Castle Whiterock: The Quest Continues!

I'm worried about my players. I am.

My current group has been playing around - and in - Castle Whiterock and its environs for a year or two now. They've become cursorily familiar with the area, the nearby town of Cillimar, and various and sundry NPCs important to the plot of the supermodule. They've also introduced some variances to the setting. 

For instance, after wiping out a group of gnolls who had moved into the spot previously occupied by the Slavers of the Iron Manacle, they ran into a group of stone giants (random encounter), and directed them (unintentionally) to the ruins of the castle. Upon their next return, a clan of 20 or so of the giants had moved in and started remodeling the upper keep. The giants are friendly, for now... 

They've met Lorus Swiftquill and arranged a quid pro quo deal with him; information for information. 

They've located and restored the Hidden Fane of Justicia on level 7 and cleaned out both the chapel of Bobugbubilz and the Wight Lady!

They've made friends with the folk of Stone Pig's Crossing, in a tiny hamlet half way between Cillimar and the Castle. 

They've forged a business relationship with Chauntessa, and guessed more about her nature than I'm comfortable with as a DM. 

The one thing they haven't done, though, is the first job that Chauntessa gave them: find the "other group"... 

You see I had another group once. This group of adventurers swept through the upper levels of CW, murder-hoboing their merry way down to level 7, when the group sort of fell apart all at once. A few players moved away, another one got a job that didn't allow for much downtime, and that was all she wrote. 

Fast forward a year or two and I have a new group with no connections to the old! Their game started out in the same world but relatively remote from Castle Whiterock, but I introduced one plot thread that lead to Whiterock, and that was the one they chose to follow.

I decided to keep some continuity going; this group would follow on where the other group ended; Chauntessa would offer them the same deal as to the other group with a caveat; they should also try to determine what happened to the party that came before. 

At the point where the old group broke up, their party had a nasty scrap with the skum and, impaired with lowered resources and damaged boats, came to the derro slaver's outpost and (I deemed) were finally overwhelmed, captured, and taken down below. 

All Roads Lead To Narborg

Now it was up to the PCs. This was not their first rodeo and not even the first time they had to deal with duergar, even within Whiterock. They did a bit of sleuthing as they explored the now semi-repopulated dungeon. They have pieced together that the previous party was (mostly) captured by the slavers and shipped down to the Bleak Theater. In the interim several other things have happened.

1. Having wiped out most of the derro on level 7 and interrupted the flow of slaves, the party has faced increased resistance from the duergar and their lackeys upon each return to the Castle. The pattern has been established: an ambush involving troublesome cannon-fodder monsters supported by the duergar, who flee as soon as the battle turns against them. 
2. The party has pieced together the fate of the previous party and passed that on to Chauntessa. Chauntessa was gravely concerned about the party's ability to infiltrate the Bleak Theater and warned them against doing so - noteworthy because this is the first time she's ever advised caution. (And she has now thrown THREE parties into the maw of Whiterock!)
3. And most recently, they learned that the stone giants had been visited by the envoy of Thane Vejik and offered them payment in return for slaves. 

The giants are ambivalent, neither trusting the duergar to honor their agreement nor leave the clan alone, but not wanting to deal with the hassle of having an angry clan of duergar under their feet. They have handed the problem off to the PCs, as they have helped the clan out before. But if they do accept, the town of Stone Pig's Crossing could be wiped out by the giants virtually at one blow, and quite easily.

Thus here we are; the characters stand at the brink of level 9, the Immense Cavern, facing a determined enemy that is growing hungry and desperate to restore its economy.

(to be continued)