It has the framework for a good adventure, but after getting through it, it has glaring holes which the author neglected to support: -Why would the Yraxilinith kill Mugrub after paying her to get the key for him? (HUGE PLOT HOLE which makes no sense) -Why mention the Flameskulls giving bizarre quests or having the party break nonsensical laws if you don't provide examples? This adventure can be either very short (if all social interactions) or extremely long (multiple fights) which makes gauging this for a typical 3-4 hour AL session extremely difficult -If the author is going to include fights with certain monsters, please include their stat blocks (I had to make up them on my own)

As a player, this was the very first role-play heavy Adventurers League game I ever joined (I prefer combat, so all of you can tell why I joined).

I am writing this review because I had a great time then, and I have a great time now DMing this for other people.

Great mod, even though I had to wait quite a while to find a group of T2 to run it for. I had the privilege to run DDAL08-11 and DDAL08-12 at a Con back in June, so I was eager to see how part I fit in. Much like parts II and III, the fights look scarier than they actually turn out to be.

That being said, a Mindflayer with 12 ID can wipe the floor with pretty much any party of any level (Mind Blast is 60’ AoE stun attack, which Y gets as a reaction, the basic MF attack is both grapple and stun-if grappled and stunned you’re taking 10d10 per turn, which can easily hit triple digits on a crit. Plus 12 shots per turn at Body Thief (unless you’re a wizard Int is a dump stat, so most characters should be very afraid of getting eaten quickly, which leads to some interesting PvP action). Now despite the BBEG fight from hell, Y immediately surrenders and the module is over.

The two bonus objectives were fun, the party necromancer jumped at the chance to get a trio of pet zombies, and the other objective was the only combat in the entire expedition (see previous paragraph).

Magic item drop is amazing; I’m definitely grabbing another with Dedicated DM.

This was a fun game to run, and my players accomplished all the tasks, including the bonus objectives, Just under three hours. The players were impressed witht he amuluet at the end, and I got the impression they thought it was a good unlock.

The NPCs were fun to run as they contrast the party. All of them just want to live their lives doing what they are doing, and the party storms in to shake things up. My favorite was the mindflayer, as he just wants to live a peacefull life (while getting rid of bad people in skullport). When my party saw him, he was kind and non-combative, just wanted to know if they needed help. I think having a mindflayer (with all the reputation they have) act in this way, shocked my party. Not all creatures in D&D are good, but not every one seeks combat.

I was impressed because every single encounter in this module can be delt with, without any combat. If you have a party of diplomats they will enjoy charming the information out of the NPC. If your party loves to fight, insult, and brutily succeed, then there is always a chance they will be entering into combat when they meet NPC as well as random encounters with the flamingskulls.

The encounters are decent, and can be scaled up for tougher parties. If you can, find out what the party will consit of, as futer planning will alow you to be prepared to describe the amount of enemies in the room.

The only issue I had running this game was the NPC's actions. Their ideals, bonds, ect were all on one page instead of the scenes where you meet them. If you have a few hours to prepare, you can make a note of how they will interact, but I feel like that information should have been where you meet the characters. That way if you forget something you can quickly look down at the page.

Overall I loved prepping this module and I can definitely reuse a lot of this for future games. I, like many others, like geting more for my money and that's something this provides.

Pros:

• NPCs/Locations - definitely the shining star of this module. I fell in love with all of them and I'll definitely be importing these in future games for my players. I can tell a ton of effort went into creating this thing and I really appreciate that.
• Magic Item - My players were pleasantly surprised about the item
• Flexibility - A DM with time to prep really has a huge number of options at their disposal as to how they want to customize this adventure - or instead, you can just follow the prompts and just roll with it
• Maps - The maps in this module were pretty diverse and I'm glad that they put the effort into creating these
• Handouts - There were tons of them and I love it when I have something I can give to the group during their explorations

Cons:

• I wish the maps had a player/DM version. I DM online and had to break out my graphics editing software to hide the various DM lables.

Observation:

• Our group took 2.5 hours to complete all 4 objectives
• There's minor discrepancy in Krystaleen's description but honestly you could go with either of the two and it'll be fine. Just keep that in mind when deciding how tough of an encounter you want to make it... DM empowerment and all that

this was a great adventure for my Al playgroup. i love the layout which makes things a lot easier to find mid session. I eally enjoyed the murder mystery style as well as some of the more unique/strange characters the players meet. also the magic item is awesome and all my players freaked out when it was revealed.

