Or maybe Treona asks you to venture into the fallen city to find Alkirk's family banner, a magical item that can inspire him to reclaim the city? No. I know what you're thinking: Treona hires you to liberate Kiris Dahn from its evil invaders. The last ruler of Kiris Dahn, Kiris Alkirk, lives apart from his people, supported by his loyal ritualist Treona, and has given up all hope of reclaiming his town. Its human inhabitants scattered to the world while goblins and kobolds live in the town's remains. For the life of me, I can't imagine why PCs would care about HS1's plot.Įight years ago, the town of Kiris Dahn was overrun by goblins. Treasure is always a good motivator, but having a quest that is meaningful to the world helps PCs become invested in it. Starting a campaign, getting players invested in their missions and the world, is always a difficult proposition. HS1 has a medicore plot that diminishes not only the encounters within, but the setting and NPCs in it. This time, instead of a weak plot holding good encounters together, the weak plot makes most of the encounter in the adventure unnecessary, if the PCs face them at all.

Encounter 11 has an anti-lycanthrope inquisition interrupt some very important exposition. Encounter 7 with the Goblin who summons oozes and casts spells by ripping pages out of tomes. Encounter 6 has a scrapyard artificer fling vials of ankheg-attracting oil at PCs. What frustrates me is that HS1 has some of those scenes. The crude plot, like a summer blockbuster, gave licence for enjoyable scenes of action. Many of them portrayed odd characters or intriguing set-ups that made me re-evaluate how I could present an encounter to players. Some would deride its 'railroading' the players down one path, which I acknowledge, but I also appreciated the beauty of each individual encounter within. I will be honest and say that I love the KotS modules. However, when I read this adventure, I could not help but feel that his advice will not be sufficient.

To be sure, Logan Bonner does give plenty of advice on how the adventure runs, and how a DM could alter it. The leftover space is devoted to providing information on the adventure's backdrop, the NPCs involved, and how best to run this adventure. It is half the price of these modules, but covers only one level of play as opposed to 3-4 levels. In general terms, HS1 gives the players more options and approaches to completing their quest than the KotS modules did. HS1: The Slaying Stone is a very different beast from WotC's previous series of adventures starting with Keep on the Shadowfell and ending with Prince of Undeath.

The slaying stone pdf