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.
Lost in the Borderlands
Previous Chapter 5. The Hobgoblin Lair —=— Next Chapter 7. Inside The Old Keep
6. Outside The Old Keep[1]
“Properly you’d let these dry,” said Ninefingers about the centipede shell segments. “You’s take the scraper rock, a scraper that you found or prepared, and clean the inside. Properly you’d let them dry at this point; we’re not going to re-use them so we’re not worried about them attracting bugs.”
They were sitting around the dead centipede. In the heat, Ninefingers had chosen to take off his hauberk but kept it nearby. Felewin was trying to stay alert but finding himself sleepy.
He jerked himself awake. Sleepy? Or ensorcelled?
“Hrelgi, is there magic being used nearby?”
Hrelgi[2] wiped her hands off with grass, and then opened her grimoire. A short incantation later, she said, “Nope. You’re just tired.”
Felewin felt shame that she had seen him nearly doze off. He said nothing as the blush spread through his cheeks, when Uthrilir said, “Ow!”[3]
Hrelgi looked over at him, saw the arrow sticking from his shoulder, and yelled. “Move move move!” She dove for the dwarf, trying to knock him to the ground.[4] Uthrilir caught her with his good arm, picked her up, and carried her behind a tree.
Ninefingers dove to one side. Felewin still had an arrow out and his bow strung from seeing the centipede, so he scanned for the source of the shot.[5] There!
He fired his arrow smoothly and listened for a sound that told him if he’d hit.
“Get under cover, idiot,” hissed Ninefingers.
“Of course,” said Felewin, embarrassed, and ran toward the source of the arrow.
His thinking was this: the hobgoblin would take time to reload. If he took cover, the hobgoblin would have that time. If Felewin charged, though….it was harder for an archer to hit a moving target; and a running hobgoblin or a hobgoblin under attack couldn’t reload or fire.
Of course, that assumed there was only one hobgoblin:[6] Felewin burst through the bushes to find five hobgoblin[7]. Two had bows; one was reloading, and the other fired at him but missed in surprise. The other three had spears. One of those missed, another had his blow blunted by Felewin’s mail, and the third’s blade scraped along Felewin’s shield until it slipped off and against the mail.
Felewin’s intent was to shoot with the bow, but there were too many. “Five hobs!” he shouted[8]. He[9] drew his sword and with the same movement slashed the archer who had reloaded; the hobgoblin fell to the ground, gasping.
The other archer sprinted away to get some distance, hoping the other warriors would hurt Felewin as he reloaded.
One of the spear carriers thrust and hit, hitting the shield. Another thrust and the point of the spear slid off his shield and scored his arm. The third also hit, and the spear slipped under his shield but hit his mail. These three are tougher than drunk goblins, thought Felewin.
Probably he should back up, but he had nowhere to go; in dodging the spear thrusts he had turned himself to have a tree at his back. Good for protection from stabbing; bad for mobility.[10]
Uthrilir suddenly appeared[11] and mightily hit one of the spear-carriers; his mace hit the hobgoblin. Felewin took advantage of the surprise to slash open the belly of another spear carrier, which set him gasping on the ground.
Ninefingers popped up in front of the archer hobgoblin, and thrust his sword into the hobgoblin. “Why attack us?” he asked in their tongue.[12]
Hrelgi saw that one of the hobgoblins was about to stab Uthrilir. She said an incantation and that hobgoblin suddenly went pale, as though his life energy had been sucked out.[13]
Felewin and Uthrilir killed the hobgoblins before them[14]
Hrelgi was waiting for her magic to return, for she had not held it correctly when she cast the spell.
Ninefingers said to his foe, “We’ll let both of you live but you have to talk.”
The hobgoblin who had been affected by Hrelgi said, “We’ll talk! We’ll talk!”
Ninefingers’ opponent threw his spear on the ground.
“I didn’t catch the words,” said Felewin.
“They don’t want to be killed,” explained Ninefingers.
