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 6. Outside The Old Keep —=— Next Chapter 8. Hrelgi’s Side Quest
7. Inside The Old Keep[1]
Trying to avoid the old keep took them through the thickest forest and undergrowth. They were using two of the hobgoblin swords as machetes, but by shortly after noon, Felewin said, “We have to stop and hone these things. I am loathe to suggest it but if the going is easier by the old keep, I think we need to go that way. Plus I don’t like the look of those clouds: I think tonight will be stormy.[2]”
“Did the lady Anwen mention this old keep to you? A keep is an investment; I would think it would be worth mentioning,” said Uthrilir.
“In passing,” said Felewin. “This province, Blackmarch, was settled by the Empire of Tanne during one of their expansionist periods. There was a keep, which is I presume the one we’re near, but her concern was more for the Tower that Stigiswart took over, and for the Dwarf Roads that were rumored. We know now that those roads existed.”
“And you will not repeat it,” said Uthrilir. “There are stories of trade using the Dwarf Roads. I had thought they meant the Bleak Tower, but if there was a keep, too….”
“At about the time Stigiswart came to the area — when my father was young, I think — the keep was overrun by orcs and hobgoblins and probably more. The Empire, which was already losing territory with the independence of Guildeland and then Westport, abandoned it. But I don’t think that the Lady Anwen knew it was here.”
“No wonder it’s so wild here; a generation is enough time for wilderness to return,” said Ninefingers. Felewin nodded.
“We won’t have to go into the keep,” said Hrelgi. “They’ll have buildings outside, though. Right?”
“I think we’ve seen the best of the buildings,” said Felewin. “Let’s angle toward the keep and take advantage of the trails that the hobgoblins use.”
“Once we file these swords sharp,” said Uthrilir.
“I wish the swords had a stronger spine; they are as much for thrusting as cutting, and we only want cutting,” said Felewin.
Uthrilir shrugged. “It takes only a little more time to sharpen the tip as well, and they will be in our hands if we are attacked.”
The clouds had gathered to storm level by the middle of the afternoon, when they came to what had been a clearing. The trees were young — not saplings, but not the thick growth seen elsewhere — and the grasses were high, scattered with flowers. In the center of the clearing was a stone building that had once had a wooden structure in it; parts of that wood still poked up above the walls. The ditch around the keep was dry and overgrown with brambles and thistles. Two hills probably indicated ruined buildings, but now they were grasses and rubble.
“It looks kind of pretty,” said Hrelgi.
The first fat drops of rain fell on them. “To the keep, then,” said Felewin.
The heavens opened by the time they made it to the keep; Felewin had spotted the door and guided them there; they passed the twisted iron remains of the portcullis, and the doors were smashed open and broken. Cracks in the stone meant that streams of rainwater poured into the doorway, and they moved inward.
The entry room was dim and the roof seemed somewhat intact. The walls were scorched by some kind of bolts, probably magical, and clean-picked bones littered the floor. Ninefingers looked at them. “Human, hobgoblin, orc…and something else I’ve never seen before. If I could find a skull….” Using his silver-tipped spear, he started poking through the bones, and a startled hiss made him draw back suddenly[3].
A dog-sized lizard jumped at him and fastened its mouth on his arm; Ninefingers yelled, though more from surprise.[4] Felewin stepped in and swiped at the lizard, cutting it across the side with the hobgoblin sword and leaving a ragged slash. Uthrilir moved up and hit it, too, and the beast fell off Ninefingers, dead.
“You okay?”
Ninefingers said, “Just a bruise.”
Uthrilir stepped forward to look at it. “I’m not wasting the Maiden’s time on that wound.”
“Hey, can you eat lizard?” asked Hrelgi.
“Sure,” said Felewin. “Tastes like chicken.” He knelt down and looked at the lizard’s mouth. “I don’t think it was poisonous; it was just surprised and attacked.”
“That’s no consolation if you’re the one who got hurt,” said Ninefingers.
“I like chicken,” said Hrelgi.
“We need to make camp for the night,” Felewin told her. “If you want to try lizard, clean it, but do it in one of those other rooms. Take Uthrilir with you; if the place has undead, like the hobgoblin said, you’ll be glad of a cleric.”
“There’s only one doorway.”
“Sure,” said Felewin. “Choke-point if someone got in the front doors. Which we know they did. So you’ll probably find more of those skeletons on the other side.”
Uthrilir picked up the dead lizard by its tail and said, “Come along, girl.”
“You know that I’m older than you, right?”
Uthrilir snorted. “Not in years, not in temperament.”
Hrelgi said sweetly to Felewin, “Lantern, please. I can’t see in the dark.”
“Neither can I,” said Felewin as he handed it over. “I swear that spends more time with you than with me.”
