Oh boy where do I begin, I haven't read the other two books of this adventure path but after reading this one and GMing a fair chunk of it I don't even think I want to get into the other two.
What was even the point of Chapter 1? It says it's a sandbox, but when reading the start of Chapter 2 it points out the players must have completed 2 quests in particular. So which is it, Linear or sandbox? Because if it's sandbox what is the GM supposed to do if the players chose to do only one or none of the mandatory quests? Not to mention one of them, Silvertop Revenge, doesn't even exist! Another issue is the lack of maps in this chapter. I understand it's a matter of page count but I assumed at least for the Blacknoon Gauntlet, one of the mandatory quests, there would have been maps, especially since it's one of the more combat heavy ones. Also why are we doing this anyway? This chapter feels like padding, I don't see why the campaign couldn't have started with the player characters already having a reputation and being approached by Krohan Veldollow.
The entire The Hyphae Haven portion of Chapter 2 could have been skipped, as it stands it makes the chapter drag on too long since it follows right after the aimless meandering in chapter 1. The map issue returns! There's a few combats happening here and one large location and once again there's no map in sight.
I don't have anything bad to say about Chapter 3 other than I wish it didn't take so long to get to it, you can easily cut at least half of the book up to this point at no detriment to the story. Chapter 3 is the highlight of the book and where it feels like the story actually starts.
I hope this review doesn't come off as a rant or mean spirited, it's just been a very frustrating book to run, mostly because of how clumsy the beginning feels, I've had a great time running other Pathfinder adventures and this is the first one that just doesn't seem to have the same quality.
