What I'm really interested in is what each particular author brings to the table, style- and idea-wise. What are some specific adventure bits (encounters, plots, foes, etc) that they've written that you think stand out most? Who's great at evocative descriptions? At original and fun NPCs? At traps that the players will actually appreciate getting hit by?
On that last one, in the adventure Ari Marmell wrote for War of the Burning Sky there's one encounter ...
[sblock]You're chasing a shadowdancer through an abandoned elvish forest, trying to recover a magic item he has. He snipes from afar and runs off, and harries the PCs whenever they try to rest. He has caches of arrows all over the city. If the PCs actually follow him, he has big traps set up.
In one, he runs into a house and then shadow jumps out the back window, but when the PCs enter they see his 'shadow companion' running downstairs to the basement. The moment the PCs step onto the floor, it crumbles beneath them and drops them into a spiked pit trap. This sets the tone.
Later, he lures them into a house with spiked deadfalls and various glyphs of warding that blast or summon monsters, plus secret doors he can slip through and copious open windows so he can shadow jump out if he's pincered.
From there he flees to an overgrown garden hiding a huge assortment of black lotuses. He rushes through, careful to hold his breath (and having previously ingested a potion of invisibility to undead). When the PCs follow, they kick up clouds of poisonous pollen, and the horde of ghouls hiding in the brush rise up to attack, hopefully slowing the PCs long enough that they get hit by multiple doses of the deadly poison.
My favorite is a bit over the top, but the PCs should be on guard by now. He drops a spare empty quiver to make the PCs think he's running to resupply, then sends his 'shadow' to go into an old building in the boughs of a tree. When the PCs ascend the tree, he fires an arrow to cut a rope and trigger a trap that makes the whole tree bough collapse on them.
Every encounter, you probably only get a round or two to attack before he flees, making him damned annoying, and hopefully really gratifying to finally kill.[/sblock]