“I will get one when I can. Maybe I’ll have it in a necklace or something so it’s easy to carry.”
Ninefingers watched Hrelgi and Uthrilir go. “I don’t understand them.”
“Some folks just stick together. Find something to make a torch, while I set up. If we have to go after them, I need to be able to see.”
“You think they’ll get in trouble?”
“No, but if they do, we don’t want to lose time trying to improvise a light.”
“Then start a fire while I make two.” There were cloth tatters on the floor, and Ninefingers gathered those. Hrelgi had left behind a small container of oil meant for the lantern she never used, and Ninefingers used some of that.
Felewin was feeding twigs into the nascent flame when they heard Uthrilir yell.
Ninefingers touched the torch-head to the fire, and let it burst into flame. He handed the two torches to Felewin, who said, “Hope they last long enough.”
The doors opened into a corridor with branches off for various rooms. Following Uthrilir’s voice, they went down a left-hand corridor and entered. Uthrilir stood there with a dozen rats between him and a hole in the floor.[5] Tables — probably dining tables originally — and refuse littered the room; half the rats were eating the dead lizard; the other half were defending it.
Uthrilir had his mace out. “The floor collapsed! We were looking for a place to clean the lizard.”
Felewin jabbed at one of the rats with his torch and singed it. The torch flickered and then roared back into full flame.
“Hrelgi! Can you hear us?” Felewin yelled.
“Yes, but I can’t find the lantern! I dropped it and it closed!”
“Are you hurt?” Uthrilir called.
“Was, but I fixed that. Here, this might be—”
There was a chittering sound from down below.
“That doesn’t sound good,” Ninefingers said. He pierced a giant rat like his sword was a spit, then tossed the beast aside.
Felewin waved his torch to shoo rats over to one side. “Ninefingers, you’re lightest. To the edge of the hole and see what’s happening.” He could light the second torch and throw this one down to her—
Uthrilir swung at a rat and missed. The rat attacked him, but was easily rebuffed by his shield.
“I’ll try.” Ninefingers moved slowly to the edge of the hold; the floor started to give way and he leapt back. “No good. Can’t see.”
“Hrelgi!” shouted Uthrilir.
“Have the lamp; gotta run,” she called. “Maggot as big as an ox.”
“Forget the lantern!” Uthrilir said. “Get out!”
“Carcass scavenger!” Ninefingers shouted. “Mind the stingers!”
Felewin said to the others, “Leave the rats. We can’t jump, so we need to find stairs. This way!” He backed out of the room, waving the torch in front of him. “Come on!” Ninefingers followed as quickly as he could, but Uthrilir paused, clearly torn. “Uthrilir!”
The dwarf yelled, “We’re coming for you!” and dashed out of the room. “It won’t kill her, will it?”
“Yes, it will,” said Ninefingers. “Paralyze her until she dies, then eat her.”
Felewin interrupted. “Keep wasn’t expanded, so stairs are probably at a corner. Check each room. We don’t fight what’s in there, we just look for stairs.” He paused by the first door. “You two can see in the dark.”
Felewin threw open the door. Clearly, it had been a barracks: ruined beds stood amid the rubble, but all soft material had been heaped in a corner by giant rats — some stood guard and hissed.
Ninefingers shut the door. “Not there.”
Felewin was more cautious opening the next door. There was a moaning sound. “No stairs, just zombies,” said Ninefingers. He pulled the door shut before any zombies could get out.
“How good’s the door?” asked Felewin.
“Wish we had iron spikes to close it. They might follow us.”
“They won’t get near us,” Uthrilir said. “The Maiden will see to that.” He prayed and held his symbol aloft. Ninefingers looked at Felewin; if Felewin looked worried, he didn’t show it.
The next room had been some kind of lounge or den. Uthrilir looked at it. “I see no other door. Ninefingers?”
Ninefingers looked.[6] “I don’t see one.”
They shut the door. “Gnolls,” said Felewin.
“Yes?” Ninefingers said.
“The bones you couldn’t identify: they are from gnolls. Nocturnal; we used to encounter them in the low hills. They organize into matriarchal tribes.”
“Never heard of them,” said Ninefingers. “Huh.”
The next door hid rubble. The roof had collapsed, but they saw two things: first, the remnants of a spiral staircase leading up, and second, an exit door at the opposite end of the room. The room was strewn with wooden beams, plaster, bones, and detritus; Felewin suspected it would be a hike just to get to the other door.
“Well, at least the room serves as a barrier between the skeletons and us.”
“They don’t have to worry about hurting themselves,” Ninefingers pointed out.
“A barrier would be good,” said Uthrilir. “The Maiden will not let them hurt us, but I cannot channel Her will forever.”
