sevenbastard
Legend
100%. Leaving the DM scrambling.
D&D 5E (2024) [Let's Read] Sands of Doom: a D&D Sandbox where you fight an army of Fantasy Egyptian Gnolls!
- Thread starter Libertad
- Start date
100%. Leaving the DM scrambling.
Libertad
Legend
Welcome to the sandbox! Literally! This open-ended chapter is balanced for 4-person parties levels 5 to 8, and details 18 landmarks throughout the region of Kirat. Not all locations are equally detailed, with some given brief writeups and others getting better detail with their own maps, events, and inhabitants. Also present are various listings of random encounters and environmental hazards. There’s a player-friendly version of the Sands of Doom map, and the DM is supposed to reveal undiscovered locations whenever the party is within one hex (2 miles) of a location.
Wasteland Locations is the bulk of this chapter, outlining the major landmarks. Those which qualify as an Oasis have the “Oasis” word in parenthesis next to the title for easy reference. Some locations, such as the ruins of Anan’Thul, are given greater detail in future chapters, but otherwise this section’s pretty comprehensive. I won’t detail every location, instead focusing on the more notable ones.
Center Spire and Scalding Mists are locations home to imprisoned genies, the former entry containing a djinni and dao and the latter a marid. PCs who have the Magic Lamp item from the Roaming Treasury of Sehkmet can use it to free the genies. Center Spire is a 10 mile tall pillar jutting into the sky, its peak surrounded by a literal ring of fierce winds. A powerful monster known as Terrakhet guards the surrounding sands. Terrakhet was originally a Dao terraformed into a monstrous form by the Aru to terraform the land, but without anyone to direct it the monster now attacks anyone who comes close to the spire. Terrakhet uses the stats of a Kraken, but can burrow instead of swim and deals alternate damage types to represent it using sand and heat instead of water and storms. The stormy peak at the top of the spire is home to manticores, but only a Huge or larger creature can hope to brave the strong winds. The winds are the bound form of a djinni, and air elementals will be summoned to attack anyone who tries to free them. The Moonstone Cloak Divine Relic is also here. Said item can turn whatever is worn or covered by it invisible (which is broken by several factors but is otherwise indefinite), and the attuned user can see anyone and anything made invisible by it.
As for the Scalding Mists, its waters double as an Oasis, and the nearby environs are home to small villages of salamanders (the elemental monster kind) who are not initially hostile to the PCs but don’t have much to offer or trade. A boiling lake known as the Issith Cauldron is a shared watering hole for various monsters of the wastes, ranging from worgs to remorhaz. A marid is imprisoned at the bottom of the lake, and can only be freed if she listens to a song infused with magic. This method of freedom is open-ended but can include a variety of solutions, such as an appropriate bard spell, a harpy’s song, and the like. Unlike the two other genies, she can be seen and interacted with while imprisoned, and will tell the PCs about the Magic Lamp and the Roaming Treasury if they don’t already know about either.
Malicia’s Lair is an eight-room dungeon crawl spread across 2 floors, taking place in a wrecked ship that was used to sail nearby waters that have since turned into salt flats. The black dragon has made it her residence, and whether or not she is home is determined by a percentile die.
If the party is on the Path of Erudition, an Anubian search party will be present looking for the dragon, and Malicia will arrive shortly after the PCs encounter the Anubians. An encounter which will likely result in violence. In this case, Lord Ammu has a more hostile outlook on the black dragon after an earlier meeting between the two, seeking to kill her for possessing the Ruby Eye Divine Relic.
If the party is on one of the other two paths, the meeting has yet to happen. The Anubians instead wish to offer her audience with Lord Ammu; a meeting that will go poorly once Malicia refuses to help him attack Al’Kirat.
The lair holds captive animals for Malicia to feed as well as experiment on, and the dungeon is full of useful treasure. There’s also research notes about how blood might be used to destroy the Rust of the Wasteland, and a personal journal on the magical capabilities of Vizier Rashid. While Malicia won’t be too pleased at the thought of the PCs stealing from her, she reserves special ire for anyone who upsets her moist, mossy bed. She poured (metaphorical) blood, sweat, and tears into fashioning a comfortable nook for a being used to living in a swamp. PCs who are respectful while visiting can share information and trade for goods with Malicia, even if they’re not on the Path of Erudition. However, she uses her Ruby Eye relic to sense any deception during such deals.
Oasis of Zarai is one of the few permanent population centers in the Wasteland. Although it still has a reliable water supply, economic depression has robbed it of people and the remaining locals are reliant upon passing caravans for survival. The only location of interest here is an Obelisk of Anubia, and the villagers are aware of its properties and have some spare amber on hand, but will only use it in an emergency such as for curing illnesses. The two people of interest here are a Druid by the name of Eli Alaia, who made a deal with local boars to share the spring with Kirati villagers; and a formerly enslaved ogre named Zug Zug, whose freedom was bought by the tieflings here. Zug Zug has since tried to sell himself back into slavery several times in order to find meaning in life, but the villagers talked him into receiving money for his labor.
Southspire Mountains is the southern mountain range running along the northern border of O’grila. They serve as a natural barrier against the Rust, meaning that the Will of the Sands cannot exert its influence in the kingdom of dinosaurs, giants, and orcs. The mountain is a perilous region, home to flocks of perytons who have hunted all other life forms in the mountains to extinction and now subsist on orcs fleeing the kingdom. A particularly massive peryton known as Gorgoroth lives in a Valley of Moving Shadows, which has an Oasis but the water source is guarded by Gorgoroth who derives sadistic pleasure in seeing other creatures perish of thirst. Gorgoroth uses the stats of a Roc, but is Huge size, resistant to nonmagical physical damage types, and is intelligent and capable of speaking Common. As can be expected, Gorgoroth has a nearby lair filled with the corpses of orcish warriors and the magical items they wielded in battle against the monster.
Thoughts: While most of the encounters should be doable by a Tier 2 party, I honestly don’t see how the PCs are supposed to defeat Terrakhet, given that a Kraken is a CR 23 monster and this version counts its lair as being everything within 1 mile of the Center Spire. I do like how most of the Oasis locations have some sort of danger to overcome, which grants the PCs a reward of sorts in unlocking a new resupply point. Many of the locations are lightly-detailed, consisting of little more than sample encounters and environmental hazards. As such, this chapter can feel quite light, but when combined with the expanded entries in later chapters it gets a bit more depth.
Random Encounters presents us with three different kinds of events that can transpire while PCs are roaming the wilderness. Not all of them are combat-related, with some intended for non-violent roleplaying. The book says that the DM should run encounters at their discretion, but recommends one combat encounter for every 2 days of travel and 1 Interesting Find for every 3-4 days.
Creature Encounters is self-explanatory, presenting 17 possible results. Most of them involve generic NPCs and monsters, with only 2 involving named characters. They range the gamut, from ankhegs protecting underground territory the PCs are passing over to jackalweres venturing to an Oasis to meet up with some bandits to swap intel. One of the more interesting encounters involves a lost herd of dinosaurs who, if led back to their jungle home in O’grila, will have the PCs blessed in their dreams by a winged rainbow serpent. This blessing takes the form of +1 to an ability score of choice that is neither a character’s highest nor lowest.
