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DDAL08-12 Xanathar's Wrath $4.99
Average Rating:3.6 / 5
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DDAL08-12 Xanathar\'s Wrath
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DDAL08-12 Xanathar's Wrath
Publisher: D&D Adventurers League
by Tim L. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 06/01/2019 21:34:01

It was enjoyable, we hade fun. For a part III of a trilogy, it did a great job tying into the previous 2 parts, and setting up a great finale... but unfortunately there is no grand conclusion.

The 2 bonus objectives are top notch, but without them this would be terrible. So X has the key you've been chasing for 3 expeditions-excellent, someone wants you to assassinate his pet fish-awesome, X has also kidnapped some girl to paint his portait-amazing storytelling. Great set up and well planned.

Act 2/Main objective A: come up with a plan (which were pretty much spoon fed to you in Act 1 Call to Action), running then entirely to Act 2 as a DM consists of asking "So what's you plan then?" and awarding 1 ACP and 1 TP if they answer it.

Act 3/Main objetive B: ok so we avoided the OP major NPC that can wipe a T4 group, completed the excellent Bonus Objectives, and stole the key, now what-does the party just go home? There is no real ending to this module or this trilogy.

On a side note: for the break in and steal stuff type modules, see the Embers of the Last War Ebberon storyline-there are almost all the same and better done than this one was (albeit a bit repetitive)

If it were not the bonus objectives this would be approximately a 1h module, and season 7 proved that 1h modules for T2 don't work. With the bonus objectives it's still about 3:15.

and if I may comment on 2 other reviews: David E, see ELW for Heist-type adventures Henry B, Season 4 did not have a coherent storyline when it was being released, they had to retcon the Misty Fortunes and Absent Hearts when DDAL4-13 the Horseman was release to try and tie everything together. DMing that for the orginal release schedule was a train wreck since no one knew where things were going. Once you get the whole thing you could probably do a much better job. I agree with season 5 having the best storylines-probably the best 2 story arcs actually



Rating:
[3 of 5 Stars!]
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DDAL08-12 Xanathar's Wrath
Publisher: D&D Adventurers League
by Glenn H. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 05/14/2019 19:43:47

Finished both story objectives and bonus A in 4-hours at a convention so 3 ACPs/TPs. This module is best for DMs comfortable with ad libbing (which is not me) but my main beef with it is the poor structure and editing. The party meets with Grumble in a fancy restaurant (I had her in a summer dress, big hat & pearls with a gravely voice) and the DM needs to summarize information from the Creatures/NPCs section (X, Ott & Ahmaergo), from Appendix 5 (Veena), and from Episode 2 (tailing Ott). It's cool that players get to choose their plan, but it takes a lot of work to prep them all. I had a 3-phase skill challenge prepared for tailing Ott (Stealth in Lower Skullport; climbing or tightrope walking in Middle Skullport; and Upper Skullport was Con + Stealth/climb/balance to get within 30' of him as did his routine to get into the Wrath). My party went with the Minotaur skull.

My party bluffed to get into Ahmaergo's office to give him the Minotaur skull, but didn't have a plan (and I didn't have a plan) after that. (The funny thing about this is that Grumble told them not to read the runes because it was cursed so one of the characters told that to Ahmaergo instead of letting him trigger it.) A couple of party members said they were art fans and got a guided tour of the gallery--they, of course, killed their guide. Pretty soon, however, it degenerated into a free-for-all which the party crushed.

From there it was mostly puzzles to get the key and kill the goldfish. They guessed the combination on the safe in the first try. Be aware, however, that in Ott's room the description of the Beholder Engraving leaves out that there are yellow crystals, which is important because they are necessary to solve the puzzle. That will ruin the puzzle for many.



Rating:
[3 of 5 Stars!]
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DDAL08-12 Xanathar's Wrath
Publisher: D&D Adventurers League
by Marcello V. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 05/11/2019 22:56:44

As a DM I enjoyed this adventure. I went into DotMM HC to grab out a bit more for my players, but the plot was understandable and not confusing. My players had a good time and they got to antagonize The Xanathar in the process. My favorite of the Skullport Shakedown Trilogy!



