I want to be clear that I ran this adventure in 2023, after the patch by the author.

I can't speak to the original state of the adventure, but I had a very fun time running the patched version. It's a fun, simple little mystery with plenty of opportunity for players to make meaningful decisions regarding the treasure they find and what things they dig deeper into.

What I liked: Roleplay heavy, it has a lot of opportunity for social checks, skill challenges, and the ties to the previous adventure and the next one are a lot of fun. Ther are some nice red herrings that end up leading to the final conclusion in a fun way.

What I didn't like: It's combat light, and definitely sets the characters up to have potential conflict with certain NPCs but at the same time tells the DM "don't let that happen." The full movements of the badguy for this adventure don't make full sense. I think it could be cleaned up even more, and I did so while running it. The final confrontation's lead up is a bit travel and the information isn't placed in an easily digestible manner, so I had to reread a few times to understand what was happening.

Overall: It's overall fun to run with the patched version, and leads very nicely into DDAL04-04.

This adventure ran shorter than the alloted time because my group didn't do much of the stuff. They didn't want to break into the Burgomaster's home. They went to Fillar's shop and had some good role playing but quickly figured something was wrong with "Arik" but didn't realize that he was Laszlo. The fight with the undead was typically Barovian but wasn't particularly interesting. The characters still hadn't figured out that Laszlo was behind it and I had to spell it out to them. Given that the party hadn't broken into the Burgomaster's home, the conclusion confrontation with him was very anticlimatic.

I ran this at a convention directly after The Beast, and I was unfortunately given the original version of the module, rather than the revision. (I didn't know there was a revision until I purchased the season pack yesterday.) The original version has some ISSUES, but I've read the revision and it looks smoother. Even so, it appears that it's up to the DM to railroad the players into talking / fighting / breaking their way into the Burgomaster's home, which isn't ideal. However, the revision looks like it'll fix the issue I had with players never actually figuring out who Arik is, so maybe next time I run this, it will go better. The players and I liked that there's very little combat and a lot of roleplay.

I really wish I could give this module a higher rating, but it was abysmal to run.

The entire adventure plays like an extended cutscene. I was basically forced to railroad the players so that they would actually make any progress towards unraveling the mystery, and by the end of it the identity of the attacker was still unknown to them.

The players latched onto random rumors that were given out in the beginning as red herrings, fixating on them almost to the exclusion of the main plot.

The rumor about the Burgomaster's taxes backfired when one player literally said he would stand outside the Burgomaster's mansion for days on end until he decided to engage in discussion.

Avoid this module. It's not good.

Even with all the fixes and suggestions on how to run, to this day it runs like a cutscene only serving to show that someone the players thought was dead is, in fact, not. And then you kill him in the next module. This could easily be incorporated in the preceding module as a cliffhanger to keep players enticed by the mysterious of the land, or as a hook in the following adventure instead of the hard stop.

I DM'ed this module, and contrary to many reviewers here, I quite enjoyed DMing it, and my players liked playing it. Perhaps it is because I'm the kind of DM that leads his players a lot instead of letting them all by themselves. Perhaps it is because I ran it right after DDAL04-02, which finished by the adventurers returning to the hunting camp and seeing that Lazlo had disappeared, thus already being suspicious at the start of this adventure (which made quite a good link when the "newcomer" arrived : my party was all around him, asking him questions, following him around... quite the moment!).

Fillar was a funny NPC to roleplay (always bobbing his head around like a bird... nice addition), and interestingly enough, it was the players who convinced the villagers to turn against the "newcomer", making the village riot event a logical consequence and not at all out of place.

I added quite a lot of zombies in the final encounter in order to really make it dire and maintain the tone put in place by the two previous adventures (a shame that the Mist Zombies from DDAL04-01 are not used there by default!), but other than that, the roleplay perspective of characters defending a village against a zombie assault are quite good (especially if the DM adds endangered NPCs during the fight -- a bit like what's done in the next adventure's village battle).

Maybe my ratings are too high (keeping in mind spelling errors and whatnot), but I feel like the enjoyment of my players is what matters most (and they did enjoy this one!).

