With the dragon defeated, you make your way back to the fortress to recover, and prepare for the next stage of your journey upriver. While you are there, a noise comes echoing through the dungeon chambers below, growing louder and closer. Investigating, you are overrun by a dozen grimlocks making their way through the dungeon from the tunnels leading outside.
Ordinarily able to move quietly, they are rushing through the tunnels towards you with little regard for the noise they are making. They have come to the surface sensing a shift in the scents of this locale, and hoping to grab new prisoners to drag back with them to the Underdark. Fearful of the dragon they still think flies above, they are moving with haste.
Grimlocks are blind, and move by a combination of hearing and smell. They have honed in on the party in the labyrinth of tunnels, and quickly strike at one or two targets, attempting to grapple them and drag them away.
This is not a particularly taxing encounter, depending on how depleted your resources are from the fight with the dragon. In game terms, its really just meant to stall them slightly so that they remain at the fortress to take a long rest before continuing upstream. They can defeat the Grimlocks and set up a camp for the night, with a more challenging assault due to come before they leave the next morning. That will be a major encounter, and require the party to defend their position. Ultimately, it will likely cause the destruction of part or all of the fortress and tunnels, forcing the party back on their journey.
To that end, it may be fun to give the Grimlocks one or two magic items to aid in that encounter. They have a scroll with Transmute Rock and marble elephant (one of the Figurines of Wondrous Power).
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