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
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DDAL08-12 Xanathar's Wrath
Publisher: D&D Adventurers League
by David E. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 03/30/2019 08:08:02

The best season 8 mod thus far. I love heist adventures. The set up for the heist was well put together. It was a great ending to the trilogy. I really can't say enough good things. My players had a blast.

Having said that, I am still not a fan of the season 8 format. It is not easy to find things.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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DDAL08-12 Xanathar's Wrath
Publisher: D&D Adventurers League
by Henry B. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 03/12/2019 21:19:40

I don't even know how to explain how terrible the Season 8 format is. This module, like every Season 8 module, suffers from basic storytelling problems and fundamental design flaws that were not an issue in previous seasons.

1) Like all of Season 8 the combats are ridiculously unbalanced. Each individual combat laid out in this module is deadly or stronger by the DMG guidelines.

2) This is an incredibly anticlimactic end to the T2 modules. The players can't or shouldn't face The Xanathar because he can 1-shot kill lots of T2 characters. This means there is no boss battle to finish the T2 story line, just some sneaking around and hoping you aren't disintegrated by a beholder. 2a) The key being recovered is likely a fake. This means that nothing that any player did in any Season 8 module so far has mattered. That is incredibly disheartening for players and DMs.

It is getting harder and harder to expect basic game design and storytelling from Season 8 modules. Please, if you have never run AL before or have any reservations Do not waste your time or money on ANY Season 8 modules go back and enjoy earlier seasons, before the format change. I highly recommend Season 4 and Season 5 (Curse of Strahd and Storm King's Thunder) they both have modules with coherent stories and well designed encounters that are an absolute pleasure to run with little preparation. Season 8 depends on DMs devoting hours to preparation and research to be prepared to answer basic questions that are unanswered by the modules



Rating:
[1 of 5 Stars!]
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DDAL08-12 Xanathar's Wrath
Publisher: D&D Adventurers League
by Roger M. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 03/11/2019 13:24:31

This could be a great adventure but editing and lack of call backs hurt the adventure. It has great ideas and ways you can run the adventure from straight combat, sneak, or combination of both. My players did enjoy the adventure even if they did not get all four adventure points. First Thanks to the lead designer for replying to my questions of missing stats. Both Ahmaergo and Ott are talk about but missing stats . Ahmaergo is on page 193 of Waterdeep Heist. Ott Steeltoes dwarf Cultist AC 12 HP 9 XP 25 MM 345. Second no mention of the story award from 08-11 Poisoned Words but another story award is mention. Third and this is nitpick. The ship is too small. Xanathar is large but all ship's doors are regular. I don't think Xanathar would squeeze himself. Fourth some more information is given for Lord Ahgnairon who we find out is member of the Shadowdusk Family. You currently would need to know about of one of the final levels of Mad Mage to known how this ties in to the season. Some typical awakward editiing are also in the adventure. On page 12 under Treasure & Rewards, read aloud the first bullet point.



Rating:
[3 of 5 Stars!]
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DDAL08-12 Xanathar's Wrath
Publisher: D&D Adventurers League
by Dan S. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 03/11/2019 00:43:09

This module had a little bit of a slow start, but it got really fun really fast. My players decided to follow the goldfish caretaker, and they bumbled their way through the social encounters. It was pretty hilarious. But they were ale to sneak their way through the rest of the encounter. Everythign went well until they ran into The Xanathar and things went REALLY poorly. The anxiety level went really high but they were able to finish the mission while not killing The Xanathar and escaping without losing any party members. The players' stress levels were super high and when they survived they felt a huge relief! Excellent module! I highly recommend it.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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DDAL08-12 Xanathar's Wrath
Publisher: D&D Adventurers League
by David P. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 03/08/2019 18:08:34

This is a critical review, so expect spoilers. The Background section on page 2, basically the first actual content of the module, ends like this. "The gang tracks the key to an agent of a rival group, BREGAN D’AERTHE, in SKULLPORT. They kill the drow and bring the key to one of the Xanathar’s nearby bases. The beholder wastes no time and immediately contacts the Shadowdusks. They quickly arrive to claim their prize and then return to the depths of the mountain. Of course, as far as the player characters know, the Xanathar still has the key and their job is to get it."

