The Ember Deep

The hook

The village of Ashford grew up in the shadow of a ruined watchtower, and nobody climbs the switchback road anymore. But three nights ago the tower’s windows glowed ember-red for the first time in a century, and yesterday the blacksmith’s daughter, Petra Coalwright, went up to see — and didn’t come down. The council will pay 50 gp a head, and the smith will forge the party a favor they won’t forget.

What’s really going on

A hobgoblin captain called Vurgat the Rekindler found the old dwarven forge beneath the tower and means to arm a warband from it. His goblins are digging out the lower halls; Petra is alive, put to work at the bellows because she knows iron. Vurgat’s weakness is his pride — he duels rather than swarms, if given a reason.

The delve, in three acts

Act I — The Broken Gate

The tower above is a shell; the delve starts in its cellar. Goblin lookouts dice around a brazier (they have not been paid; a bribe of 10 gp buys safe passage and a crude map). The old gate mechanism can drop on pursuers — a DC 13 Intelligence check spots the counterweight.

Act II — The Flooded Cells

Dwarven cells, waist-deep in black water. Something dissolved the bars of cell three (the gray ooze that did it hunts by vibration). A skeleton in cell seven clutches a forge-key of blackened iron — the party will need it, and taking it wakes him. Petra’s apron hangs on a hook here: proof of life, and a reason to hurry.

Act III — The Forgeholt

The great forge burns again. Vurgat holds court from an anvil-throne, Petra chained to the bellows. Options the table should discover: the bellows can be over-cranked to flood the hall with smoke (concealment for everyone); the quench-trough douses the forge and Vurgat’s morale with it; or an open challenge — Vurgat accepts single combat and his warriors hold to it, mostly.

Key NPCs

• Petra Coalwright — stubborn, smarter than her captors, already loosening a chain link. If freed mid-fight she goes for the quench-trough on her own.
• Vurgat the Rekindler — wants an army but respects craft; a character who talks steel with him gains advantage on any parley.
• Alderwoman Senna — pays the reward, knows the tower’s true history, and would very much like the forge-key to stay lost.

Running it

Keep torches counted — the Deep is dark, and time pressure is the dungeon’s real monster. Let the in-game clock run: Petra’s shift at the bellows ends at nightfall on day two, and Vurgat has no further use for her after that.