Ninefingers went first across the room.[7] He had a precarious moment, but made it to the far door. The door was wedged shut by detritus; he began clearing it as Felewin and Uthrilir headed over.
Halfway across, Felewin’s torch began to sputter. He paused, straddling a beam, and lit the second torch. It caught slowly, but it caught. Felewin looked around but saw nothing to replace the torch. Rather than throw it away, he held on to the bone in hopes of finding a new wrapping for it.
With that wait, Uthrilir reached the far side before Felewin did, and the path was clear by the time that Felewin arrived. Ninefingers cautiously pried the door open; it squealed from disuse.
The door opened into a corridor that moved forward and then turned right. On their left side was another door.
Uthrilir opened the door to the left, on the theory that it was closest to the corner. The door opened onto the stairs down. The room was decorated by an old crimson tapestry but held a staircase down. Uthrilir was already running for the stairs when Felewin went to the tapestry and yanked it down.
“Fuel for the torches,” he said. “I’d love some oil; that would make better torches.”
The tapestry was too big to carry easily, but it was old and Felewin could rip it. He took a chunk of it, and then followed Uthrilir down the stairs.
At least the dwarf was waiting for them at the doorway out of the stairwell.[8] They started down when Ninefingers said, “Hold. Give me your torch.”
Felewin passed it over.
Ninefingers held it against a green puddle on the floor; the puddle writhed and sizzled, but less than a minute later, Ninefingers rolled the torch against it and said, “Dead. Good.” He passed the torch back to Felewin and said, “Bad slime. Don’t step on it; it dissolves everything but stone.”
Felewin nodded. At the bottom of the stairs, he tore the tapestry again and wound half of it around the dead torch, careful not to touch the hot bone. Parts of it crumbled and broke.
This won’t last more than one more try, thought Felewin. Wood would be better. I should have looked for something suitable upstairs.
There were two doors on the north side and one on the west. Uthrilir looked at Felewin and said, “No way to know what goes where; humans don’t build as sensibly as dwarves.”
“Farthest right, then.”
Uthrilir opened the door[9]. There was the first of a set of tremendous crashes, and Uthrilir hastily shut the door. “Move!” he said, and shoved them to the side. The door smashed open and a huge cask rolled out, hitting the side of the stairs with a loud crash.
“Trapped?” asked Ninefingers but they were interrupted by a huge dead bugbear, shuffling implacably out of the room. It was clearly a zombie. It swung its broadsword at[10] Ninefingers[11]. Ninefingers[12] blocked the blow and swung but hit it squarely on its mail; Uthrilir[13] stove in its chest. Felewin[14] drew his sword and chopped off its head.
“No other door in there,” said Uthrilir. “Next.”
They pried open the next door — it was stuck — and saw nothing but litter and a crate. “No door,” said Uthrilir.
“This was a storeroom,” said Ninefingers. “Let’s spend a moment and see if we can find a better light source for Felewin. Those torches won’t last much longer.”
“Hrelgi could be dying,” said Uthrilir.
“And I can’t help if I can’t see,” said Felewin.
“Look, then, but I’ll scout ahead,” said Uthrilir. “Don’t dawdle.”
Felewin and Ninefingers stepped into the room. “Ignore the floor, check the crate,” said Ninefingers. Felewin nodded and used the handle of his sword to pound open the lid of the crate. Ninefingers scanned the room, and said, “Oil. That would help your torches.”
Felewin grunted and pried off the lid. “Rope. Rope and bedrolls.”
“Take a length of rope. If nothing else, we can go down the hole to Hrelgi.”
Felewin had his arm in the crate when they heard Uthrilir say, “You want to join me.[15] Skeletal warriors.”
“A moment!” said Felewin. He opened the jug of oil and poured some on the torch that wasn’t lit, then let that torch drip onto the lit torch, which flared each time a drip landed.
“Hurry, please.”
“No one in this keep heard of lamps,” Felewin grumbled. He grabbed the torches and his gear, then the jug of oil.
“You’re not going to carry that, are you?” asked Ninefingers.
“No, but I’ll put it by the door so we can reach it in a hurry.” He lugged the jar of oil to the door and set it down. The torch was burning brighter, now, and Felewin had faith that the other torch would be better.
Wood would still be better.
They found Uthrilir just outside the door to the stairwell room. Felewin couldn’t see anything in the circle of light; behind them, on the stairwell, they heard something coming down the stairs. Felewin saw bony feet waiting three steps down.
“We’ve got skeletons on the stairs,” Felewin said.
“We’ve triggered something,” Ninefingers said. “Can you grant them the true death?”
“Not here,” said Uthrilir. “I’m going to move forward, but I wanted you two near me.”
