Ran this as a Halloween one-shot within a Curse of Strahd campaign. Players loved it, had a lot of laughs with the undead hotel staff. The location was fun and simple and the story holds a strong internal logic. Very easy to pick up & play.

Ran this adventure for a group of 3 PC's . Everyone had a great time. It's probably one of the best adventures I've been able to DM. The layout and the amount of options given for story resolution (not just the ending) are PHENOMINAL . Buy it!

This is a very well written module. I've been able to fit it into my regular campaign to add some Halloween fun. I intended to use it as a 'one shot' but I've found it incorporate it so well, I suspect it will have lasting effects on my campaign. The provided maps are a bit underwhelming, but I was able to use them as a guideline to build my own maps in Inkarnate (https://inkarnate.com) and upload them into my Foundry VTT (forge-vtt.com). My party consists of 6 lvl 4 advanturers, so I used the guidence provided by the author to increase the difficulty. Overall it's been a lot of fun and I'd recommend this short module to add some Halloween fun into any campaign.

Color maps downloadable here. https://imgur.com/a/tIM5ZXx

Update: I ran this adventure and made a bunch of assets and color maps that I have shared on this link on Reddit. Enjoy! https://www.reddit.com/r/DnD/comments/j6huqg/gross_eyeballs_and_maps_for_halloween_oneshot/

This will make an excellent Halloween one-shot! As the other reviews have said, very moody and atmospheric with a great plot. The only sad part is if I run it as a one shot I may miss out on some of the very interesting potential fallout from the various ending options (which are very cool).

This adventure is beautifully put together. The skill and care of the author is evident at every turn. It is astonishingly good value and gives rise to an enormously satisfying game with a wonderful atmosphere, within which the party have plenty of choices to make and opportunities to express character. The PCs determine their own path through the adventure, and the author has really gone the extra mile in thinking through the consequences of the party's decisions and outcomes of certain important skills rolls. The text is clear, well organised and laid out, and full of thoughtful details to enhance the experience. The suggested quote snippets for NPC conversations are easy to use in improvisation. I ran it for a party of five level 3 adventurers, with two players who had never played before. They all had a great time. I would say that this is a twoshot - it took a good 5.5 hours to run and I had to cut a couple of the combats out in order to complete it within the time my players had available.

The maps are well designed. I did colour them before using them, just for ease of running the game. There are a couple of very minor typos (e.g. moonstone is incorrectly referenced as jade at one point) - however, nothing that detracts from the excellent readability of the text.

I am already looking forward to running this adventure again - I'm really happy to have come across it and would recommend it to everyone.

I ran this game for a party of 5 third level characters. I didn't make it any easier than was written. They got into a couple of tight spots but survived.

This was my second time as DM and this dungeon was well-laid out and easy for me to follow. My players had a great time, they said so when the game was over and I could tell they were interested and engaged throughout.

It was a well-balanced game. My murder hobos and my roleplayers were all kept busy. If all games are this fun and esy to run, I will be a DM for a long, long, time.

I read through the adventure last night and was blown away how creative and fun this would be to run. I have a group of three level 2 players (fairly new to D&D) that I'm planning to run through this as a one-shot (potentially two-shot) in a couple of weeks. I can't express how excited I am to run this (I'll update here after the playthrough). If there was a negative, I would say I wish the digital maps included were colour but honestly, the maps are not that bad and shouldn't deter anyone from getting this adventure (I may create some new high quality colour maps with permission down the road). I'm very sure this will be one of those "Go to" adventures I'll use many times to get newbies hooked into D&D.

Review Summary With the imaginative story and balance between role-play and combat, this has to be the best one-shot on DM's Guild. Tal Aviezer, you are now my favourite author on DM's Guild. I'm looking forward to running more of your adventures. For all you DM's reading the reviews to try and get a feel if this is for you, you can stop reading and just buy this adventure. You won't regret it. Check out our double playthrough of this adventure with two separate adventuring groups at https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLuoM99dKA4-DOGFE3D3SMQPg3Qgry-E39

GoGo DM - PerilousPursuits.com -

An Addition I've Made In the Library Tower (feel free to use):

Cursed Book A DC 16 investigation in any of the bookcases in the Library Tower finds a small false wooden panel in the bookcase behind the books. If the panel is removed, it reveals a small nook containing a dusty green cover book with gold trim. Written in common on the front is the title of the book "Beauty is in the Eye of the Beholder". The book contains several high quality paintings by an unknown artist of a beautiful woman with long blonde hair, blue eyes and wearing a svelte green dress. Mention to the player (whether male or female) that while looking at the book, it's hard not to linger over the paintings as the woman is extremely beautiful. The book has a curse where the holder of the book has the Charm Person spell on them while in visual range of Grey Maggie. Grey Maggie will also resemble the beautiful young blonde woman to the book holder causing them to be enamoured with her. If the holder of the book looks at (or is shown) the paintings in the book while in the presence of Grey Maggie, they will see the old hag in the paintings instead of the beautiful woman. After seeing Grey Maggie in the book painting, the holder of the book can now do a DC 15 Wisdom saving throw at the start of their turn to see if they can break the curse. If the cursed player takes damage from an attack by any creature, they gain advantage on their next saving throw roll to remove the curse. On success, the curse is broken. On a fail, the charm spell continues. When the curse is broken, the paintings in the book revert back to the beautiful woman and Grey Maggie's true image is revealed to the book owner. The cursed book resets itself 24 hours later. If Grey Maggie is killed, the book bursts into flames causing black smoke to swirl to the ground with a painful scream. Anyone holding the book takes 1d4 fire damage. A detect magic spell will show a smoky shadow swirling around the book revealing it to be from the Enchantment school of magic.