This adventure is not easy to run if the beginning is not handled correctly. During the information gathering, it is possible for the characters will choose to skip the Burgomaster’s house if they find the Burgomaster is gone. If this happens, the house and store can be swapped before the final encounter. The Burgomaster’s house seems standard and not too exciting since there is nothing special about the house beyond the basement. The shop is interesting, but can steer the party away from the threat if they try to get a confession out of the shopkeeper. The final fight can be made interesting if you through in NPCs for the party to save. Overall, this adventure will feel more hack and slash and can be confusing with loose ends a character didn’t play the last adventure.

This adventure was a blast to run. It's slightly more roleplay than most adventures. I've also the (mis)fortune of running and playing it multiple times, and each time has been slightly different.

Ultimately, the PCs have the choice of what order to explore the place, which is good for PCs but may confuse novice DMs on what to do. The burgomaster's house can be skipped, but it's also a blast if there are any non-lawful members of the party and want to do good. This one also ties in with DDAL4-02 The Beast, but it is not necessary to run or play that adventure before playing this one.

As with all of the season 4 adventures, this one has the slight disadvantage of being trapped in Barovia if a player plays this scenario. Also, this adventure might be hard for anybody who prefers linear adventures. For everybody else, this is a fun advture to run.

Like most of the of the curse adventures, this one is solid and well written, but suffers a bit from it's poor orginization in the first half of the adventure. don't be surprised if your players lose the thread or need more push then the story provides. the expected actions of the players don't align with typical AL League motives, so be prepared to push a bit and constrain the party's options.

Before the revision, the module felt unorganized and really confusing as a player and a DM. I often felt that I didn't really know what was happening with the module, and that it had a lack of focus. THAT aside, I think the roleplaying opportunity is really nice, and not often seen in DDAL, and in addition to that, it ties really well into the season 4 modules.

Recommend Purchase: Yes. XP Range: 225-300

The overall story woven between all fourteen modules is called 'Misty Fortunes and Absent Hearts' and is relatively strong overall, but suffers for a couple reasons. The final module probably wasn't written at the time the first was released, so they couldn't or didn't want to spill some of the meta information that DMs would have LOVED to have. In the early modules things would occur 'deus ex machina' and even the DM wouldn't have a clue as to why.

If you're planning on running these, i HIGHLY recommend buying the bundle, reading the DDAL04-14 (The Dark Lord) Adventure Overview on pages 7-8 to see where everthing is heading ... and then reading each module's Overview in turn before running everything. This will help you greatly.

If you start with the first module you'll have enough XP to level up, stay within the module tiers and make it all the way to the 14th module. Afterwards you could always play a few chapters of the Curse of Strahd Harcover and then leave Barovia behind.

Before running any Season 4 module, you should download the following content:

• dndadventurersleague.org/barexit-escaping-the-mists-of-barovia/
• dndadventurersleague.org/curse-of-strahd-backgrounds/
• DMSGUILD: DDAL04 Expanded Dark Gifts Table [OPTIONAL CONTENT]

Season 4 initially couldn't leave the Demiplane of Dread until the very end, but the Admins later introduced the 'Barexit' mechanic.

It's not great, but it's not quite as bad as the concensus would imply.

The main issue is that the connection between the scenes is a little lax, especially the "petty larceny" part mentioned earlier. The assumption that the party's a bit on the murder-hobo side makes it harder to connect the scenes together when the party isn't... But nothing that can't be solves by playing up the jerkishness of some people a bit.

I never saw what this module was like before the revision, but the current version seemed ok to me. It was good for players who wanted more of a role-play adventure. I looked over the suggestions from the author and the other DMs and added some of that in for flavor which really made the adventure more enjoyable.

I did feel that the adventure placed emphasis on certain things that really weren't important though. For example, I didnt see why it was critical for the party to go to the Burgomaster's house, so I didnt make that come across as essential when they were talking to the townsfolk. Overall it was a good 2-hr module with some nice rp opportunities.

Excellent module if you enjoy role-playing as there is plenty of chances to do so. Not combat heavy which I enjoy

On its own, the module is only O.K. As a companion / followup to 4-02, it just simply fell flat. It looks like the story was written out of sync with 4-02 and as such there is no guidance about how to deal with Laszlo's interactions with regards to the fate of Aliana from the previous module. I felt Laszlo as written here fell flat. The story needs to have something to make it more fun and memorable. Honestly the most memorable thing about this adventure is the magic item that the players made fun of.