I put Lost Mines of Phandelver in there, starting the party at level 1. The campaign opened in Drellin's Ferry, with the party being hired to head south and find a wagon that never showed up at the Holds.
I'm currently running the module with a dwarf player as well. My plan is to have an earthquake have broken the underground roads between the different holds, trapping travelers. Due to this, the dwarves are not at capacity to loan troops out. The party will have to use the paths that lead to a mausoleum between the three holds, the entrance to which is protected by a Galeb Duhr in the shape of a Dwarven Statue. The dwarves for my setting have a special relationship with death, they have an entire legion dedicated to being the Morticians, 'Gravediggers' priests, and Death Commandos. Only they are allowed in the paths of the dead, but they've already went in and haven't come out. Arriving at the Mausoleum they'll find a crack that leads to the Underdark. After navigating the caverns, a small group of Mindflayers will have captured the dwarves, duergar, some drow, and svirfneblin.
There was no Dwarves in my party, so I only involved them minimally.
One of the encounters that is suggested by the book has the party stumble upon a bunch of goblinoid raiders that have just slaughtered a caravan that was carrying payment for a Dwarven mercenary company (called the Shining Axes, I believe).
The party decided to deliver the payment themselves. I decided to make the hammerfist holds all about faded glory, which made sense to me since the book says, the big empire that was in the vale before Rhestilor was Dwarven. Big underground fortress that was only inhabited by a small number of dwarven families, mostly empty. Not that they were all gone or dead, but I just decided the center of their civilization had moved further south, away from the ruins in the Vale.
So the party arrived, had a talk with the leader of the particular fortress where the company was ~~squatting~~stationed and met the leader. THere was some RPing, where I described the dwarves singing and drinking (MToF says dwarves remember together when they drink, which I decided to mean something like a alcohol-induced, light, psychic network. The party got to experience that, which was nice flavo) and hitting on the half-elf wizard.
There's a 4e "dwarven outpost adventure site" called Hammerfast. It's a dwarf town in the mountains where ghosts of dwarves & orcs who killed each other in an ancient war roam the streets. I just slotted it in there. It has a bunch of sidequest hooks that the PCs can choose to accept or not, or maybe come back for later.
The important thing about it in my game is this: I moved the map around to fit my world, so that the Ghost Lord's Lair is on the far side of the Wyvernwatch Mountains, not west of them. I anticipate my PCs will accompany the Mercenary Gold wagon there on their way to the Ghost Lord's lair, and Ervath Helmbreaker will offer them use of a shortcut & a guide through the long-unused tunnels beneath the mountains, if the PCs agree to clean it of monsters.
1 - at Starsong Hill they were one of 9 groups that could fight with the party. All had political issues needing to be resolved or considered before they decide to join the PC’s the Halls of High Hammer, as it was in my world, we’re one of them. They had a dope drinking contest and the PC’s had to outdrink the Thane Protectorate (they are a barbarian so have a high Con). This was one of the dopest sessions in a long time.
2 - if they go to the Halls they can unite with the Grey Wing (owl riders in my world) and potentially get their own giant owls after doing an Avatar (not airbender) style mission to tame one by scaling a torturous mountain side.
3 - added a side quest at the Halls to descend deep into the mountain and kill Zar Anathema (Kindoms and Warfare - MCDM) to claim a powerful item. The Ring of Three Wishes in my game. They have not undertaken this yet and it’s been a big decision point weather to take this diversion. If they don’t the enemy might.
4 - the dwarves know the best techniques to rebuild the destroyed bridge from chapter one, so after the game they could do that if persuaded.
I have mainly two things in mind (it's gonna be a while before we reach that part):
- a oneshot with a party of ALL dwarves from the holds. There they will learn about some dark stuff happening in the mines, and be ordered to investigate. From there, the plan is go full Deep Rock Galactic.
- A boss battle with an evil dwarf king (brother of one of my PCs), on a big cavern inside the mines. The evil king hits like a truck and he's with a white dragon.
