I've run this once, and I have to say it's a fun romp, especially if you like irresistable damage types - which I love. Damage is wonderful.

Act 1 has some investigation and RP elements, all of which can be very fun to DM, at least for me. One thing I really like that the author did is acknowledge that T4 characters can do The Thing in a variety of ways or friends that can help Do The Thing. That's one thing that some authors haven't twigged to yet - if they're T4, they should know what they're doing, and authors should give the DM the leeway to be creative and on the fly to do The Thing. Some players get caught up and get choice paralysis or they're so min/maxed they have literally no way to make that Investigation check. Don't let them flail about like it's a T1 mod, let the heroes roll some dice and figure it out and keep things moving. If improv isn't your thing, you might not enjoy that.

Act 2 is also an interesting mixture of a light combat and RP element. One thing I recommend is that you have to make the players realize where they are. Planescape and the Outer Planes have things that can squash you, and not just by DM fiat. Bullying their way around in the plane in this adventure should have some consequences.

Act 3 is a pretty cool set piece, and while the final combat encounter can be robust, T4 Players that I play with have uber gear and stuff that can trivialize the encounter. Make your adjustments accordingly and fight the cool super monster and have fun with it. At this level, combat takes long enough, and I wouldn't recommend trying to make this combat more complex in an attempt to 'challenge' your uber table.

Finally, the magic item makes this adventure totally worth it. Highly recommend. Good work, Andrew.

I knew running this mod was the right decision when I saw a player physically shiver from the narrative.

Very creepy adventure - there are some areas where the conditions are kind of hard to figure out (the final area is difficult to suss out what 'should' happen). This is kind of important when running the adventure where time is a factor. Also I feel some areas slowed down the party unncessarily. I will be running it two more times, and try to do better as far as moving things along. If time is not a factor, let the party wander and learn more about the environment.

There is a lot to like in this mod, very creepy and atmospheric, and very deadly.

Hands down, one of the best fights in AL.

As others have said, excellent capstone to Tier 2. Season 5 is my favorite season, and its mods like this that made it so.

Caution - this is a killer mod, and your players will take casualties, but they will never forget this fight.

Fantastic mod.

I highly recommend using the frozen lake encounter, and enforcing Cold Weather rules. When the lake breaks open for the mobs to come out, I had three of them plunge inside the frozen lake. When they came out, since they were wearing the cold weather clothing and it was drenched with ice cold water, I had them making CON saves every turn to avoid Exhaustion. It turned what could have been a pretty rote fight into life and death for my players, and I guarentee that they will remember that fight for a long, long time.

However, this can easily run over the allotted time, so be careful!

I just ran this for a highly optimized group of DMs and authors. The combat encounters, even at Very Strong, are too weak for really well put together party. However, combat in this module is pretty incidental, even largely unnecessary. The setting, scenery, and story is what makes this mod work.

I recommend you get a Tarokka deck.

All in all, I feel that it is a good module, great setting and NPCs, but combat is lacking. If you have a super high powerful party, they will run over the encounters, but eh, it happens.

It also runs pretty quickly, well below a 4 hour runtime if the party gets the puzzle right.

Fun module, can be an excellent exposition dump for players not hip to the giant pantheon. Good mix of puzzles, traps, and different mobs to spruce things up. Use wild magic areas. Know the history of the giant pantheon to give some backstory.

The final boss is excellent, with two pages of horrible things to do to your players. Don't be afraid to cut loose and control the battle field. If you just run your mob against the barbarian and rogue, it will be chipped away quickly. Move it around. Activate runes. Use the Slow ability. Make it memorable, not just another stack of hit points.

One player commented as the final mob was smushing them remarked 'Jeez, go easy on us'. I responded with 'I never recall a player saying, hey, you know what, I want a challenge, don't count the Sneak Attack damage'. Make them earn this victory, and odds are they will survive by the skin of their teeth.

Choose your encounters before you want to run this, and make sure you keep it focused. Time can be a constraint in some play settings, such as a store.

Very good mix of the three pillars of play, and characters who pick up on the clues can have a very satisfying role playing resolution, leading to the final combat. Also, completely bad-ass item for Tier 2 characters, which can be essential for playing in Hartkiller's Horn!

Great mod, played it last year, DM'd it tonight.