The two named encounters involve Gorgoroth herding a stampede of elephants in order to pick off one of them to torture and kill, and Lord Ammu who will magically speak through a high priest named Hamza as a long-distance meeting. This last encounter only happens if the party has one or more Divine Relics in their possession, with Lord Ammu offering the party to join his army in exchange for pledging obedience to him. Refusal is met with combat by Hamza and other Anubian soldiers. As Hamza is wielding a Divine Relic known as the Flail of Reeds, this can be an opportunity for the PCs to net another piece of valuable loot. The Flail has the magical ability to cause plants to Wither, dealing necrotic damage to them, or Bloom, causing a point on the ground to immediately grow a tree. The relic’s magic is such that it can overcome the Will of the Sands, but fruits produced by such plants cannot provide sustenance to those who eat them.
Interesting Finds and Wasteland Hazards round out this section of the chapter, the former detailing five events that don’t fit neatly into the concept of an encounter and the latter detailing forces of nature that can endanger the PCs. The former include things such as a hidden Oasis or Anubian Obelisk, or a talking statue of a sphinx that can offer an ability score boost (+1 to any that isn’t highest or lowest) as a reward to whoever answers its riddle, or a curse for failure that manifests in Wisdom damage and a Geas to ponder the riddle’s meaning and to seek its solution. As for the hazards, they include game mechanics for your typical desert dangers such as sandstorms and mirages, but also some less conventional hazards like dunevine which are thorny vines buried beneath the sands that lash out and restrain creatures to suffocate to death. Additionally, the Will of the Sands can use magic to enhance the illusory aura of mirages to present images from the distant past, which could lead the party to an Interesting Find but also a guaranteed combat encounter.
Thoughts: There’s a good number of encounters and events here, with enough variety that their use shouldn’t feel too monotonous throughout the campaign. The creature-based encounters even have Recommended Level suggestions as part of the random dice table, which I appreciate. I also like how some of the more supernatural encounters, such as the mirages portraying past events, show that the Wasteland is not just a hot desert but a distinctly unnatural place crawling with ancient magic beyond mortal ken.
Return to Kunaten is a distinct event, but is detailed at the end of this chapter on account that its triggering is time-sensitive unlike the earlier locales. After the events of Chapter 5, Kunaten Keep is too heavy with Anubians for the PCs to venture inside it, but once 30 days pass the army will depart to make the march to Al’Kirat. Before leaving, Lord Ammu opens up a portal to the Duaat (afterlife), commanding Asmara to find the divine essence of their child by seeking out Anamnesis, an Aru gate guardian. Her journey is doomed to failure, for the divine essence she is looking for is held by Souk’s Golden Spear.
The portal of the Duaat creates a persistent aura of dangerous spiritual energy to radiate across the land in a 1-mile radius, and PCs who don’t have the protection of a Divine Relic suffer 20 necrotic damage at the end of every round unless they are Constructs, Undead, or made out of shadow. Otherwise, the Keep is virtually unoccupied, home to otherwise non-hostile spirits of the dead and a few shadow-themed monsters who will attack the party. PCs who enter the Duaat Portal find themselves on the Bridge of Souls, a long structure overlooking a literal river carrying countless spirits to various divine realms. Across the bridge is the entrance to a ziggurat. Falling into the river means instant death (no save) and the deceased can only come back to life via the Onyxian Jar or intervention by an Aru.
Asmara is on the bridge with a retinue of Anubians, and as time flows much slower here she has only “just arrived” no matter how long it’s been. The PCs have only one chance to get Asmara on their side via a DC 20 Deception/Persuasion check, with cumulative +5 bonuses if they know the Divine Child’s true killer and/or if they have a way to return the child to life. She is more powerful than when the PCs last encountered her, with a souped-up Spirit Guardians she can cast at will. She might also be attuned to the Onyxian Jar if she has it, but if not she has a valuable chunk of Heka amber worth 500 gold.
The Ziggurat leads to the first layer of the Duaat, where spirits purify themselves by passing through several gates which each hold a form of purgatory. Guarding the gates are a pair of jackal-headed deva celestials, and a cyclops by the name of Nemisis who wields a Divine Relic known as the Bronze Staff and can summon ghosts and banshees to fight on his behalf. He views the PCs (and possibly Asmara and the Anubians) as intruders, and will challenge the party to a duel.
Anamnesis, an Aru guardian of the first gate, will appear after the fight with Nemisis. He is a male sphinx who will tell the cyclops to stand down then introduce himself to engage the PCs in conversation. Any PCs who died will turn into ghosts and then be restored to life by the sphinx.
Anamnesis is already aware of their visit, and can tell the party that Lord Ammu, Asmara and the Anubians have fallen under the corruptive influence of the Will of the Sands. He also knows that Souk killed the Divine Child with the Golden Spear under Prophecy’s orders. If the PCs judged the soul of the Divine Child as Harmony, then Anamnesis will summon the soul and give it to the party. Once the body, soul, and divine essence are together, the PCs can petition Anamnesis to resurrect the baby, and he will entrust the party (or Asmara, if she’s alive) to take care of the baby, who is a healthy gnoll cub. Anamnesis will choose the name and gender of the child as is Aru tradition, calling her Amen.
If the PCs are on the Path of Benevolence, Anamnesis cannot conduct the Rite of the Solar Throne, but he can send Nemisis to recite it once the time comes. If the PCs haven’t obtained the Rite, the sphinx will tell them about the Roaming Treasury of Sekhmet. If Asmara’s alive, she will become a long-term ally of the party, heading with Amen to Al’Kirat to obtain safety from the Will of the Sands. She is still in denial that Lord Ammu is a wicked man, but her eyes will be opened to the truth during the Siege of Al’Kirat.
Additionally, the sphinx has his own quest to give the party. Lord Ammu’s opening of a portal to the Duaat is messing up the natural order, and it must be sealed. The PCs must kill any remaining shadows around Kunaten Keep in order for him to close it. As a reward, he will have Nemisis give the party the Bronze Staff, on the condition that they touch it upon the portal once they’re back outside to seal the rift for good. This relic is capable of teleporting the attuned wielder to a point they can see within 500 feet up to 5 times per day. Additionally, if the wielder sees a creature teleport, they know the direction and distance as well as the name of the plane if they went to another plane of existence. They also automatically know how any teleportation-related item, device, or spell works.
Thoughts: This is a rather short and linear adventure, albeit one that is very important for PCs on the Path of Benevolence or who otherwise wish to restore Amen’s life. The fight against Nemisis is going to be very hard for 7th-level PCs, particularly if they don’t have the Anubians’ help. As Anamnesis will automatically revive them if they fall in battle, it smacks heavily of those “unwinnable fights” in video game RPGs where the loss is meant to move the story forward, so I’m not a fan of it. The mention of the passage of time being diluted within the Duaat is inconsistent. Once the party crosses over (both into and out of) the PCs gain the benefit of a long rest, but Asmara is practically frozen until the PCs undertake this quest. There is text that says that what would amount to a single day here is an entire year in the mortal realm, which would make one hour be 15 days, with 20 minutes being 5 days. Which can be risky if the Anubian army is progressing via a day-based schedule, for PCs who enter the Duaat later rather than sooner may end up bypassing the campaign’s climax! The book doesn’t say how to handle this possible element either, which is a minus.
