OK, let's open with this: I really liked this module. It's where this AP kicked into high gear for me, what with its military movie feel, modular goal structure, and sandboxiness of the lost city. That said...
The end of the module just doesn't make any darn sense.
How so? As written, the PCs, a unit of elven scouts led by Kaerishiel, and a unit of elven scouts led by Shalelu assault the Academy of Arts simultaneously from three different angles. The three gaps in its defenses are guarded by an EL 9 encounter, and EL 8 encounter and an EL 7 encounter. Kaerishiel is the same level as the PCs, Shalelu a little lower, and all of the elven scouts are level 5.
How is it, then, that no matter which gap the PCs choose to breach, it's assumed that the other two units have been routed and their leaders captured and already thrown through the portal to the Armageddon Echo? It says that if the PCs are fast, they may have the opportunity to rescue one of the named NPCs before they're captured, but I don't see any way that couldn't happen. The average D&D combat takes a couple of rounds, and the drow forces aren't just that fast and deadly.
The impression I received from the Academy of Arts is that the party arrives just in the nick of too late, storming in just as Novleniss drags the NPCs off in chains through the portal. This seems to me like a huge cheat--if the PCs are fast enough, and by the rules they should be, they'd have the opportunity to kill Novleniss right there and never have to go through the portal into the Armageddon Echo, which is where the final confrontation is nominally scheduled. And if Novleniss is just ahead of them, why isn't he scrambling through the city when the PCs get through the portal? The module assumes he's already safely ensconced in the observatory by the time the PCs get through.
I understand the motivation for Jason to give the drow in the Armageddon Echo some hostages--it'll motivate the PCs to go in to rescue them, rather than camp outside the portal with the entire elven army and wait for the drow to come back. There's also a little sidebar to the same effect saying that, if the PCs don't go through the dangerous, unstable portal, Novleniss and an army of drow, blast shadows, demons, and vampires of the hostages will emerge and wreak havoc in a few weeks.
...quoi? Putting aside the fact that Novleniss has no way of turning the elves into vampires (unless he had a vampire cohort who got cut for space) for a moment, the Armageddon Echo resets when first entered to 1d8 days before Earthfall occurs. And building an army of demons and blast shadows isn't Novleniss' goal--he's in the Echo to rest, regroup and study Earthfall closely enough to try and aim their own falling star. The text even explicitly says that the drow avoid the blast shadows whenever possible!
So... here's how I'm going to work around all of this in my campaign when I get around to running SD (still in the middle of Crimson Throne). In my version, the attack on the Academy of Magic by the PCs will be a solo effort. Much of the rest of the elven army's attention will be on the Fluted Goblet (you can tell that there was some disconnect between Jason and Amber when writing their articles--the gazetteer makes the necromancer in the Fluted Goblet out to be quite a threat and makes it sound as if undead roam the city, whereas there's no such indication in the module. I'm changing the necromancer into a conjurer and the Fluted Goblet the source of all of the demonic activity in the city. But I digress). Kaerishiel (who now trusts the PCs with his life) will approach the PCs and confide in them that during the night, Eviana took a platoon of scouts and Shalelu to the Academy of Arts in the attempt to make a decapitating strike on the drow army, capturing Novleniss and forcing the drow to retreat. Unfortunately, it failed. In order to keep up morale, Kaerishiel misleads the elves into believing that Eviana has taken ill, and sends the PCs to rescue her.
Novleniss does not take the hostages with him into the observatory. Instead, he hides them in the city, guarded by demons or blast shadows controlled with command undead spells. His hope is that Eviana will be killed by Earthfall, then he will return to the Armageddon Echo to retrieve her blast shadow and shatter elven morale. Razorhorn will still get their treasure, and Novleniss will mock the PCs for leaving their commander to die as Earthfall grows ever closer.
Creative Director
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You raise some valid points here, but when it comes down to it, you don't REALLY need to have hostages in the Armageddon Echo at all. The three-pronged attack on the Academy of Arts could just as easily work with you having the PCs and the other two groups joining up in the middle... but that's not an easy type of game to run for everyone. If I were running the adventure, I'd actually let the PCS decide how to use their elven allies, and let them plan out the attack. The hostage mechanic is kind of a blunt way to "force" the PCs to follow through into the Armageddon Echo, but if your PCs are self-motivated, you absolutely don't need this element and you can proceed with them entering the demiplane on their own time.