The Shadow Rift of the Umbraforge 1 of 3

Im going to separate out this module into three reviews. This first one Im going to talk about the setup of the module. Shadow Rift of the Umbraforge (dungeon issue #158 September 2008)starts out where the last module left off. The heroes have successfully defeated the orc threat and receive their rewards from the grateful dwarves. The main plot of this adventure hinges on a key that the players discovered in issue 157. The key, unknown to them, is a portal device to a gateway to the shadow fell in the city of overlook. The story behind this is that there is a shady arms dealer named Sarshan that got double crossed by one of his minions to the orcs and now the adventurers are hot on his trail. Im not going to get into specific encounters on this post because the majority of the beginning of the module was role-playing focused with a skill challenge. I really like the skill challenges in 4th and I hope to run them better in future. During the skill challenge by strong arming, bribing, and cavorting info about this arms dealer the players eventually end up at a run down mission of pelor that feeds the poor. The mission is honest but the activities that go on under it in caves that exist below aren't. That's the start of the module, next post Ill get into the meat of this one.