The Forge of Fury

This is your !! Spoiler Warning !!


Forge of Fury is part of the little mods series that highlights 3ED rules. The rule that Forge of Fury highlights is "Stat Damage." Undead, Troglodyte stench, mold, dire mosquitoes (er, "Stirges"), Forge of Fury had 'em all -- all the ways to shock and humiliate characters into an early grave without actually physically smashing them into oblivion. If you play with the "fixed" troglodyte rules, it might be easier (though my players had the worst luck with the stirges).

Most other people have noted a lack of decent adventure hooks; this is true (mine was "stubborn players refuse to lose"). The treasure is a bit sparse, especially since "the treasure" is the generallized adventure hook and is supposed to be why the dwarven forge matters in the first place.

That said, however, the maps are very nicely laid out (compared to "The Sunless Citadel" and "Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil"), such that I spent very little time trying to explain to my players what the room was being described as such that they could visualize it. It's something that's so very nice...

Overall, it's a good setting for a nice relaxed dungeon crawl (upon which the fate of the world does not hang), but the consistently ability-eating populous tended to spoil the fun for my players (as their characters would adventure for an hour and then have to sleep it off for a week).

The Forge of Fury - 4 Good

Let me start by saying that I DM a lot. I also enjoy running Dungeon Crawls as long as the dungeon ecology makes sense and the plot is more than a room-by-room hackfest.

Cost $9.95

32 pages, maps on inside covers.

For 4 characters begining at 3rd level.

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The plot of this adventure is that there is an old abandoned Dwarven Forge site that is available for investigation. There are several plot hooks provided: Stop the Orc Raiders who are using the site as a HQ, Recover blades made by a famous Dwarven smith that may still be stashed at the site, Follow a map to the site and check it out. All the plot hooks are fairly weak, but do give a reason for investigation of the dungeon. Personally, I usually place the adventure in an area that has been over run by humanoids in the past and have a Dwarf in the party wanting to go see what is left of his ancestor’s holdings.

Like The Sunless Citadel, this adventure contains a Dragon. I am glad to see the Dragon being put back in Dungeons & Dragons. I remember playing many first and second edition adventures and never seeing a dragon appear. Getting to see dragons at this level is something that I applaud. The way that it is done, with the dragons being young, keeps the dragons within the EL range of the party and lets the party know that all dragons start small somewhere.

Occasional side pars give hints to new DMs about replacing dead PCs with rescued prisoners, vision range in the large dark caverns,

Forge of Fury is comprised of 5 basic areas. These are mixed between cavern and dungeon regions. A DM could easily use only part of this adventure as the levels tend to have different ecologies and can thus be pulled out of the adventure and used piecemeal if desired.

The first area encountered is the Orc held front door to the complex. This area can easily result in a TPK if the party fails to get through the front door before they get closed, or is foolish enough not to know when to retreat. Orcs, an Ogre, and Stirges inhabit this 14-room level. ELs run from 1 to 4 and there are some prisoners to rescue.

The second level is a large 15-18 encounter area, natural cavern level. This area was part of the Dwarven mine portion of the complex and now houses a Troglodyte clan, Gricks, Yellow mold, Subterranean Lizards ( which are detailed in the back of the module) and some Dwarven crypts.

The next area is called the Sink Hole since a sinkhole on level two leads to this area. This area was once a storage area for the Dwarves and bisected by an underground stream. Hopefully your players will know when to run, because there is an EL 10 Roper on this level that is meant to show players that not everything in a dungeon is meant to be killed. If your players are thick headed about killing everything (and you know that) the module suggests you omit this encounter. Personally, I say leave it in and go for the TPK. The fact that characters encounter things stronger then themselves is something that all players should know, or learn the hard way.

The Fourth area is large 30-room dwarven forge area. Some of these rooms are not numbered, and several are keyed to "Looted Room", that comes with a 1d8 random room contents chart. On this level the party finds that Duergar have moved in and are using the forges. I had a TPK when the party I was running managed to excite EL 4, EL5 and EL6 encounters simultaneously. Some undead on this level will make the party cleric feel useful for more than their healing spells. Skeletons, an Allip and a Wight are all present. An EL9 Succubus will try to get the party to free her from an entrapment spell/curse that holds her in a room. Her main goal is to flee, but she may toy with a party before departing.

