I have ran almost the full series by now. Due to limitations I only run 2h adventures, so running without bonus objectives, and this is reflected in my review. I have realised that some of the adventures are definitely better with the bonus objectives included, and this is one of them. If I were to re-run the series now, I'd include the bonus objectives and rather run all the adventures across two sessions. The information about rewards and payment is reflected by the season it was written in, so this has to be adjusted to current rules. I found all the adventures in the series to have some kind of twists for the story and playing it out. Some were good, some less so. Again, I expect some of the twists work better with the bonus objectives included.

Also, beware that if you are not running the bonus objectives, you should still read and know the content, as it is often relevant for later adventures and the narrative parts that replace the bonus objectives. I didn't discover this until quite late in the series, having failed to give my players some relevant information.

Running this adventure without bonus objectives either leads to two large combats with full rests between, and little else, or one large combat, and a challenging travel section with losing freed slaves to madness. It should be made clear to the players what is happening there, and the best they can do is to keep as many as possible safe. It also challenges the DM to get creative with madness effects to counter the skills of the party.

Finally got around to prepping the different Spies Below the Moonsea adventures and am thrilled about this one in particular because

• of how there's so much control in the player's hands as to how to deal with the challenges (attack the scouts or protect the slaves)
• the "traversing the madness" chapter makes play of this adventure LITERALLY different every time for different groups and helps to draw out player ingenuity

So much of this adventure really draws player creativity out and it's a wonderful mix of roleplay and very exciting to run combat.

Kudos and love it!