This adventure is easily in my Top 10 WORST Modules List. There is a joke that goes around the DDAL about how nothing is ever edited very well... I don't think this adventure saw an editor at all. The text is clunky and has numerous omissions of important information, the plot is paper-thin and barely exists, and there are a hundred redudancies that needed to be tightened up. Nothing makes sense, all of the encounters save for the final battle do anything to serve the story or advance the plot.

SPOILERS because I'm going to give you a complete breakdown of this trainwreck:

PART 1 Section A1 actually isn't that bad. It's the version you use if a majority of the table has played "A Day at the Races." However, there's little to no connection between this adventure and the previous one "A Day at the Races." There are numerous inconsistencies between the end of "A Day at the Races" and "A Walk in the Park." It almost feels like the two writers didn't share notes so that continuity between the two adventures could be established. I really don't like how Screaming Wind (Tabaxi NPC & Chult's Emerald Enclave contact) doesn't even mention Soggy Wren (Harper Contact in Chult) who is the person who had the Plot Framing DeviceTM - The Satchel & Poison - at the end of "A Day at the Races." There should at least be some sort of mention of a hand-off of the item to Screaming Wind or a reason why she has it instead of Soggy.

Also... why does Screaming Wind have a Tressym? A Sending Spell Scroll would have sufficed for the reason they need to send MowMow (yes, that is the name of a Tabaxi's Tressym I kid you not.) along with the players.... MowMow is not important and can kindly find their way out of the adventure. Thanks.

Section A2. This is the version you use if your players didn't participate in "A Day at the Races" and, honestly, where I started eyeballing my vodka bottle. YOU NEVER HAVE YOUR CONTACT RUN AWAY BEFORE GIVING IMPORTANING ADVENTURE-BEGINNING INFORMATION. NEVER. In the author's world it's okay for Screaming Wind, a leader in the Emerald Enclave and the point of contact to begin this entire adventure, to refuse to talk to non-EE player characters and effectively STOP THE INVESTIGATION FROM HAPPENING. Literally! There is written in the text a CHASE SCENE where Screaming Wind will actually RUN AWAY from the players if they can't make their Persuasion Check! Better make sure you have an Emerald Enclave player at your table! They then would have to chase her down and REPEAT THE PERSUASION CHECK. What... I...... Hold on kids, lemme get a drink....

Section B. If someone can explain a reason for the "Fisherlings" encounter other than just annoying the players and potentially triggering a SECOND Chase Sequence, I'd love to hear it. Otherwise, this encounter needs to be trashed or fleshed out to actually have a plot-related consequence. If it WAS more about keeping the players from investigating then I would be okay with it. Otherwise it feel more like NaNoWriMo wordcount padding. There is a mention that the Fisherlings will target the Plot Framing DeviceTM Satchel, which I think SHOULD have been the point - grab the satchel and run so that the drug smuggling ring stays hidden because "oops... there goes the evidence!" But no... nope. Nothing of the sort is mentioned in the text. Yes, there is an "Extra Encounter" included where if the Fisherlings get away then you might run into some thugs that'll extort you to get your property back, but no mention that it could turn into a "Destroy the Evidence" type of scenario which would have been muuuuch more interesting!

Then there is... THE SATCHEL SHOP. Apparantly, this is the MOST IMPORTANT THING IN THIS MODULE OMG. Hey kids, want a fun drinking game for this module? Drink every time you see the word Satchel. Guarateed Alcohol Poisoning or your money back! I feel like I know everything there is to know about Satchels after this aventure. Also... is Abwale Capaning part of the smuggling ring? It's never made clear, impled... but never made clear. It would be more interesting if he was and all of his dialogue (that DOESN'T deal with trying to sell you a Satchel!) seems to imply he knows more than he's letting on.... but there's nothing given to the DM. So... story-wise The Satchel Shop is a dead-end for the most part. No new information is learned because... guess what... THE SATCHEL ISN'T THE IMPORTANT PART! THE! POISION! IS! Which makes the other NPC you meet Wadumu the more important part of this scene and he's just sort of... dumped onto the players.

Also, this Module recieves the Ashley Shadowheart Award for Fastest Magic Item Awarding. Wadumu shows up and voluntells the players he'll be their guide into the jungle because he knows about the Plot Framing DeviceTM Poision (thankfully the Satchel leaves the story) and he also just throws this adventure's magic item at the players. Honestly, I feel like magic items should be presented as a special reward not just a random piece of candy to entice the players into going where they're supposed to go in the story.

