Great adventure! Play it while it's still available!

Played this scenario for the first time yesterday and even with a sub par GM, it was clear this module was well thought out, intelligent and in many ways a master piece. I think it's a shame it's being retired.
The only flaw and the reason it loses one star is the overuse of Undead, which hurt some characters (like my Bone Oracle, and the rogue) disproportionately. Overall, good job.

I just tried this last night and it was my first time trying organized play. It was loads of fun based on the individual quests.

Spoiler alert:
we had a Cheliax opera singer dramatically fall to hear knees screaming NOOO!!!! As the black pool of water started to drain before she had gotten the sample needed. We were all stunned after we realized that the grieving father was unaware of what had passed during the last 10 years and that he was convinced that he was just lending a hand to school.

It was an adventure that was able to stimulate us all, and I enjoyed it (even if we had a close call with the total party kill encounter).
All in all a great adventure that which was only improved by the skillful game mastering of Diego, and after this scenario I’m sure my character Ali Al’Barduet will find his way to another organized play.

This was a decent adventure, pretty straight forward, mostly just a dungeon crawl. The whole creepy dead children vibe did give it some edge but ultimately it suffered.

My feeling is this adventure is much better if you have a group that really enjoys role playing. My PFS group tend to be more down to business so they really kind of blew through some of the interesting role-play/ plot elements in the game which pretty much killed the plot twist.

I ran Black Waters as a GM yesterday for a full group at Tier 1-2 with characters that could typically consider playing up to Tier 4-5. Unfortunately the way this module was written I warned them flat out that doing so would result in a TPK. They (thankfully) took my advice. This is due to the inclusion of creatures which level 1-2 characters do not have the equipment available to handle, nothing more.

I first read Black Waters and hated it. The encounters as written are boring and too easily swing between "this is too easy" and "this is too hard" depending entirely on the group's equipment and headcount. One encounter in Tier 4-5 play is pretty much impossible for a level 3 group with six people to complete without the right equipment (which at that level they may or may not be able to afford). The climax is easier than the fight before it and although it has a fantastically cool effect, it just doesn't flow well. Finally, while I loved that the adventure doesn't end when the characters find the Macguffin, your group can get far too bogged down with the "have we searched everything?" mentality of regular home campaigns.

After putting it down for a few days in an attempt to find a different module I went back because frankly through all those problems, the story is really quite good and has fantastic unexpected twists. So I did the unheard of (Josh plug your ears), I tweaked it a bit. Moving around a couple encounters, adding in a couple very low level monsters as canon fodder, and changing things up a bit made the really boring into something the group really enjoyed. It still had some of the fundamental problems I mentioned, and the group did get bogged down at times, but overall it worked out well.

I was ready to give this mod a 2 star review on gameplay alone. It gets a third because it has some fantastically fun roleplay built in and an utterly fantastic story. With a little bit of work it can turn into something immanently playable.

Edit: While I think the mod is average due to the conversion issues, it should be noted that in a poll of my group for "their favorite module to date", three mentioned The Black Waters, which says something about how well thought-through the story is. It's difficult to run well, but if you turn the creepiness factor up to ten, it can be a very memorable module. For this, I have added one star to my rating.

I liked this mod. The GM is going to have to do some prep work but if you can set the right atmosphere it is a creepy good time.

I can barely remember playing this one. There is better stuff out there. As a year 0 mod it is a cakewalk for pathfinder characters.

I was looking forward to this adventure based off the product description. I was a little disappointed over all as the delve went a little too long with excess rooms and repeative clearing of monsters. The saving grace was the storyline and twists I experienced as a player at the end of the adventure.

I do not recommend this adventure beginning players or folks with characters who RP respecting the dead.

My home group enjoyed the atmosphere and flavor text, with several commenting "this would make an excellent set up for a movie!" We spent some time elaborating on the back story descriptions given. It really creeped out the players with the lunatic at the beginning somehow manipulating the spirits of the fallen bound to this accursed place before getting eaten alive by a trio of baddies as the party effectively dangled him out ahead like a tethered goat in a Tyrannosaur pen.

At tier 1-2 it proved to be a bit rough for 2 3rd and 2 1st level characters - one permanent death (1st level 1 XP shy of 2nd level) and one temporary death (3rd level 1 XP shy of 4th) salvaged only due to the surviving characters chipping in cash and throwing a caster level check. The final baddy was a rude surprise for the party...

Awesome! ^_^

If this were only an adventure I would definitely give this four stars, but given that this is designed for PFS play, there are a few tricky things in the adventure.

One, having a RP encounter at the beginning is great. The set up is a wonderful chance for characters to develop their personalities and play up who they are without game stats. But given that it happens up front, it can be a potential time sink if the GM isn't paying attention to how long things are running, and it can be a bit of a bummer to tell the PCs to quit RP for time.

Its a fun scenario, a GM just really need to worry about time (if he only has a typical 4 hour slot to run this in).