First, let me say that I only had a full table (using all six of the pregenerated characters) once. Given that most of my tables were two or three people, it changes the nature of how to evoke the proper mood.
* In order to halt the PCs well outside of town, I gave each of them the opportunity to make a Complicated (14) Perception check. Someone always made it, at which point I said that their character noticed something unusual - despite being just past dusk and in the mountains (where dark falls quickly), they could not see any lights on in the town.
* One group spontaneously wondered if the village had been affected by a plague. I stole that idea and had Master Verber suggest it to the other groups.
* While the four NPCs (Master Verber, Geran, Agos, and Mernel) were helpful in the beginning of the canvas to provide verisimilitude, there are too many of them compared to the PCs, and so they do best by staying back with the mules while the PCs go in to investigate. The PCs often wanted Agos to come with them because of his brawny description, but I used that to explain why he was remaining with the caravan.
* In the smaller groups, I had Mernel go ahead with the PCs to even the numbers out. He also made a convenient target for the madman later on.
* In describing the town, which appeared much as though everyone just got up and left, I liked to use the following locations. Feel free to use and expand upon these details.
- - An guard shack, where the dice still lay on the table, but all the money has been picked up.
- A small building consisting of a cobbler's store and a smaller living area behind it. You get the sense that he is a bachelor, as the living area shows no signs of a woman's touch. Perceptive PCs (Perception 14+) will see a small trail in the dirt, leading out to the street. This is a red herring (my thought is that it is a rat snake that caused it), but it makes the mudcrawler all the more frightening when it appears later.
- The public house has two stories, making it one of the larger buildings in town (second only to the mayor's house). As with all the houses, it looks like everyone just got up and left. Behind the bar, in the kitchen, the PCs find salted hams and hard cheeses, but nothing perishable beyond crumbs. There are some daols behind the bar as well, making it hard for the PCs to decide why money would have been left behind.
- The mayor's house is richly appointed. He owns several books on a small shelf on the wall, and has a desk in one corner of the house. He even has a large glass window. PCs who look through the desk will find notes that are apparently of the town's visitors. The last entry is "Verber?" (Players who were paying attention generally remembered the introduction, where it was explained that Master Verber had missed his usual time through town).
* I used both the madman and mudcrawler in all of the adventures. Besides providing an introduction to Feondas, it showed that you didn't need supernatural evil to make for an interesting story. The madman ended up killing Mernel once: the suggestion of oil dropped down the chimney was inspired.
* Kelden's suggested portrayal (silence when captured by the PCs) didn't provide enough hooks for the players. While a silent man who was previously trying to kill you is a little creepy, it was outweighed by their frustration at having no one to talk to. It also meant that much of his characterization could only be explained at the end of the canvas, which was already full of information. Instead, I had him rant and rave at the PCs, accusing them of being Feondas wearing the skins of men and telling them that he could smell their stench (a subtle clue for what was to come with the mudcrawler). I also had him claim that he was left as bait. When he sounded sufficiently crazy, the PCs couldn't tell how much was true.
* Along similar lines, the PCs who brought the caravan back to town and had Master Verber see Kelden would have the two recognize one another. While it wasn't enough to make Kelden any more sane, it let the PCs know his role as a former fisherman, and that he had not been murderous before.
* I ruled that the mudcrawler's lack of fear towards fire was due to his oil-like secretions actually being flame-retardant. Liam's knowledge checks spotted this just before he was about to light it on fire, and appreciated the knowledge enough to begin to flee the scene.
* The mudcrawler's health was too high for most of the groups, which only had three people. I had it begin injured, but I allowed it to act twice in a round: once to attack, and once to force a PC in melee to make an Average (11) Feats roll or be knocked to the ground. A PC who was knocked to the ground could not withdraw that round and would take a -2 or -3 penalty to his next attack roll, representing the time spent standing up again.
* When a PC (usually Liam) identified the mudcrawler, I intended to have a low result also give truthful information - that mudcrawlers sometimes come in packs of four or five. Sadly, they all rolled high, and so they only learned about the paralytic poison and aqueous origins. They already knew about the teeth by that point.
* Everyone had a good time, and I highly recommend this as a one-shot to introduce people to the Shadows of Esteren.