Honestly? The best fix where would me to remove the Fisherlings and let the players get to The Satchel Shop, get all of The Satchel Shop BS over with, THEN have the Thugs show up (hired men by Abwale to rough the players up and steal the evidence) and use that as Wadumu's entry into the story where he helps the players fight the thugs off. Better flow and every encounter does something to serve the story.

PART 2 "In the Jungle, the Chultan Jungle the PCs Sleep Tooooniiiight." No, really, that's the extent of Part 2. Apparantly Wadumu's such a BAMF that he gets the players through the Jungle without issues... until a Rain Storm hits. There's some skill challenges here to avoid being swept away in a flash flood, but otherwise this part is all padding without substance. Wadumu escorts the adventurers to a safe place to sleep and tells them a bedtime story that's secretly the story of his Tragic PastTM. Then it just... ends and we go on to Part 3.

Seriously... I got nothing. This part was so pointless it doesn't need to exist. Get rid of it. Wrap Wadumu's Tragic PastTM story into his introduction and toss Part 2 out.

Part 3. We just... ENTER THE GUARDED VILLAGE WITHOUT ISSUE. No... no... make 'em sneak in! And if they can't sneak in, then they get taken directly to the Yuan-Ti Pureblood that's running the show. Then have the big final fight. Part 3 just reads like a muddied mess and makes no sense. Does Wadamu sell the adventueres as slaves to the Yuan-ti and that's how the get in? He does have a converstaion with some of the human guards of the village, but we're not told what he says or what his game is. All we learn is that he CLAIMS to have told the Humans the Adventurers were here to save them, but the adventurers will have to wait for nightfall... why? They're already inside the village... they're being given a tour by the guards... seriously Adventure! What does the Guard REALLY think they're there for? You don't tell us!

And once they do fight the Yuan-ti the adventure just... ends. Yes, you get a plot hook about a "lost city" where the Yuan-ti have set up their main base, thus setting up the third part of the Trilogy. But it just feels... meh. Especially since it is Wadumu who learns about this city through an argument with some fellow grung and then tells the players. It would be far better for them to have to interrogate the Yuan-ti or maybe be told about it from the human slaves in the village. This Adventure commits a Cardinal Sin by making an NPC more vital to the story than the actions of the players, one my top Unforgiveable Sins.

So... my final thought? I need more vodka to deal with this adventure.

Of the "beginning" adventures I have run so-far, A City of the Edge has to be my favorite. It provides a little something for everyone - interesting NPCs with just enough story to spark a DMs imagination, combats, traps, fun and imaginative events, and more. I especially reccomend these adventures for first-time D&D players because it really does have EVERYTHING that you will encounter as a player in D&D at least once during the 5-hour run time. It is also a great way to introduce people and characters to Chult for Season 7.

Everything ran extremely smoothly in this adventure as it also does provide a lot of help for the DM concerning enemy tactics during the combats so that you're not left scratching your head on how to make a combat "good" if that's not your strong point as a DM. I personally had a LOT of fun with the faction NPCs and the Dinosaur Race in Mission 2 provided a lot of fun.

You will have so much fun with certain aspects of this adventure that it will more likely than not run long. I cut a couple of things a bit short and still needed about 6 hours to run this fully. But I was also running it as a Slot 0 for a group of fellow DMs who were going on run this adventure as well, so I did take some time to explain things and answer my fellow DMs questions on how to handle certain aspects of the adventure as we completed missions.

I had the distict pleasure of being at DragonCon 2016 when this trilogy was released. I ran 1-3 "The Battle for Elmwood" as part of the con, but I never got a chance to run or experience 1-1 or 1-2 until now when I recently decided to snag the adventures to run at my local gamestore.

The Sage of Cormanthor was a pleasure to prepare and a pleasure to run. Everything is very neatly organized information-wise so it's easy to find the important things and it also offers a lot of good ideas for the DM that help enhance the playing experience. It also has an entire appendix talking about the town of Elmwood that is incredibly helpful for those moments of free-form RP when a player asks if they can visit a shop or place. Those types of resources are invaluable and I wish they were included more often.

