Fixing HS1 Slaying Stone

[ourchair]

Okay, so I've been pretty open about how much I like HS1 The Slaying Stone. It's got some great writing and editing, insofar as helping the DM keep track of events that the players don't see and provides a lot of material to deal with the unpredictable nature of players. And unlike the H series of modules, it's not just a string of linear combats.

However, it's not without its flaws and one of the biggest ones is the nonsensical premise. As I wrote in my own review at My Girlfriend is a DM,

The town of Kiris Dahn possessed slaying stones that can destroy any ONE living creature, but burn out after being used and can only be used within five miles of the town. Yet despite the fact that these stones are utterly useless to the outside world and cannot be recreated using a ritual, the party is hired by their patron to find the supposed last stone and help her destroy it. And it’s not like someone is going find these wondrous geographically-bound disintegrators and make more of them.

See, the adventure is fine. It's essentially a "Find Magic Item" quest, only the reasoning behind the importance of locating the MacGuffin is just butt-headed. So, how would you fix this premise? What kind of plot hooks or story ideas can you build to repair this completely dysfunctional adventure carrot?

 

[AbdulAlhazred]

What makes this premise ridiculous? I haven't read the adventure, but if I were a BBEG that wanted to take over said town I would be VERY concerned with neutralizing these Slaying Stones before I set foot within 5 miles of the place. Obviously the restrictions on the stones are intended to make them rather useless to the PLAYER CHARACTERS and explain why their existence doesn't result in the annihilation of most every powerful being in the setting.

Now, maybe the restrictions make the premise of the adventure ridiculous for whatever reasons, but I don't really see why this setup is inherently ridiculous.

 

[Klaus]

Okay, so I've been pretty open about how much I like HS1 The Slaying Stone. It's got some great writing and editing, insofar as helping the DM keep track of events that the players don't see and provides a lot of material to deal with the unpredictable nature of players. And unlike the H series of modules, it's not just a string of linear combats.

However, it's not without its flaws and one of the biggest ones is the nonsensical premise. As I wrote in my own review at My Girlfriend is a DM,

See, the adventure is fine. It's essentially a "Find Magic Item" quest, only the reasoning behind the importance of locating the MacGuffin is just butt-headed. So, how would you fix this premise? What kind of plot hooks or story ideas can you build to repair this completely dysfunctional adventure carrot?

A functional slaying stone could be used as a blueprint to make new ones, perhaps?

And while it doesn't pertain to the actual thread question, one thing that helped me envision the adventure locale (and the fact that the PCs could sneak about unseen) was picturing it as Osgiliath, as portrayed in the Lord of the Rings movies:

This is where

Spoiler

the dragon would be living

.

 

[Reaper Steve]

I'm preparing to start running this on Monday. I don't have a problem with the setup, but maybe because I'm using something else to get the characters to Kiris Dahn. The quest for the Slaying Stone is an extra.

My hook:
One way or another, the PCs have a connection to Kiris Dahn, or one of the other PCs with said connection:
The Dwarf Sentinel patrols the lands west of the Ogrefist Hills. He's hasn't been in Kiris Dahn since it fell 8 years ago because he knows it's overrun with kobolds and goblins. But there's been a large influx of humanoids lately, upsetting the balance. He's decided to find his Dwarf Slayer brother/friend/acquaintance (currently in Winterhaven or Fallcrest) and enlist his aid. They will then spread word of their intent in order to find others interested in Kiris Dahn:
-- Human Cleric: the player stated that his character was sent to the Nentir Vale (far from home) to establish a shrine to Kord. I'll have him learn of the dwarves' plan to keep the humaniods in Kiris Dahn in check and motivate him with the 'Redeemer of the Desecrated' background and the 'Reclaim the Shrines' minor quest.
-- Elf Wizard: a mentor/associate/peer inhabited Kiris Dahn but wasn't present when it was evacuated. His library was lost. This character will assume the 'Collect Arcane Writings' minor quest.
--the fifth character hasn't been decided, but I imagine he'll be 'hired in' as the two above.
--the last character is a Drow Ranger (Hunter, maybe Scout.) I'll introduce him in the first encounter.

The first encounter will be the kobold ambush from Keep on the Shadowfell. The ranger was tracking the ambush party but arrives just after they spring the trap. It turns out that the Drow Ranger and the Dwarf Sentinel patrol roughly the same area. They've seen each other a couple times from a distance but never until now had any direct interaction.

So, this gets the party together, with several individual motivations for going to Kiris Dahn. Several miles before reaching the village, they will encounter 'The Hungry Wolves' (Slaying Stone Encounter 1) and meet Treona and learn of the Slaying Stone. Hopefully the dwarf sentinel has the insight to release that maybe the increase in humaniod activity has something to do with this...

 

[AbdulAlhazred]

Sounds good. There are certainly advantages to providing a variety of motives.

 

[Pseudopsyche]

A functional slaying stone could be used as a blueprint to make new ones, perhaps?

This. In the world of D&D, archaeology is more about rediscovering lost technology than finding trinkets that belong in a museum.

 

[Klaus]

"This isn't archeology, son. This is military research."

 

[Nahat Anoj]

See, the adventure is fine. It's essentially a "Find Magic Item" quest, only the reasoning behind the importance of locating the MacGuffin is just butt-headed. So, how would you fix this premise? What kind of plot hooks or story ideas can you build to repair this completely dysfunctional adventure carrot?

I'll just have the slaying stone work outside of the town.

 

[ourchair]

A functional slaying stone could be used as a blueprint to make new ones, perhaps?

By the power of the DM Handwave, that's totally legitimate.

But I guess that while I consider myself a flexible GM, I'm more likely to lean towards the intent of the adventure writer, which specifically states that no one could create a new slaying stone out of it. (Which fluff-wise makes no sense, but mechanically is meant to prevent players from creating portable one-shot kill stones, regardless of whether their use is restricted to the limits of Kiris Dahn.)

The power of the handwave is probably enough to justify that I guess, and fluff-wise you could say that even if you can't duplicate the stone via Enchant Magic Item, you can certainly study it to build a similar device.

 

[the Jester]

Here's a logical reason for the quest: The npc that is sending the pcs after the slaying stone has nefarious intentions for the town or something within that magical 5-mile radius. The stone is an obvious end to her intentions.

Alternatively, perhaps she has been manipulated into seeking the stone's destruction by someone else with nefarious intent.