I recently had an opprtunity to run this module under APL (Weak) Party; this may be the first time I have run an adventure under the APL. The players had a good time with it, and grew a bit concerned when they arrived at Y's lair, and went inside. It was refreshing to see an ending that didn't have to involve a big ole battle with the big baddie (But I like that you had a sidebar for if "it" did happen). That was my player's bit. As a DM I think I enjoyed two aspects. The most is the synopsis of Skullport. There is enough there that you give players enough from the contents to get a feel for Skullport; some may have not played DotMM, or be familiar with SKullport through other means. Lastly, I enjoyed the NPCs, Frankie, Irontusk, and Artemis?? I think my players enjoyed interacting with them the most-it took up most of our session! A good time was had by players, and by the DM. Good job on this one, Paige and gang!

I have both played and run this module. I played it at first and had a great time. I enjoyed the Skullport setting, and learned a lot about it, having never had any experience with the town at all. A then read it and ran it for my normal weekly group. Everyone had a great time and they really enjoyed that there were several options on ways to handle each of the encounters in the module. I also recommend the rest of the Skullport Trilogy. Nice continuation of the story.

Absoluetly love this module. My group is super RP heavy and we had alot of fun doing the murder mistery and hunting him down. That being said I do feel like it feels a little weird if it was with a non rp heavy group but that being said I love this module.

This module was an absolute blast to DM. My players enjoyed playing a module where they didn't need to do any combat at all. They got to RP their way through the whole thing and make decisions that didn't 100% have an outcome of combat. Thanks for giving us the flexibility to let the characters make their way through the module in the manner they chose to do.

The module felt a tiny bit formulaic to me. There weren't really any red herrings which would lead them into a failed mission. The players still enjoyed it so I can't complain, but it would be good to give us some false paths to let the player's make some bad decisions.

I ran this module this last Tuesday evening at Game Kastle Mountain View, my +5 Game Store of Awesome. I had 4 players, all roughly 7th level. Overall, I felt that this was one of the better Season 8 modules -- comparable to the brilliant "Once In Waterdeep" -- & absolutely superior to the "time travel" dreck from Tier 1.

Pros: The mod is mostly well balanced in terms of RP & combat. Any of the encounters can be dealt with in a variety of ways, depending on how your players wish to go about things, & I felt that DM pre-prep was minimal compared to earlier mods. I especially enjoyed RPing the villain at the end; I'd like to see that creature come up again in future mods, it's fun to talk to players like that instead of automatically rolling initiative!

Cons: I'm not sure I'm properly identifying this as a "con" but ... my players finished one of the main objectives & both of the bonus objectives in just over an hour, leaving us 2.5 hours to do the final encounter. Because they had no trouble at all navigating the "challenges" to that point, I ended up throwing in a combat encounter -- a Hobgoblin Warlord, Devastator, & 2 regular Hobgoblins -- which almost turned into a TPK. Even with that & an extended conversation with the Villain, I still wasn't able to extend the session to its allotted 3.5 hours; there just wasn't enough content there to do so. This has been an ongoing issue with me & the official S8 modules, & I hope it can be mitigated in future releases.

The item unlock is awesome :) I'm looking forward to running the next two installments over the next two weeks & hope that this module represents a higher standard of quality we can expect going forward.

Overall grade: A-, definitely recommended.

To be honest before I ran this adventure I was fully prepared to give it two stars. At first glance there doesn't seem to be a lot going on. Go here, talk to this NPC, go there talk to another NPC, go to the boss have a lovely chat about good and evil, done. It is possible to complete the entire adventure without a single combat through social play or stealth. It is also possible to run this mod with lots of combat. In that way it is a well rounded adventure. Almost any style DM should be able to craft a great story using this mod.

There are still some areas that need improvement, however. There is one area with six traps, but the mod only gives three. I realize that the intent is to allow the DM to craft their own, but I am old and tired and I don't have a lot of time. The author could have given six traps and allowed the DM to craft their own if they wished. My second concern is not about the adventure per se, but about the season 8 format. The sidebar with the three tiers of play makes it difficult for me to find the information. I am constantly thinking to myself, "I know I read that somewhere was it in the main text, the Pillars sidebar or the NPCs page." I would prefer the information in the Pillars sidebar be in the main text.