They stepped forward slowly. “What will they do when the zone of holiness passes the wall?”
“Go through a different door, if they can,” said Uthrilir.
“Toward Hrelgi?”
The dwarf stopped. Then he started again. “We can’t know. If she’s alive, she can defend herself, and if she’s not, they will pay.”
The room at the far end of the corridor was mostly blocked by a mound of scorched wood and refuse. If Felewin had to guess, the locals had tried to defend themselves by creating a blockade. By the time they got up to the room at the far end of the corridor, the door to the east was open. Skeletal warriors were following them, about fifteen paces behind them.
“I cannot fight in this position,” Uthrilir said.
“Just the two of us, then,” said Felewin. “If there’s something other than undead.” He paused. “I can’t use my shield when I’m holding the torch. If you can’t fight anyway, can you take the torch?”
“I can.” Uthrilir tucked one torch in his belt, and held the other aloft.
Once they got past the mound, there was an empty weapons rack in a far corner, an open door to the west, and a closed door to the east. The door to the east had no visible hinges or handles; only a shallow circular depression with an image of a dragon.
Uthrilir[16] said, “Maybe over there.” He walked over and said, “That’s where she fell.”
They heard, “Uthrilir!” from down the corridor.
The dwarf grinned. “She’s alive.”
Ninefingers said, “We go in there and shut the door. That takes care of the skeletons behind us. Then we deal with the carcass scavenger and the other skeletons.”
“This looks like the prison. If we shut that door, we might not be able to open it from the inside,” said Felewin.
“There’s a big hole in the ceiling. We can get out.”
Felewin laughed. “I forgot.”
They went in and shut the door. “I’d still like iron spikes,” Ninefingers said.
“You don’t have a hammer,” reminded Felewin.
At the end of the corridor they could see a dead carcass scavenger. Uthrilir checked each cell as they went by; when they got to the one with four skeletons in it, trying to escape from Uthrilir’s holy symbol, Felewin grabbed the door and pulled. It resisted, so he pulled again.
The door slammed shut.
“You should have disarmed them first,” Ninefingers said.
“You sound like my father, always criticizing,” replied Felewin.
Uthrilir relaxed his grip on the holy symbol, and the skeletons surged to the cell door. They tried to attack, but Ninefingers swept down the spear he was carrying and their swords clattered to the floor. Felewin kicked them away.
Felewin said, “Satisfied?”
“Yes,” said Ninefingers.
Near the door, Uthrilir asked Hrelgi, “Are you all right?”
“I made a portal,” said Hrelgi proudly. “It went away too fast for me to do anything, but I made it.”
“But are you all right?”
“Of course,” said Hrelgi. “You’ll have to move the carcass scavenger.”
Felewin and Ninefingers regarded it. “Pull it?” asked Felewin.
“Loop the rope around it,” said Ninefingers.
“Might work.[17]” The two of them together managed to haul the body of the carcass scavenger far enough to block the cell containing the skeletons.
“Good enough,” said Felewin, sweating.
In the meantime, Uthrilir was hacking off the carcass scavenger’s arms so they didn’t block the passageway. He paused and held up the sword. “I’m glad I was only using this for cutting grass, because it is not good for anything any more.”’
“I might be able to sharpen it,” said Felewin.
“I might grow wings and fly, too,” said Uthrilir, “but I know the odds.”
“I’m something better than that,” Felewin said mildly.
Finally, they could let Hrelgi out of the cell. She told them what the three corpses carried.
“Iron spikes. I told you!” said Ninefingers.
“We can fill our backpacks with their things. I don’t think they’ll miss them. We will give them a service, however,” said Felewin.
“Indeed,” said Uthrilir.
Ninefingers sorted through the thief’s tools. “These are good quality. Who were these three?” He plucked out three pieces to enhance his own set.
Hrelgi said, “The wizard, she had her name in her grimoire. I can’t pronounce it.” She showed the others.
“That’s the writing of my people,” said Felewin. “My mother had whole books of writing.” He puzzled over her name for a moment. “Her name was probably Anashel.”
“Your people produce wizards?” asked Hrelgi.
“I guess. I mean, we didn’t shun them, like your people did.” Felewin thought a moment, then admitted, “Of course, we had no tradition or knowledge of magic, so she would have to leave to learn more.”
Monsters
The gnoll zombie is a zombie.
Giant Gecko Lizard
| Abilities | Fitness 3 Awareness 3 Creativity 0 Reasoning 0 Influence 0 |
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| Gimmicks | Musclebound, Toughness, Quick-Stepped |
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| Skills | Athletics 5 (≤8), Brawling 5 (≤8), Stealth 4 (≤7) |
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| Weapons | Teeth [1 inj] |
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Game Mechanics
