My players really appreciated the promotion received at the beginning of the book. After being under Lavarsus's thumb, the increased legitimacy and recognition felt really nice, and they enjoyed the level of freedom it gave their characters. It also felt like a very natural progression for our group, since they had already been working with the guards in other districts in order to do their job as security for the radiant festival.
The one serious flaw I think this book has is that, at the end of the heist in chapter 2, the characters essentially get NOTHING except for a new lead. That lead is key to their investigation, but it feels very bad, like they're just on a wild goose chase to find this mysterious device that they know nothing about. Rather than having the vault be completely empty when I ran it, the lockbox instead contained a rolled up blueprint mistakenly left behind when the device was stolen. That way they still had something to find and analyze, so that they didn't come away empty handed, and my players felt plenty satisfied with that. It gave them more information, without allowing them to find the bomb early or mess with the plot progression.
My players being able to do some Irorium challenges long before they knew about the eventual attack on it was really fun, made them more invested in protecting the place, and made their eventual silver swordpin feel more earned. My familiarity with Absalom as a setting, and knowing that Captain Runewulf, who they interacted with in book 2, was also a swordpin made it feel really special to them. They also appreciated being able to see other members of Starwatch acting as backup, helping the crowd escape once the poison bomb went off.