I ran this two days ago. Since it combines a murder mystery with a fifties dectective story (aka a McGuffin hunt) it was easy to run with no changes. You can lead the players by the nose, let them fight or combine the two. Since I do have Mad Mage, and most of the players have played in it, introducing the town was no problem. I did add a quick flameskull battle to warm up the group. The only other combat was a one on one in the Bat's Roost due to fact they failed to get the information with skill checks. Play time was one hour and fifty minutes.

Great adventure that allows players to use social skills and thinking instead of just combat to solve the quest. Only the format of Season 8 hurts this module.

There is simply too much in this module that isn't explained. When I'm running a module, especially in an environment like Adventurer's League, I expect that module to provide enough information that I can improvise what happens on the basis of a story that I already know. I shouldn't have to invent motivations and past events to explain the things that the module expects to happen. If I'm going to invent the story myself, I may as well be playing in a home game. This is especially inappropriate in organized play because my players' future DMs aren't going to know any of the things I had to make up. This means that characters aren't continuing the same story at all.

Examples follow, so expect spoilers.

So, Yraxilinith upset some Zhentarim by eating the wrong brain, and he needs money to do them a favor, so he gets that money by betting on fights at the Bat's Roost. That's about as much of the module as makes sense. Why wouldn't Yraxilinith just buy the key from Thimblewine's pawn shop itself? Why involve Laurel Stillwater and Mugrub at all? What are their reasons for participating? If there is some reason to use so many go-betweens, why kill Mugrub? If there is some reason to kill the go-betweens, then since Yraxilinith prefers to eat evil brains, wouldn't it be motivated to find evil go-betweens?

Volo tells the adventurers that the key is stolen. The module says that this is a lie, Volo simply wants it. That's fine, but that means that players are going to reasonably think that the pawn shop might be a fence for stolen goods. They're going to ask where the shop got the key. The shop's extensive records mean that there's no way Krystaleen doesn't know, but the module doesn't say.

Since I have different players every week, when players ask reasonable questions that the module doesn't answer the best option for me is to just break immersion and tell them that the module doesn't say, since anything I improvise won't be true in the next module. I really don't like how often season 8 puts me in this position compared to past seasons, especially with how careful season 4 was to have a season-long plot that can be run effectively by multiple DMs who aren't communicating with each other.

It's possible to make it through this entire module without combat, and I appreciate that. Unfortunately, this means that the module either contains no combats or far, far too many. Characters who can't tolerate monstrous races and default to attacking them mean that every single encounter is going to turn into combat while more cosmopolitan characters mean that the entire module passes more or less peacefully. This makes timing the module very difficult.

Too much of the module exists in sidebars that suggest you could make something up but don't give examples. If you want to suggest that the DM involve the flameskulls of Skullport to add "weirdness" and give "bizarre quests," you need to give some examples.

The sidebar that suggests adding up to twelve intellect devourers to the series of trap rooms is perhaps the most dangerous.

I'm going to reiterate my standard of a knowledgable but inexperienced DM. A DM who understands how combat works but isn't familiar with the details of every monster is going to see that the Intellect Devourers are intelligent and have them gang up on the most vulnerable looking characters. With 7-12 Intellect Devourers, especially if they by chance do well in the initiative, vulnerable characters are going to fail their saving throw and have their int reduced to 0. If they get taken over, their own party has to fight them to the death.

Only then will this DM discover that there's no described way to recover from the intelligence drain, so the 5th level spell greater restoration is required. Many T2 parties won't have the ability to cast that spell. If a character was taken over, not only did their own party have to fight them to the death, but they're dead in a way that Raise Dead can't fix since they're missing a major organ.

That is not fun. It probably shouldn't be here, and if it must be then it needs to be a combat writeup with adjustments instead of just a sidebar with some suggestions of what the DM "could" do.

The module doesn't provide enough detail to allow a DM to improvise effectively, and the combats aren't written with enough care and clarity that I could hand this to an inexperienced DM without taking the chance that they'll kill characters accidentally. I don't know what this module is supposed to be providing.