I have both played and run this adventure. This is a very fun and well-paced adventure that makes adding/omitting the bonus objectives very easy to do on the fly. The story award is very fun. There is the potential for some very fun role-playing in the first half of the module, with some great exploration opportunities in the middle of the adventure that are a lot of fun for players that enjoy "lore" in their games. The final combat is not extremely challenging, but the story narrative kind of makes a case for why it shouldn't be. Overall, a lot of fun and one I would not mind running again.

The Vampire Hunt trilogy is a direct continuation of the Umbral Aristocracy trilogy; and I found that prior trilogy to be a mostly weak affair anchored by at least one pretty good module in The Map with No Name. Beyond that, though, it was an unremarkable set of modules with no real stinkers in the crop, but nothing to write home about either.

The Vampire Hunt trilogy is like that, but without The Map with No Name to at least start off things strong.

If nothing else, the essential premise of the module is fine. It's a decent excuse to go into the Undermountain. But beyond that, it's filled with odd choices that weaken the strength of the module. Why separate the path down into two completely disconnected paths? You could have instead had one much stronger one, with a centrally located lift descending around a spiral ramp. Why reduce the labyrinth into a skill check instead of actually letting the players explore? Heck, why not have the descent be down the well of the Yawning Portal, with that iconic visual, than through some cave outside of town?

The entire adventure feels completely inconsequential, a side story and nothing more. It's technically adept, and the encounters are all pretty well balanced, but it's disappointing nonetheless.

This was a fun adventure. My players enjoyed the traps and getting to fight a decently tough bad guy at the end. I enjoyed the sandbox type adventure allowing me to be creative with the environment rather than just reading a script. I highly recommend this to anyone out that there enjoys DMing rather than just being a narrator.

A bit of a bait and switch, the players were expecting Vamps all the way through until they came upon a bad vampire fanfic writer, which is always entertaining. I think it could have been streamlined a bit (the albino winged kobold was a bit out of place), but overall, fun.

Overall this was a fun adventure to DM for my players, though in all honesty the quality of the image provided of the map really deterred me from setting this up for months. The map itself wasn't bad, but throwing in a skewed picture of a gridded map was a definite frustration. The writing was fun and it would be interesting to see other modules with the "BBEG" of this module in it.

I have both played and run this module. As a DM, I found that the Season 8 format made the organization of this module annoying (lots of page flipping, plus the page numbers are missing and/or hard to read without a printer-friendly version), but that the module author did a pretty okay job of sequencing content within those constraints. It is particularly annoying that a critical NPC, location, and bit of content for the very beginning of the story is tucked away in the Appendix for its Bonus Objective (but I fault the required format, not the author).

Content-wise, I found the module offered plenty of non-combat opportunities for resolving challenges, if/when the players took their characters that way. I did find a lot of context / content about the mine, communing with the mine, the details of this, that and the other that can help fill as much time as the DM wants with stretching out the descriptions, but don't materially contribute to advancing the plot (or affect the outcome).

I found the initial encounter / encounters with the mine shaft and the trap somewhat under-specified (and information about what check with what DC for which piece spread across multiple pages and sidebars). I made something up, but I felt like the author only gave me the broadest strokes of how it should have worked. This is certainly one place where the sketched maps were less helpful than something with more labels would have been.

Difficulty-wise, I haven't seen this module challenge a party, even when shifting the difficulty up a bit beyond what the APL suggests. It's just not that deadly (which is fine, unless you're looking for that. If you are, consider significantly revising Tev's spell list and/or giving him additional minions, and give the enemies in the opening encounter bows).

Time-wise, each time I've seen this module come in around 2.5 hours, often a little under, including the Bonus Objectives. One of the players at my table said one time he'd seen it go really long (playing a different character), but otherwise that matches the other experiences I've heard.

One final note: This module essentially ends on the doorstep of its sequel, but this module is optimized for APL 5 and that module is optimized for APL 8 (and each module only gives out 1/2 a level in ACP). That means that if you do play them as a unit, the party is likely very over- or under-powered for one of them. The third in the trilogy is APL 10(!), so a DM who wants to run the trilogy together should do some careful planning and likely lots of scaling. If you don't run them as a trilogy, though, pay attention to what's basically a Story Item in the final encounter, since it's necessary for the sequel.

It does feel out of place in the overall trilogy with it's plot feeling more like a side quest rather than a nessicary step to further the plot. The maps were very crude and lack the polish of the others in the series. The bonus objective do add some much need RP elements to what would be a largely combat focused module. I will say that the RP elements feel very inorganic and scripted.

The story is average, and would be a fun mod to play if the formatting for season 8 was not so terrible. It basically takes twice as long to read this mod, and understand what is going on, than it should.

The maps and the adventure placement requires careful study by the DM to ensure that all know where and what they are doing. Its a good adventure that sets up the 2nd and third act in a way that is engaging while not revealing too early the mysteries from later delvings. Please, please someone proof read these with some competence. Riddled with the most basic typographical errors that high schoolers would surely pick up.

This adventure will put DMs on their toes right off the bat. It would help to be familiar with some of the story leading up to the first part of this trilogy Overall, this module was fun. I think that it has an enjoyable mix of non-combat elements to make it challenging for adventurers. I'm glad that it doesnt exactly specify where players see the crack in the walls where the stonebone skeletons emerge; you can put them anywhere near the elevator. The battle with Tev and the Stonebone golem .. and that little crawling claw made the adventure fun for me as a DM and my players. I would recommend this module to any DM, but would recommend you read the module first.

I like the module overall. It is a good start to Waterdeep for characters that come to the city from more countryside circumstances of season 5. Also I find those final combat encounters quite challenging, but that is exactly what our group likes. What I dislike is the layout. It seems to be chaotic, I find it hard to find things on the fly.

This start to Tier 2 in season 8 is a step up (content/story) from the Tier 1 adventures. There is still an issue of how the adventure is formatted and arranged that I really dislike, but the story itself is good and between the traps and monsters, it makes the players learn cautiousness rather than running through the dungeon head first.

This is a pretty good module. One problem I have with it is the fight at the end. The module is supposed to be APL5 but the golem is immune to non magical non ada weapons. One of the bonus objectives can help with that but it's still a pretty rough fight when you throw in the vampire, er i mean mage. Also, the scaling suggestions turn it into a slog. Non magic weapons + slow spell + increase in max hp makes the fight long and boring. I'd suggest adding extra easy mobs instead of scaling up the golem.

Also, the characters fight against Stonebone Skeleton but there is no stat block for them.

A vast improvement over the T1 content this season. The 2 bonus objectives didn't add a whole lot, but at least they made good sense plot wise. Sad that there is no real connection to the Undertakers or the bad vampire fan fiction in the rest of the trilogy. To call this a trilogy is stretching it a bit, as all 3 are unrelated adventures awkwardly throwed together, but as a stand alone this isn't bad.

The story is alright, and the hook kind of makes up for Season 8 rules not allowing the questgiver to offer payment as a reward. The bonus objectives could use some more details; they last about 20 minutes

It's written for APL5, and the upgrade for Strong and Very Strong parties is just adding more HP to the enemies. The combats are pretty easy like that. It would probably be reasonable to have an extra golem in the final fight for Very Strong parites.

Not having a printer-friendly version is quite annoying.