Thoughts So Far: Overall, I like the setup of locations and events in this chapter, and it really evokes the themes of a deadly wasteland full of ancient secrets. Most of the encounters look doable, minus two that I am not very fond of: Terrakhet and the cyclops battle at the ziggurat. Otherwise, I have few complaints.
Join us next time as we bust up the Veiled Syndicate’s slavery ring (and possibly get a Divine Relic while doing so) in Chapter 7: the Veil and the Flame!
Wow, the art is top friggin' notch. Appreciate you doing this read-through, I remember seeing it years ago but never followed up with it. Might be worth considering after all this overview!
Libertad
Legend
Content Warning: Grooming, Incest, Sexual Assault, Sexual Slavery. While not consisting of the majority of this post, they are major elements for both the background of this adventure and the main antagonist's motivation, and incorporates a significant amount of my ending thoughts. If any of these elements are triggering or can ruin your day, skip ahead to my next post.
To Caballero's partial credit, the above content warnings are outlined at the beginning of the chapter, but not with the warnings at the beginning of the book. I presume that this is an oversight.
You might notice that I don't have an illustration to go with the chapter header. Well, the fact is that Lilith, the antagonist of this chapter, is topless in every picture she's in. And two out of three of said pictures are either drawn in a salacious manner or have a clear portrayal of abused slaves. For that reason, I can't really show what she looks like on most forums on which I post this.
The bulk of this chapter takes place in Al'Kirat, centering on Lilith the lamia crime lord and her Veiled Syndicate. Lilith is the reigning leader of the city's slum, alternatively using the carrot of charity and the stick of blackmail and slavery to hold power and influence over people. She also holds a grip on the city's sex trade; even when it comes to "free" sex workers, she traps them in debtor's prisons and uses what they gather from merchants and officials to garner blackmail material. Lilith also has designs on violently overthrowing the city's government via gathering more and more beastfolk slaves into the city, where she seeks to make conditions bad enough for them (plus importing weapons into the Slums) in hopes that they'll usher in a violent revolution.
Vizier Rashid has long been aware of the Veiled Syndicate, although he's been unable to decisively stamp it out. And with the rise of Lord Ammu, he's taken the hammer approach in trying to purge their influence by kidnapping and killing citizens who would be opposed to the Veiled Syndicate in an attempt to turn public opinion against them. That many such citizens are people the Syndicate abuses or is opposed to (abolitionists, anti-human racists, and independent sex workers) was done by Rashid on purpose. This has spread fear in the city, with many brothels shutting down. The Adventurer's Guild is swamped with contracts to find missing people, as well as bounties on Syndicate members.
Beyond Rashid, Lilith has been engaging in her own kidnappings. Much of the Veiled Syndicate is made up of the lamia's children, whose demonic womb causes her offspring to mentally and physically mature in a matter of days and weeks rather than years. She has sex with her adult offspring once they come of age to create even more, but also has men kidnapped to serve as her sex slaves for both reproduction and her own pleasure. During the course of the adventure, Lilith will develop an obsession with one of the male PCs if the party has one, and desires to have his child in the belief it will make for a strong minion.
Part 1: Searching for Clues is an open-ended investigation of missing people and the Veiled Syndicate in Al'Kirat. PCs can freely gather rumors, with lists organized into subject matter, levels of secrecy, and appropriate times to dispense them during the investigation. Through these methods, the party can initially either learn of an underground slave pen in the city or a human named John in the Bazaar who is known to have Syndicate contacts.
There are three major areas in Al'Kirat that comprise this adventure. The first is the Burning Velvet, one of the most exclusive high-society brothels, where PCs can interview Orianna the madame. She can tell them about a strange male visitor who paid for a magical dream-based service, but his dreams were very disturbing on account of cannibalism (he's a jackalwere), and that he was last seen in the Slums. Beyond this, the module goes into a bit of detail of the prices and varieties of sex work at the Velvelt, such as how much it costs to employ sex workers with particular spells to use during a session (Enhance Ability, Vicious Mockery, etc) and the aforementioned dream-based service. In the latter case, the text mentions the most common types of sexual fantasies requested, such as auto-erotic asphyxiation via the thighs of Helga, a half-ogre who acts as the brothel's security.
The second area is the Slaver's Den, a 14 room dungeon crawl spread across two levels. Its front is an unassuming house in the Slums, and Kallista the tiefling adventurer from Chapter 3 might point the party this way along with accompanying them there to bust some heads. She can also join the PCs for the rest of the investigation unless they turn her down, in which case she'll be ambushed and captured before being brought to Lilith's lair.
This group of slavers is more secretive than usual, on account that they've been kidnapping tieflings fitting Lilith's tastes. As such, while they also have beastfolk slaves, they keep the tieflings hidden away in a secret room and will give inquisitive PCs a limited tour to show them only the beastfolk. PCs can notice various things out of order, such as that the larder is stocked with far too much food for the current occupants, interviewing next-door neighbors who talk about hearing rumbling construction projects beneath the house which hints at a secret room, and interviews with the captive beastfolk about humans entering a particular room and then seemingly disappearing.
The slavers are a mixture of typical thuggish warrior/rogue stat blocks, plus a unique ogre known as Gaddugg the Foul who has better gear and hit points than the average of his species. There's also a black pudding that the slavers are holding in the room with the tieflings, imprisoned in a box that can be triggered to devour all organic material as a sort of living crime scene cleaner. Stopping the black pudding from destroying evidence nets PCs the opportunity to find a personal letter revealing that a Syndicate member is dealing poisons at the Bazaar, and that the gangsters are hunting for a traitor at the Djinn's Den bathhouse. As for Gaddugg, he is steadfastly loyal to Lilith, but his stupidity means that he can be tricked into divulging secrets about her and the Syndicate. Gaddugg cannot tell much beyond that his mother is in charge and her name is Lilith. An Arcana check can reveal that Lilith is a lamia name, and her legacy is public knowledge among the beastfolk of Kirat, although most believe that she is dead or vanished.
Due to the slavery ring being a supposedly legal operation, PCs who attack the slavers or break in are at risk of arrest unless they can show the existence of the tiefling slaves. If the PCs end up imprisoned or on the lam, the Vizier will pull some strings to get their sentences lifted and reveal that he's also investigating the Syndicate. But he will not reveal his extrajudicial murders and kidnappings.
The beastfolk slaves are two harpies, a lizardfolk, and a minotaur, who haven't set foot in Al'Kirat before and thus seek to escape as their first and foremost opportunity. The tieflings are now fully aware that their kidnappers are jackalweres disguised as humans, and that they were to be transported somewhere south along the river heading out of the city at the request of a figure that the monsters called "mother." If the PCs end up in legal trouble from the assault on the slavers, the tieflings will speak in their favor.