great great one shot! i struggle so hard on one shots because they are either too 'technical' (very specific steps that need to happen or it won't work), too pointless (lack of a real story other than 'quest 1 for 100gp'), too long or too sandbox. this has a very nice story behind it, the content is clear and well stuctured but gives the freedom to wing it or make it more sandbox. Also freedom to make it a combat heavy or roleplay heavy. it's really rare for me to leave a review but o liked this so much. great mixture of odd and creepy. it was really awesome!

I ran this as a side quest for my Waterdeep Dragon Heist crew with a few tweaks - gave Catastrophe a twin sister named Cacophony who became an ally of the party beforehand and made the Raise Dead scroll a standard one to give the party more choices to struggle with - and it was WONDERFUL. Very atmospheric, engaging, tons of great plot hooks... it's spun-off into other plotlines about hags and hauntings in our campaign, and I couldn't be happier. Definitely worth a download!

Running this as part of a homebrew horror themed campaign, and my players are loving it. It really builds in terror and horror, and also provides some wonderful role play moments with great combat. I highly recommend!

I had a blast running this adventure, and my players were highly engaged. I ran through the adventures with two level 2 adventurers, which is below the recommended minimum of three adventurers. However, with some suggested substitutions on the monsters and a healthy dose of players caution (plus a few lucky rolls) they survived the experience. We took about 5 hours to complete the adventure.

I appreciated all the evocative descriptive text for the various locations and the variety of encounters - lots of interesting things to explore and interact with without most of it having to result in combat, which is a good fit for my party. The combat options are there, though, for a party with that preference. The ending was delightfully dramatic, with fun roleplay opportunities. (I look forward to all the repercussions I can unleash on the characters in future sessions!)

I enjoyed this adventure so much I ran out and bought the author's other published adventure. Thanks for all the fun! I'll be watching for any future adventures.

The compelling ending will leave your players in a moral quandary. And no matter what they decide, there may be repercussions. At your discretion, of course. Blind Palace is a great adventure in the horror genre without falling into gore fest tropes. It’s not going to cause nightmares, but it is nonetheless chilling and haunting. Most importantly, it’s an adventure you’ll love running as much as your players will love playing it.

Read more: https://www.nonzerosumgames.com/secrets-of-the-blind-palace-by-tal-aviezer/

Secrets of the Blind Palace is an excellent, creepy adventure for characters level 1 – 4. However, I would be wary of use level 1 characters – the Blind Palace is no joke!

In this adventure, the party is called to help the Von Crofts, wealthy nobles who have recently lost their son Wilhelm in an ill-advised adventuring trip. They want the party to find Wilhelm’s body and resurrect him and give them Katherine Chambers, the sole survivor of the trip, for help. However, Katherine has lost her voice and is terrified of the palace and, depending on how the party treats her, may not be willing to help them. The party must then search the Blind Palace, navigating its many dangers, and decide if they will help Katherine or Wilhelm – or if they’ll fall prey to the machinations of the night hag Grey Maggie, who orchestrated the whole situation.

Secrets of the Blind Palace is an AWESOME adventure. There are some really good storytelling elements like the repeated usage of illusions and ghosts, very creepy bits like the unanimated body of Wilhelm attacking the characters, and some really hard encounters like the spirit guardians in the Aviary. There are tons of different things to explore and experience, and the mystery definitely keeps people guessing.

If you’d like a legitimately creepy, haunted house-esque game, I recommend Secrets of the Blind Palace. I would have players make level 3 or 4 characters and be willing to adjust the encounters (unless you truly want to kill the party), but I think players will enjoy this challenging and creepy game.

I was fortunate enough to playtest Tal's Coppercoil adventure, so my expectations were high when I bought this adventure. I was not disappointed. I am deep into this with my party, and I have to say the author is going from strength to strength with his adventure writing. This adventure has a lot going for it. Highly engaging NPCs (a mute NPC is who can only communicate with cantrips is a stroke of brilliance), great location, engaging storyline and much more. We are currently 4 hours into this adventure. I have been adding encounters to set up the next storyline, but even so, there is enough here to keep a party engaged for 2 x 4 hours session AT LEAST. This is an outstanding quest, engaging and easy for a DM to get to grips with, involving minimal prep. HIGHLY recommend.

Pros:

• The mute bard and the mystery behind her doomed adventuring party serves as both a great plot hook and an interesting (and suitably terrifying) mystery to discover.
• The mansion contains a perfect balance of exploration, combat, and role-playing opportunities.
• Optional events and quests that can be completed to earn rewards, or in one case, avoid a nasty trap at the end.
• Every combat encounter has notes for adjusting for stronger/weaker parties and levels.
• Meaningful choice at the end with multiple layers and outcomes.

Cons:

• Plain white paper layout.
• No color on the maps.

Full review: https://roguewatson.com/2019/04/13/dms-guild-review-secrets-of-the-blind-palace/

Video review: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wTq2mPtdrBE