So, having now played and GM-ed this scenario, I honestly like it. It's a very well thought-out dungeon crawl that doesn't even need to be completed in a linear fashion (though completionist PCs will always map every square). The story's solid, stocked with memorable characters aside from the fairly flavorless end-boss. Faction missions are also pretty neat.

My only real gripe is the tiers. Tier 3-4 fights some pretty weak stuff (an orc with 6 hp among them), straight through to the end-boss, who still goes down pretty quickly if the party focuses fire. Really felt like tier 3-4 was basically "tier 1-2, but add two more of the wimpy dudes". However, going up to tier 6-7 looks pretty dang frightening.

(SPOILER: Lots of secret doors in this one. They substantially change the flow/difficulty of the whole mod.)

Overall, quite solid. Avoid running it at tier 3-4 if you can, it's boring with an even moderately-prepared party.

The Begger's Pearl is not the most difficult of modules, or the most glamorous of modules, or even the most exciting module, but it is a well written dungeon crawl with a good premise and some fun encounters.

I agree with previous reviewers that the final fight is not the most difficult of encounters, but the module does have a really nice feel to it, and you do get the sense of delving through an old Dwarven keep. The module has a few minor flaws, mostly related to a lot of empty rooms which could have at least been flavor and background encounters, so it does have its flaws, but The Beggar's Pearl is a good romp with some interesting encounters and a good premise which I do recommend to anybody going for a low-to-mid level module.

This module has some interesting options for role play. But, as I have stated in another review, I am used to playing with serious gamers who know how to build tough characters. In the final battle, two of the party went off by the themselves to confront the evil mastermind. One of the PC's armor class was so high that only a natural 20 by most of the minions would hit him. The rogue/cleric/wizard who went with him was a bit to cocky and almost died as a result. However, if the full party had stayed together, the main evil mastermind would not have lasted long enough to be a threat. I have found that I have to beef up the encounters to really provide much of a challenge.

After running this scenario a few times I have decided to revise my review. I originally gave this scenario a mediocre review, but I now think I was being unfair. There is a lot of campaign setting flavor in this scenario, it just takes some work to bring it out. The maps designed for this scenario are wonderful, full of brilliant color and detail. The plot however, reduces the scenario to a dungeon crawl. The villain is a fearsome opponent but she is very complex to run and requires a lot of GM attention to get right. MacKenzie breathes life into a few of the faction missions, but some still suffer from the walk-into-the-room, pick-up-the-item, lack-of-any-thought-or-challenge we have grown accustomed to being let down by. There is some potential for role-playing, but an uninspiring GM may cause players to fall into the dungeon crawl mentality and hack right through the opportunities to make this a memorable adventure. MacKenzie does paint some vivid and painful scenes throughout this scenario, and I look forward to running it more in the future.