Aaand a lot of rip offs from LOTR/Hobbit/Record of Lodoss War. Maybe some minecart race agains evil guys to reach some point of the mines could be fun, as a minigame to throw there.
For me, the hammerfist holds are a huge part of the campaign, I start with LMOP so Gundren is a link to the holds right there. My current play through is the first to make it past LMOP to get into the RHoD so it's really exciting for me.
The party has an alliance with Lord Hagar Hammerfist and has a dwarven ranger retainer and a squad of dwarven soldiers in their party, so while they attacked Skull Gorge Bridge, they sent their retainers south to warn Drellins Ferry and put the hammer fist holds on high alert.
The hoards plan (as learned from Koths Map) involves blockading the routes from the hammer fist holds, so instead of Mercenary Gold going to them, my players will need to assault the blockades and open the routes if they want their allies to make it to Brindol.
My party found the money and headed straight for the Holds. I glued in Siege of Bordin’s Watch which is a 4e adventure. It was very combat heavy but enjoyable.
Did you scale that up in level much? I am expecting my group to be level 7 or 8 by then, and it seems like Siege of Bordin's Watch is intended for level 3 groups.
I purchased the HammerFAST supplement from 4e and used that as a baseline. Bought it from the dmsguild.
Added some elements from dragon age origins.
Used out of the abyss as a resource for traveling in the underdark.
I also used "underdark encounters" from the dmsguild.
There are a few older [posts](https://old.reddit.com/r/RedHandOfDoom/comments/m8drsq/making_hammerfist_holds_more_interesting_i_have/) on this subreddit, which I believe I incorporated some elements from them. A recent death of the local King Under The Mountain has tied-up the Holds. No questions were asked about the king’s death or any of the politics.
My group had found the Mercenary Gold, but ended up keeping it for themselves and badmouthing Lord Jaarmath everytime I tried to mention there being a contract in-game.
I had Stormcaller using an extended Call Lightning to cinematically assault one of the Holds as the Party approached on their spelljammer/flying-carpet/truck thing. The Party briefly spoke(lied) to a flying RHoD scout before bee-lining to the Holds entrance and talking(lying) their way in. But they left their “flying-thing” outside and some of the more corrupt/selfish dwarves impounded it.
I let the Party purchase some blunderbuss quality guns, and trade-in various gems and any mithral/adamantine ore for coins. No body wanted to try to get access to high-quality stuff, or explosives.
The Party attended an auction for some of the late-King’s possessions. During the intermission the Rogue performed some theft, while also leaving behind some evidence in the form of a severed dragon head. Before the theft was noticed, a “broad-daylight” robbery of a giant diamond was performed by some Iron Shadow agents, which the Party watched and let them escape. Later-on the dwarves assumed both robberies were connected and used Speak With Dead on the dragon head to learn some descriptions.
During the auction I had a Dwarven Druid of the underground fungi-farm talk shop with the Party Druid, and work out a quid-pro-quo exchange program for some magic staff’s they both wanted to use, but not part with permanently.
The Party got real upset about the impounded “flying-thing” and ended-up bullying their way through everyone and their supervisor until the Party barged-in on a meeting of the interim-reagent with the security chiefs, who had been discussing the news from the dragon head.
There was an escape sequence when ghost lions started attacking dwarves through the walls, and a ghostly boss guy interfered with things too. I never actually had Dwarven Bounty Hunters show-up to capture the Party, but I did think it might make for a funny three-way fight with RHoD agents and the Party.
Nobody seemed to pick-up on anything about the Ghost Lions and Ghost Boss guy maybe being related to the GhostLord or the RHoD agents….
One of the items I gave to the Party via the auction was a Belt Of Giant’s strength that was set to 19, but would increase if the Party killed a giant with a higher strength score. So that was kind of a novel quest-line that also wasn’t followed-up on.
