Critical Threats Homnar Thest - Dungeon Magazine 100

Most of these Critical Threats from Dungeon Magazine, I find rather boring. Not this one. Homnar Thest would fit right in around Ptolus.

Master Thest as some call him is a weretoad, and a nasty one. He runs a smuggling and kidnapping operation with some fellow weretoads. He sells victims into slavery. Sounds like he could be part of any number of groups in the city. He would work well with the Ennin.

There's no adventure attached to the NPC villain, but the personality and nature of this beastly fellow almost writes one for you.

On the surface he comes off as a prosperous merchant. He's very portly, yet agile. He wears expensive cloths, jewelry, etc. He's a glutton and greedy to boot. Oh, and he eats people when he can get away with it.

In Giant Toad form he can swallow targets whole. If he catches a character alone things could go very badly, or result in a kidnapping. Have a player you know will be missing a couple of sessions? This could be a reason their character isn't around, and the ransom might be expensive.

Blind Man's Bluff - Dungeon Magazine 97

This is one of the many Side-Treks mini scenarios Dungeon Magazine was fond of publishing. There's not a lot to change. It can be moved into the dungeons below Ptolus easily enough. 

The short of it is that some Grimlocks are seeking help to rescue a leader of theirs trapped in the cave of an undead (wight) Ettin. They plan to double cross the party once their leader is safe. That's really all there is to it.

You can toss this in while the group are on their way to do something else down below.

Expanding the encounter shouldn't be too difficult since the background given mentions a Mind Flayer causing the Grimlocks to be in the situation to begin with. It ordered them here and then abandoned them when the wight kicked their collective backsides.

A wight by itself is a pretty tough fight for a lower level party. An Ettin that's a wight should be a bit tougher. Since in 5e humanoids killed by wights rise as zombies, you could up the difficulty by having the 4 slain Grimlocks already zombified.

The lair could also be a place to put a plot hook for later down the line, among the treasure.