold!”
“Scare it if you have to,” grunted Felewin[9].
Ninefingers felt movement on the bridge, but couldn’t react before the hand covered his mouth, and the others were too busy to notice.
Hrelgi[10] finished her incantation and the crab teetered on its legs. Felewin struck it and it fell over. Uthrilir whooped, and Felewin said, “See that, Ninefingers? You can come back up to see this; the bridge can hold you twice.”
There was no answer.
Without worrying about the integrity of the bridge,[11] Felewin dashed to the top of the arch, and saw two hobgoblins carrying Ninefingers away.
Felewin knew he wasn’t fast enough to catch them, so he unshipped his bow and strung it.[12] “Hrelgi! Can you stop the hobgoblins?”
Hrelgi ran up. The hobgoblins were already more than a dozen meters away. She said some words; nothing happened. “Not the right kind of armor,” she said.[13] She started flipping pages in the grimoire.
Uthrilir didn’t go on the bridge. Instead, he started praying that their aim would be improved.[14]
The bow was ready. Felewin drew an arrow and fired; with Uthrilir’s help, the arrow flew true and hit one of the hobgoblins[15]. Hrelgi said the words of the spell,[16] and Ninefingers flew toward her, yanked from their grasp. He flew backwards and landed on the path.
The hobgoblins could have caught up with him and grabbed him again—Hrelgi had not given him that much speed—but they chose instead to run.
Ninefingers got to his feet and ran back to the bridge.
Finally Ninefingers looked up at the other two, still on the bridge, and said, “You might as well cross. It’s strong enough.”
Monsters
Hobgoblins are in the rulebook.
Giant Crab
| Abilities | F3 A3 C0 R0 I0 |
|---|---|
| Skills | Athletics 4 (≤7), Brawling 4 (≤7) |
| Gimmicks | Oversized, Natural Weapon (3 inj), Natural Armor (3) |
| Arms | Longsword (2 inj), Shell (3) |
Game Mechanics
[1] Introduce a new NPC; Mistrust Possessions
[3] Just realized that I have not been rolling for random encounters. None last night, and earlier today hobgoblins.
[4] Awareness:Felewin 6 Hrelgi 7 Uthrilir 11
Makes it for none of them as raw awareness test, but the crab rolls 11 on stealth; it’s stealth is 3+4, or a margin of -6. All make it.
[5] Sounds like it’s combat! Reactions: Crab: 7 Felewin: 13 Ninefingers - Hrelgi 9 Uthrilir 11
Crab will attack Felewin and Uthrilir; Hrelgi will try antisalubrity; Uthrilir will whack it. Felewin will whack it.
[6] Hrelgi looks up the right spell.
[7] Felewin rolls 7 (margin 3) and crab rolls 5 (margin 2). Felewin hits for 4 Inj but the crab’s shell eats 2 of that (2,2,5,5).
[8] Uthrilir hits (margin 5), doesn’t get to attempt; Uthrilir does 3 damage (4,3,1) but only 1 gets through. Still, that means the crab has taken 2 Injury.
[9] Reactions: Felewin 9, Ninefingers 10, Hrelgi 8, Uthrilir 9, Hobgoblins 13
[10] Hrelgi casts the opposite of salubrity to take 4 Inj levels from the crab; she gets a 6 on the spell, and 10 on the Reasoning+Composure spell, which makes it because she hasn’t cast any other spells for a while. The Crab goes down another 4 Injury levels, and with the hits from Felewin and Uthrilir, it’s dead.
[11] Felewin in armour weighs twice what Ninefingers and two hobgoblins weigh (he’s big), so we ask Mythic, can the bridge handle Felewin’s weight? It’s likely, so 90%. I roll 46%, so it does.
[12] Hobgoblins have fitness 3, but let’s assume that carrying an armored goblin counts as bulky, so they run at 8 meters a turn. They’re already 8 meters away. After 1 turn they’ll move from short range to medium range.
[13] Because I knew her memorized spell wasn’t for this kind of armour, I didn’t even roll.
[14] Blessing (Intervention): He rolls a 7 and it’s difficulty 2, margin 1. Three tasks get added to. Felewin’s archery skill gets +6; Hrelgi’s sorcery gets +4; her composure+reasoning gets +2.
[15] Felewin rolls a 5, and his temporary archery skill is 15, so margin of 10 and a triumph. The arrow is 1 Inj; the hobgoblin is wearing leather armour. I roll a 5 for armour, so that’s 1 Inj for Hobgoblin 1.
[16] Hrelgi rolls a 6 on difficulty 4, so margin 3. Hrelgi uses motus to grab Ninefingers and yank him back; she succeeds in hitting him and the pulling has surprise; The athletics task to hold on is difficulty 4 (Hrelgi’s creativity), but hobgoblins don’t have athletics. So one hobgoblin totally fails (rolls 7), and the other would succeed (rolls 3) but it’s difficulty 4. So, no.
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