The Highreach & the Ore Road¶
North of Coldhollow, behind the collapsed shed yards where the town no longer looks too closely, the Ore Road climbs fourteen miles into the high country — to the failed silver-lead mine that Coldhollow was built to serve, and to Lanternwatch, the palisaded waystation at the treeline that never let its lantern go out.
This is the upper reach of the hunting ladder: the grounds off the Ore Road run from level 8 to level 15, rising in danger the farther and higher you go. It is also the coldest, iciest, most patient stretch of the current world — read the road notes before you set out, and buy the crampons.
The dates, for reference: the Delvings were struck in 1149 SR and sealed in 1187 ("it was warm, and it should not have been"); Lanternwatch was raised as the mine's waystation in 1154 and taken over by the Lanternkeepers in 1189; Old Graven fell in 612 SR and has kept a dead god's door ever since.
Getting there: NORTH off the Collapsed Shed Yard at the derelict north
edge of Coldhollow (through the fence gap behind the smithy lane).
The Ore Road¶
The trunk road itself spawns nothing — danger lives in the grounds hanging off it — but the road collects its price in other coin:
- The Shelf Glaze (miles 6–7): three rooms of layered ice over a gorge, worse than anything on the southern road. The slip rules from the Coldhollow Road apply, more severely: walk it one room at a time, wear iron crampons (sold at Lanternwatch and Emberford), keep your legs healthy and your pack light.
- Wanderers. A timber wolf sometimes crosses the Burnt Mile stretch, and above the treeline the cats do not respect the road's opinion of itself.
- Mother Barrel, the carters' shelter on the frost moor, is the traditional
breather — and the wall-scratchings are worth a
LOOK.
Landmarks in order, town to treeline: the Tollhouse Shell (milestone: HIGHREACH 14), the Burnt Mile, Hollowrun Falls, the Gorge Bridge (mind the dead winch across the gap), the Shelf Glaze, the Quarry Turn, the High Switchbacks, the Frost Moor and Mother Barrel, the Treeline — and then the lantern.
The hunting ladder¶
All grounds are aggressive, all are posted at Brann's bounty desk, and the skinnable ones pay at Sela's counter (or five points better in Emberford, if you enjoy the glaze with a full pack):
| Ground | Getting there | Levels | What lives there |
|---|---|---|---|
| Burntack Wood | NORTH off the Burnt Mile |
8–9 | timber wolf packs in the standing char; a glutton holding the cache tree — trappers rank it above the trolls, and they are not joking |
| The Delvings | SOUTH down the ramp at the Quarry Turn |
10–12 | a cave bear denned at the flooded pit; below ground, the pale delvers — the shift that never stopped — and the bell-carrying overseer in the deep chamber. Humanoids: they carry coin and locked boxes |
| The Crags | TRAIL at the Lanternwatch gate |
13–14 | snow sabrecats on the sunny ledge-walks (premium pelts), hill trolls on the steps they are named for |
| The Frozen Gallery | CREVASSE behind the minehead barracks |
14–15 | frost revenants — the last shift, still at their stations — and in the tally room at the end, Old Graven, the elder troll, twelve feet of toll-keeper with two generations of back rent |
Old Graven is the summit of the surface ladder: a single spawn, a long respawn, a hoard-room lair, and a hide worth 160 silver before the furrier's rate. Bring friends, or an exit plan, ideally both.
Two more doors hang off this page now. At Hollowrun Falls (mile 5) a spray-slick stair descends into the Hollowrun gorge (levels 12–18), running all the way down to Emberford's orchard country. And in Old Graven's tally room stands the graven door — the dead god's door he has kept since 612 SR, behind which the Wyrmshoulder (levels 34–40) climbs to the range's high shoulder and the Iron Gate's forecourt. The graven door has not yet been unshut. Watch the north.
The gates have opened¶
Past the ore yard the mine's Iron Gate stands in dressed granite, riveted with the rayed sun — and the keys, long thought myth, have surfaced. Behind it the Incline drops into the Deep Delvings, the mine's true underlevels (levels 16–25). The boarded winze down in the Delvings descends to the same country by a shorter, darker ladder. The offerings at the gate's foot are still traditional. Now you know what they were for.
Lanternwatch¶
A palisaded freight-station at the treeline — sanctuary inside the palisade, same rules as the towns: no combat, no aggression, nothing follows you through the gate. Four rooms and everything a hunting trip needs:
| Place | Keeper | What it's for |
|---|---|---|
| The Lantern Yard | old Hesk, the lamplighter | The mast-lantern, the notice board, and the road's best stories told slowest |
| The Long Hall | Brann Fetch | BOUNTY work on all eight locals (culls and skin jobs), hot food, gossip, quests — and CHECK IN to train in the bunkroom |
| The Long Hall (hearth corner) | Odda Greyknit | The trail-physicker: herb healing, salves, bandages, potions — scars included free |
| The Trade Post | Sela Ironmarrow | Crampons, storm lanterns, picks, rope, warm gear, the carter's trail map (buy one, READ it) — and she buys pelts at rate 140 |
No bank. Coin rides home in your pack, the old way.
The Kettle¶
Two turns up the high path from the gate, a hot spring steams in a fold of the crags — the world's first greater recovery node, and it is not inside anyone's palisade. Prime rest, prime ambush country, broad soft cat-tracks in the margins. The old rule: sleep in shifts, or soak with your back to the cairn.
Suggested progression¶
Coming off the Reedmarsh or the bog lurker (level 7): start in Burntack Wood, base out of Lanternwatch once you can walk the glaze without donating, move down into the Delvings when the wolves stop teaching you anything (bring lockpicks — the delvers' boxes are the north's best supply), then up to the Crags and finally the Gallery. The carter's trail map at Sela's counter says all of this in fewer words and better handwriting.