The poison-seller is a jackalwere named Jackal John, who is actually one of the named merchants PCs can otherwise buy from in this adventure path. He can be found automatically if the PCs have the note, or more easily found out if the party knows the password Syndicate members use to confirm each other's identities ("mother is watching"). John will run for it if he suspects that he's being followed or the PCs try to capture/attack him, dropping vials of blinding poisonous gas as he does so. The chase is resolved as a skill challenge with potential complications and penalties from obstacles. Jackal John has fallen out of favor in Lilith's eyes, so he's more willing than other Syndicate members to sell out his boss. But only if they can convince the Jackalwere that they can protect him from the Syndicate's revenge. John can tell the PCs about the crime network's vice trades, the name and identity of Lilith, the Syndicate's current plan to incite a revolution in Al'Kirat by importing in enough beastfolk slaves, and even the location of Lilith's headquarters. He doesn't know about the security within the lair, and is unwilling to personally go inside.
The Djinn's Den bathhouse is a mixed bathhouse that creates dense fog which causes the shapes of other bathers to appear as vague silhouettes. This allows for a preservation of modesty while still maintaining the public baths as a social occasion. The traitor is Jenna, a jackalwere who sought to mimic the form and mannerisms of a male sex slave that Lilith became obsessed with, which resulted in the lamia mocking and punishing her. Jenna killed the slave in revenge, which resulted in the Syndicate gunning for her head. A pair of jackalwere assassins are hunting for her in the baths, whose lack of tiefling social customs make their conversation sound weird to others but sounds perfectly normal to Jenna. For example, one assassin might say "hello person, I am distraught and in need of a Jenna from this establishment. Have you seen one of those?"
They intend to kill Jenna with a dagger coated with a paralytic poison so that she drowns in the bath face-down. As she will transform into a jackal upon death, this can further cover up their tracks. PCs have various opportunities to save Jenna: the most obvious is by combat, but if the assassins stab her, they will seek to escape and the party has 1 minute to find Jenna before she drowns. The assassins will attempt to cause public panic to hinder any pursuers by shouting that there's a murder in the baths. Once again, the jackalwere lack of social customs can come in an advantage for the PCs, as most people are covering their privates as they run out, but the jackalweres awkwardly cover random body parts instead.
Jenna knows what Jackal John knows, but is more helpful to the PCs in her willingness to personally accompany them into Lilith's lair and engage in combat.
Thoughts: This investigation is non-linear, relatively open-ended, and is generous with both alternative resolutions and helpful NPCs that it looks to avoid the common problem of "fail a skill check and the PCs are stumped" that plagues many mystery-centric adventures. I will note that we see the first inklings of this adventure being a lot more sexual than normal, on account of the detail of common fantasies requested by brothel clients at the Burning Velvet and the pay rates for particular spells.
Part 2: Hunt for the Lamia is the second half of this chapter, where the PCs learn of the general location of Lilith's lair. It is in an abandoned mine downriver to the southwest of Al'Kirat. At this point in the adventure, Lilith is aware of the PCs snooping into her affairs and will make regular use of Scrying (she can cast it 3 times a day) to measure their progress. A letter will be sent to the most handsome/charismatic male PC in the party, where she asks them to come visit but "without any soldiers." Aka, no cops. The overall tone of the letter makes it very clear that Lilith has a sexual interest in said PC, along with the veiled threat that she is watching him in particular. Due to Lilith's obsession with said PC, she will use all of her scrying spells on him, which can possibly play to the party's advantage if that character has better protection against that kind of spell.
The journey to the lair takes one day, with 2 potential combat encounters. The first involves cockatrices with valuable eggs, and the second is a group of a minotaur and harpy raiders who mistake the PCs for slavers. If the PCs helped free the beastfolk from the slavers' den, one of the harpies will be one of those slaves, who will tell the group to hold off. As a reward, the PCs will be given four harpy feathers which can be used to put others to sleep.
Lilith's hideout is a 10 room dungeon crawl spread out across a single level. The entrance to the dungeon is a cantina full of Syndicate members partying, with chained harpy slaves forced to sing. Her security consists of a mixture of mundane humans with various "criminal warrior" stat blocks, along with jackalweres, ogres, and half-ogre/ogrillions. An unaffiliated creature is a particularly powerful grick in a section of the mine studded with Heka-infused amber. The gangsters will initially be non-violent on account of it being a common gathering spot for business meetings as well as the party receiving Lilith's personal invitation. A lizardfolk assassin named Krazak Sandscale is a potential ally, who recently accepted a contract from Lilith to kill Eurydice. But he has also taken a contract from Eurydice to kill any lamia found in Kirat. PCs can hire him for 500 gold to help slay Lilith, which is lower than normal on account that he knows that Eurydice will be good for the bounty, so in effect he gets a win/win situation of doing the job with backup and more money.
Lilith's sex slaves can be found in this dungeon closer to Lilith's location. One of them is by himself in a room: Gruntz "the Fertile," a nearly-naked ogre collapsed on the ground and sweating. Gruntz was once famous for being the strongest of his species in the region, and was chosen by Lilith to bear most of her ogre children. She forces him to have sex with her almost every waking hour, resulting in 4 levels of exhaustion and thus he wishes for nothing but to rest. There are 8 male slaves, mostly tieflings and a few humans, who have been kept starving in filthy stables. Interacting with them reveals that they've been visibly traumatized: averting eye contact, telling the PCs they can't talk to them as they're afraid of dying, or not talking but breaking down in tears. They all have Geas spells on them to not speak or act against her.
Lilith's audience room is where she is located during the dungeon crawl, with a banquet set out. She is attended by four jackalweres, two ogres, a pet giant snake, and seven tiefling slaves who visibly tremble and huddle around her throne. She has a Mirage Arcane spell concealing the truth of the feast: an NPC ally of the PCs has been captured and killed to serve as the main course. The module has 3 suggestions, along with potentially using a character from a PC's backstory or a previously-killed PC.
PCs who don't fight their way through Lilith's lair and instead take her up on her meeting offer have the opportunity to learn more about her and what she wants. Lilith has been scrying on various affairs in Kirat, including the ill-fated expedition to the Great Pyramid. She is well aware of the Anubian threat, and as the city they seek to assault is the one she wants to rule, Lilith makes an offer of alliance to the party. She will pay them 1,000 gold every week, use her scrying powers to keep tabs on the party's enemies, put a moratorium on Syndicate kidnappings and killings as well as freeing all the slaves held in her lair, and telling them that a Divine Relic is being held at exclusive auction known as the Enchanted Gala. In exchange, she asks the PCs to cease their investigation and attacks against the Syndicate, and falsely inform the authorities that they killed her.
Lilith is also wearing a Divine Relic herself, the Mask of Opals (can create illusory duplicates of yourself and creatures of Intelligence 5 or greater find you attractive regardless of their sexual orientation and regard all your words as intelligent no matter what you say). However, she will not voluntarily give it up, as she can only unattune to it in death. She will also deny any involvement in the deaths and disappearances of Rashid's targets, claiming that someone else is trying to implicate her; Lilith is telling the truth, as she is not aware of Rashid's involvement.
Should the PCs seek to fight Lilith, it can be a difficult battle. Not only do they have to contend with Lilith, there's also her minions who will join in, and the Geas-bound slaves will be used as humanoid shields to inconvenience the PCs. If the party loses in battle against her, female characters will be killed, but male characters will be kept alive to become her charmed sex slaves.
