Between a Rock and a Hard Place

Quest · Chapter 5 · Old Camp

Quest Parts

  • Between a Rock and a Hard Place:
  • I gotta get to Stone.:
  • Maybe Darrion will forge a key.:
  • I should get the key from Darrion.:
  • I could steal the key from Gomez.:
  • I should be able to open the cell door now.:
  • I gotta free Stone.:
  • I should accompany Stone out.:

Stone's prison break

Stone gives you a sketch of the lock and says Darrion could forge a fitting key. Darrion initially refuses because of the dispute over Stone's stolen weapon design, but changes his mind when he is told Stone will work under him in the forge.

Darrion's finished key is sharpened and oiled for a quick, quiet opening. If he refuses, Huno identifies Gomez's key as the other route; you can either steal that key or use Darrion's.

The escort route is also explicit: stay close to Stone while he is moved out. Warders may attack, and Stone tells you to avoid bloodshed where possible but not to hesitate if the guards force a fight.

A smith imprisoned by his own craft

Stone's arrest is the direct consequence of the rivalry over Darrion's weapon design. Gomez discovered that the design had gone missing and chose imprisonment instead of a hearing, turning the castle's smith into another piece of property controlled by the ore barons. Stone can still work, but only when someone else decides whether he is allowed to leave the cell.

The hero's intervention forces Darrion to confront his part in that punishment. Darrion initially refuses to help because he believes Stone stole his art, then agrees to forge a key when he learns Stone will work under him. The key is both a practical tool and a temporary restoration of the master-and-apprentice relationship that the rivalry destroyed.

Escape without becoming an executioner

The route out is dangerous because the warders are protecting more than a prisoner; they are protecting the order of the castle. Stone asks the hero to avoid unnecessary bloodshed, while also acknowledging that guards may leave no peaceful option. Keeping close to him during the escort is a test of whether freedom can be won without reproducing the violence that put him in the cell.

Freeing Stone does not end the dispute over the design, but it restores his ability to choose where he works. In a colony where a uniform or a locked door can decide a person's fate, opening the cell becomes a small rejection of the belief that craftsmen and prisoners belong to whoever holds the key.

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