The Forge of Fury Campaign Resources

The Forge of Fury is the second adventure presented in the 5th edition compilation book, Tales From the Yawning Portal. It is the follow-up adventure to The Sunless Citadel, first developed for the 3rd edition D&D back in the year 2000. Designed for PC levels 3 – 5, the adventure has your heroes explore an ancient dwarven ruin searching for treasure and magical weapons. Competeing tribes of orcs, troglodytes, and duergar have claimed different levels of the dungeon. And there dozens of nasty traps, bizarre monsters, and other surprises awaiting your players down below, including a very ill-tempered black dragon. Will your party survive the secrets of Khundrukar and live to tell the tale? Buckle your armor and let’s delve in.

Forge Fury 3e Cover full — *The original featured an exciting and gripping cover of a scene that does not occur during the adventure. But it is still better than the reprint cover art of bored dwarves looking at the camera.*

What follows is a complete overview of our experience playing this adventure. Bear in mind that my players were mostly 6th level when we started the adventure, so I had to boost almost all of the monsters in abilities or numbers to make it challenging for my players. We also had some significant roster changes to our party. How will this affect us as a group?

There are five sections to my overview:

The Campaign Diaries – Following a strange map because that’s what heroes do, our adventurers stumble into a dwarven ruin filled with orcs, troglodytes and worse. And yes, there is a dragon. It’s called Dungeons and Dragons for a reason, folks.

The Charts – I always make at least two charts to organize my adventure; an Encounter List and a Monster Stats sheet. I’ve included charts from the base adventure and my modified version for higher level characters.

The Maps – All the maps that I used to run The Forge of Fury, including DM and PC versions from the 5th edition reprint and the original adventure, plus some custom maps. The Player Maps have all hidden locations, traps, and secret areas removed.

The Images – They say a picture tells a thousand words, so I included all of the images I used to help tell my story, including those found in the original printing of the module.

The Extras – I used a few handouts during the course of the adventure, mostly to set up the adventure and later to tie the adventure with some homebrewed content. I usually print them using a variety of construction and specialty papers cut to fit my printer. The Handouts can be printed as is or used as a starting point for your own creative spin.

If there is anything else that you think I should have here to help you run your own campaign, please leave a comment.

Campaign Diary

Session 1– Following an ancient map, our heroes discover a lost dwarven stronghold and are immediately ambushed by orcs.

Session 2 – While attempting to sneak into an orc stronghold, the DM gets furious with the players and goes for the Total Party Kill.

Session 3 – Our heroes descend into the Glitterhame, the roster changes again, and we attempt to subdue a classic old school monster.

Session 4 – While searching for a familiar key, our heroes nearly drown and almost get eaten by a rock. And one of them is murdered!

Session 5– We find the Forge of Fury, un-animate several items, and an old puzzle returns to haunt us again.

Session 6 – We conclude our adventure with cool fights against some undead, a succubus, a dragon, and even some justified PvP action.

The Charts

For every adventure I run, I always make two charts that harken back to the old school module design, to better organize my campaign. First is an Encounter List that includes each room at a glance, including its location, monters and NPCs, traps, treasures, experience points earned, and any other special features of each room.

Forge of Fury Encounter List

Second, I like to have a Monster Stat sheet that has every monster and NPC in the adventure listed with all of their important stats all on one page. This saves me from having to search multiple books looking for a random stat while in the middle of combat.

Forge of Fury Monster Stats

These stat sheets should be self-explanatory, but for further details about them and to check out all my other DM charts and aids, check out my Dungeon Master Resource Page.

When I ran my players through this adventure, they were between 4th and 6th level, which made them too powerful for this 3rd level adventure. I’ve included a modified Encounter List and Monster Stat sheet, adjusting most of the encounters to reflect their higher level and adding some new traps. I included all of the upgraded NPCs and additional monsters that I used in the adventure, such as the expanded Orc Tribe, various Horrors, and an alternate version of a Young Adult Black Dragon. Here are the links:

Forge of Fury Encounter List modified

Forge of Fury Monster Stats modified

The Maps

While the maps that come with the Yanwing Portal reprint are prettier and more artistic, I actually prefer the black & white version that came with the original. I especially like the cross-section map that showed how the various levels were stacked atop one another. I have included both sets to let you decide. I have also included both the Dungeon Master copy that came with the adventure and my own Player Character versions, that have removed all the room numbers, secret doors, hidden passages and other info that you don’t want them to know about. Until you spring it on them, that is. I also modified the Foundry level slightly to tie it in with my homebrew campaign and added a new puzzle.

