I am in the process of running all of DDAL09 as a campaign, so will be reviewing each adventure as I run them. For context, I ran three adventures in this campaign already, a homebrew one where the party needs to get out of Elturel with as many civilians as possible as the city is being sucked into hell, and then Baldur's Gate: Fall of Elturel, also on DM's Guild for a different group of adventurers, and DDAL09-01.

What I liked: The attempt at continuation from the previous adventure is nice. The focus on an area of Baldur's Gate other than the parts in the Descent into Avernus book is also a nice addition to flesh out the city. The overall idea of Descendants of the original Hellriders being targeted by a Serial Killer/Fiend is really nice. The immigration paperwork as the introduction to the city is also a fun bit of roleplay.

What I didn't like: As 4 hour adventure, the structure here is really weak. The goal of this adventure should have been taking the initial seed of mystery from the end of the last one (Who/What is Gharizol and what do they want) and spending 2-4 hours investigating it. But this murder is fairly weak. We are given hints at other murders to look at but no details to help coroborate a pattern, and the logic of the murder doesn't make a lot of sense either. I ended up stripping the details and building a node based investigation, different clues at several murder sites and that gave the party room to breath and put the pieces together themselves instead of just having NPCs telling them what happened. I also cleaned up the timeline of the murder to be more sensible. finally I used the first optional quest as that introduced the cult of Zariel in Baldur's Gate, but not the second one since it seemed like a pointless distraction.

Overall, it's a fun idea, but needs a lot of extra love and work to make fully functional.

I have run this module twice now, and really appreciate the focus on roleplay. The players did as well. It's a good continue from DDAL09-01 and sticks with the theme.

I would recomend to run the entire module, including both bonus objectives, otherwise you will not play all pillars and will miss out on the best parts of the story.

I got a chance to play this adventure at a convention and DM this adventure as part of my local AL group.

As a player I was in an RP heavy group, and this adventure really matched well with the play style of the table. Bonus objective B was an absolute hoot with the table I played at.

When I DMed this adventure I also ended up with an RP heavy group who were looking to stretch their legs with the new characters they had created for Season 9. I did however have to give a few nudges to help keep players on track with clues.

Murder mystery thing was fine. However, the hint for connecting the murderer to the crime was very weak. I suggest DMs put in a more substantial clue.

First module I quit in disgust. Important information is buried in the wall of text. Some already mention the problem with Harwin. This is a blue's clues level mystery. To improve it. Page 30 add Vollis Foote description. Page 5 highlight, "a letter address to Segren" . Page 7 add investigation check of Markus profession. Add mention of "possibility large needle". B. All about the hallgates mention Harwin store is 2 stores down. In right hand column give the names of two dead victims. (I had all the victims in a weekly poker game.) Page 8 D. Harwin Shop highlight Apprentice zook. This so people know Zook is in the shop. Page 9 Looks like "Gharizol" is going to be important. Break the paragraph What they to what. So we know this is important. In fact I would go back and say each body had a bloody "G" on their forehead. You could mention on page 7 That Bolnata was dating Harwin before she married Markus.

This is a murder mystery. Players shouldn't be scared away from it because of that, though, they'll be able to form their own Scooby gang right at the table. And, if they've played through DDAL09-01, they'll have recent experience.

This mystery benefits from few red herrings and a clear solution, though motivation might be a bit perplexing for the sleuths.

There's a lot of location-building and NPC-introduction that feels like setup for the long game, and I will definitely pay attention to what resonates with my players so that I can sculpt the payoff a bit in future modules.

I DM'd this at a weekly public event. Finished all 4 parts in 3.5 hours. Fun but realize the format, with no box text (just quote boxes) forced me to do a lot of prepration because I'm not good at improvisation. I typed 2.5 pages of notes.

Here is my advice to DMs running this:

--Show the characters the picture of Baldurs Gate from pages 14-15 of the DiA hardcover, if you have it. Point out Basilisk Gate, where much of the action happens.

--Provide hand-out 2 and try to get the players interested in the refugees, because they come up again in DDAL9-04.

--Don't skip Bonus Objective A because it is the only fight. Cultists all got surprise becasue they were mixed in with the crowd and critted with Ferocious Surge--that scared my players. I described Grant Yoreling as a blond frat-boy yelling from a roof-top 60' away. He still hit hard, with Spiritual Weapon and Hold Person, but he was so aggravating that that the chase didn't get very far before they brought him down. Consider this a fight with an optional chase.

--I introduced Dovis Tolbergate at the scene of the murder, but he was so emotional about his friend he doesn't help much except to translate and introduce the party to the widow.

--I played Bolnata as immature but genuinely grieving--remember half-elves age slowly. I described her dress in detail several times but the party never picked up on the clue, and this is a big BIG hole in the plot. Think about how you will get them to the tailor shop if they don't figure it out. I had to shove them onto the ol' railroad.

--Everything else went well, including the trial. I had no note takers that night so there was a lot of "Then that one guy said...what did he say?" so I went full-auto Judge Judy on them skipping player to player intentionally misinterpreting their testimony until the turnip-seller testified, and then they got off. I didn't count sucesses or failures, but it was fun.

BL: If you want an imp familiar, EARN it by over-prepping this adventure. Mine will be named Bezos and I'm sure it will screw me over at every opportunity.

Spoilers

It was fun but I'm not a big fan of little to no combat especially for main story line T1 adventures.   A lot of new players play these modules and they expect to have the blance that leans more combat.

The investigation was great and it tied in with the first module nicely. I liked the idea of the trial but would have liked more structure and guidance in such and unusual situation.

Overall fun and worth running but maybe not ideal for players who want to tryout all those cool abilities they spent so much time selecting.

4/5 stars, fun module to run but very little combat.

I ran this for 7 PCs over the weekend. My general sense of the table was that everyone seemed engaged in the mystery of who was doing the killings, and who or what Gharizol is.

I usually take much longer with modules than the intended time, but we finished this one with a full table and both bonus objectives in about 3.5 hours.

This module is extremely RP-heavy. Combat-centered tables will probably not enjoy it.

MINOR SPOILERS BELOW

I think the bonus objectives really flesh out the mystery and IMO they should not be optional. This is especially true as the only combat encounter is in one of the bonus objectives. As to the combat, my party was average strength and had no problem with it, even with Grant on the roof slinging spells.

As I was prepping I was worried about the trial, since IMO the module doesn't give a lot of guidance if the PCs aren't sure what to do. Turns out that if you just lay out the ground rules and sit back, they really will run with it. That said I think they felt a little railroaded by the arrest/trial, but that is probably something a more experienced DM could work around.

RPing the tailor getting caught was a blast. Really play up the fact that he is initially confused as to why he's in trouble just because he killed someone.