OK, I just finished reading through my copy of P1.
Overall I am pretty impressed. The location it is set in brings with it lots of possibilities. I could easily see using the area as the basis of a longer game with the players gradually becoming aware through the Heroic tier of the growing threat of Skalmad.
If I was to have any criticisms it would be these:
1. For an early level Paragon adventure the scale is probably too small. At this point the players are well known in their lands, the town is too small scale. By this level I would expect players either to be running their own Barony or to be significant powers within a larger Kingdom and not running errands for a distant Baron or small town Mayor.
I think this will be a problem throughout the series... the modules are stand-alones, with limited hooks between them, and they're meant to plug into any campaign. So the bar is pretty low for the hooks, they're super generic. Any DM customizing the storyline for his campaign will be able to mod the hooks easily.
In my current campaign, the group just started Thunderspire H2. In between H1 and H2, a few months passed, and the character stories advanced a little. One of the characters (the big tough fighter in the group, Flint) was credited with most of the defense of Winterhaven by Lord Patrick (Lord Padraig from the module) and through the course of events, Flint has been granted the title of Lord Flint (a court lord) and knight itinerant in the service of Lord Markelhay of Fallcrest. (Its worked out well because this particular player is never this type of 'center of attention' and the group is having some fun playing off it).
In between H2 and H3, I have an in interlude planned at the Fallcrest keep where various local barons will be there for a tournament and festival, including Baron Harkenwold and the Baron of Therund (introduced tangentially in the background for P1). Flint will get a chance to learn of Etheran, the champion of Therund, and cross friendly swords with him in the tournament.
When we finally get to P1, the hook will be that the Baron of Therund reaches out directly to Lord Markelhay for the assistance of his renowned knight, Lord Flint; the champion of the Baron, Etheran, has fallen, and only the defenders of Nentir are close enough to save Moonstair from the rising threat. (Our wizard is in close with the High Septarch of Fallcrest, so perhaps there will be some magical communication rather than slow messengers, adding to the urgency).
To me, that is now sufficiently "Paragon"; the characters have reached a degree of renown that they are being asked by neighboring realms to intervene in situations that have grown beyond the realms' ability to handle. I'll need to make it clear they've made their local area somewhat safe and secure too.
FYI, my hook for H3 will also come out of that tournament festival alluded to above. A recurring villain in the game will stage a "jail break" during the tournament, releasing Gharash and his bandits from the Fallcrest prisons. (Gharash is one of the generic hooks). These violent criminals exact some "revenge" on the townsfolk, and some of it will be personal to the player characters; when they learn of Gharash's escape, they'll take it on themselve to track his vile gang north into Winterbole Forest, and ultimately into the Pyramid of Shadows. It'll tie in both a recurring villain and a personal stake in the events.
My point is, the provided hooks are usually fairly lame, but with minimal effort they can be tweaked into something serviceable for an ongoing game.