Forge Fury map 5e ext DM — *Exterior Map – The most boring map I’ve ever seen. It adds nothing to the adventure. Just skip it and go straight to…*

Forge Fury map 5e Mountain Door DM — *Map 1 The Mountain Door, DM version – A tribe of orcs has taken over this level of the dungeon and getting past the rope bridge over a deadly chasm and into the complex will be a real challenge.*

Forge Fury map 5e Glitterhame DM — *Map 2 The Gltterhame, DM version – A pack of troglodytes has occupied the southwest corner, while various monsters and other hazards dwell in the large central cavern.*

Forge Fury map 5e Sinkhole DM — *Map 3 The Sinkhole, DM version – This section could be completely bypassed if the players have a good thief. Otherwise, they’ll have to contend with a very hungry roper to get a key.*

Forge Fury map 5e Foundry DM — *Map 4 The Foundry, DM version – A very small clan of duergar are trying to rekindle the forge at the heart of this dungeon, meanwhile numerous undead and fiends prowl the northern area.*

Forge Fury map 5e Black Lake DM — *Map 5 The Black Lake, DM version – The sole occupant of this level is a nasty Young Black Dragon who isn’t entertaining guests. He might eat them though.*

Forge Fury map 5e Foundry modified — Map 4 The Foundry modified. The only real change I did to this map was off Room 47. I added the secret door into the previously empty room next door and included a lightning bolt puzzle to open the treasure chest. See Session 5 for more details.

Here are the Player versions of the above maps.

Forge Fury map 5e Mountain Door PC — *The Mountain Door, PC – I’ve removed the secret doors and the back door passage into the lair and the passage into the shaman’s room.*

Forge Fury map 5e Glitterhame PC — *The Glitterhame, PC – No secrets here, just removed the location markers.*

Forge Fury map 5e Sinkhole PC — *The Sinkhole, PC – No secrets here either.*

Forge Fury map 5e Foundry PC — *The Foundry, PC – Took out a few secret doors and the passage to the Main Hall and the one to the chasm ladder.*

Forge Fury map 5e Black Lake PC — *The Black Lake, PC – I suggest that the western end actually be the bottom of the giant chasm that the rope bridge traversed in Level 1.*

The following maps were included with the original printed module.

Forge Fury map 3e cross section — Cross Section Map. I would alter this map so that the Black Lake actually connected to the pit below the Mountain Door level. Then you might actually have the scenario shown on the cover of the adventure.

Forge Fury map 3e Mountain Door DM — *The Mountain Door, DM – The map is much easier to read, but the rope bridge chasm looks like a boring old pit.*

Forge Fury map 3e Glitterhame DM — *The Glitterhame, DM – Again easier to read, but the giant cavern looks rather dull and empty.*

Forge Fury map 3e Sinkhole DM — *The Sinkhole, DM – I got nothing. This is the least exciting level of the adventure.*

Forge Fury map 3e Foundry DM — *The Foundry, DM – So many repetetive unused rooms. And how exactly did these dwarves get in here?*

Forge Fury map 3e Black Lake DM — *The Black Lake, DM – Oddly, the ladder has moved 50′ to the north of the chasm.*

And just to complete the collection: The orignal maps – PC versions.

The Images

These images will be arranged in roughly the order they would be encountered, mixing both reprint and original artwork. Just in case it isn’t obvious, the color pictures comes from the Yawning Portal reprint, while all the black & white drawings are from the original. I’ll also include a few others that I appropriated (i.e. stole) from other sources. Okay, they say a picture is worth a thousand words, so I’ll shut up now.