D&D 5E Prison Break!

[Quartz]

The adventure's denouement involves the PCs trying to stop some Red Wizards of Thay from activating an elemental node-powered portal - which is physically located just on the other side of the hills from the dwarf stronghold. Perhaps the earthquake is caused by instability in the earth node?

Brilliant! That makes it a nice bit of foreshadowing. One that won't be obvious now, but will cause your players to smack their heads when they realise.

 

[pukunui]

Brilliant! That makes it a nice bit of foreshadowing. One that won't be obvious now, but will cause your players to smack their heads when they realise.

Thanks! That's what I was thinking.

I might have to make the random monster something more serious than an umber hulk, though. It's only a CR 5 beastie. I think, even with their numbers drastically reduced, that the duergar could handle one umber hulk fairly easily. They probably know how to deal with them already anyway since they're fellow denizens of the Underdark. I might have to use a purple worm or something instead. Or maybe the earthquake opens a passage into a nearby grimlock den and the grimlocks come flooding through to raid. I just need something that'll take the duergar a while to deal with.