DDAL07-13 Old Bones and Older Tomes

This was an enjoyable adventure even though the puzzles were overly complex and needed to be simplified for a four hour session. I do have mad respect for Psychic Scream though as it can easily be a TPK situation.

Warning: Major Spoilers below

I completely replaced the "vitality crystal" puzzle with something else (a basic 4x4 logic puzzle). That one was overly complex and I didn't think it would work well on Roll20/Discord.

The final encounter was a TPK for 5 level 15 characters without even buffing it to Strong. Even at "Weak" it still would have been a TPK. Only at "Very Weak" (no 9th level spell slot for the lich) would they have had a chance.

Here's how it went down:
The lich got the Psychic Scream spell out before the wizard was on the floor, so nobody could counterspell it. Most PCs could only pass the DC20 INT save with a 19 or 20 on the die, and they all failed and were stun-locked. One head exploded right away. Nobody was in the paladin's aura, so no help there. When the wizard arrived, the lich used power word stun and a DC20 CON save stun-locked the wizard. The wizard wanted to counterspell the PWS, but did had already cast shield...See more when the greater zombies attacked.

And like that it was all over. The zombies pounded on the stunned paladin and wizard. Eventually the lich disintegrated the paladin, finger of death'd the wizard, blighted the ranger, and ray of frosted the cleric. The lich had plenty of time as it was unlikely any PC would make the save and get out of the stun. I didn't even have to use lair or legendary actions.

The lessons here are:
Psychic Scream is a very powerful spell.
DC20 INT saves are insane.
A wizard should never waste a reaction on shield when there's a lich in the room.

It was a memorable encounter, but not particularly satisfying.

This, out of all of the Tier 3 Season 7 modules, is one I don't think I'll ever run again based on player feedback. The intro part was well written and i like the idea of puzzles that the players themselves have to figure out. Unfortunately, none of my players (or people I played this with later) enjoyed the puzzles and found them to be too difficult especially with certain time restraints at game stores and conventions.

Before I run this (for a non-AL home game), something I'm trying to work out: Is the "Verse vs. Verses" story award relevant to anything else? I've picked up some of the other AL modules for the Tomb Of Annihilation season, and don't see it come up again anywhere. Unless it is used again, I'm inclined to drop it. (Which might be a good update in general, if this never got followed up?!?)

Scribbly reviews: DDAL07-13 old bones and older tomes
A little bit of a mess, but also great fun as we have wizards looking for wizards and wizard towers. Okay so someone stole ancient tomes and wants to become a lich. But with no further plans to destroy the world or raise Dundar like the rest of 07 T3, This is just wizards being wizards. And Liches be crazy.
For DM's the puzzles and mechanics of the tower itself will take a few read throughs, but after that, it's a great location to be in. With just a little bit of stress to keep those players in line.
This mod is a good all around adventure, I'd recommend it for everyone.

Characters:
Octavious and Augustus are so fun to have around the group. Always bickering cartoonishly as only the best of friends can do. Perfect wizards paying attention to only the most insignificant details while ignoring important things like imminent death and monsters.
Crannaston may be a villainous wizard evening for more power then anyone...See more should ever have, but really what's wrong with all that? Just leave him to study and no one has to be torturously murdered by the undoing of reality somehow.
Combat:
A few really good fights with a collection of enemy types will keep you on the edge of your HP.
Role Play:
It's all just another thursday for wizards, so they're all happy to converse and exchange ideas. Even if they are just showing off how much better their ideas are then yours.
Magic Item:
The item here, while isn't immediately the most important item on your equipment list, it's easily the most fun.

I've got a rules question for the author, or anyone else who'd like to chime in. It involves spoilers, so beware.

SPOILERS AHEAD
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From page 14: "Xochimitl teleports into the midst of the group. She exploits truesight to do as much damage as possible..."
The adventurers are in the middle of a Fog Cloud. The text suggests that Xochimitl gets to ignore Fog Cloud thanks to truesight, but I was under the impression that truesight is foiled by physical/non-illusion obscurements like fog.

I've linked Jeremy Crawford's ruling on the matter here: https://www.sageadvice.eu/2016/04/06/does-truesight-sees-through-physical-things/

Anyone care to chime in? Thanks in advance.

Ran it last night. A lot of fun, but had two small issues. The first was my fault, I thought the items the party needed were in the room where you find out about them, not in the farther room (trying to be spoiler free about that), which made things easier. Also, I'm not a huge fan of puzzles that rely on my player's ability as opposed to their character's abilities. Otherwise, an interesting adventure with some good combat.

Just ran it today. I had an extremely strong party, I think that a the final fight needs to have options to make the boss harder. But it was a great puzzler for the characters who legitimately sat and figured out each puzzle.

As said in my review, I believe that a good modification to the adventure would be to make it so that the corrupted emotions stop attacking their related character if they vanquish their flaw. What are your thoughts on this ?