Whispers of the Vampire's Blade (Eberron)

Rating:
Summary: Good adventure, even great adventure, however...
Review: Firstly, I have purchased Eberron Campaign source book as well as the Shadows of the last War module. So when I saw "...is designed to either be a stand-alone adventure or an immediate follow-up to the first published Eberron adventure, Shadows of the Last War." I was thinking sweet.

Now that I have read the module, it really has NOTHING to do with the previous adventures. I mean the same organisations are present (as you would expect in a campaign flavoured based adventure), so the Emerald Claw and Lord of the Blades hinder the PC's, however, the adventure plot really have NOTHING to do with either of the previous adventures. The schema is barley mentioned (someone wants to know what the PC's know about it, but its more of a possible side plot than a main part of the adventure, in fact if the PC's are doing well the encounter will not even occur.)

The plot also has a weak point when the PC's are expected to enter a masked ball without an invitation. If you are playing mostly good characters or "God forbid" a paladin there is NO alternative to stealing an invitation or sneaking in... (The guards can not be convinced, no invite no entry).

There is also one place where the whole party or at least some of the party is likely to take 12D6 falling damage (no save). For characters in a level 4 adventure this seems a bit excessive, especially due to a lack of options shortly before this occurs.

That aside the adventure is really pretty cool, with a number of excellent exciting plot points with time specific requirements forcing the PC's to race against the clock as well as enemies.
As a number of situations in the adventure are races against time as well, there are alternative adventure paths that the PC's can take to continue on the chase if they are not quick enough or lucky enought to beat the clock. The alternative paths are detailed and plausable.

There are also several larger battles; one that looks particularly exciting is the battle on the lightning rail.
Also the style of the adventure is explained well in the DM notes, such tips as how to handle larger battles, and how to use NPC's and plot devices to pace the adventure to suit the interest level of the players. The plot design elements and cliff-hanger moments make this a potentially memorable adventure.

Overall the adventure is very good, arguable better then Shadows of the last war, however be forewarned that this adventure appears to me to have NOTHING to do with the first two adventures (although perhaps all will become clear in time).
The plot hooks, villains, edge of your seat action, excitement and the race against time atmosphere make me look forward to running this adventure, despite its apparent shortcomings.
(If this adventure had been related to the previous modules in some sort of meaningful way, I would have given it at least 4 1/2 stars if not 5. As I said, even though it has nothing to do with previous adventures it is still looks way cool. PC's running across a busy platform to try and catch the lightning rail as it starts to leave the station, makes for an exciting action scene, especially when preceded by action and followed by more action and even more action)