A few of Raging Owlbear's criticisms are warranted, but it's not as bad as he's making it out to be. If you want your characters to be invested in delivering the bad news of relative X's death, it's easiest to do with the Xelbrins because of the tressym. Someone an a typical gaming group is going to fall in love with the winged kitty, so it's easy to persuade the characters to take up the quest to deliver it to the Xelbrin's next of kin. Raging Owlbear is correct that the quests are basically interchangeable, so there isn't any real issue in making the next-of-kin be the contact in the next town. I planned to have my group go to Triboar, so I made it that not only would they go to the Lion's Share to tell Aleastra about her ex-husband's death by rats ("Couldn't have happened to a better guy"), but made Narth the Xelbrins' nephew and heir to the tressym. In this case, the interchangeability of the towns bcame a strength, not a weakness...
Raging Owlbear also is exaggerating the problem with the special NPCs in each town. As I said, my group is in Triboar, so, as a DM, I've made sure they all meet and significantly interact with the NPCs who will be appearing to fight alongside them. As I said, they deliver the tressym to Narth (NPC #1), and when they ask about upgrading their weapons and armor, he tells them that he is going to visit Ghelryn Foehammer (NPC #2) to pick up some items the dwarf has made for sale at the Lion's Share here shortly, so the party can come along as soon as they are done shopping for general goods. Before they go, Lord Protector Darathra Shendrel (NPC #3) crosses the street from the town keep to see who these well-armed strangers who were dropped off by a cloud giant castle are doing in town, and, judging their character, suggests they meet with her later for some tasks that need to be doing since most of the town guard are out in the farmlands due to orc attacks (something mentioned in the adventure itself). When the party travels to visit Ghelryn, Narth stops by Othovir's (NPC #4) tackle and harness shop to pick up some elk meat for his store to sell (something straight out of the book as well). As they travel along the road north, Narth mentions how much trouble Hyuth Kolstaag and his gargoyles have been causing in town from his manor Boar's Rest. Then the party shops for new weapons and armor from Ghelryn, after which Narth recommends they go to the Northshield House if they are looking for an inn to stay at. There they meet and interact with Urgala Meltimer (NPC #5). This bit of roleplaying introduced all the major NPCs they will be interacting with (with only five players in my group, they only will get five special NPCs to run), allowed me as DM to sprinkle in dialogue which personalized them (Narth would like to be adventurer, but can't leave the store; Ghelryn hates giants, no, he really means it, he hates giants, he really, really hates giants), and set up some extra adventure hooks (Hyuth Kolstaag, the orc attacks on the outer farms) that I can use to build up more of a connection with the town and its inhabitants for the party. So while it's true that just having a party land and then immediately launch the fire giant attack would make this section be a little flat, there's plenty there for a DM to work with to get the characters involved in the town they are going to defend...