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Message: <blockquote data-quote="jbear" data-source="post: 5745164" data-attributes="member: 75065">I used the Forgotten Realms  variation of KotS. It was our secondary campaign, run when some players couldn't make it to the game. So I ran something I didn't have to prep or think much about.I had an NPC paladin from the  Order of Keegan sitting in the tavern. He wants to restore the stain Keegan brought to his Order's name by wiping the ghosts from the Keep. He is praying for a sign. He however wouldn'y talk to the NPC's til he was brought the Mirror. This begins a Skill CHallenge to win him over. The challenge of course amongst other things involved a good old fashioned arm  wrestle!The ' recently rich merchant' (name? Bairwin?) is an agent of Kalarel with a church of Shar beneath the shop where other secret members of the cult worship. He supplies Kalarel with equipment, food etc. He works with the Elf Ranger (name?). Together they hose-napped the mayor's prize stallion which the ranger keeps out at her hut. Unless freed the mayor begrudgingly obeys Bairwin's orders and will subtly work against the PCs.The PCs first dealt with rescuing their mentor, Douven. Kalarel's shade appeared as one of the monsters at the sight as per the revised version. This gave a first early contact with Kalarel. Douven tells  them to take the mirror to the Paladin. I gave it an important role in the final encounter which escapes my memory.PCs gained Paladin in skill challenge and went with hin to deal with Irontooth. The paladin was however killed in that encounter. They brought his body back to town, the Mayor receiving them, taking the body from them and celebrating a massive feast in their honour. That night a shadow creature (as per Dungeon FR version monsters) attempts to steal the mirror. However the PCs grew suspicious of the mayor and slept in a different room. They awoke and managed to trap the creature who after some torture revealed Bairwin's connection.The next day they went to confront Bairwin. He invited them to speak privately in his chapel below where he offered  them 4 times the reward money if they simply walked away from town and never looked back. All they had to do was swear it upon the altar of Shar. They refused and a battle ensued with more shadow creatures hidden in the wings and Bairwin. Also the now undead Paladin joined the fight, brought back to life with a darkritual during the celebration feast. The Ranger elf set fire to the store and the stairway, sealing their entrance. They won and managed to find the secret entrance out with Bairwin as hostage.They used  him as a guide to the Keep, gaining important information from him. I used an additional encounter with a mix of Kobold guards and members of the gang that is meant to be a hook to the next module outside the entrance. A kobold managed to escape.For the Keep I created a random list of spooky events inspired by Kalarels story and the 3.5 Heroes of Horror book. After each short rest something spooky happened that challenged the PCs will or insight etc depending on what happened. Failing these spook attacks had  negative side effects but once 3 of them had been  overcome in a row you became immune and received a positive boon. Not dissimilarfrom what they came up with for the Shadowfell.Inside I wiped the entire uneccessary East wing of lvl 1 (where the Kruthiks are). I swapped out hobgoblins for shadow creatures.The escaped Kobold released Bairwin and he raised the alarm. This meant they encountered a prepared  ambush as they descended to lvl 2. They were already beaten up badly so they fled back to Ser Keegan's room to hide and rest the night. Unfortunately with a very unlucky search roll the Shadow creatures were able to track them and they had to duke it out. Things went badly for them on the dice and the entire party was wiped out.It was lots of fun how we playedit. I'm skimming over heaps of detail but it didn't take all that much to bring the adventure to life.</blockquote>

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