“No sensible person does,” said Uthrilir. “But what do they have to trade for their lives?”
Felewin made a sound of disbelief. “A trade?”
Hrelgi reminded the others, “We want directions to the Bleak Keep.”
Felewin said, “It’s a tower, not a keep. Directions and we’ll let them live.”
Uthrilir added, “Without their spears.”
“If the answers seem to be good, they can have the blades,” Felewin said. “They must know someone who can affix new hafts.”
Ninefingers passed this along. He listened to the answer and then complained to them. The hobgoblins gave him more of an answer.
“Apparently there’s a keep a dozen miles from here, but this is clearly not the area around the Bleak Tower.” He asked them more; the hobgoblins responded. “A ruined keep. But beyond the ruined keep is a path through the hills in the right direction. They don’t know more; they’ve never been out of this valley.”
Hrelgi asked, “What do they eat?”
Felewin said, “More importantly, what are the other denizens of this valley?”
Ninefingers asked, and listened to the response. Both hobgoblins responded to this, listing inhabitants. “The other inhabitants are goblins and orcs across the bridge. Lots of fearsome undead in the keep. The hobgoblins are pinned between the keep and the zombies of the wight, so their leader — a bugbear — keeps them in one spot, with occasional raids across the bridge.” He asked the hobgoblins another question. “And they eat mostly toads and centipedes.”
Uthrilir tsked. “Not really a thriving community.”
The hobgoblins looked expectantly at Ninefingers. Ninefingers did not bother to translate.
Felewin said, “They’ll die if we turn them loose like this. Look at them: they’re both grievously wounded.”
Uthrilir said, “Are you suggesting…?”
“Heal them,” said Felewin.
“I don’t heal anyone. I ask the Maiden to do that.”
“Please ask. Or I will ask Hrelgi.”
“I won’t do it,” said Hrelgi.
“But I’m asking Uthrilir first,” said Felewin mildly.
“I’m just saying,” said Hrelgi.
“Ninefingers, where will they go if healed?”
“Good question,” said Ninefingers. He spoke to the hobgoblins, who promptly replied. “They will have a life debt to us.”
Felewin swore. “I don’t want a life debt. Can we save their lives and not incur a life debt?”
“Sure. Ransom them back to the rest of their nest.”
Exasperated, Felewin asked, “For what? It’s not like they have gold or gems, and their armor and weapons won’t fit any of us. I just want to help them and not get stuck with another life debt.”
Ninefingers said, “They might have gold. The point is to make it an exchange, not something you do charitably.”
“Fine. Find out what they’re worth healthy.”
Uthrilir said, “I haven’t said I’ll ask for the Maiden’s boon.”
“They’re not worth anything like this,” Felewin pointed out.
“We could just kill them,” said Hrelgi.
“We could,” said Felewin, “but I have come to the conclusion that they’re probably people.”
“They’re hobgoblins,” said Hrelgi.
“She doesn’t think anyone but elves and dwarves are actually people,” said Uthrilir.
“Dwarves aren’t people,” said Hrelgi. “But Uthrilir is people.”
“Twenty silver if healthy, nothing injured,” reported Ninefingers.
Hrelgi said, “Ransom sounds like a lot of work. We should just kill them.”
“Please stop saying that,” said Felewin. “Look, I have no plans to amass an army of hobgoblins and goblins with life debts. Check their pouches, see what they have. Maybe there’s something there.”
Hrelgi said, “I’ll check the dead ones. For comparison,” she explained.
The dead hobgoblins had 14 silver and 7 gold, and an assortment of odds and ends: dubious meat, two wineskins, a whistle, a talisman of some kind, and a used magic scroll (which Hrelgi took immediately to study). Of the live hobgoblins, the archer had 9 silver and 3 gold, a lucky talisman, and his bow and arrows; the other had 7 silver and 3 gold, his spear, a clear rock polished to form a crude lens, and a sharpening stone.
Ninefingers drew Felewin aside. “You have to make it cost something. Can you use the arrows?”
