I therefore gathered a group of 5 people, 2 newbies, a Pathfinder player who was willing to learn 4e, and 2 4e player who never ran any pre-published modules, and decided to run "Keep on the Shadowfell".
I knew I should have run "Slaying Stone"...
We tried to do make a semi-balanced party of 2 strikers, 1 defender, 1 leader as 1 controller.
The cast of characters are:
Puck, the neurotic gnome control frost Mage.
Lucius, the undead hunting, human Paladin of Pelor.
Van Axehand, the former captain of the guard Dwarven warlord.
Kalixtra, the Tiefling, demon hunting, warlock.
Ip Yen, the Wing Chun monk (Ip Man played by Donnie Yen), and best friends with Van.
The players came up with really cool back stories for everyone, and I was really impressed with their creativity and desire to tie their PC's into the Nentir Vale.
I start the game, there is some banter, the quests are to find the missing Douven Staul and to investigate the Keep, and I run the first encounter, deciding to do it vanilla, as written.
That was a mistake.
The first encounter is an ambush on the way to the small outpost town of Winterhaven, and involves Kobold slingers, minions and a kobold dragonshield.
First of all, the encounter took about an hour and not just because of players unsure of what to do. Secondly, Puck decided to miss every single attack he made, so we had no one to wipe up the minions which led to the party taking increased damage. Lastly, the slingers always hit because the party has high AC but the slingers were +6 vs reflex, which for everyone is garbage.
Not to mention the fact that it took entirely too long to bring down the non minions.
However, everyone seemed to have a good time and no one dropped to 0 hp (though there were some scares) and the group made it to Winterhaven where they rented 3 rooms in the tenements and had their first rp experience.
Puck awkwardly tried to hit on two young girls which, being a 60 year old gnome, didn't work out too well but Lucius valiantly tried to wingman for him which ended poorly after learning that the girls were already betrothed and Lucius refused to pursue further. Then Ip Yen tried to teach Van and another patron drunken monkey style, but they were so drunk that they screwed up. The patron they were drinking with let slip that he remembered Douven Staul and had warned him of strange sightings of dark beasts at night in the surrounding farmland.
Lucius and Kalixtra meet the the leader of Winterhaven, whose name I apparently decided not to write down in my notes, who heard of a group of tough looking adventurers arriving in town. Lucius' high charisma and his rank as a paladin impresses the Winterhaven regent and he divulges some info:
1. He met with Douven Staul and has a map of his planned excursion. He agrees to hand it over.
2. He fears increased activity around the old keep and the recent kobold attacks leads him to believe something is going on. "Something is spooking them." He said. He thinks he knows where their main lair is and offers a quest to clear them out.
3. Trade merchants from Fallcrest were bring rumors of death cults in Winterhaven. The garrison guard fully investigated claims but found no evidence whatsoever of cults in the area.
They all go to sleep, ready to strike out the next day, and there we end session 1.
