I don't think this fit very cohesively with the story line of the last adventure. In hindsight to make the combats at least somewhat challenging I should have thrown the dungeon at the party as they were fighting one room. I actually didn't debuff the boss at all and buffed him as single enemies always get destroyed by higher level parties.

The adventure as a standalone is pretty decent but considering the plot as a whole, most players struggle to connect how it plays a role in all of this.

The challenge level of the adventure isn't exactly there either. Lots of grammar and spelling error throughout the module.

This Adventure has to be one of the most poorly written adventures I've seen in some time. It contains grammar and spelling mistakes that your average 3rd grader should've caught on a single proofread. The Adventure provides no proper introduction; it provides secret missions for 2 factions but no encounter by which to give them. Some of the encounters seem to be reaching for story but come up short IMHO (the One at the beginning for the Dragon). The actual story that this adventure provides is good, almost great. However the execution of said stories, in the encounters given, leaves much to be desired.

Edit: I just noticed one more failing, the initial fortress map is missing the annotations for what description belongs to which room. (it was the section with rooms a1-a6) This is sloppy and it's sad that a Adventurer League DM is forced to Pay for this adventure, to be able to complete the Complete season award to obtain the Legacy Weapon/Armor reward. This adventure is so sloppy that it shouldn't be out of a Rough Draft state.

Ran this last night for a weekly AL game. First, the story idea for the module is FANTASTIC! The concept was amazing, but the execution was a bit lack luster. Without giving out too many spoilers, the module is basically designed to nickle and dime the party members down until the final battle, and IF they take the correct path, they can in turn make the final battle weaker as they go. However, there are a number of unnecessary fillers in the module that really aren't needed or could be modified to enhance the plot line without bogging it down. To start, there are a list of possible encounters before the characters get to the adventure location that help set the mood for the landscape and scope of the area, but most really serve no purpose to the story. One of them can allow for information to be gleaned by the players, but only if the DM has the encounter really prepared (it could be tricky and disastrous for inexperienced DMs), as the party could easily just destroy the situation, and the characters might not get some needed information. Once the party gets to the adventure location, there is a possiblity that a faction assignment might not be able to be completed because of the make up of the party (missing a crutial class). Then there is a series of low level encounters that are time consuming for a tier 3 party, but not challenging at all. Once this area is completed, the characters find a way into the heart of the location, and through a long series of fights, again against lower tier mobs that are more of a nuisance than a challenge, the players can face 'mini bosses,' that if defeated, will weaken the final boss in the final encounter. That is IF the characters explore correctly. There is a chance that they make it to the final encounter FIRST by chosing the wrong path to take. Experienced players who conserve resources and are careful will find the module way too long compared to the rewards. Inexperienced players might get wiped before they even get close to the end due to unloading early, and having nothing left in the tank. I do like to run mods as they are written before giving them the AL allowed DM empowerment. With a few adjustments to the mobs present (more tier appropriate, and few numbers), and ommitting some of the filler, it can definitely be a fun mod to play. I will definitely run it again, but with some treatments next time. Not the best season 7 mod so far, but definitely worth the purchase.

I like the idea of this module but it's REALLY long for no real reason. I get that it's supposed to build tension but that dosen't really happen.

Spoilers Bellow

The encounters are weak yeah but that's fine you can bump them up no problem. I for one changed the salamander to an efretti with some magma mephits. The exploding damage helps a bit against melee characters. The whole section involving the fire newts can be skipped. Have the golems at the gate be full power and skip all the newts. They just find the light and it's easy. I do like the idea of the magical darkness. It eliminates the everyone being able to see element. Not a single layer had a torch so they used things like flamtongues to "hold" the fire so we could procede. That meant that the whole area wa creepy to people who could usually see 120 feet in darkness.

The demons themselves where really weak and the worst part was that they where written in and described in so many places that I couldn't replace them without modifications in multiple places in the mod. The Capitans themselves where nothing. Taking the torch light into the shadow demons room basically eliminates his hiding places. I replaced Maw demons with babau to provide some hitting power and that's about all there is. Still it was very easy.

All the debufs provided to the BBEG at the end made him die in 2 rounds. There is no descriptor saying the players need to say his name in the room so they burst through the flaming door taking fire damage. To make it a challenge, I made them save any time they passed through the door again. Even so, The Balor died before they could put the charm against his skin and learn his true name. He is so neutered in this fight, it's not even funny. Doing it again, I'd let the fire aura, spell resistance and death effects be removed but not lower his hit points or AC.

