This isn't a bad adventure but it has a few flaws that keep it from being a good one either. Overall it's fine and it can be fun with a good DM or a group who really likes puzzles, but it's not one I'd generally recommend.

Pros: -A decent mix of combat and puzzles, with some exploration and roleplay options as well -The module has several tools the DM can use to tweak difficulties and/or assist players like NPC companions and trap adjustments. -If you have a party that likes difficult combats, the finale of this module can provide.

Cons: -The puzzles are very complicated. DMs will likely need to read through them a few times to even understand what's going on and if you have a party that isn't good at puzzles, be prepared to offer a lot of hints/accept alternate answers. -Puzzle #4 doesn't seem to offer to any way to figure out the answer beyond guessing or asking the NPCs for help. -Some of the content in the handouts doesn't match the adventure text. -There's a lot of different traps and environmental effects for the DM to keep track of. -The final fight can easily skew too hard if you have a less optimized group. -The plot is fairly cliche overall and while it does offer a hint for the next adventure, it doesn't really link up with the rest of season 7 otherwise.

I ran this in context of a post-Tomb Of Annihilation home game, with a couple of minor changes to fit our ongoing stoyline.

I can see how this would be polarizing, so although my group LOVED it, I gave it three stars. Your experience will probably vary based on how well you play the NPCs and how much prep you do; this can be somewhat demanding to run effectively, moreso to really make it shine.

Much of the roleplay will be based on two NPC companions. You are given enough information to make them charming, and they're tailor-built to be an indispensible help; but playing two colorful eccentrics with distinct personalities can be a challenge. You want to let the players largely run them, but for sake of the adventure flowing well, should avoid getting them killed. (There are contingencies if they do die, but the story will suffer.) You also get some sadly bland villagers to save (any personality is up to you) and a bad guy who is interestingly kooky and needy and insecure (which is an interesting twist on the crazy evil wizard trope). There is a neat bit where you can play something like "emotion charades" that roleplay groups will love and murderhobo wargamers will hate.

The exploration of the tower is pretty straightforward, and there are a couple of puzzles. (Crazy evil wizards love puzzles.) You are encouraged to semi-arbitrarily damage the party to maintain tension. This is going to seem brilliant to some and maddening/unfair to others. The sages provide a built-in way to drop hints, but still, if your group doesn't like puzzles, they won't like this. On the other hand, if they like puzzles, and you (like me) go all out and create physical representations and improved handouts, they could love it. Note that one puzzle (determining what language various books are likely to be in) leans on a knowledge of D&D lore; I highly suggest allowing some easy History checks or dropping hints on who House Olbadra, the Rayburtons, and Vanrak Moonstar are for parties that don't know Forgotten Realms lore.

There is a tough early combat that is meant to be avoided, with fights otherwise backloaded: one that adds some environmental difficulty, then the module concludes with a battle that can be very tricky to balance and run. As the module itself points out, "Combat at this level can vary greatly depending on party composition, etc. While the fight can be trivial to one group, it can wipe out another group all based on one saving throw." Once again, you need to bring your "A game" to run this module well, possibly adding HP or minions as appropriate for a glass canon boss that might permastun the entire party round one... or can possibly be killed by one round's worth of damage.

There is a weird little tie-in to other tier 3 post-ToA modules (see the Verse vs. Verses story award) that you will want to ignore or possibly present differently. Otherwise, it has very little to do with the storyline.

So... if you're ready to go all in on prep and have a group that likes puzzles, run this. If you don't have a lot of time for prep or your group hates puzzles, you might want to find something else.

I enjoyed this quite a bit. Some of the puzzles were a bit elusive to the players, but sometimes it's hard to tell since my group gets lost in its own conversation rather than listening to the DM (me). However, overall they enjoyed it as did I.

This was a mess.

spoilers

Overview : Guy steals a "how to be a lich" book, you need to get it back-too late he's already a lich, run away.

Tower (cool demi-plane): Enterance: guess the password, then make a check to say it even if you guess it Floor 1: Search 3/4 things for the book titles, 4th is trapped. Odds of screwing players 87.5% Floor 2 & 3: not meant to be solved until floor 4, unless you go down to floor 4 first Floor 4: It's a bad sign when even the NPC points out the flaw in the module that both the category and script must be guessed with no clues whatsover. By pure chance they should get it by the 24th or 25th attempt. Floor 3: Immortal enemies, and NPCs that may not be completely useless while party is getting pummled by life draining undead, thankfully once NPC discover nonsensical "solution" (only about 1/2 of them are actually paired correctly) then fight not so bad. Floor 2: Math puzzle which inexplicably shifts and reverses half way though for no reason (162435 vs 342615)

Floor 5: Enivironmental effect which only matter until the NPC has 1 turn to dispell it.

Floor 6: Lich that gets a surprise round to kill the players as soon as the fight starts, then gets easily overwelmed if they focus fire on him (which or course they do).

some puzzles players will strugle with but the story is enjoyable for those who work through it

The two sages that the party is escorting and protecting are not just entertaining, but can be used as a DM tool when the party gets stuck on some of the puzzles.

I much appreciated the time taken to develop the story of the human and Loxo tribes, it really helped the narrative of the story. I thought Crannaston was a well thought out character.

