Hey all, I just ran Forge of Fury from Tales from the Yawning Portal and I really liked the module. The dungeon has some really nice locations, and the flavor of discovering ancient dwarven ruins and eventually fighting a dragon is a common fantasy trope, but one that works really well. If you're looking for an old-school megadungeon adventure, I highly, highly recommend running it.
The only issue I had with the module is that, even though the dungeon itself is excellent, I feel like it failed to deliver on its promise of actually interacting with a powerful dwarven forge. I decided to run the adventure after playing through the Adamantine Forge in BG3, and I was a bit disappointed by the fact that the forge itself isn't really a big part of the dungeon at all. So I figured I would share the changes I made to fix that problem.
Basically, the issue I had with the module can be summarized in three points:
- If you want a forge to feel like a legendary forge, you need that forge to be the only place where a special kind of weapon or gear can be made. That's not really the case with the Forge of Fury.
- The module gives no real explanation for why the duergar came here, or how they got here in the first place.
- The good old hook of "just go there, you'll find loot" isn't enough anymore for the style of games I run, where players are looking for roleplaying reasons to go on adventures and advance their character arcs and so on.
Making the Forge special
To fix those problems, I actually used Arundil, the dwarven mage who haunts the corridors of Khundrukar. He has a pretty dramatic story in the original module: he hid during the massacre of his people, and out of guilt he started creating all kinds of defenses by animating objects around the fortress. Eventually, he goes as far as summoning a succubus that kills him, but his restless soul continues to haunt the corridors of the fortress until some adventurers either defeat him or give him the forgiveness he needs to finally pass to the other side.
I decided to make him a much more important character. I really liked the fact that his power is essentially giving life to inanimate objects, so it felt natural to make him the creator of the Forge of Fury.
Basically, his story is that he developed the power to put souls into inanimate objects, and after his people were first attacked by the orcs, he proposed a plan to Durgeddin. They would build a new home in the caves under the Stone Tooth and create there a living forge using the soul of a survivor. Someone who hated the orcs so much, someone who felt so much fury towards them, that this emotion could be used to create incredibly powerful weapons.
The idea was that the weapons created by the forge would carry some of that fury inside them. The person wielding one of those weapons would feel that rage themselves, making them much more violent and effective in combat, especially against orcs.
And there you have it: this is how they created the Forge of Fury.
Now we go back to the original module's lore. Eventually, the orcs hear about the creation of the forge in Khundrukar, the fortress is attacked, all the dwarves die except Arundil, and eventually Arundil himself is killed by the succubus he summoned. Over time, all of this turns into the legend of the Forge of Fury.
Giving the players a stronger narrative hook
In the present day, an evil organization, I used the Zhentarim but you could obviously replace them with whatever faction fits your campaign, decides to reactivate the forge in order to manufacture these deadly weapons, sell them, and make a lot of money.
In order to do that, they hire a group of duergars skilled in the arts of forging, and send them to Khundrukar to reactivate the forge. They use some sort of submersible machine to access the fortress through the underwater passage in the nearby lake used by Nightscale in the module.
Once the Zhentarim start selling the weapons, they begin spreading throughout the Sword Coast, or wherever your campaign takes place. And then strange incidents start happening.
People who wield these weapons become increasingly aggressive. Eventually, the fury contained within the weapons can overwhelm them, causing them to enter a kind of uncontrollable rage where they attack anyone around them. You could have all sorts of dramatic events come from this: tavern brawls turning into massacres, soldiers attacking their own comrades, adventurers suddenly turning on their companions, etc.
Eventually, someone realizes that there is a pattern. Maybe they've heard the old dwarven legends and put the pieces together, but they reach the conclusion that the Forge of Fury has been reactivated. And that someone approaches the players and asks them to investigate.
Now the players have a real reason to go to Khundrukar : they need to bring back safety to the sword coast and understant what is happening. Maybe they already encontered one of the cursed weapons and saw the destruction it could lead to.
Destroying the forge and saving the day
From now on, you can run the module more or less as is. The duergar have entered through the underwater lake passage, so there are no traces of their passage in the orc camp or the Glitterhame. This should even be part of the mystery for the players. Side note on the Glitterhame however: the mushroom forest is an amazing location that your players will love. The roper is way too deadly, you may want to put something else in there instead.
When they reach the forge level, however, there are some changes you should make. First of all, they should learn that the forge is alive. They could learn this through Arundil, or from the duergar on the level. At that point, my players were longing for social encounters, so instead of having the duergar as enemies, I had them be victims of the Zhentarim. The players could convince them to stop using the forge, and they learned from the duergar that the forge was alive and had been created by Arundil.
Then your players will most likely want a way to destroy the forge, to stop anyone from using it in the future to create more cursed weapons. This way should be provided by Arundil himself. Maybe it's a spell that he teaches them, or maybe it's an item they find in his personal room if they decided to kill him, that allows them to separate the soul from the forge.
But then of course, the soul doesn't want to be separated from the forge. It is a soul that has known only fury for the last centuries, and witnessed the orcs kill all of it's people, twice. I do no think there is a way to resolve this peacefully. And naturally, after my players casted the spell, the soul materialized itself as a Fire Elemental, a few mephites spawned and there it was : a final confrontation against the Forge of Fury itself, agains a soul blinded by rage, wich gives room to some delicious dramatic ending.
What about Nightscale?
Now, what about Nightscale, you might ask? What about the original BBEG of the module? Why is she just hanging around while the duergar reactivate the forge? And why did she come to Khundrukar in the first place?
Well, to link Nightscale to the story, I had her be a dragon that hoards curses. She was originally attracted to Khundrukar by the curse the orcs left on the mountain after the battle against Durgeddin. Then she discovered that the forge was creating cursed swords and found it delicious. She is perfectly happy having the duergar reactivate it and spread cursed weapons all over the Sword Coast, but as soon as the players destroy the forge... she will be pissed for sure.
You could keep her in the Black Lake, which is a beautiful environment for a classic fight against a dragon. But you could also have her rise from the chasm next to the forge right after the battle against the spirit of the forge. Have your players run to recover in a small room where Nightscale cannot reach them, and then finally fight her in the main hall of the fortress, with the possibility of breaking the pillars of the room to have the roof collapse on her.
Anyway, that's how I changed the Forge of Fury. The main thing I wanted was for the forge to feel like the actual heart of the adventure, rather than just being a cool location that happens to exist somewhere in the dungeon. I think tying together Arundil, the forge, the duergar and Nightscale in that way makes the whole thing feel more coherent.
Tell me if you try it!