D&D 3.X - trouble remembering a module

[Agent None]

I've tried my google-fu on this and came up empty handed. I ran this adventure about 4 years ago or so with my old group. I've since moved and will be starting a new campaign with a new group and would like to use this same adventure as a starting point to the campaign. Thing is, I cannot for the life of me remember the name of the adventure. I've gone through wikis and even googled different aspects of it with no such luck. So now I turn to you folks in hopes someone recognizes the adventure I'm having trouble finding. We didn't get too far into it so I only have limited details, but I hope it's enough to go on. Anyway, the details:

The characters arrive at some fort/keep/somesuch that has its entrance guarded by a few orcs. Some are inside the building that shoot arrows at the PCs through arrow slots in the walls. Further in is a large door that houses an ogre with two wolves. This encounter is almost a BBEG battle in itself. Further along are a series of troglodyte rangers (?) armed with javelins/spears, that once battle starts one tries to pull a lever to release a bear from a cage to help them out.

That's all I remember and as far as we got as that battle with the trogs/bear was a TPK. If anyone recognizes this adventure/module I'd be greatly appreciative.

[jemstone]

Was that one of the 3E core modules?

That sounds an awful lot like one of the entrance encounters from "The Forge Of Fury," which was the second of the module series, following "The Sunless Citadel" and preceding "The Speaker In Dreams" (one of the best in the series, honestly).

This work? Wikipedia Entry for The Forge Of Fury

Hope this helps!

[Agent None]

Holy crap that was it. Had to google the name and look at a few images to find the map but that was the one. Thank you ever so much. Been looking for almost a week now. Very much appreciated.

[jemstone]

Glad to help! :)

Not going to lie, I loved pretty much that entire series except "The Standing Stone" - there were too many inconsistencies in that one that didn't make sense given the motivations of several of the NPC's and their history with the area in question. "Deep Horizon" was another one that was kind of "Meh," but overall the series was pretty solid.

Spoiler:

The biggest problem I had with The Standing Stone is that the local population of Elves is instantly hostile to the player characters, regardless of party composition. The Big Bad of the module is using an ancient spell to turn forest animals into Humans and Halflings to populate a village to give his presence there a semblance of legitimacy. The Elves in question know that the spell only creates Humans and Halflings. Not any other race. However, regardless of party composition, they always assume that the PC's were created by the spell - even if the party is composed entirely of Elves - and attack on sight.

The Elves patrol the entire forest. They can observe the PC's coming in to the town on their own. They can see the PC's leaving the town environs (something the villagers don't do). They have the ability to verify that the PC's are not, in fact, under the sway of the bad guy.

But they are always hostile. They can't be negotiated with unless they are attacked and routed. There is literally no way within the "rules" of the module to approach them peacefully and negotiate with them unless they are first fought near to death.

And that's just bad writing, in my opinion.