I ran this for our local gaming store Adventurer's League weekly game and it was a big hit. I happened to have a lot of new and young players, and for them it was a perfect dungeon crawl. It is very atmospheric and creepy which led to just the right amount of trepidation and fear (a first time player, a L1 Paladin, ran from the first fight but was coaxed back in when their friend the wizard went down!). It has classic monsters, good T1 loot and can be adapted easily for different ages, play styles and player experience levels.

I am working through the Border Kingdoms modules, and it is easy to work this adventure into the lore of the region and the adventure that come before and after this one.

Good afternoon.

I recently ran this adventure as part of a Border Kingdoms Weekends effort I am committing to for the next few weeks. I thought I would provide my tables collected feedback. -- They enjoyed the adventure. The narratives were there to help deliver an enjoyable experience. I used the sound of hooting and grunting often. -- I like that the earthen areas of the burrows were loose and potentially a danger. Good environmentals. -- Players were a bit frustrated that they could only learn surface information about the roots. I tried to 'squeeze the lemon' on information that I could give. Once I provided descriptives of Netherese frescoes, etc. they started to get the picture. -- I appreciate the Bonus Objectives--they actually flowed well into the main plot line. I only used one, but could have used two if more time. -- The Crimson Fever? Yes. Good design. Thank you. -- The challenges presented by Anders stimulated conversation and interaction within the group. -- The dilemma. Not sure if it was intended, but the party got into some great RP (I also suspect they broke character as well) when discussing what to do with the little ones. They were torn between leaving them or putting them out of their misery. -- Amberees or Ambrees? Not a showstopper, but did have me do a double take for a second. -- Overall-fun adventure. Not surprising, considering the designer. Its a gem! DMs should add this one to their adventure libraries!

A hunt to save adventurers in over their own heads from one of the classic "A Wizard Did It" monsters in DnD soon turns into a miniature dungeon crawl into the remnants of an ancient ruin, one which hints at darker powers lurking behind the scenes.

The split objectives (awarding the ACP fractionally for each segment) is a bit awkward, but it does encourage tables to push for full exploration of the location ("You haven't found the gnome yet? We need to go DEEPER...").

Combat encounters are fairly simple, as may be expected from this tier (and none of the creatures involved would be winning prizes for intellect anyway) - this means less moving parts for newer DMs to track. As there is no real encounter scaling, the fights may be less challenging for stronger/more experienced parties, or deadly for weaker/inexperienced players; DMs may have to move encounters around the map to compensate.

Overall, a simple, yet memorable dungeon crawl.

I really enjoyed DMing this at my local game store. We finished all objectives and bonus objectives in 3.5 hours. Unfortunately for Anders Tharion, my party went the other way and found his body, dead, in the end. RIP you noble fool.

I added some knowledge from the Border Kingdom's supplement by Ed Greenwood, specifically that wild monsters roam, locals rob at night, and there is a floating/haunted mansion nearby. Then I had the locals in the Laughing Unicorn be extremely grumpy with two exceptions. (1)Truman, who is tall and bearded but well dressed is the local tailor; locals at the bar call him a sissy but he's willing to talk to the characters; (2)Erin Whicksey the former-ranger/current-lush. At the end of the adventure, I revealed that there is a unicorn illusion that appears every night at mid-night and the locals treated them to an old-fashioned rave. Whoo-hoo!

I used Dungeon Tiles (from Roll 4 Initiative) to map the rooms out in dry-erase markers at home then laid them down one-by-one as the party entered each room. Using both 10"x10" and 5"x5" sizes I was able to map all the rooms with only minor size and position changes.

For the fight with the Shadows, don't forget the bright-radius of a torch is 20 feet and the monsters can bonus-action-hide in dim light--I had them run into the dim, hide & attack with advantage.

BL: Much better than any DDAL8s and still Season 8 so I got First Timer DM Rewards.

Neat little adventure with a classic monster. The bonus objectives segues neatly into a small little dungeon crawl that can be adapted as needed into whatever story/setting is appropriate. Though part of the Border Kingdoms releases, it is presented as a one-shot that can be connected if desired.

Note that if you're wanting players to explore the entire area, they might need an appropriate incentive (other than it's a dungeon) else they could just high tail it out of there after the initial encounter, potentially not utilizing hours of DM prep time (not bitter!).

Don't let the numbering fool you, this is the SECOND module in the storyline and boy is it a doozy. A somewhat flaky NPC gives you not enough info to work with and then as you're really getting into the thick of saving her friends, you find that the problem is of a far different sort to what you were prepared for!

This module is great for parties that like exploration, for DMs who love watching players ask questions and test things that they'd never before considered and has a really great opening for extending a cave into a homebrewed dungeon, ir if staying with Adventurer's League, perhaps one from another book. Definitely recommended.