Running 'Heathen' (Dungeon 155) soon - any advice?

[DNH]

If all goes well tomorrow night, we shall be wrapping up our epic stint of Pathfinder's 'Rise of the Runelords' campaign and I shall then be taking up the DM mantle for our 4e game. I have a number of things planned for the future but perhaps the most immediate is an adventure called 'Heathen' from way back in Dungeon 155. Has anyone run this adventure before me and can suggest some pitfalls to avoid, perhaps some reworkings or rewrites that would make things run better, or any general advice on it at all?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Klaus]

One of the Skill Challenges in the adventure doesn't have a proper wrapping up (with effects of Success/Failure). You might want to add those in.

 

[S'mon]

It's one I've looked at a lot, but not run. It seems pretty strong, with good atmosphere, decent end dungeon, a strong plot, and particularly suitable as a one-off.

You might consider updating monster damage to the new 'average is L+8' standard, raise brute atts to +5 and lower soldier atts to +5.

 

[renau1g]

I've run it (modified to fit my game) but it's a great adventure (for a 4e module) that has some good interactions with NPC's, some decent enemies and a great ending. I would look to increase the size of the final encounter areas myself if I ran it again. They felt too small for 4e encounters. Also, as S'mon commented, up the damage, it's too easy without it.

*Spoilers Ahoy*

Also

Spoiler

I'd swap the Barlgura in the final encounter for an updated solo from MM3 or later. I used the Tembo myself, I love that it can shift around and has 2 sets of initiatives to help with daze/stun.

I'd also spend a lot of time playing to the PC's emotions as they continue to run across the remains of the cultists activities, describe in more detail the victims and when they do confront the cult at the end, it'll make it that much sweeter and more powerful when they find out the cultists leader.

One thing I didn't like is the skill challenge. The next stages of the adventure are already set so they're not going to fail and just be done with the quest. I'd skip it and have some RP scenarios as laid out in the adventure instead. Just adds more flavor without any of the stiff mechanics of the module.

I think that's it. Feel free to PM me if you have more questions.

 

[Fkewl]

It's a shame i just did a cleaning up last week and deleted everything but here's from memory :

I modified it quite a bit, since we where playing in FR..

A timely rescue : doubled the map by copying, mirroring, and pasting them together - put the foes on the left, and heroes entering on the right - added many bystanders in the way

village showdown : same map
changed foes to : 6 banite converts, HalfOrc Scarthane

blades in the night : same map
changed foes to : 2 doppelgangers and 4 barghest savager

Black march, white water : ditched this part (no river boat travel) - they travelled between 5-6 towns before finding a feywild crossing in a cavern (to get to the Pillars of Night)

hunter and hunted : changed map,
changed foes to : 3 young phase spiders, 9 phase spider hatchlings and 9 spiderlings

fire on the water : changed map,
changed foes to : 2 HobG Archers, 6 banite converts, HobG warcaster

the friend of my enemy (where they found my feywild crossing): changed map
changed foes to : mourning haunt (upgraded to lv4), 5 manes

Hall of warriors (hall of faith): changed location to T3 instead
changed foes to : Tajani (solo from friend of my enemy) , Level 3 Poison Trap in small firepit (expanding each round), and Level4 Demon Face trap on door (pushes them back inside the room, hard to leave)

(hall of warriors, now empty)

black cells : same map
changed foes to : Thagdal (from LFR adventure SPEC1-1, encounter 10) , spectral tendrils (all difficult terrain are tendrils) , arcance energy pools (both pools at each end)

last stand : same map
changed foes to : only 3 berserkers, no other foes

wrath of naraash : same map
changed foes to : Jaryn (same) , Naarash is now a Chained Cambion, 3 Infernal Battle Armor and Hand of Bane Lv5 hazard (Eye of Naarash)

Thematically, i think the Cambion (chained devil) is better suited than a Balgurra (brute demon).