For context, I did end up running this adventure and RMH-04 back to back with the same group of players to provide some needed context and cohesiveness, but still I wasn't too satisfied with part 1. Especially for the price tag (which I recognize is not set by the authors in this case) you're just not getting much for the $10 you're spending. Instead of buying this, go buy a bundle of 4 adventures from the Arcane Library for the same amount of money, even if they are presented with less polish.

What I liked: The NPCs area great, you get a little list of NPCs at River's Shelter and they each have their own little stories. There is plenty for a roleplay invested group to dig into and play off of. The White Oasis and the cleansing ritual there is interesting so it's a nice small supplement to adventures happening in Har'Akir. The fight with the Sacred Dead was a challenging encounter in a quarry with traps, I like that (but maybe could have used more traps).

What I didn't like: The PCs are not given much motiviation to even go to Har'Akir, and once again the author is keeping the DM from knowing enough about the world to build a good mystery. DON'T KEEP CLUES FROM THE DM! I need to know what the party should be looking for even if they don't know it yet. But also they should have some idea of what they are looking for other than "weird stuff" that is very dumb. The adventure isn't very robust, the party may not want to stick around River's Shelter if they only have the word White Oasis to go off of, so they may miss the kidnappings. If the party acts swiftly when they first see Pawermo get taken, and they follow the sacred dead (like they can with the halfling) then he may not get zombified. More information should be given about Har'Akir to make the setting feel a bit more whole, what about a visiting Child of Anktepot or some other priest? The adventure ends in a cliffhanger, that's fine if you're running RMH-03 and RMH-04 back to back. But if the point is to be stand alone, then the fight at the beginning of RMH-04 should be added here, then maybe the end of this adventure leads into a deeper dungeon crawl through the tombs of RMH-04.

THE BIG PROBLEM: Ok, by now we are 4 adventures into Ravenloft Misthuners, and unless the DM is getting information from other DMs who have run the other adventures, we still don't know:

What is the apparatus that Radaga is looking for Why was she acting so weird before What is the party trying to accomplish These three things ARE BIG PIECES OF INFORMATION TO KEEP FROM THE DM! How am I supposed to portray Radaga properly if I don't know this stuff? I ended up just keeping her in a half fugue state with amnesia to try and make it work, but then why is she helping the party out on their way to Har'Akir. Modules are not novels, DMs are not the audience, we're working to execute the author's vision for the players so DMs need context and information! Stop working against us!

This was one of my favorite mods to run for AL, but it required dedicating extra time to establish River's Shelter and the NPCs. I changed out the marsh crocodile for a giant crocodile to up the combat difficulty of that encounter, and ran about 2 hours of RP in River's Shelter.

There isn't a lot here, unfortunately. (Spoilers abound)

There's essentially only one combat encounter against some basic undead. (With a mention of adding an enounter against a crocodile or some birds to pad out the time, if needed. And some bugs might be encountered.)

There is only a very vague motivation and goal moving the party along. "Investigate this area and see what's going on." That can be well and good but there actually isn't much going on. Some people are being kidnapped. No one in the village seems to care much except for a priest that the characters might not even meet. The only way the characters can find out what's going on is if they wait for another kidnapping to happen. So what do they do all day? Ask the villagers? No one knows anything and no one really cares because they're too depressed or sick. I can see my party already, spending a lot of game time trying to solve a mystery not knowing that the solution will come to them when they decide to give up and wait til the next day. Then, when the plot finally comes to them, the party is meant to follow these kidnappers rather than confront them. The adventure even says "Hopefully, they follow the group out of the village..." It goes on to say that if they fight these kidnappers, they might TPK as it's a deadly encounter AND they won't learn what's going on or why. It offers no solution as to where to go from here if the party decides to confront (as I imagine most are wont to do).

The last location/encounter is very vaguely set up. It mentions that there are traps in the quarry but doesn't tell you how many there are or where they are ("Place triggers in the area where you feel it best"). It lists two types of traps (a rolling boulder and a fire trap) but the language makes it sound as though there are multiple traps of each type (such as suggesting if the party is too weak, to remove "one" of the boulder traps). Of course, all of this is made even more difficult by the vague description of the room. No dimensions are given and the map looks half finished (no grid, assets half clipped out, etc.) despite the traps and encounter having language that requires knowing how wide the room is or how far away characters are from the walls or sarcophagi. The adventure describes finding two potions in a crate, but in the treasure section only mentions one potion (a small nitpick, but bears mentioning). Also, as mentioned in another review, the encounter ends on a cliffhanger where you meet the REAL enemy of the adventure. Meaning you have to buy the next adventure in the series (RMH-04 The Amber Secret) to get anything out of this.

Compared to some of the other adventures in this series, it's just a lot lighter on content. It says separates it into three sections, but section 2 and 3 are not even a page and a half each. And considering that it ends in a cliffhanger, it almost feels like the whole adventure should have been Part 1, with the next in the series (RMH-04 The Amber Secret) being the Part 2 & 3. I almost wonder if this adventure and The Amber Secret started as one adventure and they decided to split it into two.

But almost all of this could be forgiven were it not for that price tag. I don't want to slag off the writer(s) and designer(s) here, as I'm sure they didn't decide the price. I'm totally fine with these shorter adventures being kind of vague and even having the occasional mistake or two. I don't mind filling in the blanks or adding in my own reworks here and there, but if I have to pay ten dollars ($9.99) I expect a higher level of polish. That's a lot of money for one encounter and one village, 3 NPCs and half a map. I've played free adventures with more content. And for the price of this and the companion sequel, I'm almost to the price of an entire campaign book. Most of the mainline adventures from WoTC are only $30 on amazon. You could levy this complaint against a lot of the adventures in this series (Ravenloft: Mist Hunters), but this one I really felt it.

In summary, there just isn't enough here to justify the price in my opinion. It should be noted that I haven't ran this yet. If, after I run this adventure, I feel differently about any of these points, I'll append this review.

I was pretty disappointed with this one. The timeline was a bit weird, I don't want to spoiler it but theres the opportunity to have the party wonder around before they really know what is going on so they spend quite a long time confused. If I run it again I'll definitely make changes to how it is structured so it makes some more sense. Considering the increased price and the opportunity to improve it after previews (the party I played it with ran into exactly the same confusion) I think it could have been much better.

It's an OK start to an adventure, but it's a bit thin of adventurous content. Plus, it cliffhangers into what I presume is the next chapter. Maybe the two chapters taken together will offer some additional boost to this one, but it's a disappointment as a stand-alone.