Lords of the Cruth Lowlands - Vaults of Pandius

The Ruins of Achelos
doors of their mine and retreated deep
into the mountain, where the larger giants
could not follow them. The dwarves can
support themselves (and even raise
animals) for extended periods on a diet of
underground fungi. The dwarves
periodically sent scouts to the surface, but
never managed to get through the ford
and contact other settlements. Recently,
they have been besieged by other enemies
able to deal with the tunnels (goblinoids
and/or other monsters). Thus, they have
tried a sortie, where a few dwarves were
captured by the giants.
The adventure is set in motion when the
PCs have dealt with some other threat,
either the Cruth Ogres, the Sons of the
Night, the Rotting Snakes, or the Achelos
Outlaws (the “lesser evil”). The Hill Giants,
who had been wary of moving through the
territory of the defeated enemy, are now
getting bolder, and threaten the entire
region. The PCs may learn this from
survivors of raided settlements, from
captured Orcs (the smaller tribes may be
forced to work for the Hill Giants, but
some may try to move across the human
territory to new hunting grounds), or
through random encounters with Hill
Giants (when the “lesser evil” is defeated,
the frequency of Hill Giant encounters
should move up one rank).
From there, increase the events until a
major raid takes place, culminating in the
destruction of one village (Vucevo if the
“lesser evil” were the Rotting Snakes or
Achelos Outlaws, Vostoi otherwise), until
the PCs take notice and react. If they do
not react, their chances of obtaining a fief
suffer a major cut. The “Fury of the West”
does organize an expedition, but is likely
beaten by the Giants.
Assuming the PCs act timely, they can
surprise the Giants as per the G1
adventure. Consider the Stone Giants as
hired workers and the Cloud Giant as a
visiting merchant -- they will not fight for
the Hill Giant chief, unless the PCs attack
them first. Note that there are several
possible resolutions for the adventure. The
PCs may try to impress the Giants and
scare the chief into some kind of
agreement, or they may try to assassinate
key Giants, or any other reasonable
approach.
In the Steading, I would remove the
Bugbears and replace them with Ogres,
due to the lack of a sizable Bugbear
population in the Cruth Lowlands.
Otherwise, the adventure should work fine
as is.
The dwarves in the Steading were
captured from Kurest Hurgon’s population
in the last sortie. If freed, they will ask the
PCs to help their clansmen, who are now
trapped in the mine. The catch is that the
dwarves are now besieged from both the
upper and the lower levels of the mine:
Orcs from the Blackstones or Rotting
Snakes tribes are trying to take over the
mines for their own use, while a small
black dragon (the eldest of Vulomar’s
offsprings) has found a submerged
entrance from the small lake north of the
Three Axes Ford into the lower mines, and
set up his lair there.
Surprisingly, there aren’t many modules
that lead the PCs to explore dwarven
mines, but it may be possible to use for
Kurest Hurgon the 3e adventure The Forge
of Fury, with some adaptations, or design
a new dungeon (maybe using the Dwarven
Complex maps from Map-a-Week 23 ).
If The Forge of Fury is used, it needs
significant adjustments. First of all, in
Kurest Hurgon the dwarves never left.
You’ll need to replace the Duergar with
Rockborn Dwarves entrapped -- these are
not anymore enemies by default, though
they might still start hostile if there are no
dwarves with the party.
Orcs are an exploratory party (horde) from
the Blackstones or Rotting Snakes tribe.
The dragon is an offspring of the black
dragon of the Blight Swamp, Vulomar.
You’ll also have to increase enemy
numbers and possibly levels, since the
original module targets level 4-5, and after
23 http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?
x=dnd/mwa/archive2000
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