This module is has multiple moving parts to it which create a fantastic experience, but they do require extra prep on the part of the DM to really pull off a fun time. If you have players who aren't super comfortable with Role-playing it may be hard to properly demonstrate the posession mechanic but for those who love role play this module is a chance to shine. I actually found this was an easier mod to run online with a VTT because it's easier to hide when you share the specifics of posession.

My favorite adventure from season 4. It was great to see my players realize that they were actually in a game of Clue. I'm planning on having my players run some of the Curse of Strahd hardback after we finish the AL modules so I added a little bit about the carriage ride from Orisanau thru Barovia and Valachi to the Amber Temple to foreshadow what the characters will encounter later. That added a little time and I ended up kind of railroading them thru the role playing in each of the rooms with the ghosts and eliminated all but one of the random encounters to run on time (and this is a 4 hour module) so you may want to give yourself more time. You'll want to print the module single sided a least for the info cards for each of the ghosts. I think it's worth deciding how Keletifold was killed ahead of time but not necessarily chosing which vestige was the killer until the characters start encountering the ghosts. That way you can pretty much ensure that a character is imbued with the murderer. You should make clear to your players that even though the wizards are undead, they have bodies. But the bodies disappear when they imbue a character with their spirit. The fight with the Burgomaster was a surprise for the players and was very satisfying and his villain speach wrapped up some loose ends.

Clue: The D&D Adventure. There's a lot of information that the both the PCs and the DM need to keep track of, and this can get pretty confusing, especially if you have a group that isn't into murder mystery style puzzles. Some groups may like it, others probably won't. My group had a couple players who really liked it, but the rest of them players were either bored or confused.

Do you like Clue? Because I love Clue with ghosts and murdering-erness. This is the best module from season 4 hands down! Its worth the mists, dive in and enjoy! -DM Ace

Easily the best season 4 module. The murder mystery is an absolutely amazing twist on what the players are expecting in a dungeon crawl, and the revelation of the Burgomeister at the end is a nice twist back to combat. A couple of players veered off the path in the beginning, and I thought the magic missile only wouldn't deter them enough, so the arcanaloth used finger of death, which was a far better deterrent. Especially due to the combat-light nature of this module, I felt like that was perfectly fair to do, and the players didn't see it as unfair. The roleplaying cards for the ghosts are grainy and hard to read, so if you have time, I suggest typing those up separately and handing out yours, just to make everyone's lives easier in the end. Easily one of my favorite modules to run, highly reccomended.

The fact that this was literally Clue, but in a module AND the results can change depending on which ghost ended up being the murderer was fantastic. I think the disintegrate at the beginning was brutal, but overall this was another fantastic module to play and run. My players enjoyed the story elements, and once again, the final battle was incredibly challenging. I think the lair actions were especially interesting. Overall, a great module.

If you're only going to run one module from Season 4, make it this one. It is AMAZING!

Recommend Purchase: Yes....Yes Yes YES! XP Range: 3,000-4,000

The overall story woven between all fourteen modules is called 'Misty Fortunes and Absent Hearts' and is relatively strong overall, but suffers for a couple reasons. The final module probably wasn't written at the time the first was released, so they couldn't or didn't want to spill some of the meta information that DMs would have LOVED to have. In the early modules things would occur 'deus ex machina' and even the DM wouldn't have a clue as to why.

If you're planning on running these, i HIGHLY recommend buying the bundle, reading the DDAL04-14 (The Dark Lord) Adventure Overview on pages 7-8 to see where everthing is heading ... and then reading each module's Overview in turn before running everything. This will help you greatly.

If you start with the first module you'll have enough XP to level up, stay within the module tiers and make it all the way to the 14th module. Afterwards you could always play a few chapters of the Curse of Strahd Harcover and then leave Barovia behind.

Before running any Season 4 module, you should download the following content:

• dndadventurersleague.org/barexit-escaping-the-mists-of-barovia/
• dndadventurersleague.org/curse-of-strahd-backgrounds/
• DMSGUILD: DDAL04 Expanded Dark Gifts Table [OPTIONAL CONTENT]

Season 4 initially couldn't leave the Demiplane of Dread until the very end, but the Admins later introduced the 'Barexit' mechanic.

I love this module! The clue game, the final boss, the roleplaying, everything I think is really well done. The only thing is that it's quite a bit of stuff with only four hours to do them all. I think that it didn't need the zombie beholder fight and the clue game could've been run for three hours and then finally concluding with a very difficult (but still fun) boss fight.

This adventure takes a number of risks and pulls most of them off -- it starts out looking like a traditional dungeon crawl, for instance, complete with a very controversial encounter with a creature capable of removing PCs from the campaign permanently, then quickly shifts gears into a murder mystery before concluding with the traditional big fight.

The problem with the adventure is that the reasons why the adventurers are here don't make any sense -- why would the campaign's villain order her catspaw to bring the PCs here where they can recover the only thing capable of defeating her plan? Or if, conversely, the catspaw brought the PCs here of his own accord to try to gain leverage over his mistress, why attack the PCs rather than simply claim the object and quietly return to Orasnou? These flaws provide a jarring counterpoint to an otherwise interesting adventure, and make the adventure less interesting in retrospect than it will be during play. It's still worth playing, just be ready to deal with disappointment if your players have more than a minimal interest in the overall plot of Season Four.

This adventure is like Ravenloft Clue. I really enjoyed it, but maybe I missed something, it wasn't clear how to get the adventurers to get interested in the murder, or why they should care to figure it out. They can just sort of stumble thru it.

I feel as if this adventure would have been better done elsewhere in Barovia, with the same dramatis personae!, by having less conflict with the player's interest in exploring the Amber Temple.

Great module if you can take the time to play it out completely. It does suffer a bit when you run it at a convention because of time pressures. The replayability of the mod is one of its greatest strengths.

The Artifact is a short and fun adventure, basically it is like Cluedo but simplified. The roleplay and investigation in this adventure is good. Not much combat except for a few encounters and the last part which can be expected. At the start I already knew what was gonna happen in the end but the whole bulk of the adventure is the Cluedo game that tells the storyof what happened at the temple. I find this adventure to be good in terms of roleplay and mystery investigation. I recommend this adventure for players that are more into roleplay than combat.

It's basically Ravenloft Clue. With a minor fight at the end. Also a very avoidably enemy at the start that will straight up TPK any party stupid enough to fight it. But the bulk of this module is a game of Clue. If I wanted to play Clue I would play Clue.