If the party allies with her and are in need of a favor from her later, Lilith will request a night with the male PC she is obsessed with. She wishes to bear his children, and in order to maximize this chance she "expects a full night of intimate indulgence with the 'Favored One,' lasting until dawn and broken only by brief moments of rest." We also get a description of how many children she sires, equal to the PC's Constitution modifier. Which can backfire on lilith, for this means that a PC with an average or worse Constitution may be effectively sterile!
Thoughts: Well now, where do I begin? This part of the adventure feels tonally different from the rest of the module, and seems to lean too heavily in favor of Porn Logic. Besides the rather descriptive scene of a sweaty, practically-naked ogre exhausted from sex, or the oddly-detailed explanation of how many children Lilith can have with a male PC, there's also the implied expectation that the party will be more open to working with the lamia.
While Lilith is willing to hold up her ends of the bargain, I figure that most of it is going to sound way too good to be true to most players. The author appears to have the impression that a lot of gaming groups would seriously consider an alliance. Why? Errr, sexy snake lady, I guess?
Let's reverse the genders of Lilith and her slaves: I imagine that most parties would be all too eager to give a male Lilith a violent end. To say nothing of how they'd react when they find out that one of their allies was killed and served as the main course! Female sexual predators are taken less seriously in the real world, and the way this text reads feels like it's playing off this, which gives a major "ick" factor. Additionally, I can't see most groups thinking it would be a good idea to let the PC the rapist slaver is obsessed with spend the night alone with her. Again, this is something that requires Porn Logic in order to be a plausible element to plan for in a campaign.
Thoughts So Far: Dark sexual themes aside, this chapter is a workable mystery with a followup dungeon crawl. I do feel that the final encounter may be a tad difficult, but as the party has multiple opportunities to get NPC allies on their side, this might edge in their favor.
I do want to touch upon this chapter's overall…horniness, for lack of a better term. It feels closer to one of those eroge RPGs on Steam, where arousing and exciting the player is just as important as the gaming elements. This isn't a bad thing in and of itself, but such games are straightforward and honest in what they're about, and unlike the social contract with group-based tabletop it's much easier to dip out of troubling or uncomfortable elements by closing out the game or using a fast-forward/scene skip button. What makes Sands of Doom falter in this is that it's, for all intents and purposes, a PG-13 campaign otherwise. And given the earlier mention of how this basically shows up in the middle of the book without proper forewarning until you start Chapter 7, it just feels dissonant than if these themes were part of the campaign from the beginning.
While the author suggests changes to this chapter to make elements less sexual, there's still quite a bit of work for the DM to do than if it were the default. Namely that Lilith's artwork is not safe for work, and her roleplay notes push her sexual behavior first and foremost. Thus, a less predatory Lilith would have to be designed from the ground up with original artwork, for one. Additionally, without the overt sex appeal, there isn't really much reason I can see PCs allying with her, other than those types who will go "well, we need all the help we can get" and are also willing to believe she'd give so much while asking for so comparatively little. The Mask of Opals' ability to automatically make characters find Lilith sexy and sound smart with no means of countering feels way too heavy-handed, as it can be interpreted as a blatantly artificial means of the DM saying "I didn't say you failed your Wisdom save, but you failed your Wisdom save."
Join us next time as we attend an auction for a Divine Relic and other precious items at the Enchanted Gala!
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Libertad
Legend
This chapter also takes place in Al'Kirat, although is significantly shorter due to being virtually in one location. Master Zakaro is a wealthy businessman who hosts an exclusive auction of unique and expensive items every year at an event known as the Enchanted Gala. It is invitation-only, kept secret from the general populace, and a Divine Relic known as the Knife of Topaz is one of the items for sale. While stealing the Knife is always an option, PCs will need to prove that they are of wealthy means to even be allowed to participate in the auction, so the book recommends checking that the party has 5,000 gold minimum, with 7 to 10,000 recommended.
The PCs have various means of learning about the Gala, such as via Prophecy or Lilith telling them about it, or learning from the Adventurer's Guild that a knife of unknown properties was sold to Zakaro after the adventuring party that obtained it couldn't figure out its true purpose. Securing an invitation can be done either via approaching Zakaro by offering their own expensive magic item to sell to him, or via sponsorship by a well-respected figure in the city. Sultana Zanara Zin'Zara can give the PCs 5,000 gold if they convince her of the dagger's necessity in defending the city, and she will personally accompany them to the Gala. If the Veiled Syndicate pulls some strings, Lilith will give the party 5,000 gold and withdraw her two jackalwere agents from the pool of bidders.
The Gala itself traditionally rotates locations every year to make it difficult for information leaks to reveal it to outsiders, but during the adventure path it takes place at the Eternal Oasis Theater. The Theater has both obviously-armed and plainclothes guards on patrol, and a staff member acting as doorman pats people down for concealed weapons. There's a gambling hall where PCs might be able to win some money, and even talk one of the bidders (a dwarf by the name of Doragummir) into indulging in his gambling addiction and potentially losing up to 2,000 gold pieces. This tactic will make him able to bid less at the auction.
There's many guests at the auction, but only three are given significant writeups. Said guests all have their own spending limit of total gold pieces, preferred items they will bid more on than the others, and even tactics for the PCs nonviolently eliminating them as competition. The first bidder is the dwarven historian Doragummir Stonehall, who knows that the Knife of Topaz was crafted as part of a joint Anubian-Dwarvish project and thus wants to buy it as a means of restoring his family's honor. In addition to his gambling addiction, he can also be persuaded into bidding on the Two-Barreled Grimfire Pistol, and PCs who manage to get the dagger can then later sell it to Doragummir once the Anubian invasion is over.
The second bidder is Yasar-al-Fajr, the efreeti ambassador to Al'Kirat from the City of Brass. He is at the auction at the behest of that City's reigning Sultan to look for powerful items, and he has his eyes set on the Knife of Topaz. PCs can eliminate him as a bidder by convincing him that the Dagger is not as powerful as believed, in which case he doesn't want to risk the reputation loss of spending money on an "overpriced trinket." If Al'Kirat's Sultana is sponsoring the PCs, al-Fajr will not risk breaking diplomatic protocol by competing against her.
The last two bidders work together as a group: they're Steve and Marie, a pair of jackalweres in human form acting on behalf of the Veiled Syndicate. Lilith has an interest in the Knife after scrying upon it, discovering that it is a Divine Relic in the process. The jackalweres have the lowest budget of gold out of the bidders, meaning they are unlikely to win unless the PCs sabotage the two other bidders. They can be taken out of the equation via Lilith's sponsoring the party, or if the PCs exploit their lack of understanding human/tiefling social customs to cause them to attract too much attention and thus get them to leave out of fear of blowing their cover.
Every bidder has a write-up of what they plan to do with the Knife, and where they will transport it once it's in their possession. As can be expected, all of these options provide the opportunity for the PCs to buy/steal the Relic for themselves.
The Auction itself consists of three items plus as many others as the DM deems suitable. Each item is presented onstage one at a time, with Master Zakaro explaining its function, history, and value before setting a starting bid. Bidders must raise their hand and clearly state their bid, which must exceed the prior bid by at least 50 gold pieces. Once a price surpasses 1,000 gold, the minimum bid increases to 100 gold, and to 500 once it surpasses 5,000. At any time, Zakaro will countdown from 5 to 0 to finalize the sale.
