Okay now that I've actually ran it, wew this mods a doozy.

The good:

1) The premise of the mod is amazing. Its rich in lore, the stakes are high, and the challenging is immediately appealing. Who doesn't want to storm the Thayan Embassy?

2) The writer of this mod knew what they were doing when they made this APL 10. The fights and the enemies clearly had a lot of thought put into them.

3) I like how apt the title is. This is an Embassy where Evil succeeds. The challenges and acts explicitly here punish the Good alignment in a way that fits well (imo) with the Thayan modus operandi. For all everyone likes modules where the good guys win, I think its important to have ones where it is clear that good is not easy. In a sense, if your PCs begin reconsidering their desire to help and save others as a result of this mod, then the Thayans have succeeded.

4) I love the final boss fight. Its hard, but not as hard as it seems. There's definitely a feeling of unfairness with the boss, which I think is warranted considering the setting.

The bad(?):

1) It is -insanely- complex to run. This is both a plus and a minus, but usually more a minus. There is so much to track every round, and it slows things down immensely. I had a co-GM help with the environmental effects and we still forgot a lot of things. Players got irritated at points, because they didn't quite 'get' the Red War effects and didn't like how everything felt like a penalty.

2) This also means the mod takes really long to run. IMO, you either focus on combat, the lore or the social. You can't do all three, or even two if you want to really do one properly. I ran mine as a high-combat, high-stakes game (you are storming a Thayan Embassy, you know what you are getting into) and tried to squeeze in bits of lore about Karsus and the Battery and some dialogue with the Wizards and Malkyn and we ran to 5 hours. This was after I made modifications to streamline.

3) The mod does not reward good. This may upset some players, who enjoy feeling heroic - Embassy is honestly less about the PCs as heroes, and more about establishing the Red Wizards as villains. Some might find this compelling, with players that enjoy the challenge both mechanically and roleplay wise. Others might not find it their cup of tea.

4) Its design is very polarizing - all the random/rolling effects stacked together mean that its difficult to estimate time. Players that trigger the alarm early may end up facing grueling turns of combat, while those who are luckier or sneakier may breeze past it all to the boss. As written, its very difficult to control, and the guidance (to just 'cut' straight to the end) is rather unsatisfying.

5) On this note, I found that when running, my players would literally move between rooms as combat drew out. This felt awkward at some points, where encounters were clearly meant to be in 'isolated' scenarios, except since doors can be entered even while in combat, I had to string together scenes or 'suspend' them until the party entered.

Things I did to streamline running the mod:

1) Don't roll for rooms. You will take forever, and the time becomes impossible to estimate. Do some prerolls, lock it down to maybe 4-6 rooms max (including the key ones) and leave it there. If you intend to run combat, or your players trigger the alarm super early, cut the number of rooms and skip them to the key ones. If its exploration/social, be a lot more lenient with alarms and patrol tactics.

2) I prerolled like 100 rolls for wild magic and had my coDM adjudicate them. We went through about 60+ surges with a party of nearly-all casters (except the lone fighter). Surges take a ton of time, and some of the random effects can cause a lot of delays. Don't be afraid to just handwave an effect if you are tight on time.

3) I modified the chapel fight. Some people may disagree with this, but instead of a slow trickle of mobs, with initiative rolls and attacks - I just had the archers stand up, shoot their arrows at the button presser, then sit down again. No 'real combat', but more like a trap. To keep with the stacking effect, I had each failure compound. It made things significantly faster while keeping what I felt was the intent of the puzzle room.

4) I honestly forgot the time speed-up thing so many times I effectively ended up just cutting it entirely. It was too much with all the WM effects and other debuffs/buffs running. Maybe if I had an online platform to track rounds properly, but if running F2F there's too much book-keeping already.

Overall, I think Embassy of Evil is a very rich module - all in terms of ideas, design and complexity. Running it is definitely not something to do lightly, but done well and it can be one of the most memorable and challenging sessions your group will experience (or die trying :P).

I love this mod for newbies. It hits multiple pillars of play, has a decently "loose" hook that can bring others in, and introduces a really nasty set of villain(s) with some cool countdown mechanics.