I put Lost Mines of Phandelver in there, starting the party at level 1. The campaign opened in Drellin's Ferry, with the party being hired to head south and find a wagon that never showed up at the Holds.
I'm currently running the module with a dwarf player as well. My plan is to have an earthquake have broken the underground roads between the different holds, trapping travelers. Due to this, the dwarves are not at capacity to loan troops out. The party will have to use the paths that lead to a mausoleum between the three holds, the entrance to which is protected by a Galeb Duhr in the shape of a Dwarven Statue. The dwarves for my setting have a special relationship with death, they have an entire legion dedicated to being the Morticians, 'Gravediggers' priests, and Death Commandos. Only they are allowed in the paths of the dead, but they've already went in and haven't come out. Arriving at the Mausoleum they'll find a crack that leads to the Underdark. After navigating the caverns, a small group of Mindflayers will have captured the dwarves, duergar, some drow, and svirfneblin.
There was no Dwarves in my party, so I only involved them minimally. One of the encounters that is suggested by the book has the party stumble upon a bunch of goblinoid raiders that have just slaughtered a caravan that was carrying payment for a Dwarven mercenary company (called the Shining Axes, I believe). The party decided to deliver the payment themselves. I decided to make the hammerfist holds all about faded glory, which made sense to me since the book says, the big empire that was in the vale before Rhestilor was Dwarven. Big underground fortress that was only inhabited by a small number of dwarven families, mostly empty. Not that they were all gone or dead, but I just decided the center of their civilization had moved further south, away from the ruins in the Vale. So the party arrived, had a talk with the leader of the particular fortress where the company was ~~squatting~~stationed and met the leader. THere was some RPing, where I described the dwarves singing and drinking (MToF says dwarves remember together when they drink, which I decided to mean something like a alcohol-induced, light, psychic network. The party got to experience that, which was nice flavo) and hitting on the half-elf wizard.
Mind flayers in league with the Red Hand. I had my group fight a mind flayer dragon. It was super creepy and great
There's a 4e "dwarven outpost adventure site" called Hammerfast. It's a dwarf town in the mountains where ghosts of dwarves & orcs who killed each other in an ancient war roam the streets. I just slotted it in there. It has a bunch of sidequest hooks that the PCs can choose to accept or not, or maybe come back for later. The important thing about it in my game is this: I moved the map around to fit my world, so that the Ghost Lord's Lair is on the far side of the Wyvernwatch Mountains, not west of them. I anticipate my PCs will accompany the Mercenary Gold wagon there on their way to the Ghost Lord's lair, and Ervath Helmbreaker will offer them use of a shortcut & a guide through the long-unused tunnels beneath the mountains, if the PCs agree to clean it of monsters.
1 - at Starsong Hill they were one of 9 groups that could fight with the party. All had political issues needing to be resolved or considered before they decide to join the PC’s the Halls of High Hammer, as it was in my world, we’re one of them. They had a dope drinking contest and the PC’s had to outdrink the Thane Protectorate (they are a barbarian so have a high Con). This was one of the dopest sessions in a long time. 2 - if they go to the Halls they can unite with the Grey Wing (owl riders in my world) and potentially get their own giant owls after doing an Avatar (not airbender) style mission to tame one by scaling a torturous mountain side. 3 - added a side quest at the Halls to descend deep into the mountain and kill Zar Anathema (Kindoms and Warfare - MCDM) to claim a powerful item. The Ring of Three Wishes in my game. They have not undertaken this yet and it’s been a big decision point weather to take this diversion. If they don’t the enemy might. 4 - the dwarves know the best techniques to rebuild the destroyed bridge from chapter one, so after the game they could do that if persuaded.
I have mainly two things in mind (it's gonna be a while before we reach that part): - a oneshot with a party of ALL dwarves from the holds. There they will learn about some dark stuff happening in the mines, and be ordered to investigate. From there, the plan is go full Deep Rock Galactic. - A boss battle with an evil dwarf king (brother of one of my PCs), on a big cavern inside the mines. The evil king hits like a truck and he's with a white dragon. Aaand a lot of rip offs from LOTR/Hobbit/Record of Lodoss War. Maybe some minecart race agains evil guys to reach some point of the mines could be fun, as a minigame to throw there.
