Keep on the Shadowfell - Session 6

Potential spoilers for Keep on the Shadowfell herein.

A summary of our 6th session exploring the Keep on the Shadowfell. In attendance:

* me - DM
* Kevin - half-elf paladin
* Dave - tiefling warlock
* Ed - human cleric
* Bob - human fighter

It's been a couple of weeks since our last session.

Dave and I discuss his feelings toward 4E. I give him grief reminding him how he's in nerd hell. As he's playing 2E with his other group (which he hates) and 4E with us. He reminds me that he doesn't hate 4E, it's just not his system of choice. Dave really likes the modularity of 3E. He could grab X from source Y and it would essentially fit seamlessly with the existing rules. I agree 100% with him on this. In fact, I did a lot of that sort of thing when building my Arcana Evolved/D&D hybrid.


With Bob's fighter dead, the party decides to return to Winterhaven. The first ritual used in the campaign is to create a Floating Disc to carry the fighter's corpse.

Upon reaching the town the group finds that the gates are locked. The sentries tell the heroes that the town is under siege from undead coming from the local graveyard and ask for their help. The party asks to be let in so their friend can be raised at the local temple while they deal with the undead. I notice that the Raise Dead ritual takes 8 hours. It made no sense for the party to ignore the threat for the time it takes the fighter to be raised so they decide to head to the cemetery after paying for the ritual (at a steep discount). Since we're just beginning the session and the combat may take a while, I decide to speed things up (not really fair to have Bob just sit there while the others battle). As the ritual starts and the party is leaving, I tell them a bright light bathes the temple. The priestess tells the group she's never had this happen during the ritual. I know it didn't end up in the final book but I believe that the 4E previews mentioned that only those who have died that the gods feel have a destiny to fulfill are returned to the living. I really like this idea a lot and am going to use it in my campaigns. I tell Bob that his character hears a voice asking him what deed or destiny he left undone and why he should be returned to life to complete it. Bob gives a good spiel for why his fighter should be raised. I make him sweat it out for a second. Bob's fighter worships Avandra, goddess of luck. I decide to use this. I tell the group that the light grows very bright and then starts to fade. As it fades, Bob's fighter sits up. I tell Bob that a voice whispers to him, "fate is fickle, the next time you may not be able to come back." Essentially, I tell Bob that the goddess raised him immediately but he has a 50/50 chance of not being able to come back the next time he dies.

Here we discover the death penalty. You're pretty much -1 to all rolls until you hit 3 milestones. I like this much better than loosing a level when brought back to life in 3E. Loosing a level sucked. I think I prefer loosing a Con point like in AD&D than a level.

The party arrives at the graveyard. On the opposite side from the entrance they see a magic circle. As they move in to investigate, the dead rise from their graves and attack. During this battle, Ed's cleric makes his first use of the Turn Undead option for the Channel Divinity power. I was not a fan of how Turn Undead used to work which was essentially an encounter killer. 4E's power is similar to the alternate turning rules given in Complete Divine which I was using in my 3E campaign. The monster takes damage and if it doesn't save it's forced away. We also see how creature vulnerabilities work. Pretty simple to apply but a minor pain as I have to keep reminding the guys that no only do they need to tell me what defense they're attacking buy if the power has radiant keyword so I can apply the vulnerability damage.

During the battle a cloaked figure had been attacking them from a distance and had manages to slip away but left behind a note. The note is from someone named Kalarel asking this person to watch for strangers and to eliminate them if they become a threat. It also mentions a ritual for creating a circle for causing the dead to rise from their graves as undead abominations. Finally, it seems to give a pass phrase for safe passage to the second level of the keep.

While they are examining the note, several more undead rise and attack. Ed's cleric now attempts to destroy the circle. Every time he fails his arcana check, I have a couple of minions appear and attack. Technically, nothing supposed to happen once the original undead are eliminated but I felt it was more interesting that the undead would keep rising as long as the circle existed. Eventually, he makes three successful checks and the circle is destroyed.

Based on what's in the note, the party decides to immediately return to the keep.