The whole puzzle mechanic of do this to weaken that is cool though. So is the option of just going and fighting the full power boss. There is just a lot of "Roll Initiative" in this module and almost nothing else.

My biggest letdown is that I've been holding off on running this mod because the author said an update was coming and then nothing happened for a month. Not even replying to questions. So, I ran it and made modifications to spped things up and the amount of combat still had it run 5 hours even speeding through combats removing enemies and such.

This is... one of the worst executed DDAL modules I have run.

• Starts with 0 intro, and then a few random encounters.
• Dragon fight where the (under-powered for tier 3) Young Dragon picks a fight, then calls Time Out? I had a hard time not getting players to just want to off the dragon here.
• Weak, weak, weak encounters in the demons. Super weak. I had more than one player say after the first wizard-spirit reveals themselves, "Wait, she was a powerful wizard, but she's hiding from six, 19hp demons??" I feel like you can purposefully under power your minions, but then give them some kind of environmental advantage. This whole module, I could run T2 characters through, and they would be fine.
• Odd traps / environmental effects that do... 7 damage. At tier 3.
• Boss fight that you've crippled, so it doesn't feel like a boss fight - especially once you know its name. No Legendary Resistances, Legendary Actions, or Lair Actions... I'm aghast.

Oh yeah, and above normal number of typos / editing errors.

Not every adventure needs to be a huge challenge to every single party. Sometimes, the job of the adventure is to serve to advance the story, and it may be that the players kick it's butt. As D&D is not about players vs. DM in some kind of odd wargame. It's an RPG- a roleplaying game, not rocket propelled grenade.

This mission is thematic. It features interesting villains. It has a cool layout. Generally, the average party is going to kick the crap out of it, so my advice to DMs is to add to the RP parts of the adventure.

You get a chance to make an ally out of a known villain-and a dragon at that. At the end of the adventure, you are faced with a choice of great sadness, as it is shown that this dragon's wyrmling has been slain and eaten. My advice to the author would be to put in a story reward for parties equiped to raise that young dragon from the dead, who do so, and then gain a long term ally and peace for part of Chult.

Not every party will do so (as alignment is more important to some than others) but adding politics, and a feeling of a campaign would add wonders to not just this mod...but all AL mods.

The magical darkness took some figuring out by the group which led to some creativity. The buffs provided by the wizard while add some bonuses for the party, while they missed the first one as they decided to not mess with the wizard and conitnued on, they caught on quickly though.

The combats need a definate boost as to make this a challenge for tier 3 play. As stated it is a bit hard to tie this module back to the Yuan-Ti threat.

Some minor typos here and there in the adventure.

Me and my players had fun with this adventure story wise but as everyone here has pointed out a lot of the fights are not worth running and the heavly nerfed end boss was a real letdown.

The story underlying Fire, Ash and Ruin is interesting and allows for the DM to play up different aspects depending on the group going through. However, there is no actual challenge to this adventure and it seems like it was scaled for tier 2 groups rather than tier 3 groups.

The preliminary encounters, including those with the lieutenants, range from perfunctory to weak. The final encounter as written is so weakened by these prior encounters as to be easily steamrolled. I used most, but not all, of the adjustments the first time that I ran this and the fight was over in 1 round. If I had used the encounter as written, it would have been over after 3 characters.

People who liked the ToA HC really must play this one and DDAL07-09 before. I can't wait for the next one to mainly for the storyline.

Players can either go straight for the last boss or can get buffs before be doing something (trying to stay spoilerless)... just want to say that if the players get all the buffs, the final boss is become a real joke. Do not hesitate to max boss' HP. My group had mainly level 15 so maybe that's why. With players more level 10 probably the boss would be more of a challenge.

With level 15, maybe add some critters with final boss to get a better action economy.

This has the potential to be really fun, but overall a T3 party isn't going to face a challenge. The combats are mostly just slogs, and it's very easy for the party to just one-shot most things. Hopefully the adjustments will help. I rolled very low on initiative for the dragon at the beginning, and the party just murdered it outright, and then used a healing potion to bring it back for questioning, which made the entire thing rather anti-climactic---it's hard to motivate "I'll help you kill the Balor for some treasure" when you just almost died.

Other than those issues, I think the story is very interesting. It's difficult to tie it into the yuan-ti threat, which may just be something I missed. The blue fire overcoming the darkness is a really interesting mechanic, but it may need to be spelled out more concretely. Overall, I think it's got a lot of potential if people are willing to roleplay and really get into the story. Other than that, the encounters just need to be buffed far beyond what you think they should be.

