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Message: <blockquote data-quote="wedgeski" data-source="post: 5744650" data-attributes="member: 16212">As the first 4E module I played, I really wanted to leave it alone to get a feel for the system, warts and all. However I'd just put together a brand new group of quite experienced roleplayers and I realised pretty quickly that the simple hack'n'slash and villain-of-the-day nature of the adventure wasn't going to cut it.Spoilers below.I made Winterhaven a settlement built by the remnants of the knightly order that was expelled from the Keep when Keegan went mental (this may have been part of the actual adventure as well, I don't recall). His purgatory was a curse laid on him by his fellow knights as they left, and the only way to remove it was to receive forgiveness from one of his own bloodline. The only remaining Keegan descendant was a drunk old farmer from the town (I co-opted one of the existing NPC's for this), tortured by nightmares of the carnage and going slowly insane.Keegan imparted much of this to the PC's during their first foray, although he hid the truth of what he'd done as much as he could. They duly returned to WInterhaven, researched and discovered the farmer's connection, convinced him over the pleas of his wife to return to the Keep with them, and then had to protect him when he refused to grant Keegan forgiveness and the old blackguard decided to kill him for it. (That fight was the first 4E combat where we all realised exactly how cool a 4E fight could be, and still stands to this day as one of the best I've run!).That was the thrust of the adventure for us. Keegan's destruction opened the portal to the Shadowfell and flooded the lower levels of the keep with its denizens, which started spilling out and threatening the countryside. At that point the PC's became the clean-up crew and the module *did* become the pure hack'n'slash fest it's become famous for. Since we were all acclimatising to the system, and since the Keegan episode had been quite satisfying, no-one seemed to mind.</blockquote>

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