Fairly straight forward, 1 combat encounter, 1 environmental encounter. Pressing the players for time is essential, but if they wanna take a long rest, let them, it just means more dwarves are killed. For the combat encounter, I had an barely average party take on a remorhaz. Welcome to Tier 2! With this mod, I feel you can throw an extra potent mob at the players, and use up resources because combat in the final, plot driven encounter should be discouraged.

The rescue encounter can be solved very easily with a druid/ranger spell (which, when I played, our druid got off first thing, and the infiltration was a cake walk) but when I DMd it, the PC druid did not have it memorized. They elected to go up, climb down, and infiltrate. They then got locked into some frivleous plans about distracting the horde of ogres, and one PC was bound and determined to cause a distraction, and then wanted to run through the camp while thunderwaving everything. That cheapens the threat, turns the danger of an armed camp full of lethal foes into a joke. I don't recommend that you, as a DM, allow that to happen without serious repercussions.

Part of this problem, I think, is that the players can spool the plan out into complete absurdity, like trying to use Prestidigitation to try and distract an entire camp of bloodthirsty ogres laying siege to a place, because they don't have a better idea. It also wastes a significant amount of time while the players spin their wheels. Use the NPC dwarves to point out some logical flaws. If you are pressed for time in the AL environment, try to encourage them to find a solution that will A) not waste any further time, and B) not lead them to their obvious and inevitable deaths. Combat is probably the worst option and if you have players bent on having combat with the ogre forces, you should pulverize them. Ice Spire Ogres are very potent, and there should be little to no chance of success against the entire camp.

Tier 2 for Storm King's Thunder is fantastic, with some really scary monsters for players to fight. It's my favorite season, and this module sets the tone for things to come. Highly recommended, but be prepared to put the hammer down.

My players did not respond to some of the shrine puzzles, and my combat hungry AL table seemed to suffer their way through the traps. I admit, I was burned out from running both Season 7 Epics a few days before, but I had a fun time frustrating my players as they tried to brute force their way through the tower. Finally they got savvy, but it seemed like a slog for everyone concerned.

My copy had a few errors in the text, but for the most part, this was a quick adventure, and a departure from the murderhobo-happy AL way.

A simple, straight forward exploration adventure with a tough fight at the end. It has very little set-up, just grab it and go. Great opportunity for a creative DM to have fun with NPCs. Great to run on short notice, just classic D&D.

I almost had the party TPK themselves trying to save one of their comrades unconscious in the razorvine at the final encounter, while the razorvine bush was on fire, so that was fun! But everyone was standing up, nervous, excited, so that was all the more gratifying.

Ran this for a table with 7 people, 4 of them newbies to D&D.

Lots of opportunities to use voices, if that's your thing. Good dialogue, simple low stakes mission that can turn very rough if you have a low level party.

To get this under 2 hours, I had the sprite encounter turn out favorably with a good Persuasion roll, and then let them have it with the hunt and gnoll encounters.

Final encounter was very challenging for them (especially since they were depleted, resource wise), but they had an excellent time with enough room for everyone to participate.

Had a good time DMing this, and I recommend it for new DMs and players.

4/5 Mission 1 is perfectly serviceable. Mission 2 is very fun to run. Mission 3 is cool, but the pool encounter can be a problem if you have a grung PC. Mission 4 is very cool, nice puzzles. Nifty battle at the end. Mission 5 is an excellent boss fight for low level characters.

Easy to run, interesting locale, and a good mix of combat, ability and skill challenges. I played through this with the authors, and had a great time and it taught me how to run it. So when I had to run it with no preparation, I was able to quickly and easily run the adventure and give the players a good time. Part of that is due to the layout of the adventure.

Ran this at Andocon 2018, and the players loved the first mission. Mission 4 was the first one they chose, and the fear and trepidation that first time players had at crossing the lava and interacting with the sign was very fun, and the players found the magmins very challenging. Mission 5 is a great excuse to bust out a massive giant miniature - one player lost her calm and began panicking. All in all, great for new players and convention tables. This adventure also allows for the DM to really play some interesting roles - the storm giant, the hill giant, and the goblins. All in all, a great introductory adventure. Veteran players will likely be jaded but new players seemed to really enjoy it.

This adventure, which I plan on adapting to the Forgotten Realms (by substituting locations) is very evocative of Conan stories and my all-time favorite, Savage Sword of Conan. The adventure is pretty straight forward, with lots of opportunities for role playing and scene setting, and has a very cinematic final battle. Really cool.