I ran this a few weeks back online for my ongoing party storyline, this is the forth Orcus verse they have been trough with some other adventures for filler material.

First off, as with every Verse in this series, the art and production values are amazingly well done. Hats off to anyone who takes that extra effort to put out a more complete product. The horror aspects of this module went over amazingly I even went so far as to give my players 'homework' in the form of watching "The Color Out of Space" which fits very well thematically and good visuals for this module (the movie was largely not well received but they loved the module horror so win some lose some). I added a killer sound effect for the 'fused bodies' encounter (the sound effect being the bear scene from "Annihilation" if you have seen it then you know what I mean, another minor side note I have a 10 year old player and as a responsible DM I discussed the content with his parents first and they sanctioned it but he tapped out after this). The Insanity rolls and tables were awesome with most players really getting into role-playing thier various afflictions and the story played out well. For Role-play and exploration this is another great module that I have come to expect from this series and the on-line aspect actually allowed me to add a lot of both visual and even audio flavour which in turn provided me with very good retuns in the form of player enjoyment/feedback. The combat is quite challenging and my players had the unfortunate one-two punch of DM rolling extremely well and they were grouped poorly allowing for a huge burst of damage. 3 Melee characters rushed Thelbonious, while four casters went into a square formation about 30 feet away. On the last hit Thelbonious switched with the Hulk using Bend Space, then on his turn he Collapsed Distance for 60 points of damage, then the Hulk ran to the Caster cluster and Reaping Arms. The Cleric tried a mass healing spell, but a Nat 20 on the Psychic Orb sealed this fight. A couple of players were sour about losing so easily but that just happens sometimes (yet another side note, my first TPK ever as DM). We are playing this using season 9 Adventurer's League rules so they live on to fight another day and I just wrote it as the "Emp-Heir Strikes Back" chapter of thier adventures since they have been very successful up to this point. So now we blissfully and happily await the next Module(s)/Verse(s) in this story (I am wondering A. Roughly when they may be released and B. what Tier the next module is planned to be?) In the meantime I continue to find other modules involving cultists or Demons and doing minor rewrites to work them in with this storyline.

I was an official playtest DM for this adventure.

OVERALL SUMMARY: This adventure provides three very distinct locations and challenges. Story Objectives A and B provide the core adventure, while Bonus Objectives A and B are sidequests. As the Bonus Objectives are independent of the main story, the initial component could be run as a two hour adventure without diminishing its impact at all.

MY PERSPECTIVE: My first AL games as a player were at Arcanacon 2019 where I enjoyed playing my paladin character through Heir of Orcus I and II. Coincidentally, the paladin was named Seranon (AKA Ser Anon). The AL event organiser was Merric Blackman. The adventures posed interesting challenges to the players, who were required to put their PCs to the test as well as use their creativity and analytical thinking - lateral thinking - to overcome and complete the adventures. The adventures were quirky, funny and something out of the ordinary. They broke the mold and seemed out of context compared with anything else in the AL world. But they were both good and fun. This adventure is more of the same, but this time BIGGER - we're in Tier 2 after all.

GAME EXPERIENCE: The players were delighted and disgusted at the same time by the horror themes in the first part. They enjoyed the prospect of the exploration choices, each one seeming to be as horrible as the last. They enjoyed debating which kind of horror they might encounter and which they might find the least detestable. Getting into the tunnels, they encountered the sanity mechanism, and I was surprised to realise that this was the most fun component of this adventure. The players responded superbly by ham acting their insanity and cheering each other on to greater heights (depths?) of depravity as they explored the (fantasy) madness and the corrupting effects that it has on the party as a whole. They were excited by the final boss enounter, with its creature interaction mechnics and the chase scene. In our game, we used up our time (perhaps having too much fun) and we only played one bonus objective in the allowed 4 hours. I chose A. I found the storyline of this bonus objective complicated to convey, and this became time consuming since its basically a new concept for the players to comprehend. So with independent bonus objectives I'd suggest its better to take a simpler approach which I think the time pressured AL community will thank you for. Despite this, I still rate this bonus objective highly as it was a lot of fun for the table.

NOTES: We had some players with previous experience in this series, and the impact of this was that they were looking for more of the wacky fun that they had encountered in previous adventures. They were not disappointed, and the continuity of the NPCs provides an extra component to enjoy. I would say though that the players didn't really remember the NPCs from the previous adventures but they will encounter some at the start and then two of them during the core adventure. The module provides the AL reward check points for Season 8, but this has no impact on the reward allocation for Season 9. The two magic items are obtained from the core adventure, and the consumables are obtained from the bonus objectives.

FINAL THOUGHTS: I'd strongly suggest this adventure for a two hour timeslot. There's a lot of potential for fun here, and so make the most of it, and encourage your players to get into the murky spirit of Cthulhu and all that's involved during this adventure. However, if you do have a four hour timeslot, manage your time carefully to fit in both bonus objectives to maximise the value from this adventure.