This adventure is decent, but could use a lot of tune-up. I love the NPC's and interaction with the party; the story started off as clunky but gets interesting as soon as the red dragon speaks with the players. Combat is definitely on the easy side for a tier three group, even one below the APL of the adventure. Another issue I find with this module is the length. I do not see this module being run properly within a four hour time frame. I think removing a lot of the smaller encounters that pose little threat to a tier three group, while focusing more on the bigger fights/intrigue of the story, would cut the play time to a manageable level, and increase the overall quality of how the module plays.

TL;DR: has the potential to be a great adventure, all encounters need to be entirely re-designed.

Enough people has talked about how the combat was way undertuned for a T3 table, and that the encounters are too scattered and weak.

To play the Devil's Advocate, let me talk about some of the module's redeeming factors:

• Exploring the heart of a volcano, which has become the lair of demons, is quite an exciting exploration for the players. Just don't give them a map.
• Magical Darkness & Wild Magic Surge forces the players to be a little more creative with problem solving.
• Defeating the Lieutenants one by one and knowing that you are being blessed by Wizard Spirits on the way gives a great sense of progression.

Here are some of the edits I made to the encounters to make it fitting for a T3 table:

• Replace everything that happens in the upper level with an encounter against two full powered Stone Golems. Have the golems pound on the flame cultists (who accidentally activated the golems), and the noise of that drew the attention of the adventurers. This can be an optional fight if they choose not the intervene.
• Only leave four combat encounters in the lower level, one with each lieutenant, one with the final boss. The small fights with minor demons pose no threat at all.
• Change Yulethe to a Glabrezu, accompanied with 2 or more Barlguras. Have the Glabrezu use Power Word Stun on the obvious caster, and the Barlguras emmerge from invisibility to double down on him/her.
• Change Goryx into a Nalfeshnee, using the +3 Pike as a toothpick as he recently finished eating the wyrmling.
• Change Xalumbros into a Young Red Shadow Dragon, the same mama dragon the players have interacted with, but was "consumed by the shadow". Nothing brighter than a dim light can be emitted in that room.
• Banishment against any of the demons won't work, because the volcano is a passageway to the Abyss. Instead, upon cast of Banishment, the spell slot is expended, and have the caster roll on Wild Magic Surge.
• The Balor starts on maximum HP, Raxakon reduces it to the average value (instead of a laughable 147).
• Remove the Umaja that disables the Balor's Magic Resistance trait entirely. Without Magic Resistance, the fight is laughably easy.
• Djzark does not disable the entire Fire Aura trait, only the within 5 feet damage per turn. Melee attacks will still invoke the 10 (3d6) fire damage.
• Alkana grant advantage on Death Throes, and then maybe Fire resistance, not immunity.
• When the Balor succeed on his Whip attack, and the target failed the Strength save, the target is flung to the Abyss immediately, taking psychic damage and return at the end of the Balor's next turn. So bascially a modified Hurl through Hell from Fiend Warlocks.

Those might seem like heavy buffs to the Balor in the final fight, but I can assure you it's not. I ran the aforementioned encounter twice, and both times my table managed to defeat the Balor. One table even challenged the Balor directly without any wizard spirits aiding, and still won handily.

It's been thoroughly discussed here, but Fire, Ash, and Ruin, as-premiered, falls flat on its face as a Tier 3 mod due to total lack of balance in the encounters.

The adventure states it is balanced for five level thirteen adventurers, yet throws a multitude of encounters at the party that do not even register on the encounter-difficulty-by-CR scale. Like, not even "Easy"--they should be nonexistent. This results in confusion on the parts of the players and the adventure rapidly devolves into a slogfest.

With heavy modification of the encounters I was able to present a reasonable number of encounters that each challenged the party to some degree, though I left the final encounter unmodified and, even having missed one of the earlier objectives, it ended up being a total cakewalk.

Were I going to run this again I'd end up combining the encounters even further into just three or four and tripling or even quintupling their CR's. I might also dramatically reduce the impact of the earlier objectives on the final fight. I feel that, as-written, a party a whole tier lower (five level 7's) would have little to no trouble completing this mod, which makes it a poor publication in my book.

Great themes and a fully fleshed-out setting redeem the mod for two stars. Typos in the descriptions are common, but you can describe the scenes in your own words--they're not tough to imagine.