“I suppose,” said Felewin. “The draw weight on the bow is too light for me. The sharpening stone might be useful but I suspect everyone has one.”
“I don’t,” said Ninefingers.
“Take it, then. The clear stone can be used to light fires during the day.”
“If you have two, a man showed me a trick you can do with two of them, if they’re good enough,” said Ninefingers. “Take the talismans. If it’s good enough to carry, it’s good enough to trade, life for goods. And the money of course.” Felewin grunted. “When we get to civilization, you can buy a new bedroll.”
“Fine. I don’t feel like it’s enough to justify healing them, to them.”
“You get Uthrilir to agree to try, and I’ll make them think this is enough to justify healing them.”
Felewin sighed and went to the dwarf. “Uthrilir…”
“The blessing of the Maiden is not to be squandered, Felewin.”
“It is not squandering. Doesn’t the Maiden stand for life, of thistles as well as wheat?”
“We never pray on behalf of thistles, Felewin.” Uthrilir seemed firm.
“Right.” Felewin thought for a minute. “I think they might be people, not monsters. If they are people, killing them must be approached with more thought. Ask the Maiden. Ask for them to be healed. Let her tell us whether they are people.”
Uthrilir thought about this. “I will ask for one. If She agrees, then I must ask for the second, but if she does not agree, I will not ask again.”
“Of course.”[15]
They walked over to the hobgoblins, where Ninefingers was examining the lucky talismans and giving a credible impression of a person trying to underpay for a valuable item.[16] He said to Felewin and Uthrilir, “Be impressed by the talismans and the clear stone.”
Ninefingers spoke to the hobgoblins again, holding the two talismans. He then turned to present them, one to Felewin and the other to Uthrilir. They looked at each talisman critically, turning them over and examining every part of them, and finally nodded.
Felewin added a sentence in his native tongue, Karvasht. “It is good,” he said. He was tempted to add something nonsensical, but he didn’t know for sure that the hobgoblins didn’t speak Karvasht. He understood a little of what the hobgoblins and Ninefingers saying because the tongues of goblins, hobgoblins, and orcs were different in accents rather than vocabulary.
He must have been convincing because one hobgoblin threw his shoulders back, winced, and then said, “If it’s worth something, maybe it’s also worth healing us?”
“Ah,” said Ninefingers. “We cannot promise anything, but we can ask the Maiden.” He tilted his head toward Uthrilir. “His goddess.”
“A goddess is good,” said the other hobgoblin. This one was female, but Ninefingers hadn’t been sure until now. “If she heals us, the talismans are yours.”
“And if she doesn’t, we kill you,” said Ninefingers, affecting a nonchalance he did not feel.
“Of course,” said the female hobgoblin.
Uthrilir prayed over them and laid his hands on them. Despite Uthrilir’s fervent hope, the Maiden healed them both completely. No matter how often Uthrilir had seen Her heal people, he was always amazed by the sight of major wounds closing and healing through the Maiden’s graces.
Uthrilir said a final prayer, and then Ninefingers handed their spears to Felewin, who examined them, snapped off the heads, and handed the blades back to them. Ninefingers handed over the bow, but not the arrows.
The female said, “That was not part of the ransom!”
“No,” said Ninefingers, “it’s just common sense. You might leave but we have granted you the ability to make more weapons. We don’t want them used against us.”
“We can remake them,” said the male.
“We hope to be long gone before you can fit a haft to those blades or make new arrows. And we did have you healed; you would have died otherwise.”
The male screamed and leapt at Ninefingers, who stepped aside.[17] Felewin hit the hobgoblin on the shoulder with the flat of his sword.
“Please do not,” said Felewin in poor goblin. “Go now.”
Cheeks burning with shame, the two hobgoblins left. Uthrilir was ready with his mace, but the hobs did not return.
When they were out of sight, Felewin looked at the sky. “Hard to believe it’s not even noon yet. If the trail is good, we might be able to skip that abandoned keep entirely.”
