I was just browsing through my items yesterday, reading the histories, when I came across this tidbit under Midery's Herald's abilities:

Cold Iron

What does this mean, in terms of in-game benefits?

Nothing, as far as I can tell. Weapons of cold-forged iron, in several legends, are the only things capable of hurting various magical creatures, including non-Tolkienesque elves.

However, it does not seem like Misery's Herald has any benefits from cold iron other than those listed (+3, +4 vs. elves, 10% chance of Horror). I've never had the Horror special effect work, either.

In general, I use Misery's Herald as a "specialist" flail against elves, including drow. Against non-elves, I tend to use a flail with a stunning secondary effect.

<font color = lightgreen>It is possible to use Near Infinity to make a creature immune to normal weapons or magic weapons (even through +5) but leave them vulnerable to cold iron weapons. That would be naughty of us, though. [img]graemlins/beigesmilewinkgrin.gif[/img] </font>

That would be... interesting.

I was just wondering about that weapon myself this past weekend! It dawned on me that the Horror spell was busted on Misery's Herald.

My paladin uses the Long Sword of Confusion +2 at the point in the game where you have to duke it out with those very nasty [in HoF, anyway] dark elves--they put one finger up one of their nostrils and you put the sword up the other ; )

I just use Misery's Herald on the skeletons in The Hand. It does a great job pounding them into the dust [{hint}: one of those skeletons needs a +3 or greater weapon to clobber--it has a random item too.]