Ran this with a group of new players and the entire table had a good time with this one. I loved the emphasis on the non-combat pillars of play and seeing what solutions the player's came up with to solve the mystery. A solid module to follow up on the lessons in CCC-UNITE-AN-04 as part of teaching new players the game and how to use multiple approaches to solve a problem. Highly reccomend the base adventure for new players while more experienced ones will enjoy the bonus objectives.

Note to DMs running the adventure: The explanation of what exactly drove the events that set off the adventure are slightly dense. I broke up the chunks of the backstory over the course of the investigation to allow the players to discover a lost piece of history as they went through the adventure.

GAMEPLAY: This adventure provides a strong investigative storyline set in the city of Thentia with a cunning villain and a nice plot twist. Mages and magic abound in this city, and the players get the chance to explore and immerse themselves in this setting. I ran this adventure last week in a three hour timeslot with five players, and with a bit of streamlining managed to complete the adventure without any rush. The reason for this is that the clues are the important components to completing the adventure and there's no linear structure to each section. So players can choose which location to visit and make their deductions with the available clues. For this reason, I am really pleased with this adventure. It gives me the scope to manage expectations and react to their decision making effectively. By inviting the players to enjoy the setting, you can overcome their murderhobo instincts, and give them something to work on. At no stage did they ever feel stuck or lost, as there was always more to followup on. They didn't visit all the locations and so they didn't find all the clues, but still managed to work it out anyway. There's some explaining required to wrap up the story, as there's information the party wont be able to know until the end.

COMBAT: I ran three combats, and I think this is necessary to keep up the tension and to drain their resources. The investigations did take up a lot of time and so there was no need to extend the fights by strengthening their opponents. However, if the players were much faster at investigating, I would increase the strength of the creatures to prolong those fights. The final boss is a nice opponent to run.

OVERALL: An enjoyable investigative adventure in an immersive setting. Will run this again!