This module is high in the running for my favorite ever. I definately prefer more high-magic, madcap fantasy to the grim n gritty stuff, and X2 definately qualifies as the former. I even used it to open my Glantri campaign, tying it into the setting enough that it served as an intro for the players who didn't know it (which was all of them).
Essentially, each of the PCs individually on the road to wherever, and went to sleep. They woke up in the foyer of the castle, surrounded by these other "strangers". Getting trapped in a cursed castle surrounded by strange beasts and lunatic wizards was a great bonding experience.
Favorite moments (spoilers below):
1. The party is attempting (but failing) to get information from an ogre who thinks it's an aristocractic lady, during it's rather odd "tea party". The party is getting irritated because the ogre can't understand them, while the ogre keeps getting mad because it's doing things like breaking cups, spilling tea, and other sorts of things that you'd expect when an ogre tries to host tea. Finally, the elven wizard/rogue sits back and lights a smoke to think things through. Whereupon the ogre, already in a bad mood, hits her with the tea tray, because she hadn't asked permission to smoke.
2. When the party met the evil priest, he managed to worm his way into their confidence despite the presence of the paladin in the party, who bought the priest's story of being a good guy without checking. The priest hangs around waiting for his moment to strike, which comes in the basement after the party crosses the magic square. The paladin (also the party's main tank) was struck blind by the square- this poor guy continually got the worst of things throughout the campaign.
Anyhow, the party thinks they have no means of curing him (in fact the druid had a rod of healing, but the player wasn't exactly on the ball), and gets into a rather nasty encounter with the brain eater to the north. Meanwhile, the evil priest hits the paladin with a hold spell, trusses him up with chains from the conveniently nearby jail cells, and hauls him up the secret route to the chapel for a quick sacrifice to the forces of darkness. So the party takes some pretty heavy losses from the brain eater, then comes back and finds that both the paladin and their "new friend" have vanished. They did save the paladin in time, fortunately.
3. In Old Averoigne, one of the items the party needs to find to open the gate is a potion of Time Travel, a Mcguffin item that is never even statted. They'd actually found on on an assassin that they'd killed, but neither of the wizards knew
identify at the time (which made trying magic items rather interesting). Later, they run in to an NPC potion maker who says that she has one, and finally settles on a trade for the rogue/wizard's manual of Magen creation, which the PC was very reluctant to part with. When she later found out that they had an extra potion of time travel (which of course was totally useless in the "real world"), the curses spewed out would'v made a sailor take off running...
