Forge of Fury

Forge of Fury

The Forge of Fury is the second of Wizards of the Coast original series of modules. They are loosely connected and this one works just fine as a stand alone. This review is based on not just the reading of the module but also the using of the module in different campaigns. I have ran this one three times and played through it once. It is very much a dungeon crawl without a very good over all plot and as plots go it is probably the weakest of the series.

Forge of Fury is a module by Wizards of the Coast for the 3.0 edition of Dungeons and Dragons. The module is designed for groups of third level and is written by Richard Baker. The module like all of them in the series is just thirty pages long, soft bound, and done in black and white. The maps are easy to use and well done. The adventure has multiple levels and that is done well. As always with any adventure review there will be major spoilers so do not read them if your DM is going to run it for you.

The adventure takes the player characters into an old dwarven complex. There are other caverns and places to explore from the complex and the whole place has five different levels. Even with that many levels there are only fifty four encounter areas so each level is not that big and easy to deal with. The adventure hooks are rather poor. Perhaps the player character have found a map to this place or a noble man wants more swords thought to be here as one broken blade by a famous dwarven weapon smith was found here. At least that one deals with the title of the module. The final idea is go after the orc raiders that have been raiding some town. Of course the orcs are in control of this place now. The dwarves can not seem to hold on to anything these days.

The one thing that stands out in my mind the most about this adventure is that it wants to kill the PCs to teach them lessons. It is old school thinking and one of the worst old school philosophies still around. This place is a fortress built into a mountain. The main way in forces the PCs to go by many arrow slits and frontal assault is suicide. Even sneaking up to the front doors and somehow being able to get through them without any one realizing it is pretty hard. The orcs should be aware of attacks and even if the rogue can sneak by the sentries watching from the safety of the other side of the arrow slits the wizard and fighter being able to is going to be much more unlikely. On the other side of that door is a neat encounter with a rope bridge over a big pit making the place very hard to get an army through fast. The PCs could also have trouble here especially if they don’t notice the two secret doors. While it is cool for a defensive fortification it makes me wonder did the dwarves have to carry ore and supplies over the rope bridge or did they use one of the secret doors then go up a flight of stairs and take a long way around to get supplies into this place.

The module does suffer a bit from a wide range of monsters that don’t make a lot of sense. The stirges at least have the orcs staying away from them but on the other side of the stirges none of the creatures have tried to keep them away. The bear should at least have some dead stirges in the room or something and the troglodytes would be a good dinner for those creatures. The stirges and bear and the giant lizard and other creatures are tough but they are not the death if encountered like the Roper. It is really a bad adventure design to have an encounter that is supposed to teach the player character to run. This thing is a ten challenge rating, high armor class, hit points, and spell resistance. It has +18 to hide so will be very hard to notice and the way the map is by the time the characters can have line of sight on it they are easily within its fifty foot reach. By the time they realize they are in over their head a player character should either be dead or unable to be saved and it could easily be more then one. The biggest problem though is that most D&D adventures always have creatures in them that the PCs of a certain level should be able to defeat. The placing in there of one creature they can not with no warning makes no sense. It goes against one of the main aspects of the game and the CR system. There is also a Challenge Rating nine encounter in here that can also go really bad for the player characters. If they get through all of this the climatic encounter with the Black Dragon will seem like a breeze as it is only challenge rating four.

The Forge of Fury is a dungeon crawl that suffers from some bad plot and adventure design but over all it is till pretty fun. In two of the times I have played this the party ran into something that was too tough and it went bad. I found it much better for the over all game to just not include them. So if you run this just be careful or it will be total party kill.

Ran this adventure a few times.

We actually loved the adventure. The place seems cool and is a very good site-based adventure. It really seemed like a fallen dwarf hold to me.

Never had much problem with the CRs, but we have always had big parties. Can't remember some of them specifically so I guess my groups avoided the roper et al. Awesome end game with the dragon - though one of the groups encountered the dragon early when they searched the mountain for another entry. It emerged from the lake and swooped down to take one member of the group or a mount (can;t remember) for dinner. This helped spur the party on when the met the dragon.