The final area is the Black Lake, this cavern area is crossed by the underground stream and is home to Nightscale, a Young CR4 Black Dragon.

I found the dissectability of this adventure (whether it was designed that way or not) to be nice. The Dungeon ecology is well done. My players have always thoroughly enjoyed playing this adventure, even the TPK group who all hit their heads against the table and declared that they would never flee a combat into two previously unexplored areas again. "If you can, run back the way you came" became their new motto.

This adventure will be hard for a 4 character 3rd level party. I used the party that had completed Sunless Citadel, with the additions of Erky Timbers and Meepoo the Kobold, and the party did fairly well. The division between the levels makes it easy for a party to rest in cleared areas. One party even brought in Men-at-arms to occupy the first level as they explored deeper.

The only thing that this module was lacking that kept it from getting a 5 from me was a cutting edge plot/adventure hook/ or something to set it apart from other modules of similar quality. It didn't have the depth of the Tomb of Abysthor, or the Nation building and living castle aspect of The Gryphon's Legacy. Still it is an excellent adventure that I will continue to run for my players.

ASEO out

While I agree that the adventure is a standard dungeon crawl and that for a group of experienced gamers it might be pretty flat in terms of plot and character development, it does seem to do it's job of introducing newish players to D&D relatively well. I am taking my kids through it (10 & 12) and they are enjoying it quite a lot. They, themselves, are not ready for much plot and this suits them fine. New adult players would likely be in a similar situation. They are fully involved in learning the mechanics of the game and, indeed, what RPGs are all about. So from the aspect of bringing new players into the fold, as it were, this adventure performs that task adequately. Not superbly, mind, but adequately. Say a 3.5 out of 5 on that basis.

Lacking

I found the forge of fury to have 2 problem issues.

1> it was seriously lacking in "interesting treasures".
coin and some generic loots. thats all this thing had. the most interesting part of the treasures was finding some of the durgedin stuff so it could be sold to the collector guy. it didnt ammount ot too much as there were about 5 total weapons ( i read somewhere in a review that al lthe MW Weapons found were made by durgadin even thoug hnon of them were specifically mentioned as any of the collector weapons, im guessing this was a flaw, much the same as all the typo's regularly found in wizards "premium products" you pay so much for.)

but all in al lthe easter-egg hunt was a fun bit. shame there wernt more pieces and some that really would have left the players wondering if its too good to turn in or not. like a nice +3 ghost touch something or other wit hsome really nice bonus effect.

or maybe even an int weapon that IS durgadin now!!!! whoa that woulda been an ubber twist.
but no nothing noteworthy in the loots.

2> i found nightscale to be a WAY undercon. Namira was a CR6 where nightscale was a CR4 ? seriously ? man my party tore through the Deurgar no problem but nightscale tore some a new rear end.

how our fight with the deurgar went was we fought Ghared and her 2 buddies i nthe main room,..... when the 2 warriors died Ghared hauled butt to the forge looking for a new meat wall tween her and some whoopass.
shortly after the fight there started Namira came i nbehind the party and it ended up.

Ghared, Snurrevin, & 2 Duergar warriors vs the party, then as the first duergar warrior dropped, Namira and her guard joined in. for a final rumble of

Duergar Warrior CR2
Duergar Warrior CR2
Snurrevin CR3
Ghared CR3
Browngnaw
Nimira CR6

And as mentioned the party was able to wipe them out but going against the dragon it took everythign they had and still was a close call.
i think Nightscale was a bit overpowered there.

as was the roper though it was one of the most memorable ights ive ever seen. Boosted Mind thrust For the win. and OMG wow. the whole party at like 1 - 4STR the only thing left for them to do was either Kill with mind thrust or DIe.

not sure if landing on the shore was a mercy move or a lucky break but it was needed. would have suuuukked to kill the roper only to drown because of being too weak ot get outa the river.


all in al lits a good adventure fun crawl. but the loots really left me feeling empty and some of the fights were way overpowered,.... good thing we were too.