I have read this module a few times but actually ran it tonight (with a few adjustments). The ongoing effects (Necrotic Kiss and Cancerous Magic) are in fact from DDEP00-01 The Red War Epic. I was confused as to whether these ongoing effects occur during one part of the adventure, or duration of the adventure-two different parts of the adventure say two different things. The first adjustment I made is to not include these effects at all-they easily defeat a non-experienced party before they even get to the main crux of the adventure. Especially if DMs do as suggested by conconcting a "maze of left turns, right turns, and dead ends...". The second adjustment was that at the beginning adventure where the party is told what treasure they are going to be rewarded. In my experience, giving players this knowledge may take away the motivation for some-I chose to wait until they came back.

I enjoyed the idea of actually placing heroes names amongst the "legendary heroes" of the adventure. DMs here can use that opportunity to at least hint at the presence of some of Faerun's mightiest, or heroic players that your players use in other adventures. I did enjoy the non-combat encounters random table and there is obvious bias here because one of the NPCs on the table comes from one of my designed adventures. I thought the tribute to NPCs from other adventure designers well done in good taste. The Area Information descriptions are sufficient to replicate a map for those that need one, or be able to provide an effective description.

My players enjoyed dealing with the protocols, particularly the last one .. one of my players created a limerick made me laugh! The provide provide dice roll options for those players that may not be puzzle-inclined with the exception of the last one. What I did is had those that were not limerick-inclined do a group Performance check contested by a D20 roll to see if they are able to make a laughable limerick. That seemed to meet the spirit of the adventure, the designer does kindly remind you to "feel free to work with them (players)". That's crits in my book.

As a DM, I will say this module is an enjoyable read, but I think it may rely too much on external references rather than module sidebars to help DMs capture Red War elements, and the ongoing evironmentals are too much. I would like to have seen an 'Adjusting the Adventure' sidebar to mitigate those effects for different APLs.

There are more Exploration and Social Pillars of Play here; and under the direct umbrella of the Red War, I did not think that this was possible; however, the adventure does a good job of presenting them. Overall, my players did have a good time. Lastly, Thayan Peace Keeper ...T.P.K. Pretty clever. I look forward to seeing more adventures from Dave Hopkins in the future. Good Gaming.