WARNING, POSSIBLE SPOILERS FOR THE MODULE

-The early fight with the bandits, the encounter with the flower/herb lady and the later discussions/sneaking at the Inn provide Combat, Social and Exploration. The final fight is a mix of Social and Combat, with some pretty dangerous consequences for a T1 party if they get delayed too long. With a newbie table, each of the early encounters provides a good way to 'introduce' a style of DnD play in a semi closed environment while keeping a coherent plot. I think this is one of the most valuable things about this mod. -The hag boss fight is cool, because they are fighting to 'complete' the ritual, not exactly kill. You should drop hints that the hags are stalling and that "something" is progressing. I put a great honking magic circle when I ran it, but in hindsight a better move would have been to play up the spookiness as a coven is formed. Crows start gathering. The walls drip black blood. The PCs get a chill up their spines, a sense of dread that grows and grows while the hags laugh and avoid their attacks, seemingly uncommited to killing them. Quantify the coven forming into approximate rounds if you like (maybe with a successful Arcana check), it really adds to the tension and urgency in that fight IMO. -That said, I would underplay the Coven if it forms. Fluff it as the hags not really being used to their spells. They 'experiment' with things and 'play with their food', now confident in their success. Also remember the give the PCs a check to know how to break a Coven after its formed, or to recognize the signs of one being formed while they are outside arguing with the lady. Else, the social scene can basically drag forever, especially if the players don't have a sense of urgency. It seems rather unfair to suddenly 'hit' them with a Coven out of now where without at least some foreshadowing that something big is happening. I like the idea of hinting that something awful is going on inside via omens and/or signs of nature (paladin or druid PCs help here). Have an omnious gathering of crows that grows thicker with every round. Maybe use progress clocks if your PCs are less story-oriented. -On the flip side, once the Coven is broken, the fight becomes a bit of a grind - hags have a ton of HP, and if you play the green hag properly the invisibility can stall the fight significantly. Consider having them surrender after the Coven is broken (to be executed by the NPCs later of course), if the PCs seem to be getting bored of the fight.

Either way, this is a great mod, with a very cinematic boss fight. One of my favorites after I ran it.

[WARNING: Potential Spoilers Ahead!]

Was a very good part of the Tenets of Bane series, with a strong story-telling component. Puzzle was quite simple - I suggest actually cutting out the shell and letting players touch the letters accordingly to trigger the catch. Encounters are actually really weak - the difficulty comes from the exhaustion rules and underwater combat. An unlucky party can end up in really bad straits before pissing off the ghost king. Speaking of which - I highly recommend going all out on the encounter/conversation with the king - its the strongest part of the mod, and really really highlights the destructive power of the Tenets and just how evil Bane actually is. I added some 'visual' hints about the King's state - even then, careless players may accidentally trip it into a full encounter, which can be really tough for a party without reliable magic damage (or too much exhaustion).

The ship-captain and mage are recurring characters, so be sure to play them up! Its a good chance to get your players invested with these NPCs before they run into them again in the later parts :)

WARNING: Possible Spoilers ahead.

I just finished running all 4 mods of the Tenets of Bane and wanted to say that this specific one is my favorite of the four. Simple but engaging puzzles and an interesting dungeon mini-plot, my players really felt for the kobolds. My only complaint is that the Derros besides the king are essentially fodder, and hardly a threat to the players. Even at the recommended level, the fight was essentially over once my party downed the spellcaster. I would suggest a derro lieutenant with beefed up stats or similar to make that fight more engaging.

The Fire Elemental is a potential TPK given the small space inside the room. My party failed the test and nearly wiped there and then, even at "Strong" without extra adjustments. Just something to note for DMs that prefer not to kill players.

The final third fight felt almost gratituous after that, I ended up "skipping" it by having the kobolds help them take down the cultists since we were nearly an hour overtime.

Overall though, its a very nice mini-puzzle dungeon.

Ratings:

• Combat: 8.5/10 (derro fight is a bit boring, fire elemental may be too much for certain party comps)
• Puzzles: 9/10 (all 3 sets of puzzles felt thematic and interesting, including the 4th test at the end)
• Social: 8/10 (my players loved the kobolds, I got to do my minion voice so many times that session)
• Explore: 6/10 (both paths in the mines don't really make any difference, rather linear approach though a lot of the exploration is tied to the puzzles. I would handwave a lot of the initial traveling.)

WARNING: Potential Spoilers ahead.

Now that I have both played and run this module I can safely say this one of my favorite T1s around.

Excellent roleplay opportunities and a bit of puzzle solving, plus the challenges themselves were enjoyed immensely by my players. Be sure to make a fanfare of it! Clap, laugh, use your announcer voice like a wrestle match. Gralm was great to roleplay. The adventure does not offer much guidance on how to handle the roleplay though, so prepare some lines/demmands in advance.

I would add that the tanagram can be very time consuming and a bit of a letdown to slog through all three. If time looks like an issue (and it likely will be), just give them one of the shapes (the house) and leave it at that.

Fights wise, the Hobgoblin has nearly murdered a PC in one hit both times I've seen this mod, especially if you bump him to captain. Be careful not to accidentally kill someone 15mins into the module. Final fight is cool, but I would swap out the halfling wizard's spell list to make him more threatening. Just mirror image makes him difficult to deal with - add magic missiles and blindness/deafness as debuffs and the party will see him as a real threat. For added fluff, I had it seem like he was animating the animals that were attacking them (mechanically, they were as in the stat-block, but this was a circus after all, and all these dolls are lying around...)

The only thing I dislike about the module was the incoherence of the plot/npcs. Oblivilish's motivations felt weak, as did the presence of the wizard. Make up your own reasons or try to tie it together better - for me, I made the halfling wizard an agent of Fruul looking to disrupt Gralm and pressure him into joining. The pixies were bribed with candy.