This fact and its implications are mentioned nowhere else in the module that I can see. The PCs do find a key in the Xanathar's vault and the module doesn't say that the key is a copy or a fake. I am forced to wonder if the background section is an editing error or if this major plot point just doesn't merit any followup. Given the number and magnitude of other editing mistakes in the module, I can't be sure.

I believe the key is probably fake based on details in the module and because the blurb for DDAL08-17 "The Tower of Ahghairon" is about not being able to get into Ahghairon's tower, which the key is supposed to unlock.

It bothers me that I can't really be sure if this is a major plot detail or an editing mistake. It also bothers me that it might be a plot point because that means that this module and its trilogy are participating in one of the most corrosive trends in season 8.

It is in character for the Xanathar, as a successful beholder, to have convoluted schemes and trick PCs. However, of the four trilogies releases so far in season 8, the players do not accomplish their goals in three of them, and in the remaining one, they are knowing servants of evil.

In the first trilogy, they follow a map that they are meant to assume leads to treasure. It doesn't.

In the second they are sent on a fact-finding mission to a mental projection of the past, which they cannot change. They do not find the information that they go looking for.

In the third, they help a vampire find a new lair. They technically succeed at the goal they were given, and they get to defeat a nest of vampires to make room for their vampire employer. However, many players at my FLGS felt coerced. They needed to make their character go along with things they wouldn't tolerate so that the player can play the module. Succeeding at that is not something that makes the players or their characters proud.

Now they spend the fourth trilogy chasing a key for Volo and fail to retrieve it.

This is not normal for adventurer's league. Go back over past modules and summarize what the PCs accomplish like its a bullet point on their heroic CV. Usually, they accomplish something independent of the way that they did it. The stakes do not always have to be high. They might escort some refugees out of an occupied city, or they might rescue a kidnapped child or solve a murder mystery.

So yes, it might be very impressive that the PCs managed to infiltrate a Xanathar base and then escape, but if they can't say what they accomplished by doing that then it isn't a success and it isn't in keeping with previous modules.

Players at my FLGS have been making grim jokes about how nothing their characters do matters since the very first trilogy when they realized that they don't know where the map leads and nothing bad happens if they stop following it. The players have a reason to keep playing but their characters don't.

Let's look past the issue of whether or not the key is fake for a moment after all that won't matter until a future trilogy anyway. That leads to the next problem with this story.

My FLGS runs tier 1 and tier 2 content basically every week, but we only have the resources to run tier 3 content once a month, and we can only run tier 4 content at special events. Many of our players don't have tier 3 or tier 4 characters. I know that many other stores and players are in similar situations.

For most of the players in my community, this module was the finale of regular season 8 play. It features a major NPC that they're not really supposed to fight and that there's no reasonable way for them to defeat for story reasons if nothing else. It doesn't contain any kind of climax or resolution. In fact, because they spend the whole time chasing a key and won't get to see what it opens it is an unresolved cliffhanger.

At the very least the modules for season 3, 5, and 7 are written so that each tier is its own story. Season 4 is an exception and even that is designed to provide enough experience so that players can take a single character through the whole story (with exceptional help from Genny Greenteeth after the T1 finale module).

Why is season 8 an exception to a pattern that has held, in one form or another, for at least 4 seasons? How are players supposed to feel about this and what are DMs and organizers supposed to do? Because I am getting frustrated messages from players about the situation assuming that there must be some kind of answer or at least an explanation and as far as I can tell there is not. I don't appreciate being put in that situation.

