Looking for an elegant, low-level adventure

[Tytalus]

I've never used modules, so I can't really help you with that, but you should always be careful with "encouraging roleplay", especially if the players don't like it very much. They'll often get confused about what to do when there's nothing to kill or just plain bored, OR they might do something crazy, which might or might not ruin the whole game/plot. Do you have any experience about how your players react to roleplaying situations?

Good points; perhaps I wasn't too clear on that (updated the original post now). I think most of the players would enjoy more roleplaying, but are simply too used to modules that take them from one dungeon room with monsters/traps to the next. They do the occasional talking to NPCs, but it's mostly wooden and, without encouragement, more often just "I ask the NPC about X" than not.

- Whispers of the vampire's blade is a Horrible adventure in my experience.

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i like to take elements from them and incorporate them into my adventure. the persuasion of the pirate king in "eyes of the lich queen" might be a nice example you can use.

Noted. Thank you!

We really liked the first adventures from the War Of the Burning Sky by EN World

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It seems to me that published adventures tend to struggle with non-linear action and rewarding particular characters as a natural consequence of their scripted nature. The best I've ever seen was Freedom from the original Dark Sun which provided a general timeline and various encounters the DM could present the players with.

Thanks, I'll have a look at those.

Are you sure you need a published module here?

I'd prefer to draw on something that's been (more or less) thoroughly thought-out, as I simply don't have enough prep time on my hands to do everything myself.