From the introduction:
No finer training can be found, either up or down the Sword Coast, than that of Headmaster Vance’s Academy of Adventure. Here, an adventurer can learn firsthand from the masters of their craft. However, not everything is as it appears, and beneath the Academy’s prosaic exterior lies a dark and terrible secret...
The Academy Of Adventure can be used as a setting as well as an adventure. As an adventure it contains more than enough material to advance the characters from 1st through 3rd level. It includes a campus description, two semesters worth of curricula, a detailed student body, new monsters, and a new magic item.
Although accessible to veteran players, the adventure is true to its name and provides many opportunities for the DM to “teach” the game to new players. It can easily be used as a springboard into any larger campaign, but is optimized as a lead-in to the Rise Of Vecna, the second installment of the Doomed Forgotten Realms adventure path.