Note: it does not come with a cert file (asked in discussion tab). Fun game - opportunity to let players be creative at the start. I'm not sure how the golums would ever come into play, unless the party is REALLY slow at the Waydown (the group I ran spent literally one round there before featherfalling down).

One of my favorite mods. The performance is classic and, for me, their creativity was rewarded an a lot of Chr(Performance) checks with advantage. Don't forget that the players know where their wagon is stored. The only problem is that it runs long. The second time I ran it, I used KT Whip offensive stats but run-of-the-mill KT hit points (17). Don't forget that the Arch-Priests have Flame Strike (8d6 damage!). Also, if Toad helps the party, have him grapple one of the twins or else they fly overhead and snipe him to death. I haven't seen Cole Kronewitter write any other mods. Is he lost in the Underdark?

I quite enjoyed DM'ing this adventure. For most of the session, I was watched by a friend who had to write a report on a certain activity (he had chosen D&D, and I had invited him to watch my game), so I made very good use of the interesting roleplay parts of this adventure to give everyone a good time. My favourite part was probably to find a performer role for all characters present. For example, a paladin with a Belt of Fire Giant Strength was Da Strong Russian Man ! They were certainly a nice attraction for the Red Plumes. It was quite fun, during the sneak-around part, to have that one particular Red Plume just following them around like a true groupie. Going down the river was perhaps trivialized by a Water Walk casting, but still interesting with the mystieries of finding the lost faction agent's tracks. I was happy that my characters took time to discuss with the big frog, so that they would have an ally in the end fight. Said fight ended when the big frog crushed the succubuses under his fat belly, then started eating them. Overall, a nice adventure, with nice roleplay incensitves.

Needs a little more dicribtion at the beginning and a better HOOK but still a great MOD

This adventure initially places a different challenge on the players than they are used to. It also relies on players to use a stat they don't normally use, unless it is a class requirement. I really enjoyed listening to the players come up with solutions to problems and performances and stepping out side of their comfort zone. After the intial play the characters get to do what they are used to.

Decent enough - however, the first portion feels very disconnected from the rest. And some of the encounters drag on with monsters with quite a bit of HP but not really much of a threat.

This adventure is great fun. There's a bunch of roleplaying heavy stuff at the beginning (the PCs have to infiltrate an armed camp disguised as circus performers in order to secure access to the passage into the underdark) that has huge potential for hilarious fun (ask me about the orcish bard and his druid wildshaped into a giant ape friend's physical comedy sometime), followed up by some interesting enough combat encounters once you actually make it underground. I've played this three times (once as a DM) and the one thing I really noticed is that it plays out pretty different for a higher level party than it did for a lower level one. The presence of 4th level spells really switches things up in some cases here (Banishment in particular), so DMs should be prepared for what the party can actually do.

The venture was exciting and thrilling, enough for PCs to feel the gap between T1 and T2 ventures. The encounters were no pushovers and the rewards and exp were great. Non-recurring NPCs aren't bland and they played nicely into the theme S3. My only issue with the venture itself was the typo errors that reccurs on the venture sheet. I can only assume that a third map was removed from the pdf when it was revised and the content in part 3 were not. Some of the numbering in the venture sheet were wrong numbers. Otherwise, good venture to try.

Recommend Purchase: Yes. XP Range: 4,500-7,500 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.

The main problem is that the adventure is a series of encounters/things that happen, and not a story. There isn't a central conflict: it's just "some things that happened on the way to the underdark"

The best bit is the 1st sequence: "Party should get past the gatehouse full of guards, somehow". But don't do it the "official" way unless you're a party of nothing but cha/dex scoundrels of some type ... otherwise the charisma check DCs are too high. Don't do it the murder-hobo way unless you WANT to run long, because 40 v. 7 is just going to take a really really long time, even if you can win (and the right party can, easily. The wrong party will struggle). The freedom is excellent, but the adventure doesn't help the DM understand the conflicts, and doesn't help the party find various approaches that would work.

After that, it's a railroad of encounters, none of which seem to have much significance, but many of which will be long and/or hard. Until the end, when there's a scripted way of making the last combat a bit easier, but my group was too tired at that point to think anymore.

Really, the 1st part could have been expanded slightly into a 4 hour mod (investigate the leadership of the gate-house, RP heavy. Thematically focusing on the Hillspar local political issues) and in XP budget with only minor re-giggering. And the 2nd part could be a separate adventure (again, expanded a bit) focusing on the demons-in-the-underdark storyline. Jammed into one module, it loses the ability to focus on either story, and gains nothing by combining them.

A fine adventure that has fun role play opertunitys, great sneaking and a fine dungean combat.

This module is somewhat of a rarity for Adventurers League modules in that it intentionally includes a significant amount of roleplay opportunities in the first section. In addition, it rewards creative thinking and provides for XP awards for activities other than just killing monsters.

The module includes two potential secret missions (OOG and LA). The recommended time allotments are pretty tight even without the secret missions, so it might be somewhat problematic to complete in a four-hour convention slot if you have faction appropriate characters for the secret missions. As another reviewer mentioned, the trip down the river in the middle section seemed to take an unnecessary amount of time, but the final encounters once the party reaches the shrine in the Underdark is much more exciting (for players and DM). The final encounters once again allow for RP opportunities and even the potential to convert one of the monsters to the party's side -- at least for a time.

Overall, a very enjoyable module.

Overall, this was a fun module. The beginning of the adventure, which involves infiltrating a Red Plumes base with Felratha's Merry Minstrels was a lot of fun for the PCs to create costumed personas for their characters and also show off their character's talents. At the same time, this part of the adventure allowed the PCs to engage in a lot of roleplay, subterfuge through the halls, and swashbucklery combat in the Red Plumes' dining hall. The encounters for navigating the Waydown River seemed to go on longer than it needed to, especially if the party has no multi-target spells (which is still tricky since there is the risk of nuking your own boats in this part). The final part with the kuo-toa shrine gets things exciting again, with some memorable combat encounters amongst Underdark occult ambience. If the PCs like to RP more, they might even get an unlikely "friend" to help them in the final encounter.

Sneak through, Deceive, or kick in the doors and murder-hobo all the way. This module gives a party so many options. How do you want to do this?

I really liked the variety of things offered in this module: combat, roleplay, and the opportunity for the PC's to think their way through challenges.

The one VERY disconcerting thing in this module, and knowing it is an old module I am aware this will probably not be corrected, is the references in the module for locations that were not there. For example, and this happens MANY times in the module, the module reads: "If the characters are able to win Toad over, he leads them to Area 18".

THERE IS NO AREA 18!

Even with ample prep, I still stumbled over those once or twice during our game. Completely paused the flow of the story as I tried to work out what area was actually being referenced on the map and in the story.

However... that one issue does not stop me from liking this module.