The start 'can' be very deadly. I often had 2 orcs outside near the edge. PCs snuck up and turfed them over and made a bolt for the open doors. (I believe one group actually waited for some orcs to come out and another time the PCs were shut out and shot to bits - forcing them to find another entrance, which they did). I mean isn't there an orc tunnel into the place? It isn't all that one dimensional and the PCs don't have to go to 'all' areas.

I found it a very good module, but that is the beauty of adventures (and rpg in general I guess) - everyone's experiences will vary. BTW it is great to reviews of adventures you have ran. Thanks.

Cheers, C.

I've ran this once and I'd like to run it again with 4E. In our campaign FoF had many memorable moments and especially the topmost floor was great fun.

We didn't really have any problems with the adventure. My player's wizard infiltrated the Forge through the chimney invisibly and opened the gate for the others. IMO the gate and the rope bridge after that were maybe the best part of this adventure and they felt like a real challenge.

I have fond memories of the epic struggles in the Sunless Citadel, this adventure, Standing Stones and Heart of the Nightfang Spire...







... haste<3.

Sunless Citedel is reviewed by me and in here, the others are coming. I'm doing them in order and as I run them in the latest campaign oif mine. We went through Speaker of Dreams last week so that will be posted here in a week or so when I get to it.

Fun in the Forge

I just ran my balanced group (cleric, fighter, rogue, wizard) through the Forge of Fury. Spoilers below, so players stop reading now. You will enjoy it much more with some patience.

I think that Crothian's review is very good, as was his review of the Sunless Citadel, but I disagree with him about the high level encounters.

I agree that the Roper encounter is challenging; consequently the author advises DM's to omit the encounter if he doesn't think that his party will back down. In terms of game philosophy, I like giving the players opponents that they cannot defeat once in a blue moon. It requires the players do a deeper initial evaluation of an encounter. Also, it does let the players know that sometimes they might come across something that might be just too tough.

I agree that the encounter with Idalla was a bit rough. It too served to remind the players that adventuring is dangerous business. But in the tactics section, the author advises that the DM not have Idalla go for the complete mop-up of the party; she is only interested in leaving. It gives the characters an experience to build upon as they role-play down the road. My wizard has used silent image to entertain throngs and show off repeatedly, and the Idalla bit is a show stopper. In short, Idalla scared the crap out of them and gave them a great story to tell. I admit that I am not sure how the characters are supposed to "overcome" this encounter, but it was fun nonetheless.

I think that the young black dragon (the "boss") was terribly difficult. While only given an EL 4, the setting should jack this up to EL 6, which is what I rated it as. After all, Nightscale starts out in the water with a great hide score. She listens, waits, and watches. Meanwhile, the tanks can't get over the bridge without risking drowning. I also gave her the improved natural armor feat as our fighter had been plowing through the dungeon up to this point.

When our rogue jumped in to swim for the gold (completely in character, which was awesome), I just did the jaws theme and had her take a nice bite.
On her next turn, she crawled up to the bank and got the rest of the party in a line of acid.

My advice on running this adventure is twofold. First, for the difficult encounters, make sure you read the DM's note on whether to include the Roper and make sure you follow the tactics for Idalla. Either of these foes will have little problem killing off the party otherwise. Inclusion of these encounters gives a very rich game experience if played fairly and right.

Second, consider revising the collapsing bridge in the final encounter or greatly reducing the possibility of drowning. Nightscale is a wicked foe and her tactics are challenging but appropriate. While the additional of threat of the collapsing bridge provides great flavor and a clue about the impeding foe (the pitting of the bridge), it is unnecessary in making this a great final encounter.

In short, Forge of Fury is a very good dungeon crawl. In even some of my experienced players had never even fought a dragon. They seemed to like it a ton. Even the two who died.