Rise of the Runelords terminou com um final digno e épico. A aventura final é um tratado de como conduzir aventuras de nível elevado em D&D. A campanha como um todo teve seus altos e baixos, mas de certa forma merece sua enorme popularidade entre os fãs (não é minha preferida, mas está no meu top 5), que gerou uma enorme lista de discussão que até hoje trocam mensagens discutindo atualizações para outros sistemas, erratas e formas de se conduzir cada minima parte dela. Spires of Xin-Shalast é o resultado de todo esse trabalho e mesmo assim ainda funciona muito bem individualmente. Um clássico que eu tenho muito orgulho de ter em minha biblioteca e que certamente figurará entre as melhores aventuras de todos os tempos.

Disclaimers: Review may contain spoilers
My Experience with it:
DM for one 3.5 Group and one PFRPG Group (as is, no conversion)
Overview (no spoilers):
haunts+ sandbox + hack + final fight, kind of OK
Changes (with Spoilers):
I skipped all of the City of Xin-Shalast, Sandbox-City at such a high level is nothing I want to touch, I shortened the adventure significantly by keeping out the city and the Leng stuff
Details:
The Vekker cabin was really good and creepy, the wendigo was a great monster and the haunts work OK (they did work much better with low-levels in part 2)
I had to shorten everything because most of my players don't like high level play, we take very long for every fight and campaign exhaustion had kicked in, everyone knew that it was the last part and all of them where planing new PC's and where exited to play them as soon as possible.
The giant meat-grinder was quite fun and not as exhausting as I had feared, the two ladies put up quit a fight but the apprentice was unremarkable.
The final confrontation was kind of epic and challenging even with hours of planning and preparing of the PC's - a good and proper end for a great campaign
overall:
it was the only campaign (beside a lvl16 test with converted 2.ed PC's right at the beginning) in 3edition that we kept going longer than level 10 or 11 and I think that is saying something about the quality. RotRL gave me the fun in DMing back

This adventure has everything I like, dungeon crawling, cave lurking, city walking, arena fighting, mountaing climbing, dragon slaying, fey-sighting and more! The only thing it lacks its heavy roleplaying or social interaction with other characters (at least live-non-monster characters), but at this point that way past due.

Also after you finish the adventure you have a whole city to continue exploring! There's also plenty of material you can expand to beef up your PCs up to higher levels if you want Karzoug to be even nastier.

A great 5 start sweetness!

Hauntings that remind us of the Skinsaw Murders. A harsh search for a city lost to tales and legends of the height of Thassilon. A feel of wonder and otherworldliness at the edge of the world, with giants, lamias, magic, politics... and all sorts of ruins to explore. Riches beyond belief, and the looming, quasi-Cthulhian threat of a Runelord trapped between two worlds overhead.

This is total, complete awesomeness.

The articles complement the plot well (stats of the Runelord -I love the Classic Evil archmage feel to him- and managing harsh cold environments).

The monster roster is outstanding. I particularly appreciate the several samples of "lamia-kin" included. The Denizens of Leng are great too.

Overall, a great finale for Rise of the Runelords. I wouldn't have had it any other way!

Xin-Shalast. A treasure worthy of a successful conclusion.

Without a doubt, the best and most excellent part of this adventure comes early-on with a pair of Dwarf Brothers named Vekker, a Cabin, and the dreaded Wendigo! This part of the adventure paid for the whole price of the book for me.

The conclusion to Rise of the Runelords was very good. The lower city will cause many GMs to either gloss over it or spend hours (if not days!) of additional work making it playable. What is there is good, but not enough detail is provided.

The confrontation leading up to and with Karzoug was good, and Karzoug is indeed "one tough cookie."

The Bestiary contains fascinating creatures (especially the Denizen of Leng and the Wendigo.

Pathfinder's Journal and rules on high-altitude adventuring are also included.

The free PDF with the subscription puts this Pathfinder over the 5 Stars again!

The PCs discover the ruined capital of their nemesis and confront him directly.

The scenery and settings of this module are incredible: the ruined city, the Runelord's spire high above the realms of breathable air, the Runewell itself.

The city has over 1000 inhabitants, though, and the module can barely hint at them. Unless the PCs stick perfectly to script, a lot of additional GM work will be required. (And at least one clue deliberately sends them off script.) The module also has (for Paizo) an unusual number of editing and logic errors.

The final defense of the Spire seems sketchy, and Karzoug himself is not as colorful as I would hope. Still, it's among the most playable high-level modules I've ever seen, and well worth the price just for the city itself.

All i have to say is...Wow.

Paizo has really impressed me with its first Pathfinder adventure and i find i'm liking the world of golarion more then almost any other setting WoTC has officially put out (I put Golarion right up there with Eberron personally).

This wrap up adventure was VERY well crafted and while Karzoug himself is a bit mechanically dull, i feel it was a great way to end this adventure path.

Now i'm just upset because i have to wait another month for the beginning of the next rounds of adventures, which i'm sure will be just as amazing.

Good job Paizo!

I was very pleased with the entire adventure path, as the dungeons were all highly dynamic except for Karzoug, stuck in his box.

The fact that Karzoug is meant to be stuck in his box and is meant to be a classic "Straight out of the SRD" evil wizard actually pleases me rather than turns me off.

I loved Xin-Shalast, that is the best idea for exploring a ruined city since Myth Drannor, and that was my favorite one ever, even though Wizards worked hard to ruin it.

The fact that every module comes with a number of pages of fluff, so if you don't want to run the adventure paths themselves you can just start doing stuff in the world and do your own thing, is what really gets my jones going. If Paizo chooses to switch to 4.0 after setting up all this thematic stuff, I'll be very disappointed.

First off, lets make one thing clear. This four star rating is not given because the adventure limps in at about 75% satisfaction, but because it comes in at just short of 100% - and loses quite a bit due to (i would imagine) space constraints.

The city of Xin-Shalast is lovingly crafted, and even though i don't buy "10000 years abandoned", it feels like an ancient ruin. The new monsters are interesting enough (even though Leng is straining my Lovecraft tolerance to the limit).

What breaks off one star is, sadly, Karzoug himself. While he is beautifully characterized, and a foe you love to hate - he is mechanically uninteresting. Worse still, he feels as if he came right out of the SRD. I would have hoped to see a little more uniqueness to this ancient menace. Some personal spells, maybe. Some more interaction with him throughout the city. He feels a lot like an "end boss" in a CRPG in the early days.