Madness allows for some fun RP. I must say that the first two parts just seem random.
"Love Nest" has the makings of a nature documentary all over it. I'm tempted to run it as such. In part two, one would hope that there are Enclave members in the party, because a madness-inflicted treant encounter is a lot more interesting than some hill giants. I do like the chance for some political plotting with the Drow.

The tree is the meat of the adventure. Chances of falling, various monsters, and a ghost with an oath. The map of the tree is huge, allowing for plenty of exploration (and for a session to run long). It is odd that no matter what the adventurers do at the end, it is considered a success.

Overall, it is a decent adventure.

The mod is a great adventure, giving the ranger class some time in the spotlight. While the boss battle was pretty ok written, the mod could have been improved to include other elements in the cathedral.

HELLO ADVENTURERS!! Herald of the Moon is a great ride! I've played it as a player multiple times and enjoyed running it very much! A familiar face makes a call for help to save the soul of a heroic ancestor. The journey takes players deep into Starwood of Cormanthor. Restless souls linger in the wake of the assult by the Netherese. Factiion missions are plentiful as the woods surround. Beware madness and growing exhaustion as day fades to night. Come to the aid of the dark under the darkenss of 300+ foot tall trees! Ascend the trunks to an ancient temple where a brave soul may be put to rest. If your party is strong enough.... Wonderful rewards await! ALL THE ADVENTURE!!!!

I had a lot of fun with this module, the setting just oozes out of it from the very beginning. Beyond having a great story (and sort of a personal quest for a long running NPC the party might have dealt with quite a lot), there's just a lot of good stuff here. My favorite bit is the Emerald Enclave secret mission - its a hillarious oppertunity to roleplay a treant with delusions of grandure. The only downside is how long it runs - possibly with practice I could make it faster, but this way overran our schedule and we didn't even have a harper in the party (and therefor skipped an entire section).

If you want to run this and do it justice, plan a long session or plan to play it over a few sessions. Its definitely worth it.

Recently Rand HotM for a group of 6 and both myself and the players seemed to enjoy it quite a bit. Took us a couple extra hours to get through, but not a lot of complaint there.

Pros: -Encounters were creative and interesting. Monsters / abilities used were unusual to encounter in a lot of cases and allowed for a bit of fun chaos to occur. -Pretty straightforward without a lot of random meandering or overly open ended points to encounter.

Cons: -Some definite grammar issues at times that makes you stumble reading the text blocks. -Some instances/encounters aren't as clearly defined as I'd have liked, such as with the drow group where the party made every check to calm everyone appropriate but without a "keyword" trigger the main threat was still active and had to attack.

I like modules with time crunches that still allow optional resting. This module can be heavy with flavor if the DM makes sure to include the lore of the place in their descriptions and let people explore the rooms. The drow encounter is always interesting and no two groups approach if the same way.

A word of caution though: at this level, players do have options to just skip to the end door, and I've seen groups do that it several times. They miss out on a whole lot. You've also got to spell out what exactly they need to do and make sure they're paying attention.

Herald of the Moon is an excellent adventure, giving the rangers of your party their time to shine. It has a wonderful set-piece boss battle with a spectral archer in a treetop cathedral though the location depicted in chapter 4 feels somewhat wasted, with most of it being empty rooms with little to interact with.

Far and away my favorite DMs Guild Adventure! The story is fantastic, sad, noble, and heroic. The role of the characters is fitting with their roles as heroes. The scene in the woods before the main set of encounters is fun but a little sad. Any adventure that can evoke emotion is good, this one does it with panache.

Great MOD and reward, perfect for that ELF in your party

Pretty good module - the stress of speed is great. The actual effects of taking too much time could be more straightforward.

The Good:

• The final encounter felt like PvP. It was fun.
• The timed aspect is beautiful.
• The encounters have a very decent variety.

The Bad:

• Most encounters are skippable.
• The last location/dungeon is a bit uninteresting

The Recommendation:

• Run Occupation of Szith Morcane first.
• Run it with parties who have members who played in your Occupation of Szith Morcane. It would change the dynamics of a certain encounter so beautifully.

Recommend Purchase: Yes. XP Range: 4,500-6,000 Note: WotC/DDAL doesn't do ANY cleanup or editing, even when blatant errors are pointed out.

I recommend downloading the State of Hillsfar document and reading that before running any Season 3 module.

Why is Hillsfar a relevant setting at this time? Walls and refugees. The Great Law of Humanity: Only humans are allowed within Hillsfar. The Great Law of Trade: Do not interfere with any legitimate trade.

Does Hilsfar have anything to do with the Season 3 Hardcover - Out of the Abyss? Not really.

+++++++++++++++++++ Note: No Season 1, 2, or 3 module has a digital certificate to print because WotC says they can't accept volunteer help for legal reasons and won't allow their paid employees to create the certificates even though they have the templates.

The DMSGUILD site segregates reviews between people who've purchased it here and everyone else. They do NOT have a robust rating system, relying instead on the 5-star model.

Herald of the moon took us 6 hours due to the many possibilities and long exploration in chapter 3. There are many fights that take a lot out of the party during their journey, intending to make the boss fight harder due to the lack of resources.

The exploration in chapters 1,2 gave the characters time to show their benevolent side and RP really well. The concern is that the boss fight at the end isn’t appropriately scaled due to the fact that the characters are expected to be whittled down by then.

Also a technical concern is: I feel that there is no significant detriment to the adventure if you let the shade coin run out.

Herald of the Moon was really fun. I wish more 'time sensitive' mods would utilize features like the checklist on this mod. That was an easy 'time' element to keep track of. One issue I have with the older mods is that when they say 4 hour mod, its usually longer. There were parts that I had to rush the party through, as we were under a strict 4 hour time constraint. Other than that, the combat was fun, there was alot of roleplay opportunities, and it includes secret missions, which my party really wanted. It was a lot of fun to run, even though it was rushed towards the end.

Herald of the Moon is a decent adventure, it can be ran anytime during the Rage of Demons story line. The first part introduces the character to the situation and gives them a chance to talk to the NPC and do a bit of roleplay. The second part includes the travelling to get to the location they need to be, they have to pass through a forest that contains danger and encounters. The last part has the characters arrive at their location and begin the whole dungeon crawling thing to achieve their goal. It has a bit of surprises but the combat is not that challenging if the characters play smart and are familiar with combat. This adventure can be considered a short side story in the Rage of Demons story line and it doesn't really affect the entire story so it can be ran and played anytime quite easily. The only thing that connects this to the Rage of Demons story line is the notable locations that the characters are in or will go through.