What to run before Madness at Gardmore Abbey?

What would you/have you run for levels 1-5 to connect up with Madness at Gardmore Abbey?

For my group, I ran them through a few one-shot LFR adventures before it became clear that this would be an ongoing campaign. I then ran Reavers of Harkenwold from the Dungeon Master's Kit followed by Cairn of the Winter King from the Monster Vault. Gardmore Abbey is next.

For what it's worth, I believe the newer products are designed so that you can take a new group through them in order: Red Box adventure, Reavers of Harkenwold, Cairn of the Winter King, Madness at Gardmore Abbey.

OnlineDM said:

I then ran Reavers of Harkenwold from the Dungeon Master's Kit followed by Cairn of the Winter King from the Monster Vault. Gardmore Abbey is next.

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This would be my suggestion as well.

Although I'm sure you can find enough 1-5 level adventures in Dungeon. Low level adventures are the most common I think. Also I hear Slaying Stone is pretty good. However, don't

Rechan said:

This would be my suggestion as well.

Although I'm sure you can find enough 1-5 level adventures in Dungeon. Low level adventures are the most common I think. Also I hear Slaying Stone is pretty good. However, don't

Spoiler

use Orcs of Stonefang Pass; I hear that Gardmore Abby has lots of orcs in it.

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In response to the spoiler comment:

OnlineDM said:

In response to the spoiler comment:

Spoiler

I haven't read Orcs of Stonefang Pass yet, but I presume it's orc-heavy. Gardmore Abbey has one section with orcs. So, they exist, but it's not wall-to-wall orcs - although the orcs in the adventure do come at what will be the beginning for most parties.

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FWIW I've gone The Twisting Halls (from the red box) - Slaying Stone - Reavers of Harkenwold parts one and two - Orcs of Stonefang Pass (and may not be able to squeeze in Cairn of the Winter King before cracking on with Gardmore). I've made a variety of changes as I've gone, linking Slaying Stone to Reavers (in order to help Kiris Alkirk (spoiler for Slaying Stone and Reavers) the adventurers went to Baron Stockmer in Harkenwold, ) and bumping up monsters, etc. I've also brought back Malareth (briefly) from the dead, to explain why one of my player's characters is a revenant, and why another became a vampire (Malareth is the 'villain' of Twisting Halls), and will return them to Gorizbadd so that they can . The remaining orcs will then retreat back to Stonefang Pass (I may also use the dwarven adventure hooks), partly so that I can explain how the Iron Circle are accompanied by warforged and not (in my version of Nentir Vale, Warforged have only been created by the dwarven clan mentioned in Stonefang Pass - and (spoiler for Orcs of SP)
Regarding the comment above,
Regarding Gardmore, it looks like the only thing I have to do in preparation is give one of my preceding villains a card from the Deck of Many Things. That will be more than enough to intrigue my intrepid party as I'm sure they will want to find out more and head off in search of the other cards...!

(Apologies for having waffled so.)

A bit off topic I realize, but what are people's impression of Gardmore? I've been debating picking it up, but have plenty of areas to spend my $30 on.

Does it keep up the recent trend of quality published adventures? If so, this is good to see as perhaps we'll continue to see more quality adventures, slowly working up the three tiers even.

And back to the OP, I would certainly recommend Reavers as well. Having played through it (as a player, not a DM) I found it very good and entertaining, haven't seen Cairn yet, but I know people have been pretty pleased with it as well.

Don't forget Dungeon! There was an adventure called Battle of Witchlight Hermitage that was released shortly after Monster Vault: Threats to the Nentir Vale. It could be run a few levels before Gardmore Abbey. Speaking of Threats to the Nentir Vale, there are lots of adventure hooks in there if you want to craft your own adventures.

Insight said:

Speaking of Threats to the Nentir Vale, there are lots of adventure hooks in there if you want to craft your own adventures.

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It's a hook haven. I think you can pretty much just read an entry in that book and have an adventure, along with a bunch of associated encounters for it. The more perspective I get on that book, the more I like it. I'd use it as a precursor to "Madness," just flipping through it and using the hooks to create small adventures based around the encounters and the map. My style is somewhat improvisational though, and I recognize that some folks are much more comfortable with an actual printed module.

I've read some of Gardmore Abbey and it seems ok. They really encourage running it with the various factions at odds with one another. The thing I'm a bit bummed about is the deck of many things' powers. There's a "harrow deck of many things" in the pathfinder Curse of the Crimson Throne' path which is much simpler and IMO, more fun than either of the 4e versions.

If you have access to it, I'd recommend running the Dark Legacy of Evard encounters adventure and its' dungeon magazine sequel, Evard's Shadow (i think that's what it was called) to kick off the campaign from level one. My group really enjoyed those. Also, there's a few standout Chaos Scar adventures: Dead by Dawn (one of the best 4e adventures IMO), Scarblade and Head in the Clouds.

I'll be running Gardmore in a few months. It looks like it should be fun.

I echo most everyone above that there are quite a few good modules out there, but I would go with homebrew, myself. Look through the Nentier Vale MV and use some of the factions in there. Good adventures would be easy to craft.