Ancient Dwarven Town overrun by orcs centuries ago

[Mark CMG]

There are, of course, many folk who viewed those whom they fought as good neighbors in some ways - the English and the French fought a LOT, but they still went on crusades together...

So perhaps the lizardfolk or whoever they are DID respect the dwarves, but also sometimes fought them. OR they fought the dwarves when they lived on the surface, but once the smaller group of dwarves fled underground, they and the lizardfolk became allies. Eventually the dwarves moved on, but the lizardfolk remember them with friendship from that time.

Sounds like you have some backstory.

 

[Gilladian]

Backstory is NOT my problem. My problem is a big empty map of a dwarves outpost, and not enough things to fill rooms with. Now, I have an NPC party to create, a vague idea of an Orc tribe, some lizard men, and a shadow of an idea about where the dwarves went.

Anyone want to help me with the orcs? Does the chief want what the shaman wants? Does he intend to betray the adventurers?

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

A dwarf ghost haunts the orc tribe.

A Myconid kingdom has grown up in a cavern where the dwarves used to raise and harvest mushrooms. The Myconid king brews magic potions that he'll trade.

Locked away in the dwarven temple, animated hammers, anvils, and forges continue their work.

In another part of the fortess, which the orcs have never reached, a dragon has taken roost and consolidated the dwarven treasure. (Really, a dwarf fortress should be filled with cleverly hidden traps, secret doors, and secret rooms -- the orcs won't have found them all even after 450 years.)

A roper fishes in the river ...

 

[Gilladian]

I'm going to spare them a dragon, because they just had a disastrous encounter with one that sent them fleeing this way. But the roper, myconids and animated forge tools all sound fantastic.

 

[N'raac]

One issue often overlooked is lifespans. Orcs don't like that long (assuming half orcs are between orc and human), so generations are even shorter than human. The Dwarven age categories are between 3 and 4 times that of a human, so 400 years to us would equate to about a hundred to 125 years to them. An Old Dwarf in your group (say, 200 years old) which headed off down the river could have had a grandparent who lived to Venerable age (250) and was a young adult (say 35) when that group set off. As such, they would not be nearly as separated from the old tribe as a group of humans (with about a 50 - 60 year spread from young adult to venerable).

 

[Mark CMG]

Don't forget some stirges!

 

[Maxperson]

Backstory is NOT my problem. My problem is a big empty map of a dwarves outpost, and not enough things to fill rooms with. Now, I have an NPC party to create, a vague idea of an Orc tribe, some lizard men, and a shadow of an idea about where the dwarves went.

Anyone want to help me with the orcs? Does the chief want what the shaman wants? Does he intend to betray the adventurers?

Create a room or twelve as a temple to a dwarven deity where the orcs are afraid to go. Perhaps there is a deadly trap that only targets evil or foes of dwarves. It could have both treasure and safety for the party. I'd have the river exit to the surface and become the starting point of a surface river, since it is so close to the surface anyway.

 

[Gilladian]

Well, I have not yet finished the outpost/town/dungeon, but we did start running it this afternoon. Fortunately, the PCs failed to notice the orc guardpost at the top of the knob above the outpost, and entered via the back door of the keep (which had once been hidden but was now exposed due to a collapse in the covering/sheltering rock. Deep below, the orcs are now set up and ready for intruders at any time. In fact, the orc shaman is hoping - justifiably, if the PCs keep going the way they have been - that the intruders will wipe out the undead in the uppermost levels of the outpost, and then he/his folk can rededicate the dwarven temple there to their own Beast Lord in the future.

I think that the orcs will send their women/children away in boats across the lake to safety, and then attempt to bargain with the intruders/PCs and find out what they want here. If possible, and if the PCs are not too violent in their reaction (I don't know HOW the dwarf wizard PC will react to orcs in a one-time dwarvish hold), they'll make a deal to let the PCs pass through the lair, deeper into the outpost, down to where it connects to deepearth, leaving the orcs alone. If the PCs agree, of course, then if they come back this way, and they're not looking hale and strong, the orcs will break whatever promises they've made.

If the orcs and adventurers can't come to an agreement, I'll have a nice running dungeon battle between about 50 orcs, a war-chief, a shaman and his apprentice, 2 orogs, and a few wargs, versus 3 6th-level PCs and a 4th lvl NPC.

 

[Xaelvaen]

Check out the Hammerfast Module from 4e. It was a Dwarven Town sacked by Orcs long ago, but now has Dwarf and Orc living (regretfully) side by side. It has nothing but plot hooks that you could easily twist, with no edition-specific knowledge needed.

 

[Bleys Icefalcon]

Oh why the heck not...

They delved to greedily and too the deep...

.. and found something that had long been hidden there, contained. Entombed within the stone for all time. Those of the Dwarves that found whatever this thing is (that's up to you!), and who were not immediately consumed by it, are no longer alive. But are not dead either. They wander as soul-broken revenants, the nightmarish/aberrant magics that infused their bodies anumating them like endlessly hungry drones...