Ratings:

• Combat: 6.5/10 (hobgoblin cap can accidentally murder a low-level T1, final fight against wizard can use some spicing up but has a lot of potential to be made interesting)
• Puzzles: 7/10 (fey crossings and puzzles are interesting but can waste a lot of time)
• Social: 9/10 (Gralm is a treat to play, the competition using strength and cons means even non-charisma characters feel valuable in negotiations)
• Explore: 5/10 (Pretty linear approach, but feels quite organic anyway)

WARNING: Potential Spoilers ahead.

I really wanted to like this module. The concept itself is grand - an ancient wizard's tower for researching the elements. Shrines to various gods with mini trials and rewards. Puzzles and riddles! All thematic.

The actual layout and execution was troublesome and a little frustrating. The maps were difficult to follow, even in the updated version, and it took me several readings to get the gist of what each floor was trying to do.

I made several modifications to it in what I hoped would help with coherence, especially with S8 rules:

• Since few players will be faction aligned now, it might be expident to just give them the bag of holding at the start.
• Instead of gold, I had SEER promise to sponsor food for Parnast during the winter in exchange for the books.
• Nix the secret doors that let the players bypass the floor puzzles. They are kinda anticlimatic if found, and don't do anything if not.
• For the shrines of the gods, try to project a sense of reverance. Else, your players are liable to be suspicious of them at best, and ignore them utterly at worst. Also be careful to seperate (narratively) the elemental shrine room from the gods of magic. My players ended up thinking they were all linked together and tried to take stuff from one shrine to burn at the other (not a bad idea, just does not seem to be the intent)
• Since S8 means all the treasure traps don't tempt anyone anymore, I did some substitutions. The topaz gem for Azuth's staff now contains a key. This key allows a player to open the secret treasure room downstairs - however both acquiring the key -and- using the key trigger the shocking grasp trap. I reasoned it as a sort of plant by the Wizard of the Crags: thieves would take the key and try to use it since it looks like it works (and does!) but doing so triggers his tower's security.
• The shrines don't reward anything -unless- the players are respectful. This means active respect, not simply ignoring the ink bottle (prayers, offerings...etc).
• This includes the elemental gods. My players tried to brute force guess the earth shrine's material without even bothering to empty the bowl or make supplications, so they did not get the resistance. (I interpreted the resistance as just resistance to damage by the corresponding screen instead of the out-dated description)
• Oghmas room was really confusing for my party, you might need better prompts for right/wrong answers. I had the book glow to indicate success. A counter/timer might have been helpful. I also changed it so the room shocks anyone who writes nonsense in the book, or tries to force their way through (everyone writing something in the book was the only way to get past. Conveniently, the rewarded tongues scroll is helpful for the gargoyles in the next room)
• The riddles are -extremely- confusing as a number of posters here have noticed. I wasted a lot of time here and players got frustrated. Suggest adjustments to make it clearer. As compensation, make the players actually sing (IRL) to go through, or roll a performance check :P
• The magmin trap was substituted with the griffin halloween encounter.
• Speaking of the librarian, it seems odd that he does not have any spellcasting ability (even if he has sworn off it). I had planned on substituting him with a deathlock wight from Tome of Foes that would not cast magic unless pushed into a corner.
• The wand of webs is just...there. I removed it and fluffed the TP/unlock as them finding valuable arcane schematics for a wand of webs. Alternatively, put it with the librarian.

Ratings:

• Combat: 6/10 (very little combat until the end)
• Puzzles: 7/10 (potential is there, but execution needs work)
• Social: 5/10 (the gargoyles can be diplo'd but have no tension)
• Explore: 6/10 (pretty linear rooms, some traps but needs work to make them relevant)

WARNING: Potential Spoilers ahead.

The strength of this module is really in its NPCs. My players enjoyed talking with Sylas and Wallace, they spent a really long time gathering information and going around the town. If you are running the other modules leading up to Parnast under Siege, you should let them! This is one of the few modules where the party can explore the town and get a feel for Parnast in its default state. Once they are invested in the people and their plight, the hooks for the subsequent modules are a lot easier, gold or not.

I strongly suggest not letting the party split up to explore the forest, which is what mine did. This resulted in one group finding the stag and triggering everything while the other party was camping away, so half the group was a little bored while the bard talked things over with the fey prince. What worked well was playing up the danger and mysteriousness of the fey - I had the stag not leave tracks, the trees move omniously, critters staring at the party. Really helps establish the mood when they talk to Thornacius.

The final fight can be really fun but also confusing - I suggest a clean battle map and clearly marked obstacles as its really easy to lose track of where everyone is. I did not bother placing townsfolk on the map and just designated the entire region around the table as difficult terrain for 3-4 rounds (this also completely messed up the wizard and bard's sleep spells). Thankfully, my players went full "big damn heroes" and saved everyone, but a more selfish party might need a reminder by Ragnar or Wallace to protect the townsfolk. Foreshadowing this by discussing how Parnast has been losing people and how any further loss would be devastating helps as well. Other than the complications, the rest of the fight was pretty vanilla. Cinematic storytelling might help to keep players engaged.

Combat: 6/10 Puzzles: 5/10 Social: 9/10 Explore: 8/10