This adventure path proved quite all right and I had a fun time GMing it, and my players also liked it. We did however find some areas of the path that was annoying.

1) The side quests are lacking. They are presented as something that happens after the main plot starts, but my players went straight to the dungeon so the side quests seemed quite strange to include as no one presented them with these quests. This could be done much better than I did it, and I find that a way should have been included in the adventure path.

2) The entire adventure is based on one place, so it feels like one long dungeon, something that can be good if done right. You need some exploration, some social encounters and some awesome fights along with some good resting opportunities. While it is not without these, there is little exploring and far too many of the encounters cannot be avoided, and those that can are a shame to waste. The dungeons is build much like: encounter -> encounter -> encounter -> encounter which makes some of the encounters seem quite dull and repetitive. I especially think of some of the later encounters where it feels like each room have a guardian you need to defeat and there is no other way to get to the end goal without going that way. All the optional encounters are hidden with an extremely high DC on the search check and doing those encounters only award xp and loot (I would have liked shortcuts to ignore encounters). The dungeon has a “long” rather than “big” feel to it, as there is little chance of getting lost and taking encounters in a random order.

3) There was a problem with the expected level progression as it was expected that the players would be level 8 before entering the dungeon. This was however not the case in my run, but it sorted itself out in the end. It might have resulted in some of the 4 deaths and two almost worse than death for the party, but that was alright.

4) I would however have enjoyed that the adventure path had included some more optional stuff, like the side quests from bastards 1 of 6 CoT where they included some random do it yourself side quests as those they did where poorly implemented.

5) Some of the encounters seemed almost too lethal and was placed poorly at a point of no return. In one of the late encounters two players were taken out without any options to come back unless the players left the dungeon. Luckily we found a solution, but having to leave the dungeon for the 4th time right before the big climax robbed it of some of its urgency and awesomeness.

6) Might not feel like the logical step from finding an item that can end the threat of shadow beasts. A little Monty Python with “and now for something completely different”
Now for the good things, because naturally there where good as well.

1) The social encounters -> awesome. In one encounter the players where all scared enough that our good cleric toasted with devils, and the “human female” dragon disciple ate a virgins hart just to please them. In another, they all ended up feeling abused (in the good way) by a powerful being they did not dear attack but had to deal with.

2) The reoccurring villains - > awesome. One of these, they ended up fighting twice, but being attacked by 8ish times, and they see him as a constant treat. They have yet to kill him and now fear going out at night (to some extend).

3) Some of the fights where memorable like when the dragon disciple where kicked into a pool of boiling gold. The one where the two of the players are now forced to use a new favorite awful improvised weapon instead of the awesome weapons they used feats to maximize. Sadly the crossbowman did not get this awesome item. The final encounter was memorable to but might have been a little too easy for a group of 8th level guys, and mine are far from optimized.

4) Cool settings – the dungeon had some memorable places such as the hall of mirrors and some of the environmental traps where loads of fun. Everyone thought it was awesome when they tried to run down a flaming hall and I pulled out the dice to determine where explosions happened. Another was when the first fire resistance guy walked through a room that looked suspiciously explosive, nothing happened and he yelled back, Don’t worry, its safe. Two of the players then walk into the room and then imidiatly the whole room blew up. Good fun was had.

To finish it up, worth a run, but so far the worst of the CoT adventure path, and after this long dungeon, we are looking forward to some wilderness fun in the next one.