The first item for sale is a Two-Barreled Grimfire Pistol. Also included with the purchase is a satchel of gunpowder and a private meeting with a dwarven gunslinger who will teach the buyer how to handle and reload it. The Grimfire Pistol can be shot twice before needing to be reloaded (also twice), and the gunslinger can grant proficiency to the buyer. The item starts at 500 gold before settling at 1,100, with the jackalweres going into a bidding war with the PCs if they intervene. Doragummir will win it if the PCs convince him to bid on it.
The second item is the Knife of Topaz, which is desired by all other bidders. There is no starting bid listed. Without interference from the PCs, it will be claimed by the efreeti for 12,000 gold pieces. But if the PCs sabotage all three other bidders and don't get it themselves, it will be sold for 4,500 gold pieces to a tiefling scholar who turns out to be a close associate of Rumbold Tomekeeper. So even if the PCs don't bid for it, they can still obtain it in a roundabout way as their diligence against the other bidders pays off in spades.
The final item is actually a creature, a battle-trained hippopotamus named Babi. It was originally owned by orcs from O'grila, who view such creatures as an exotic animal for pet-keeping. Babi can also follow commands in the Orcish language, and is trained to travel across arid environments such as the Wasteland. Her initial value is 150 gold pieces, with a maximum value of 750 gold before being bought by a tiefling dinosaur handler. Babi uses her own unique stat block rather than the default Hippo from the Monster Manual. She's a CR 2 creature who has advantage on saves versus fright, can't swim but avoids penalties to movement and attacks while in watery terrain if her feet can touch the ground, and her bite can grapple and restrain foes while her tackle can push back and knock prone targets.
The chapter wraps up with six sample magic items to add to the auction as well as brief suggestions for including ones of the DM's choice. Either way, these less-important bids can be summarized as opposed Deception/Persuasion checks to see whether the PCs "buy" the item at a 20% discount or increase.
As for the Knife of Topaz, it is a magic dagger that can be inserted into the heart of a willing, unconscious, or restrained creature. It doesn't harm them, but extracts hidden knowledge the target creature knows, but the Knife can only ever be used on that particular creature once. The Knife can also convert any fire damage of the attuned wielder's spells and abilities into radiant damage, or radiant damage into fire damage.
Thoughts So Far: Despite being the shortest of the adventure chapters, the Enchanted Gala provides a good set-up with multiple avenues for success. PCs interested in other items must balance their desires with ensuring that they have enough money to claim the Divine Relic. Exploiting the weaknesses of other bidders and using social connections to gain funds for the auction can help otherwise cash-strapped parties. I would've liked to see more detail on running the auction as a heist. There are writeups and stat blocks for security and various NPCs, but there isn't much more than that, like what would happen if a fight breaks out and how the other bidders will react. Breaking into the Gala is boiled down to a list of suggested skill checks and gold investments in one short paragraph. While there are writeups for what the NPC bidders plan on doing with the Knife, I can see a lot of groups deciding to try and get the item as soon as possible.
Join us next time as we fight a battalion of Anubian tomb raiders in Chapter 9: the Sunken City of Anan'Thul!
Libertad
Legend
This chapter is mostly exploration and combat with some potential non-combat roleplay elements. Anan’Thul was a particularly magnificent city in the Anubian Empire, serving as a hub for magical artisans constructing great works. While future scholars believed that it was the birthplace for the Divine Relics, in reality Anan’Thul was most famed for the creation of a unique model of golem known as Brass Sentinels* which are powered by Heka amber. Lord Ammu seeks to excavate the ruins in order to add these potent forces to his army, and entrusted with this project is a warrior known as Yz who leads a clan of Anubians known as the Bloodpaws. He is commanding a warband to survey the city and excavate the lower catacombs.
*They use helmed horror stats, but climb instead of fly, have slashing adamantine claws, and are only immune to spells and effects from Divine Relics (save for the Hand of Brass) instead of immunity to virtually all spells.
Also present in the ruins is Hakkari the High Priest. This Anubian's body remains entombed in a sarcophagus. Having been crushed by great weights of sand and stone, Hakkari is immobile, relying upon a Divine Relic known as the Hand of Brass to speak through constructs in order to influence the outside world. The Will of the Sands gained influence over him as part of a pact made out of desperation with the entity. As constructs commanded by the Hand of Brass cannot be controlled or affected by other Divine Relics, Lord Ammu views its wielder as a potential enemy, and thus Yz is entrusted to take the Hand of Brass and ensure that Hakkari cannot move against him. Hakkari is aware that Lord Ammu views him as a threat, so while he can be an ally of convenience against the Anubian army, he has no love for Al'Kirat.
Anan'Thul is northwest of the Center Spire, placing it deep within the Wasteland. Besides Prophecy as a potential information dispenser, Rumbold Tomekeeper and the other archeologists at the Museum of Anubian Studies know of its location. Although none have personally explored it due to it being a more dangerous location than usual.
Anan'Thul is a pseudo-dungeon crawl, divided into 51 "rooms" across three large maps. The first map is the Ziggurat District, home to the bulk of the Bloodpaws (the rest of the city is undetailed, with the text saying that it lies beyond the scope of this adventure and the rest is filled with skeletons under the Will of the Sands). The second map is the camp of Bloodpaws outside the temple of the High Priest, and the third map is the Catacombs beneath the temple. All encounters are based out of specific areas, with roaming Rustbone skeletons of ancient Anbuians lair beneath the sand to ambush passersby to serve as random encounters as well as a unique roper that can burrow through sand in order to hunt live prey.
Unless the party is already known to be on hostile terms with the Anubians or are openly bearing any Divine Relics, the Bloodpaws can potentially be nonviolently interacted with, as their primary duty is to excavate the ruins to retrieve the high priest's Hand of Brass. PCs who approach openly and offer to parley can arrange a meeting with Yz. The city is home to many traps and monsters that are just as dangerous to Anubians as anything else, and the warlord is willing to hire mercenaries to deal with any problems before risking his own forces. As such, this is the only explicit area in the campaign that PCs can use platinum pieces at their full value in buying and selling items. While most Anubians aren't fluent in Common, their clerics can cast Tongues if necessary.
Several interesting locations in the Ziggurat District include an Oasis home to two mated giant crocodiles who can be nonviolently bypassed if the sick male is healed so that they can go off to mate; a broken bridge that serves as a vantage point to the Anubian camp, and thus presents various sample skill checks that can impart information to the PCs about their forces; a chained Brass Sentinel which is bearing the soul of a thief, who if powered up and freed can tell the PCs about the Catacombs and Hakkari's influence over the constructs; and a house home to spectral Anubians who died during the Cataclysm. In this last case, PCs who destroy the magical bindings on their remains in order to help them pass on are gifted with a permanent +1 increase to an ability score of choice (as usual, cannot be highest or lowest).
