A battered leather folio found in the desk of Rodrik Halvard's warehouse office in Loereth. The pages are stained with ink and coffee. The handwriting shifts between careful notation and hurried scrawl — entries added over months as new codes arrived in correspondence. Several entries are crossed out and rewritten. The margins contain small notes in a different hand — corrections from someone who reviewed Rodrik's work at least once.
Code | Meaning | Rodrik's Notes |
|---|---|---|
RH | Rodrik Halvard (himself) | "My tag. Use on all outgoing." |
S | Serka | "The handler. Checks in every few weeks. Don't make her wait." |
T | Tinker | "Big guy in Marcos. Works with S. Not bright." |
OT | Orelius Tann | "Corinthia merchant. Moves the western shipments. Thinks he's legitimate." |
VH | Vesna Holt | "Councilor? Don't ask. Not our level." (margin note in different hand: "Political. Leave it.") |
DH |
| "New recruit? Marcos." (crossed out, rewritten:) "Not signed yet. S working on him." |
H | Hask | (crossed out entirely, margin note:) "GONE. Turned fence-hunter. Do NOT contact. Report sightings to S immediately." |
Code | Meaning | Rodrik's Notes |
|---|---|---|
L1 | Loereth — Rodrik's warehouse (River Street, near second dock) | "Home office." |
L2 | Loereth — smelter district drop point | "Backup. Don't use unless L1 is hot." |
M1 | Marcos — The Broken Antler | "S and T operate here. Recruiting." |
M2 | Marcos — ??? | "Secondary site. Haven't been told where." |
C1 | Corinthia — Merchant's Row, OT's warehouses | "Labeled 'mining equipment.' Don't open the long crates." |
A1 | Altoria — Veins district | "Recruiting office. The woman." |
K |
| (margin note in different hand: "Complete. Don't reference.") |
MO | "The mountain operation" | "Don't know. Above my level. S mentioned it once. Sounded big." |
Code | Meaning | Rodrik's Notes |
|---|---|---|
Ore | Cracked dungeon core (void-type) | "Standard product. Wrap in cloth. Box in lead." |
Ember | Cracked dungeon core (fire-type) | "Same handling. Don't mix with Ore in the same box." |
Clean ore | Intact dungeon core (properly extracted) | "We don't get these. If one shows up, contact S." |
Slag | Failed/shattered core fragments | "Worthless. Dispose. Still radiates — don't dump in the river." |
Salt | Alchemical stabilizers | "Keeps Ore quiet in transit. Buy from legitimate suppliers — the guild ones." |
Cloth | Void-dampening wrapping fabric | "Magical. Don't know where it comes from. S provides it." |
Box | Lead-lined containment crate | "We build these downstairs. Keep the lining tight." |
Paper | Forged provenance documentation | "My job. Thornpeak Syndicate letterhead. Use the good ink." |
Tools | Void-tuned resonators / extraction equipment | "DO NOT OPEN. Ship west only. OT handles these." |
Used in manifests and correspondence. Usually paired with a location code.
Code | Meaning | Rodrik's Notes |
|---|---|---|
Green | Operational / safe to ship | |
Yellow | Delayed / complications | |
Red | Compromised / abort | "Burn everything. Move to backup location." |
Black | ??? | "Never seen this used. S said 'you don't want to.'" |
Complete | Operation finished, asset extracted | "Usually for field jobs. Means S is done with a site." |
Monitor | Watch for residual activity | "Means something might still be leaking. Not our problem." |
Warm | Recruitment in progress | "M1 uses this a lot." |
Signed | Recruit confirmed |
How to read an Iron Maw shipping manifest:
[Origin Code] → [Destination Code] | [Product Code] x [Quantity] | [Status]
[Date — uses day count from new year, not month/day]
[Handler initials]
Example from seized documents:
A1 → L1 | Ore x 3 | Green
Day 247
RH
Translation: Three cracked void cores shipped from Altoria Veins district to Rodrik's Loereth warehouse. Operational. Day 247 of the current year. Rodrik receiving.
Phrases that appear in Iron Maw letters. Not all are codes — some are just how S writes.
Phrase | Meaning |
|---|---|
"The forge is cold" | Operations suspended at a location |
"The forge is hot" | Operations active |
"Stoke the forge" | Resume operations / increase output |
"Quench" | Emergency shutdown — destroy evidence |
"The smith is traveling" | Serka is en route to your location |
"New apprentice" | New recruit being sent for training |
"The order is placed" | Target dungeon identified for extraction |
"Delivery confirmed" | Core successfully extracted and in transit |
"The customer is satisfied" | Payment received from buyer |
"Bad iron" | Guild Accord is investigating nearby — lay low |
"Rust" | A member has been compromised or arrested |
"Reforge" | Reassign compromised personnel to new location |
"The smith" | Serka (used in travel/arrival context) |
"The mountain" | ??? (Rodrik's note: "She only said it once. Changed the subject when I asked.") |
Rodrik's notes on the front company:
The Thornpeak Syndicate doesn't exist. I made the letterhead. S gave me the name and told me to register it as a prospecting consortium in Loereth's merchant rolls — costs 2 gold, no questions asked. All outgoing core documentation uses Thornpeak provenance stamps. The ink is specially mixed — looks like standard Guild assessment ink under normal inspection, but an alchemist with a DC 20+ check could tell the difference. S said the Thornpeak name was chosen because it sounds boring enough that no one would investigate it. She was right.
These appear in correspondence but Rodrik couldn't decode them. His annotations suggest frustration.
Code / Phrase | Context | Rodrik's Notes |
|---|---|---|
"Anchor" | Appears in field reports from S | "Something they leave behind at a site? Not a core." |
"Seed" | Appears alongside "anchor" | "Maybe the same thing? S wouldn't explain." |
"The asset" | Referenced in Kwehn'raa reports | "Something extracted. Not a core — they already coded cores as Ore. Something else." |
"Bloom" | Appears once in a letter from command level | "No idea. The letter wasn't for me. It was in a sealed envelope inside my regular drop." |
"Phase two" | Referenced twice | "I asked S. She said I wouldn't be around for it. I didn't ask again." |
Black (status code) | Never used in Rodrik's time | "S said if I ever see Black on a manifest, leave the warehouse immediately and don't go back." |