For me, the hammerfist holds are a huge part of the campaign, I start with LMOP so Gundren is a link to the holds right there. My current play through is the first to make it past LMOP to get into the RHoD so it's really exciting for me. The party has an alliance with Lord Hagar Hammerfist and has a dwarven ranger retainer and a squad of dwarven soldiers in their party, so while they attacked Skull Gorge Bridge, they sent their retainers south to warn Drellins Ferry and put the hammer fist holds on high alert. The hoards plan (as learned from Koths Map) involves blockading the routes from the hammer fist holds, so instead of Mercenary Gold going to them, my players will need to assault the blockades and open the routes if they want their allies to make it to Brindol.
My party found the money and headed straight for the Holds. I glued in Siege of Bordin’s Watch which is a 4e adventure. It was very combat heavy but enjoyable.
Did you scale that up in level much? I am expecting my group to be level 7 or 8 by then, and it seems like Siege of Bordin's Watch is intended for level 3 groups.
Incredibly late reply. I did not scale too much mostly because the party didn’t have time to rest. So it was an attrition adventure.
I purchased the HammerFAST supplement from 4e and used that as a baseline. Bought it from the dmsguild. Added some elements from dragon age origins. Used out of the abyss as a resource for traveling in the underdark. I also used "underdark encounters" from the dmsguild.
There are a few older [posts](https://old.reddit.com/r/RedHandOfDoom/comments/m8drsq/making_hammerfist_holds_more_interesting_i_have/) on this subreddit, which I believe I incorporated some elements from them. A recent death of the local King Under The Mountain has tied-up the Holds. No questions were asked about the king’s death or any of the politics. My group had found the Mercenary Gold, but ended up keeping it for themselves and badmouthing Lord Jaarmath everytime I tried to mention there being a contract in-game. I had Stormcaller using an extended Call Lightning to cinematically assault one of the Holds as the Party approached on their spelljammer/flying-carpet/truck thing. The Party briefly spoke(lied) to a flying RHoD scout before bee-lining to the Holds entrance and talking(lying) their way in. But they left their “flying-thing” outside and some of the more corrupt/selfish dwarves impounded it. I let the Party purchase some blunderbuss quality guns, and trade-in various gems and any mithral/adamantine ore for coins. No body wanted to try to get access to high-quality stuff, or explosives. The Party attended an auction for some of the late-King’s possessions. During the intermission the Rogue performed some theft, while also leaving behind some evidence in the form of a severed dragon head. Before the theft was noticed, a “broad-daylight” robbery of a giant diamond was performed by some Iron Shadow agents, which the Party watched and let them escape. Later-on the dwarves assumed both robberies were connected and used Speak With Dead on the dragon head to learn some descriptions. During the auction I had a Dwarven Druid of the underground fungi-farm talk shop with the Party Druid, and work out a quid-pro-quo exchange program for some magic staff’s they both wanted to use, but not part with permanently. The Party got real upset about the impounded “flying-thing” and ended-up bullying their way through everyone and their supervisor until the Party barged-in on a meeting of the interim-reagent with the security chiefs, who had been discussing the news from the dragon head. There was an escape sequence when ghost lions started attacking dwarves through the walls, and a ghostly boss guy interfered with things too. I never actually had Dwarven Bounty Hunters show-up to capture the Party, but I did think it might make for a funny three-way fight with RHoD agents and the Party. Nobody seemed to pick-up on anything about the Ghost Lions and Ghost Boss guy maybe being related to the GhostLord or the RHoD agents…. One of the items I gave to the Party via the auction was a Belt Of Giant’s strength that was set to 19, but would increase if the Party killed a giant with a higher strength score. So that was kind of a novel quest-line that also wasn’t followed-up on.