Shadows of the Last War

Note: I haven't actually played this adventure. I was just reading it to get a “feel” of Eberron. And I don't usually read adventure modules.

So for starters, this adventure is a continuation of sorts of a very basic introductory adventure that was included as part of the Eberron Campaign Setting. The same quest giver is giving them a follow-up mission.

I'm not expert but it felt like this adventure asked a lot of the adventurers for just being a second mission. I suppose the authors wanted to “showcase” more of Eberron and thrust into settings that are unique to Eberron - namely, a goblinoid city as well as the Mournland. But there's really no drive and motivation for the PCs to do that, since their House Cannith employer was just a one-time employer, and the purpose of the mission was somewhat mundane (i.e. go very far away from your home city, find a secret location in a supposedly very dangerous land, and pick something up).

But it's all right I suppose, if the PCs are game for it. The next bit that's a bit odd is that there are actually 4 rival factions here (two of House Cannith - why? neither adventure explains it), but none of them play any big part really, aside from one minor skirmish with evil faction no. 1, sneaking around a bunch of very oblivious evil faction no. 2, and finally getting ambushed by evil faction no. 2 as a way to set up a recurring villain. A major part of the exploration involves none of them, so I think it was a poor use of opposing factions.

Anyway, I think this adventure can be summed up as “adequate”. It's playable, for sure, but I think it doesn't quite showcase Eberron as much as it obviously wanted to. Yes, it does present the more advanced “technological” developments of the setting, but it's a miss when it comes to trying to capture roleplaying aspects that are supposed to be different from other settings.