Every New Years Eve, we play some tabletop gaming. This year we resumed Forge of Fury, which we last played on 12-31-2018.

Forge of Fury (Richard Baker, 2000) is an adventure module for Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Edition. It arrived right at the beginning of 3e, and was part of the module line that would take you from level 1 to 20. It’s easily accessible today via Tales of the Yawning Portal and Roll20. We’ve had a lot of fun with it.

2018

What I wrote on social media, and photos.

Ran a D&D module (The Mountain Door from Forge of Fury) with my boys on this fine New Years Eve. Two fighters and a Dragonborn fire sorcerer. They entered a dungeon known to be home to bandit orcs. The killed the two sentries, rushed past the orcs behind arrow slits, and penetrated deep into the fortress. And then they were surrounded. They managed to kill the leader, an ogre named Great Ulfe and his two dire wolves. But alas, the numbers began to tell on them, and their adventure ended in a TPK when the last 4 orcs cut them down.

TPK RIP

New Years 2020

I remembered Forge of Fury, thought it’d be fun to continue it this year. My brother (their uncle, of course) joined us this time. I cast Raise Dead this module!

“The strongboss gone, the orcs fell to fighting among themselves. The injured PCs realized they were only half-dead, and staggered off to an adjacent alcove with a fire. There they found a prisoner tied up [their uncle], the orc captor presumably dead in the fighting.”

Hogar. Dwarf Fighter seeing to reclaim an ancestral home.

Daardendrian. Dragonborn sorcerer.

Tagren. Half-orc Fighter.

And newcomer Skreeam. Elf Rogue.

The party members I gave a chance to use a Short Rest and any Second Winds they had, and then they were back in the action.

All but Skreeam were running on partial hit points.

They heard a bunch of orcs pass by in the corridor beyond. An injured orc came into the cooking room, but Skreeam had been watching and killed him swiftly.

The rogue was trying for a quiet push to the stairs down, avoiding the orcs. The first group they evaded. But Hogar couldn’t help himself, and attacked the next group of orcs. The fight was on.
Daardendrian burned down one of the orcs with a Fire Bolt. My middle son kept adding flames throughout the fight.
Another group, led by the orog Old Yarrack, joined the fight. Some party members circled around. The party got beat up good, but prevailed.
The party attempted a Long Rest in an adjacent storage room. Skreeam, unhurt, kept hidden vigil in the corridor outside.
Not long thereafter, Burdurg the orc shaman Hand of Gruumsh arrived to investigate, with 3 orcs. Battle commenced again! PCs got no rest of course. Finally the latest attackers too were eliminated. The party by this point was pretty hammered.

The party did finally get their rest, after having slain every two-legged denizen of this level. Except one. I forgot an orc when I was emptying the rooms of orc attackers to join the melee in the central area. So this orc I decided had been sleeping off a three-day drunk.

But first the party stumbled into a poison trap of course.

It was entertaining RPing with my youngest (Tagren) as he tried to be nice to this poor bewildered and alone orc squinting through a brutal hangover.

Eventually, Daardendrian got migranes from the orc conversation and they slew him.

The last room had stirges.

Daardendrian got initiative and BBQd them before the stirges could even twitch.

The party mopped up, and collected some minor treasures from the empty rooms, including a +1 rapier, and couple potions of climbing, a scroll of Magic Missile, and several healing potions.

The steps go down into the crevasse. Perhaps we’ll continue Forge of Fury next year.