#
The trail was not good.
Monsters
Hobgoblins are in the rulebook.
Game Mechanics
[1] Mythic suggested theme: NPC Action: Vengeance Plot
[2] Hrelgi uses Fabrica Sphaera, and rolls 9+4+5, or 19. Makes it easily.
[3] Uthrilir’s armour does not work (he rolls a 6) so it penetrates his armour and hits his (rolls 8, so) arm.
[4] Hrelgi is fitness 3, he’s musclebound so he’s effectively Fitness 6. She gets 7+3=10 on her fitness roll; he gets 11+6=17, so he is a wall.
[5] I’m going to allow archery to be added to this search for the origin of the arrow. That’s 3+5+11, or 19: even if this is a challenging task, that works. Given that, I’ll let him fire this round. 6+5+5 is 16, which makes even a medium-range shot. Alas, it is a 1 inj arrow and the hobgoblin archer is wearing scale…and Felewin rolls a 1 for armour activations. No effect really.
[6] In fact, there are 1d6 hobgoblins (that is, 5), and one of them was already hurt in the encounter on the bridge yesterday. Two of them are archers (I know the write up doesn’t have any archers, but I say there are four archers in the hobgoblin encampment, with a skill of 4 in archery and hunting bows for 1 inj. Felewin can run twenty meters in a turn, so he will. He won’t win a footrace, but that’s not what he’s going for.
[7] One has an arrow prepared, but he rolls 6, which is 6+7-2 (Felewin is a moving target), so he misses. The others have spears, and jab with their 4 skill: One is reloading, and of the oter three, one misses (rolls a 5, for a total of 12). One hits (with a 16) however, the chain takes it all (rolls 1,2). The last hits with a 16 and the chain takes 1 f the 2 injury.
[8] Reactions: Felewin 13 Ninefingers 10 Hrelgi 11 Uthrilir 13 Hobs (It’s not in our POV, but Hrelgi uses a memorized spell to increase Uthrilir’s armor rating by 2, to a 4; she rolls 15, so it works, and she makes the Reasoning+Composure roll with margin 0 because it’s Trivial. Other stuff we can’t see: Ninefingers and Uthrilir are both going to charge, but it takes the turn to get to Felewin. Hobs are going to stab of course)
[9] Felewin tries a Quick Draw and hacks at one of the archers, because if they get farther away, they can pincushion him. He rolls 18-1 to attack, so he succeeds and hits the archer who shot thrilir first. The hobs have no aror, so that hob takes 4 INJ.
[10] Reactions: Felewin 10 Hrelgi 11 Ninefingers 14 Uthrilir 10 Hobs 11 (Hobs attack, of course; Hrelgi is looking up a spell; Felewin needs to get one of the spear guys. Ninefingers plans to come up behind and deal with them. Uthrilir is attacking.)
[11] Uthrilir gets a 15 to hit; the spear-carrier rolls 7, which makes the thing with a margin of 0 while Uthrilir has a margin of 1. So the hob takes 3 Injury.
[12] Does the archer make his Fitness+Composure roll? Not in the least (8 vs 14)
[13] Reactions: Felewin 9 Ninefingers 12 Hrelgi 12 Uthrilir 12 Hobgoblins 10
[14] Felewin rolls 10, plus 10, for 20; the hobgoblin defends but rolls a 4. Ain’t happening.
[15] Uthrilir rolls 6+4+6, but it’s difficulty 2, so he gets 16 versus a difficulty of 16. How lucky. The Maiden grants the hobgoblin 2 Injury levels back. The second is 6+4+10, and grants 5 Injury.
[16] Ninefingers rolls 8+5, which doesn’t quite reach 14, but even if these guys don’t believe, they’ll go along with it because they don’t want to die.
[17] Even taking two off for using the flat of his blade, Felewin rolls 8+5+5-2=16. The hobgoblin is so mad, he’s not defending. Ninefingers dodges (7+8_.
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