1 on 1 combats are an interesting change of pace. The entire party getting stuck in a set of 1 on 1 combats and unable to help others even when they finish their fight can be a problem. Combat oriented characters blast their opponent with ease, but then can do nothing but watch support characters struggle to get through. The instructions for this encounter could use some editing to make them a bit more clear, there is some ambiguity.

Psychic Scream with a DC 20 save is a great opener. However, the DM should be careful using this because it's stun effect doesn't go away until a character passes the save. That means that not only is it possible to lock players out of the entire final fight (which isn't that much fun for them), if a character has a negative int score, they can never save.

A good, solid T3 entry. It's fun, witty, and entertaining -- but could use a massive editorial pass.

The Good:

The back-and-forth bickering of the party's two sage allies provides a comedic backdrop as needed (I kept turning the 'like an old married couple' into 'these guys are in a relationship' and the parties loved it), while their absent-minded professorism keeps the party on edge. The characterization of the lich had people laughing and enjoying themselves at his expense.

The mod's author actually pays attention to the general structure of a 5E adventuring day, with a series of encounters, rather than trying to throw one or two mega encounters at players. He also includes built-in short rests to help nudge the short-rest characters into line.

The Bad:

1 on 1 combats can be fun. The entire party getting stuck in a set of 1 on 1 combats, not so much. I saw combat oriented characters blast their opponent with ease, while social, support, and similar characters struggled to stay alive. That section could also use an editorial pass to clear up it's instructions, I'm still not sure if I quite ran it 'right'.

As for the Bibliomancer, I had to use the sages to shortcut this 'puzzle' -- because the answer wasn't included. If you're gonna include a puzzle, give the DM the answer. This entire section could do with a rewrite, to help clarify things. (What 'flaw' did the bibliomancer have? The sages agree there is one mentioned in the previous section, but there's no flaw mentioned there!)

The Ugly:

Psycic Scream with a DC 20 save is a GREAT opener. Unfortunately for us, it's stun effect doesn't go away until a character passes the save. That means that not only is it possible to lock players out of the entire final fight (which isn't that much fun for them), if a character has a negative int score (say, barbarian?), they can never save. Never, ever, ever. Evena nat 20 doesn't save them, since you can't 'crit' a saving throw. We had people walk away with permanently stunned characters that we had to handwave away and let the locals heal in the healing room.

A good T3, with a fun concept and interesting tower mechanics, but not a 4 hour module. When it say that it's not an adventure that can be run with little prep, it's not kidding. The inter-related complex puzzles are interesting and a nice break from the normal slog of combat, but the puzzles are genuinely puzzles for the players, not the PCs. Especially when half the group isn't great at solving puzzles, it quickly turns into two people sitting there and solving it while the others sit on their phones for a while, and there's no way for the PCs to help out as PCs, which isn't fantastic writing. It took about 9 hours to run at a relaxed pace, so be prepared to streamline things. I'd also say that only during the corrupted emotions bit the players should control the sages; I had a hard time with them trying to manage multiple people and not just having them be "escort mission" as if I were controlling them anyway. The lich's modification makes for a great surprise for the party, who never expect that. Solid adventure overall, just watch the pacing, and be prepared to handwave puzzle solutions if they get too bogged down in it.

One of my favorite T3s. Puzzles were fun and challenging for the players without being too hard though I would say that there was maybe 1 puzzle too much to fit it all in a 4h timeslot. The combats were challenging and allowed me to present some really clutch moments for the players. The tower buffs made for an interesting mechanic and the ever-present and alwys watching boss made for a great environment.
Overall a fantastic adventure, but it can be a bit hard to do everything in 4 hours.

This was a great module in the vein of classic random dungeon crawls. The variety of encounters kept my players at the edge of their seat. They were thoroughly unique and I really appreciated the one where they were attached to parts of the wizard's soul. Also, the combat at the end kept them on their toes. Everyone had fun. 5/5

Great puzzles, but easy combat, even using very strong modifiers.

The module contains a good mix of combat, RP opportunities, and puzzles. The puzzles provide a good alternative challenge for parties that normally roll through combat challenges without much difficulty. One criticism I have is that the part with the "corrupted emotions" is confusing to run. The module says that this segment doesn't require initiative, but surely when you've banished a corrupted emotion from one party member, the rest of the party can attack it in initiative order? I've run this part differently the two times I DMed this module, and it was always confusing for both me and the players.The final boss of this module is a fantastic challenge, though. The lich is slightly frail in terms of HP, but a force to be reckoned with. If you play him smart (which you should, he's a lich) you could have a majority of the party both stunned and paralyzed.

Good: Roleplaying Opportunities Bad: Puzzle Difficulty DM Tips: Review Puzzles thoroughly and be prepared to hand wave if party has difficulties with it all.

I loved the final boss of this adventure. The puzzles were very difficult to translate to an online game but other than that this was probably one of the better tier 3 modules this season a major step up from DDAL07-12.

The puzzles are okay, but pale compaired to the previous dungeon. The final boss is quite hard if played well. My players appreciated the challenge.

Spoilers: Liches can see through the Cloud Kill, are immune to it, and he knows you are coming. My players teleported into a Cloudkill he cast near himself that was creeping across the room, and was over the teleportation circle.