Haunted Memories (CCC-MACE01-03) is a Tier 1 CCC adventure for the D&D Adventurers League program. It is the third in a series of adventures revolving around missions for Lord Geoffrey of the Smiths, a rich noble in Hulburg. This adventure sends the heroes into a haunted house to solve a decade-old murder mystery.
The adventure uses the conventions of horror stories very effectively. It is made up of many short encounters, of which the DM can pick and choose several to engage the players based on timing or their desires. The adventure strongly features exploration, with many strange occurrences and secrets to discover. There are a few puzzles; we enjoyed the logic puzzle, but not the anagram. Combats and role-playing also feature. These encounters take place in a foggy corn field, the deserted interior of the house and a nearby barn, and it’s a nice mix of environments and approaches.
Less successful is the attempt to put a time limit on the expedition. The framing narrative has a contact of Lord Geoffrey sending the adventurers on the mission with only a night to complete it. This feels fairly preposterous on the face of it, but the execution in the adventure causes problems. The DM needs to keep track of when the players get delayed by various events, which seems reasonable enough, but when the number of encounters they face is variable and controlled by the DM? The situation falls apart!
Care is needed when running the final encounter, especially if the players lack clerics or magic weapons.
The adventure does not include maps. I’m fine with this, as the layout of the house depends greatly on which encounters you use. It’s quite possible to play the adventure with the rooms appearing and disappearing to heighten the atmosphere.
It’s a pity that the changes in the Season 8 rules remove the little incidental treasures that you could find in the adventure; there are a couple of encounters that could be triggered by players attempting to gain treasure, but without that lure, they’re not as effective.
There are a few problems with the text; in particular, the monsters are not arranged in alphabetical order, and the Thug stats (needed for an ally of the party) are omitted. It’s still written in the old style, with boxed text preceding more detailed room descriptions. I found it very easy to run, and far superior in that regard to most of the official Season 8 adventures. The writing and editing, while not flawless, is of a high standard.
Although Haunted Memories is the third of a series, I had no problem running it without knowing the content of earlier adventures, and you can run it easily as a stand-alone adventure.
Overall, Haunted Memories provides an excellent horror-themed adventure, with many memorable encounters. Recommended.