An adventure with a fun and novel premise: you play orc characters attempting to reclaim a lost city of orc-kind. This is a dungeon crawl divided into 13 different sections, each basically being a mini-dungeon unto itself with a diverse range of themes. It also effectively draws on the orc cultural lore established in Volo's Guide to Monsters, to include placing a central role for omens in the adventure as clues for the characters.

Unfortunately, the execution is flawed. The different sections of the dungeon don't always work well together, likely reflecting the many contributors to the work - for example, one mini-dungeon encourages you to loot a tomb, and another punishes you for it. The adventure also would have benefited from a stronger introduction that clearly laid out the history of the city and the clans - as is, the DM is left to cobble together details as they go, and even make up key details like the city's name! And despite providing many omens, they don't do a very good job of explaining how to implement them. There are other minor issues throughout, including an unexplained reference to "lines and veils" near the end (an indie RPG concept not yet introduced into D&D at the time this was published).

Despite these many minor issues, the adventure still works solidly enough as a dungeon-crawl anthology, and the core premise leads to a number of interesting elements and encounters. It's just a shame it didn't come together a little better. (Originally posted on Goodreads)

As already stated required a little bit of work to be done by the DM, but if you enjoy adding flavour to adventures you can certainly make this a memorable one for your characters. And your money is going to a good place.

While lacking some polish, I like the concept, and with a little work, I'm confident that this will make an excellent adventure to take my players through. It uses a neat "omens and superstions of tribes" bit, which will require study by the DM to figure out what those tribes are as well as what superstitions they know and follow. The synergy of the map and encounters feels off/pasted on in places, but I'm sure won't be too big a deal. Designwise, I'm not sure how intentional it was, but it feels like it's allowed itself to be open to either a more comedic, "dumb orc" style of play, or a more serious, "deeper lore/smart orc" style of play. Lots of potential for creative play and DM'ing here, especially for anyone tired of the old, "virtuous and noble hero" storylines. Overall, it lacks the polish I like to have in a premade adventure, but for a creative DM, plot holes are where you really get to add your flavour to a thing. If you don't mind a little grind, or have the time to fill over a few holes, it looks great, and I can't wait to get it to the table and see where it goes.