All of those things might not be the responsibility of this specific module, but they need to be mentioned here because this is the point where I as a DM need to face the consequences of these overarching patterns and decisions.

But okay, let's talk about the module itself.

I have to commend the author for creating a scenario where everyone has reasons for what they're doing. Congratulations, genuinely.

Unfortunately, it isn't really possible to avoid discussing the editing problems in this module. The air elemental in the vault is basically the only combat that can't be avoided, and there are no stats for the air elemental. The Xanathar's second in command, Ahmaergo very likely acts as a major antagonist in this module and doesn't have stats. Ott, Sylgar's caretaker, is very likely to be in the room with the Xanathar if the players choose to risk confronting it. Ott has no stats either.

The Oni encounter in the bonus objective "Preserving the Att(ist)" is disruptively awkward and coercive. Both times that I have been involved with this module so far the players have refused to tolerate it. It's just there to prevent the characters from doing the most reasonable thing and trying to arrange transport home for the child. It's trying to coerce the PCs into taking a child into a probable combat situation which many players refuse to have their characters do. It's also really clear that it has no other purpose.

Are you telling me that if the PCs told the Zhents to ransom the kid to her parents that they'd still let the Oni eat her? If the PCs take her to the teleportation circle out of Skullport in the previous module, then the Oni follows her out of Skullport? Neither of those things seems particularly reasonable. But according to the bonus objective as written the players fail the bonus objective because that's what happens.

At a minimum the bonus objective needs to explore the likely implications of what it suggests is supposed to happen. Ideally, it would, like the third trilogy, stop putting PCs in situations that their players would rather withdraw from than engage with.

The oni encounter is so awkward that it effectively undoes any benefit provided by the fact that all the NPCs have motivations in terms of the confused or angry conversations that I will have to have with my players as a result.



Rating:
[1 of 5 Stars!]
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DDAL08-12 Xanathar's Wrath
Publisher: D&D Adventurers League
by Wrich P. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 03/05/2019 16:35:37

I enjoyed the layout and challenges. You have many ways to get what you need out of this adventure, and each party will see different pathways to success- you may fight a big boss, sneak it, or just blow stuff up (as examples).

Well thought out, and fun.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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DDAL08-12 Xanathar's Wrath
Publisher: D&D Adventurers League
by Jeffery C. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 02/24/2019 23:54:32

The best season 8 module that I have run yet (I've done all up to this). The adventure gives players a chance to go in combat heavy to solve the quest or by stealth or by social interactions or all three. The puzzles in the adventure are solvable by players without being too obvious or too difficult. There is plenty of combat to be had if your party likes that, and the combat requires some good combat tactics by the party as well, rather than just throwing down some dice. There is also a ton of lore and easter eggs to find in this adventure to make it really fun.

The only thing that hurts this module is the format of Season 8, which isn't a fault of just this adventure but all of season 8. It's a must run adventure, and one I will run again in the future.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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DDAL08-12 Xanathar's Wrath
Publisher: D&D Adventurers League
by Jay A. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 02/24/2019 08:13:38

Season 8 uses formatting to where this can be a 2 hour or 4 hour adventure. However, as a 2 hour adventure, I think this adventure would be unsatisfying. It turns into simply a heist adventure (which can be cool) and some combat based on how much the heist is bumbled. The "optional objectives" in my opinion is really what makes this adventure shine, as they put the characters DIRECTLY against a notable NPC in some way (note, depending on the plan, fighting notable NPC can be optional).

Ignoring the formatting (because I would have preferred this written as only a 4 hour adventure), it was one of the most fun, entertaining adventures I've played and DMed. The cat/mouse game of sneaking around while avoiding setting off an alarm, all the while being required to search nearly the entire ship had me on edge as a player. When I DMed this, the players were able to go in multiple directions, and the adventure allows for the plans of action to be quite different between groups. One of the best adventures of Season 8.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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