New to Forums new to 2e, 5e convert!
My group of 5-7 are having a blast with Hellknight Hill as we enter the second month of the campaign. Last week they narrowly avoided a TPK in the north wing of the Altaerien vaults, and loved every minute of it. We're playing in Fantasy Grounds.
Some things I'm doing differently:
I didn't like the layout for Citadel Altaerien so I made my own in Dungeon painter. I'll see if I can share them here. Ended up being 4 levels in total, a little more castle-y, with generally larger rooms and few more rooms than the book has. Mostly same encounters though some might be in some different places. Overall worked pretty well.
Instead of the Bumblebrashers telling the party the secret passage to the Vaults, I hid the entrance in the castle for the players to find. Thanks to a hidden door the Bumblebrasher's don't know the way. Took them about 10 minutes, makes for a good simple puzzle. I added a small map extending the passage that begins the vaults to make it architecturally consistent with the rest of the citadel.
The stairs in the Vaults didn't suit the new citadel design and I wanted the Bumblebrashers to be totally ignorant of area D. So the destroyed stairs only lead down and had been hidden behind a stone wall, the work of the hellknights.
I like Alak as a character but found him to be an unbalancing force for the party, especially at first level. I had him meet the characters on the way up to the citadel. I made it so the only thing he was retrieving was the letter, which was found along with the deed in a hidden part of the Lictor's desk. The party took a break from the crawl to see to the deed in town, and so he says his goodbyes then.
In general I've been beefing up the encounters a little bit, especially when I'm concerned the larger number of players scuttles the action economy. The Grauladon was the only one to really disappoint me, didn't last long enough into the second round to use its body slam ability, if I recall this was the result of OP Alak rolling too well.
Looking forward to what comes next now that we're at the half way point of this book!