You have tracked the beast that attacked the village on the border of Brand's realm to the mines beneath the Iron Hills. The Dwarves there have been driven from the lower depths by a new terror, and the mines have become a haunt for evil creatures.

Setup: Build the Caves deck (see insert) and set it next to the quest deck. Set Fire-drake, Dragon Hoard, and the Dragon Might encounter sets aside, out of play. Shuffle the encounter deck. Each player discards cards from the top of the encounter deck until he discards an enemy or location and adds that card to the staging area.

Forced: At the beginning of the quest phase, discard cards from the top of the encounter deck until a location is discarded. Either add that location to the staging area, or raise each player's threat by X, where X is that location's printed

This stage cannot be defeated unless there are 3 locations with victory points in the victory display.