The Bloodpaw Encampment is home to 70 Anubians besides Yz, with 40 of them being combatant soldiers of various generic stat blocks, and the remaining 30 noncombatant slaves who use Commoner stats. The Anubians have a good amount of treasure and magic items in a tent containing the clan's war chest, enriched by various findings from the excavation. If the PCs end up working for Yz as mercenaries, his two quests involve finding and awakening the Brass Sentinel to assist in construct (the Sentinel's the one with the thief's soul), and the other is to hunt down a particularly powerful giant scorpion known as Deathsting which has been hunting the Anubians. It makes its lair in an underground pocket of the Catacombs that can be accessed from outside, and the party can track its movements back to its lair. Upon completing these two quests, Yz will trust them enough to enter the ziggurat (and thus the Catacombs) to help with the final stages of the excavation.
The Catacombs are home to countless Anubian corpses, many of which are infused with necrotic energies due to the Ankh of Life being activated far too late. The sanctified cloth that prevents the slumbering souls from departing the Anubians' bodies inadvertently caused them to be turned into mummies. Those few that became mobile exist in a state of ravenous half-amnesia, only remembering just enough to engage in the briefest of conversations before attacking the living to consume their life energy.
When the Ankh of Life was used much later during Chapter 4 of this campaign, the magic was unable to enter their bodies. It thus lingers in the dungeon as a purple fog that enhances magic relating to life and death. For instance, spells that restore life to a dead creature require no material components when cast here, and spells of the Necromancy school are treated as being cast at 1 slot level higher.
The bulk of the Bloodpaw clan's excavation takes place in the Assembly Hall, a long passageway filled floor to ceiling with debris. The progress of the excavation is dependent on whether Experience Points or Milestone is used to level PCs for this campaign. In the former case, it occurs based on the number of days since Lord Ammu's revival in the Great Pyramid, while with Milestone the excavation is underway at levels 5 to 7, with 1d4-1 weeks remaining. A result of 0 has it so that Yz dramatically obtains it as soon as the PCs stumble upon the location in the Catacombs. By level 8, Yz's excavation will have already been completed. If the PCs do not interfere, Yz will successfully retrieve the Hand of Brass and deliver it to Lord Ammu.
There's quite a bit of interesting rooms in the Catacombs. The first is Deathsting's lair, where magical communication with the scorpion reveals that it's been driven mad by the Will of the Sands, but can be calmed down via music or anti-enchantment magic and items. Then there are the temple archives, which contain scrolls pertaining to law and civics. A good enough Investigation roll reveals more useful information such as spell scrolls and the location of a secret door in the dungeon. The High Priest's personal vault is trapped with magical seals that summon mummies from elsewhere in the dungeon, but can be dispelled by magic or a Divine Relic. The treasure within includes a Manual of Iron Golems and various high-level spell scrolls.
There's a chamber bearing a particularly potent plate mail known as Telstang Armor (+1, grants immunity to magical transformation like a golem, can cast Shield of Faith that lasts 8 hours once per day), but the entrance to the room is covered by debris which has just enough of a crack for to gaze upon the valuable armor on the other side. Attempting to move aside or tamper with the debris will cause a cave-in to destroy the armor and room's contents, forcing the party to find other ways in such as short-range teleportation or shrinking to Tiny size. The chambers of Ishva are home to a former servant of Lord Ammu of the same name. She has become a maddened mummy who is aware of Hakkari's turncoat nature and was imprisoned by the high priest. Her findings (along with various other useful information about the ruins, its occupants, and the Hand of Brass) can be found as etchings in the room written with her sharp nails.
The Fane of the Brass Priest is the final location of this dungeon crawl, the room to which the debris-filled assembly hall leads. Hakkari is entombed, immobile but wearing the Hand of Brass to which he is attuned. If the excavation is finished, Yz will personally open the sarcophagus and give a speech to the assembled Anubians. The PCs can interrupt at any time, but at the end of the speech Yz will stab Hakkari through the heart to kill him, taking the relic and instantly attuning to it. The adventure notes that the DM should be kind in coming up with a means of letting the PCs take a Long Rest before the way to Hakkari's tomb is cleared, as fighting Yz with the Hand of Brass will very much be a boss battle. Not only does he have reinforcements from the camp to rush to his aid, the Hand of Brass lets him control the Brass Sentinels.
If the PCs get the Hand of Brass for themselves, any survivors of Clan Bloodpaw will hunt them down, causing the next random encounter in the Wasteland to be hostile Anubians from the clan. If Hakkari is made into an ally against Lord Ammu, months after the Siege of Al'Kirat he will assemble legions of mummies and Brass Sentinels to help reestablish him as the ruler of Anan'Thul, making it an evil place.
The Hand of Brass lets the attuned wielder immediately sense if any creatures within 120 feet are of the Construct type, and also if a non-living object such as a phylactery houses a soul. During a short rest, the Hand can be used to transfer a soul into a suitable vessel (living creatures must be willing, incapacitated, or restrained during the rest), having the effect of either a Raise Dead spell if a corpse or instantly creating the equivalent of a Helmed Horror or Stone Golem if transferred into an appropriate artificial form (albeit such transference requires an expenditure of gold pieces per soul based on the desired construct in question). The wielder can also spend 1,000 gold in material components to enact a ritual over a construct bearing a soul to be permanently Charmed in regards to the wielder. As the Brass Sentinels have been so enchanted, they can serve as a loyal army. However, the wielder can choose to free them from service, in which case they are grateful and decide to find their own paths in life. Some may even choose to defend Al'Kirat and help out the PCs depending on how they were treated.
Thoughts So Far: Making the ruins a three-parter citycrawl/dungeoncrawl with possible infiltration of the Anubian war camp is a pretty cool element. And while it may not come up for most campaigns, I do like how the combat encounters involving animals have non-violent resolutions, which can allow Druids and those capable of speaking with animals to flex their muscles for otherwise situational abilities. There's a good amount of treasure and magic items here, although the opposition can be quite deadly just by the number of Anubians alone. My main criticism is that there aren't any presented plans or methods for PCs to get to Hakkari's sarcophagus and the Hand of Brass without waiting around for the Anubian excavation to finish. At the very least, I can see many gaming groups deciding to hire their own workers to transport across the Wasteland to start digging, to say nothing of more magical methods like summoned earth elementals to burrow through and drag out the sarcophagus. But otherwise, this is a pretty cool chapter.
Join us next time as we fight gun-slinging outlaws and hunt for a demiplane of treasure in Chapter 10: Sapphire Sandstorm!
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Libertad
Legend
Chapter 4 Note: Thanks to a helpful person on the Sands of Doom playtest Discord, I noticed that the earlier text about the Ankh of Life not being capable of resurrecting Aru or those with their divine blood is a bit of a plot hole. For as Lord Ammu also bears that blood, the Ankh shouldn't have worked on him.
As such, this brings to question why Lord Ammu was revived by the Ankh, but the Divine Child was not. Personally, I believe that this is an unintentional artifact of an earlier draft, as the current adventure as its stands makes it clear that the splitting up of the Divine Child's aspects (body, soul in the Onyxian Jar, divine essence in the Golden Spear) makes her unable to be revived. Still, it is worth bringing up as it is an important plot point of the campaign.
Now, on with the review!
The Roaming Treasury of Sekhmet is a legendary demiplane contained within the heart of a perpetual sandstorm. Its guardian is a gigantic lionlike Aru named Sekhmet that judges who is truly worthy to enter. Containing unimaginable wealth from many realities, the Roaming Treasury holds more than a few magic items and artifacts that can be helpful in the party's quest to defeat the Anubian army.