Story-wise, I don't reccomend it as a one-shot. I feel that the Elmwood Trilogy works best if you run all three adventures in sequence, so don't skip out on Elmwood 1-2 and 1-3 as the full story is really worth playing! Without the other two, this module can seem as if it's lacking in content or context but if you as the DM know what's coming then you can better prepare and contextulize these adventures for your players.

Play-wise, my table had an absolute blast. The encounters were interesting and provided some surprises even for veteran players. They loved interacting with the NPCs and looking into the mystery presented in the story. The only thing I would say there is that there was a little more expectation on my player's part for them to be a bit more involved in solving the mystery, instead of them having to go find someone else who knew what was happening. But overall they reported having a pleasureable time playing this module.

Of the Tier 1 adventures for Storm King's Thunder, this has to be my favorite. The pacing is good, the encounters are interesting, and it has ample opportunity to allow characters to shine. This module also has one of the best role-play opportunities of Season 5, a long stretch in the middle where players can engage in a series of competitions wherein a copious amount of alcohol can be consumed in addition to contests of strength.

I highly reccomend this adventure for anyone looking for a good time, the only "probelm" it has is that it's almost guaranteed to run long, not that anyone will notice because it's just too dang fun. Loved running it and my players loved playing it.

Hartkiller's Horn has the bones of a great adventure, but you're going to have to drop a bomb on it in order to make it work. This adventure relies too heavily on an established narrative, shuffling the players from point A to point B to point C with little thought for how their actions will shape the story, but also has little reason for the characters to get involved.

<<Spoilers>>

Starting from the beginning, with what the characters know they likely wouldn't be very interested in a -possible- threat somewhere up in the mountains, but rather the very real threat that the Jarl's Giant hoard presents. While it is futile to fight the hoard, anyone with a self-preservation instict would much prefer to get out of Dodge while the getting is good. There is NOTHING that can stop the hoard, so why even try?

There is really one change that can affect the outcome, the return of Hartkiller - a Demi-God of legend. The adventure should have played this up more, but instead goes for a VERY out-of-place encounter with a gory Hartkiller (which honestly is a cool moment, but it is more suited for Curse of Strahd/ Season 4 than for Season 5) who asks you "Hey, go get me some lunch." Pretty much literally... dress up a Rhemoraz as a "Beast of Talos" all you want, but the encounter literally is "Fetch Lunch for Hartkiller." What is this, a weird Elder Scrolls Fetch-Quest for Shegorath? I was waiting for the magic item of the module to be a "Lament Confirguration" errr... "Puzzle Box."

And while the character do have the choice to leave Hartkiller, refuse to help him, it is this choice that can doom the Vale and makes parts 3-4 a complete waste of time that could have been spent trying to help the people of Stagwick pack up to flee the hoard (or, ya know, fleeing the hoard yourself!). By turning the encounter into a "Delve into a hidden tomb to find a Demi-God that can help us defeat this hoard" you make it important and you get the players invested because their actions will literally save everyone in Stagwick instead of "eh... maaaaaybe it'll help to check out this weird thing in the mountains?"

There is potential in this adventure, but only if you remember that D&D is a game about people. It asks the question "What do you do in this situation?" and gives you a chance to be heroic. If the story has even the slightest chance of elimiating the players from the story (literally, take away the player characters in the original version of Hartkiller's Horn and things pretty much work out the exact same way) then you haven't written an adventure, you've written a novel.

Jarl Rising is the weakest adventure of the Storm King's Thunder Season. The best way to describe this is "incomplete" and I also feel that it is too similar to previous tier 2s in the season in it's pacing and content. The encounters in Jarl Rising are lackluster (litearlly the first and last scripted encounters are exactly the same, only the map changes) and definitely require a lot of re-working to make them interesting for the players. There is no real plot to this adventure, no reason for the players to get involved in the matter at hand. Perhaps if it had more to do with the Frontier Scouts or Rune Magic (as we have seen tier 2 adventures discussing this season) then it would be more interesting. But in it's current state it barely has anything to do with the storyline and adds nothing new. If I didn't have to run it to earn a particular DM Quest reward for Season 5, I wouldn't even have bothered. This adventure is weak, boring, and as previously stated feels incomplete. Don't waste your time or money on this one unless absouletly necessary.