This is a very good module, with a good variety of roleplaying, combat, and something that kind of approximates "exploration". The large number of NPCs and freeform nature of the 1st and 3rd parts lends some variance to keep it interesting to DM.

However, it is drammatically too long. The first section can be highly variant, but the major problem point is that the final encounter is much longer than the 20 minute listed. Due to the positional nature of the battle, you pretty much have to use a miniature map. Kelkos' lair actions inflate the time of the fight by a lot-- being able to just teleport around the map and make 2d4 guys per turn can easily make the fight bloat up in time.

I feel like the entire last encounter needs to be rewritten, and clarified. I feel like the arena needs a proper map, and more deliberately-defined size. The variation based on the results of Part 3 of the adventure kind of make sense, but also seem like this massive jumble, and totally change how Kelkos should be played. Really hard to plan with the way the chapter and variations are formatted.

This takes much, much longer to prep than other "two hour" adventures.

There's a lot of really good stuff here, but the encounters need some balancing. Two difficulty levels should not ever be the exact same encounter, and the second encounter really requires using a full, proper battle map. It needs to be completely unambiguous to make the highly possible character deaths not feel like they came out of nowhere.

Good setup and monster variety, and the oozes can be very fun to describe.

This is a great dungeon crawl adventure.

Highs:

• Very cool central mechanic for the dungeon. Players picked up on the main idea quickly and really liked it.
• Good variety of monsters, and it gives the DM a lot of opportunity to flavorfully describe their attacks and motions.
• Good length.
• Nice callbacks to the previous adventures.

Lows:

• Some of the monsters feel REALLY powerful, and I felt like I had to pull punches to not kill a party member or two.
• Too many resistances. Having the Babau and the Vampiric Mist have so many resistances just made the two hard encounters of the fight feel kind of tedous.
• The Babau + Maw Demon fight was much more difficult to the final battle. I don't know if that was intentional, but I think the Gibberer could get an HP Boost as part of the Normal verison of the fight, and scale up accordingly.
• Where are the Chitines and Choldriths at? The grungs get a nice cameo to follow up their plot from the first part of the trilogy, but the spider creatures are basically dropped like a rock.

There's some very good stuff in this short adventure, but some things that really need clarification. I think some fundamental flaws with the how the encounters are laid out and described, and how they scale with the difficulty level.

Highs:

• Very cool ghost story in the town, with a lot of opportunity for nice roleplaying.
• It is nice giving players a chance to return to the environment of the previous adventure, and note the impact of whatever changes they made to the environment.
• Builds off of the previous adventure in interesting ways. The returning players were excited to tell the new players what happened and to embelish the narration (jungle in the darkness).
• The second encounter is cool, in theory at least.
• If players didn't kill S'saxx in the previous adventure, there's a good spot to have her ambush the party. This keeps the Chitine/Choldrith plot from feeling as dropped as it did in the current Part 2 and Part 3 (they are only mentioned, but never really show up).

Lows:

• The ending point is kind of awkward. I don't think adventures like this deal well with what is essentially a "To Be Continued" for another adventure. It is odd to say "And that's the end of this story! See you in Part 3."
• Neither of the encounters really scale well with difficulty. Whatever changes are/were made based on difficulty need to be adjusted. Both, as written, are pretty simple with very little strategy or tactics, as they are against 1 enemy for several of the difficulties.
• There needs to be more guidance on how some aspects of the plotting work. Does Detect Magic just completely blow a hole in any suspsense? Could there be some more description on how to actually handle the second encounter? Is it just supposed to be attacking the Darklings and ignoring the players?

This is a very good adventure. I think it presents the scenario very well, with moments of revelation building and building until the final encounter.

Highs:

• Very good encounter design for the two fights, with good recommendations on how to increase the difficulty.
• Cool story set up, with the plot unfolding well and evenly paced, and leaving plenty of room for the DM to be descriptive.
• The underground jungle is a cool area, and there is lot of room to potentially add additional skill checks and items if you are using the content outside of AL.
• Good enemy variety, especially in that it uses some of the humanoid races out of Volo's that have a lot of potential.
• Lots of replayability to keep things interesting for the DM, especially surrounding the first encounter for the orb, both due to the outcome of the orb (light, dark, flickering) and when the Chitine pack decides to attack.

Lows:

• I think there should be a better hook between the first encounter and the second encounter.
• The DM really needs to play the casters and enemies well for the encounters to be challenging and interesting. A little bit of guidance would be helpful, as it isn't obvious what should be the Turn 1 move for the Choldrith's or Wildlings.
• I felt like I had to railroad one of the groups to not just pursue the VAULT hint immediately, when it is supposed to be part of the sequel rather than this adventure. Some more description on exactly why it isn't feasible to do it now (other than the scouts being near death) might be something to play up when running this.
• The encounters are very back heavy, with very little room for RP between the two of them.
• There is a bit of a burden on the DM on knowing how to treat darkness and limited invisibility, if the orb light source dark. Some suggested DC events between the two encounters, and perhaps a difference to the second encounter based on the lighting, would be nice.