The group reaches the keep and proceeds to head down a corridor directly opposite the entrance stairs. They find a door and behind it, stairs leading down into darkness. They say the pass phrase aloud and head down the stairs. At the bottom of the stairs the PCs find several corridors leading off into various directions. The one they follow leads to a large chamber filled with zombies. The party makes quick work of these as most were minions. As they finish them off several more zombies emerges from the various passages and attack. The group eliminates these even quicker than the first batch.

The party continues through the chamber and down a short corridor to a crypt with sarcophagi lining the walls. Dim light comes from the far end of the room. As the PCs move to investigate the light, the sarcophagi burst open, skeletons emerge and attack. There a several standard skeletons amongst the minions. This battle gets pretty tense as every round 2 more skeletons (minions) pop out of the sarcophagi. During the battle there's a lot of confusion about marking. I try and have the players keep track but tonight it was pretty frustrating. It seemed that, conveniently, the fighter had the bad guy who shifted marked even though I never heard him declare he was marking anyone. The paladin was a lot more vocal about he marked as his does damage. Plus, the skeletons could mark foes as well and I would forget which one marked who. Did I mention that I hate marking?

Eventually, the party defeats the skeletons and move toward the light. They find that the light is coming from the ceiling in a chamber will two alters dedicated to Bahamut. Bob's fighter pays his respects at one figuring it can't hurt to have as many gods on his side as possible. This chamber also has a set of doors that lead to a tomb containing a single sarcophagus on a raised dais.

Here they find the ghost of Sir Keegan. Sir Keegan challenges the party to prove that they are not grave robbers and are indeed heroes worthy of completing the job he could not so long ago. I explain to the guys that this is a skill challenge and that they will need to convince Sir Keegan of their noble intentions. Maybe, its the way I presented it or the was it was presented in the adventure but skill challenges feel really artificial. They also seem to be stacked against the players. The DCs are pretty high for the character levels. Plus, you need a relatively high number of successes compared to failures in order to "win." As recommended, I make sure and involve the whole party in the challenge. I apply bonuses and penalties to their roles based on what their characters say Only Kevin's paladin and Ed's cleric makes their rolls. Dave and Bob both fail. Bob immediately tries to salvage his response and fails on the follow up check, so we have the 3 failures needed to "fail" this challenge. The price of this failure is that Sir Keegan attacks the party. I'm really not in the mood to run another combat, so I give Kevin's paladin a chance to make an argument that puts a better spin on the others responses. He explains that Bob and Dave are his lackeys and while not really heroes have their uses. He makes his roll. Sir Keegan gifts the party with his sword and some statues of Bahamut and wishes them luck. Based on this experience, not a fan on skill challenges as presented in the book. It feels pretty artificial and breaks the mood of the game. I did find an alternate skill challenge system on ENWorld that seems to incorporate skill challenges more naturally into the game. I plan on trying it the next time a skill challenge comes into play. (Since this session, errata came out about the DCs but I still think I prefer to try the alternate system next time.)

The party leaves the crypt and enters the maze of corridors. They find a strange symbol on the floor. Ed tries to leap over it but doesn't quite clear it. The sets off an ear piercing shriek and causes the cleric to run in fear. Since there's no mention of how long the fear affect lasts I give it a duration of 1 round. Lame. (Looking back I probably should have had it be a Save Ends situation). We then try and determine if setting off the glyph causes it to disappear. I can't find anything in either the adventure or the DMG. I guess I'm still thinking in 3E as I think a little guidance on this would be nice. My inclination is to have in remain but it's getting late and I want the game to conclude at a certain point so I have it disappear. (Again, looking back I should have used a skill challenge to remove it but I wasn't thrilled with those at the time).

Finally, the group comes to a set of stairs leading down. Heading down, they run into a couple of hobgoblins guarding the way. They give the pass phrase. One of the bugbears yells, "Intruders! They've killed Nimran! Kill them!" With that I call it a night.


Again, I poll the guys to see if they want to keep going and they do.