I really liked the story of the module, but I was frustrated by missing stat blocks. There were no stat blocks for Icewind Kobold, Gnoll Hunter, Werepolarbear, Chwingas, or any sort of stat block for Atenas Swift (male neutral good human). The Icewind Kobold and the Gnoll Hunter are almost certain combat encounters, so their missing stat blocks are especially missed. The Icewind Kobold Zombies were particularly ineffectual and mostly just got in the way. Different monsters in Scene E would probably have been more fun.

A chewy adventure with lots of options and background. The PCs in my game (of course) didn't choose a path prescribed in the adventure. They hired the guide and headed to the cave without obtaining the macguffin first. So I had her secretly carrying it with her. Good thing becasue they were cornered and had nothing to bargain with at the end until she sheepishly pulled it out of her tunic. It made for a quite tense moment. It also taught her a valuable lesson about the difference between and "adventurer" and a "guide".

The snowball fight was fun and is presented in a way the let the PCs take it in the lighthearted way it is intended. It might have felt a lot more forced otherwise. Having encountered Chwingas ealier in DC-POA-DCAF-03 (Sputtering Out) they were more inclined to roll with it. For a party unfamiliar with the little sprogs it might have gone differently.

Time-wise it ran short for me. We completed it in 3 hours. Again, it might have been the group. But it did not feel light for plot or content.

This is a very quirky module. If your group likes whimiscal/light-hearted stories, I would definitely recommend it though it might be unsuited for a more serious group. Additionally, my players chose to simply hire the NPC and convince her to bring along the item, so I can't speak for the other options there. I didn't have a chance to run the heist, ghost encounter, or the chase since my group appeased the final NPC.

Pros:

• -This module comes with lots and lots of options/alternate paths for how to run the story. This can add to the prep time, but definitely helps replayability as I doubt any two groups will pick the exact same path. I appreciate the module giving DM guidance for almost anything the players might think to do.
• -The starting NPCs were entertaining and have a fair amount of information given for motivations/role-playing purposes.
• -My players very much enjoyed the Chwinga charms and the snowball fight.
• -The adventure was a good mix of combats (often with extra flavor), role-playing, and more puzzle-solving/obstacle based challenges. It's nice to run a module where killing everything isn't the only option or even the best option to move forward.

Cons:

• -The travel section dragged a bit for my party even with only 3 days of complications. I wouldn't recommend rolling every day unless your group really enjoys travel and/or random encounters. The adventure ran long in our session, and this didn't help. Though it definitely wasn't the only reason we went over.
• -The last combat felt somewhat unbalanced on average APL. The mix of extremely deadly enemies and ones that struggled to do damage made it difficult to run. Characters were either being dropped in one hit or taking almost nothing/zero damage. Some of that might have been my dice rolls, but I would recommend DMs look at alternate monster options during prep. (I actually had less trouble running the deadly monsters than the useless ones. They felt really ineffectual and the combat wasn't actually that difficult for my group overall.)
• -I would have liked more guidance on the Chwinga charms. I wasn't sure whether unused charms were supposed to expire since there was no time limit listed.

*I do agree with the other review about about the maps and item info, so I'm glad to hear that might get adjusted. Addendeum: thanks for the reply to my review. I appreciate the note about the charms, but if the store was supposed to have snowshoes, I would suggest giving pricing for DMs who don't have Rime. Just like you did with the crampons.

Why I chose this adventure? It's a four hour Season 10 Dungeoncraft adventure, and one of the first for this season and this format. It has a reasonable amount of comedy elements and potential for shenanigans, with diverse challenges and interesting NPCs. I was looking for something to play on New Year's Eve which would be entertaining and give players a chance to engage their characters in interesting situations rather than intense combat and number crunching puzzle solving. The result was a success with a lighthearted and enjoyable experience for everyone.

How did it run? We ran this adventure to just over the four hours, and that includes a standard time allocation for social chat that normally occurs with our group. We usually push the time limit on our games, and this was no exception. There is a lot of content here, and potential to stretch out the time, so DMs need to be selective about how each section is run. Some components are optional, and there are choices the DM can make along the way. The players got a chance to try out different skills and enjoyed the various challenges which cover the main pillars, and we focussed more on the social and exploration aspects, but still had time for three combats.

What is it like to DM? As a DM I enjoyed roleplaying the two principle NPCs at the start, I liked the opportunity for the players to experience both the comedy of the curse and its challenge, and I enjoyed the final resolution of the story. As a DM I struggle a bit with the lightning mechanics of outdoor encounters in this season, but that's unrelated to this adventure. I didn't use the optional Scene D in Part 1, and I omitted the Appendix 2 handout.

What was the best part? I love saying Oyaminartok so thank you to the writers for this joy that you gave me. I like the adventure seed chosen, it's one of the more interesting choices available for Dungeoncraft designers. The situation of the town and the NPCs with their personalities is really interesting and well designed. I appreciate what the game deisgners did here. I like the flexibility of the travel component of this adventure. I ran the Gnoll Hunter enouncter and this is a nice challenge. It was the most difficult combat of the game for the players and challenged them to use their skills to overcome the lighting challenge. The cave exploration was very interesting. The final resolution was satisfying, and the players were challenged at the end to provide a secret for each of their characters. That is a really good element to include in Adventurers League modules, and kudos to the game designers for introducing a moment that helps to build the characters.

What could be improved? I wanted to give the description of the cursed item to the players as they cast Identify, but there is a spoiler in it, so I'd suggest maybe resolve it by having the item description and then the background information for the item separately. I struggled with aligning the cave map in Roll20, as there is a grid and also a border around the grid area. So to make this easier, I'd suggest that the map designer should remove the border and also provide the map unit dimensions in the file name. Gridlines should be optional for maps but that's a minor point. The river section of the map looks a little strange, but it is an interesting feature for the party to encounter.

I came for the place and stayed for the people.

My players happened to be in Caer-Konig in the Ten Towns when I was offered to play the story of The Stolen Curse. I am very happy we did. The adventure is a reverse treasure hunt where you need to obtain a piece of treasure, brave an interesting and challenging path, before they put it back on the pile where it belongs. During the adventure you encounter many interesting and well written NPCs that are easy to fall in love with. My players have already said that they would like to come back to Caer-Konig again later to see how their new friends are doing. Definitely some NPCs that will be in the campaign for the long haul.

I like the way the authors wrote the adventure. The style is entertaining and slightly whimsical, making it a pleasure to read for the DM as well.