Forge of Fury (Adapted for Shadowdark) by Wizards of the Coast

I ran Forge of Fury over more than a half-dozen sessions for Shadowdark, starting with when the adventurers teleported from Dungeon of the Mad Mage into the heart of the Forge in an old dwarf bedroom, close to Durgedden’s forge.

I was able to run most of the adventure as written, minus the in-and-out portions. I run West Marches campaigns, so the Stone Tooth was located west of Needle, a frontier town. The party came and went multiple times, as part of the West Marches key design is that adventurers always start and end in a city. At the end, Togg the berserker seized control of the orc clan, and very soon I’m running a campaign finale where a group of high-level adventurers are going to assault Greeshak the Blackscaled’s lair at the bottom level of the Tooth.

Play Time: 6-8 sessions, 3 hours each (18-24 hours total), the Glitterhome level entirely untouched (troglodytes). Probably another 2-3+ sessions of material, but I think we’re close to wrapping this up.

General Thoughts: Highly recommend this as a playable module as is. It’s written for D&D 3E, but for Shadowdark you can just substitute in equivalent creature stat blocks and reduce treasure to 10% of the gold value, retaining key magic items.

In my campaign, Greeshak the Blackscaled became a major adversary after the adventurers stole part of her treasure hoard and fled, riling the wyrm. Greeshak in Forge of Fury is a young black dragon (called Nightscale in the original adventure), whom I recast as a wingless black swamp wyrm dwelling under the mountain. Likewise, Greeshak rallied the orcs at the upper levels under her banner and prepared to attack the civilized towns in the region as vengeance for the theft of her treasure.

The Forge of Fury is a consistent high note in the D&D roster and was featured in the Yawning Portal for D&D 5E, remastered for the new edition. When I told several of my players that we were playing Forge of Fury, they told me they hadn’t realized that was the adventure, even though they’d played it in a 5E context. This is a testament to the flexibility of Shadowdark and older adventures.

I didn’t even use the Glitterhome (troglodyte) level of the dungeon and the actual forge (duergar) level is only half explored. I think there’s at least another three sessions I could eke out of Forge, which would bring my theoretical total play time to 30-40 hours for one module, which is great.

Available on DriveThruRPG: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/3737/the-forge-of-fury-3e?affiliate_id=14013