The Shadowfel-quake was suggested by the module as a way of railroading the PCs into the Shadowfel, to make sure they continued chasing Modra. I think the encounter itself was designed assuming a party of five (with at least one person who can do radiant damage) plus the NPC, which is shitty encounter design. The 250XP/ea is about what you would have earned if you had killed everything, so it’s a wash in my book.
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I must admit that I am becoming less impressed with these modules as the adventure path goes on. “Rescue at Rivenroar” was a dungeon crawl, but it was a reasonably well done one because the dungeon was non-linear enough to afford some PC exploration.
“Siege at Bordrin’s Watch” featured horribly linear dungeons with ridiculously huge encounter areas. That the entire final dungeon could have been skipped (if I hadn’t made added the lever to make sure the party did all the encounters) was weak. Even weaker was the fact that I omitted the totally pointless skill challenge to find the second dungeon that ignored their own design advice (losing meant you had to do the whole challenge over, when challenges are supposed to present a less-optimal/more-difficult path towards the goal if you do not succeed).
I am not impressed with “The Shadow Rift of Umbraforge” so far. The way the skill challenge to find out more about the key was terrible. The challenge claimed that the PCs should have to go all over Overlook to find information, but the rumors basically followed one from another (and some were exposition meant to advance the overall plot that had nothing to do with the task at hand). It’s having NPCs randomly talk about cliff racers in
The Elder Scrolls games.
Edit: The PCs were supposed to be investigating Modra, but there was no reason for them to know about the deal between the creepers and the orcs. It’s possible I dropped the ball on divulging that information, but I don’t recall a time in the second module when I was supposed to present it.
It’s not enough for me to declare that we’re starting over again, but I really fucking hate having to retcon in the quest hooks for the new module. Especially when the body from which you find the key is suppposed to be destroyed and inaccessible.
