I am in the process of running all of DDAL09 as a campaign, so will be reviewing each adventure as I run them. For context, I have run87 adventures in this campaign already, a homebrew one where the party needs to get out of Elturel with as many civilians as possible as the city is being sucked into hell, and then Baldur's Gate: Fall of Elturel, also on DM's Guild for a different group of adventurers, finally I have run DDAL09-01 through DDAL09-06.

What I liked: This is is two solid dungeon crawls. The first one is very small, but has some fun encounters to explore exploration. It can also be entirely bypassed by socially focused parties and I really like that. Then the second one is a surprisingly big dungeon, especially for adventurer's league. It's VERY thematic, Plagueshield Point is oozing with flavor. There's a history to the place that is layered and evocative, I really like that. The combat is also varied and interesting, the party really loved the encounter in the courtyard. The drow prisoners also add more social encounters, overall pretty great!

What I didn't like:

The first point is minor. There is an underestimation in the time taken to complete the adventure. My group isn't slow and they still took 12 hours to do everything. I think a more accurate estimate is 8-10 hours, so a heads up to anyone trying to run this in one session. The second is more significant, the first Bonus Objective doesn't feel like a reward, it's an expansion of the dungeon crawl but seems to mostly just punish the players for exploring. The second one is an extra fight at the end, which is fine but should be used to drain resources BEFORE the boss fight. Also the two boss fights are essentially solo devils. A bearded and barbed devil should be added to even up action economy and screen the big bads for more tense fights, otherwise they are too easy. I did do this. I also filled the dungeon with more devils in general to help drain party resources before the final confrontation.

But still a solid structure and with the use of an adversary roster to run the dungeon it's a lot of fun!

The maps are great and my players took notice since I let them look the mod over. The set up is kind of a railroad which my players did not buy into. I did like the various landing sites for the party. I had a weak group but smart play which is not accounted for allowed the group to finish in 2 hours and 15 minutes. The group dropped 3 soul coins for information on where the plans were and where was Viltharn. And asked for passwords to bypass certain check points. You need to add adjusting the scene for P4B. I suggest for a weak group only two spined devils attack.

DM'd this in 3.5 hours at a public event, completing neither of the mis-named Bonus Objectives.

Best of the Behind Infernal Lines trilogy, especially because it did not require excessive DM prep like the others.

Spoilers for DMs: --Play-up the RP aspects in Shadowswimmer Tower. If members of your party played the last mod, the Story Award is a good one to play with the Imp. With Respen, emphasize his fragile emotional state: "Oh, how I LOVED that lazy, screwed up demonologist, Viltharn! Boo hoo hoo!" . (In other words, don't let this revert to combat, but still make them work to get what they need.) --I made a map of Plagueshield Point with no fissure to represent what the characters saw on Respen's wall. I think it helped them understand the multiple levels inside the stalagmite. --Note the Wis(Perception) check at the end of page 6. If your party, like mine, had some expertise in this skill, be prepared for them to enter at Area P3c and be aware that that it's not marked on the map, though you can figure out the location. --My party went straight for Ljubomir in his chambers and it was a hard fight, especially because of the two bodyguards and their invisible nuisances. --After that, the fight in the prison was anticlimactic, but the freeing the prisoner freeked them out. --They hid out waiting for their mode of transportation to re-charge and when they finally left, I had this whole description of Dalgro's demons arriving and then a battalion of devils soon after leading to a pitched battle while the party ran for it. Because they never encountered Viltharn I gave them a chance to pass Respen's respects, which my players seemed to enjoy.

BL: Take advantage of the way Season 9 adventures make the players CARE about what they are doing in Avernus.

I had the opportunity to to play this module and enjoyed it! Now that I am prepping this adventure for my FLGS game, there are some things I noticed. The adventure is easily compartmented with the adventure hooks presented, and there is enough there to link it to it's predecessor, DDAL 09-06. I really like it's premise and the Macguffin is unique! The adventurer's background seems complete until you get to Bonus Objective A. where it can be super-challenging without a more amplified background (which I believe, has been provided in the Adventure's League Official Forum). There were some map labeling oversights that are easily overcome. The NPCs/Creature compostion here is certainly appropriate. I especially gravitated to Villtharn. I liked that the designer provided a means to allow an NPC to help and hinder the party. I was moved that the designer cleary put effort into its mundane items in the fortress chambers. They complement the feel and theme of the location and it's inhabitants. I did have one technical question which I will pose to the proper forum. Overall, I liked this module and I look forward to running it here in my BG:DiA campaign soon! It is my second favorite adventure in this series, the first being DDAL 09-05.