If the PCs are on the Path of Erudition, Malicia will contact the party, revealing her fears of Lord Ammu's corruption by the Will of the Sands. She also discusses her research into a goddess known as Sekhmet, who is said to guard a vault of riches and wonders that must surely have something capable of countering the Will's corruption. Malicia also knows that two halves of a scarab trinket are necessary for finding the vault, and that an outlaw band known as the Black Company is hunting for them.
If the PCs are on the Path of Devotion or Benevolence, then Prophecy will contact the party in their dreams, revealing that the Roaming Treasury holds a Divine Relic known as the Sapphire Ring. Additionally, she will reveal that the demiplane also holds the Rite of the Solar Throne if the Path of Benevolence was picked. She'll instruct the party to head to the Oasis of Zarai and seek out the druid Eli Elaia to find one half of the scarab key.
The perpetual sandstorm circles the Wasteland in a loop, with its position based on whether the campaign is using experience points or milestone for leveling. The storm is overall very slow in moving only six miles per day. In addition to its dangerous winds, the sandstorm bears powerful immunities against divination magic, meaning that one requires the aid of an Animated Scarab Key to reliably traverse it. This key is separated into two halves, one in the possession of a dryad, the other half in the possession of either Malicia or Souk depending upon the party's Path of Fate. Said character being one who is not an ally.
This chapter features a recurring villainous organization known as the Black Company. Hewing closely to Old West tropes, these marauding bands of human outlaws used the gathering of adventurers at Kunaten Keep to establish a cover story, and they chose not to embark on the doomed expedition to the Great Pyramid. They were quickly stranded in the Wasteland, saved from starving by either Malicia or Souk as above in order to employ them in searching for the Roaming Treasury. The Company is made up of 90 individuals, using a variety of low-CR warrior-style stat blocks. Twenty of them are armed with Grimfire Pistols and satchels that hold 10 shots each, which makes fighting them very risky given how much damage they can potentially dish out. The Black Company's leader is Garret Thorne, a psychopathic man afflicted with leprosy that resists magical healing, causing many to believe that the sickness is a curse from the gods.
There's shorter writeups for an outline of their hideout, which serves as an Oasis and holds quite a bit of treasure that's very heavy to transport but is worth 1,200 gold collectively. There's also a writeup for ideal spots to introduce the Company in the adventure as well as foreshadow their presence.
Finding the Left-Side Scarab takes the PCs to the Oasis of Zarai. In the Path of Erudition, it may be by happenstance the next time the party passes through, as Malicia's instructions are much vaguer than Prophecy's. The scarab half was originally found by Eli Elaia, a druid adventurer who visited Zarai to look into strange behavior by the local wildlife. He hasn't been seen since, but the villagers don't find this cause for alarm as Eli is known to take extended trips into the desert. In reality, he is being held hostage in the grove of Ashae, a dryad who made an alliance with perytons to reduce the influence of the Will of the Sands. By using still-beating hearts taken from living creatures, the perytons can then bury five hearts beneath the ground in the Wasteland which will create a vibrant spring functioning as an Oasis. As long as the hearts remain buried, the plant life emerging from the Oasis can survive despite the surrounding climate. The hearts are contained in amniotic sacs to preserve them, as consuming a preserved heart ensures healthy births in peryton mothers.
Ashae is a sheltered girl, being about 12 to 13 years old in dryad years, and while aware that her actions are violations of the natural order, she believes that it is a necessary evil to weaken the Will of the Sands. Eli Elaia has been enchanted by Ashae to agree with her line of thinking, and the dryad doesn't fully comprehend that other beings are going along with her plan out of magical compulsion and not out of seeing the merit in her methods.
By the time the PCs visit Zarai, four members of the Black Company are staying here in a low profile, waiting for Eli's return to capture him and find the scarab key's location. At a moment the DM deems appropriate, the Oasis comes under attack by a massive flock of perytons who begin attacking townsfolk, ripping out their hearts and flying away with them. If the PCs intervene, seven perytons will attack them. When a peryton removes a heart in this fashion, the heartless creature still lives, but with an open chest cavity. While they initially appear healthy, the heartless are living on borrowed time until a still-beating heart is reinserted into their chest. Said heart doesn't have to be their original one.
Content Warning: Suicide
Over the course of a week, a creature who remains heartless gradually loses the will to live, finding difficulty in committing to even simple tasks, with most eventually attempting suicide.
The townsfolk will eagerly hire the PCs to track down the stolen hearts, promising 500 gold as a reward. Old Tusk, the resident boar, can be used to track Eli's location as he recognizes the druid's scent on the perytons. Two of the Black Company bandits lost their hearts during the attack, and one of them by the name of John will offer to accompany the PCs to save himself and his buddies. He won't reveal the fact that he's a bandit, is looking for the druid to steal the scarab piece, or that he intends on betraying the party at an opportune time. John will have a "change of heart" if he is given another person's heart, which turns out to belong to a more moral individual that causes the bandit to rethink his place in life. In such a case, John will ally with the party against the Black Company if a confrontation happens.
The perytons can be tracked over the desert to Ashae's Grove, following patches of oddly-fertile vegetation and even an encounter with waves of charmed animals that attack the party. Communicating with the animals reveals that they seek to save the land "for the greater good." Eventually, Ashe will send an Animal Messenger to tell the PCs to stop interfering, and that she needs to restore the desert. Along the way, PCs can find amniotic sacs partially buried beneath the fertile ground, containing still-beating hearts. The sacs require DC 15 Dexterity (Medicine) check to safely extract without rupturing them. Inside the sac, a heart can survive indefinitely, but once exposed to the elements the hearts die in one hour.
The grove is home to Eli, Ashae, a pair of basilisks, a pair of awakened trees, and various mundane (yet still dangerous) animals. Five of the still-beating hearts from Zarai's villagers are being held in a secret hollow in Ashae's bonded tree. The dryad will be afraid of the PCs, knowing that they have the power to defeat her, and attempt to justify her actions while begging for her life. She is capable of being convinced that stealing the hearts is wrong, and will seek alternatives to experiments with living beings. The module has three potential alternatives: one is using crushed Heka amber to grow an Oasis; hearts of monstrous creatures can be used, with Gorgororth's heart being potent enough to spawn a 2 mile radius of rainforest; or convincing the perytons to steal the hearts from Anubians instead.
Eli bears great guilt for his aid of Ashae, even though he knows he was being mentally compelled. He is willing to let the PCs be the judge of what to do with the dryad, but is against any decision that would let her continue her current experiments. He will give the PCs the scarab key if asked for, along with treasure in the form of precious jewels. The scarab half has a map on it which leads to the peak of the Eastspire Mountains, which unbeknownst to the druid is the location of the other scarab's other half.
Members of the Black Company might be waiting for Eli to return, meaning that they might obtain the scarab piece if the PCs don't already have it. In such a case, they can be followed to the Eastspire Mountains.
Thoughts: I like this for being a kind of moral dilemma. Even should the PCs seek to return the stolen hearts, the fact that they can redirect the perytons to fight the Anubians or use the hearts of monsters can still result in characters pursuing "unnatural" means of mitigating the Will of the Sands' power. Also, the ability to grow a new Oasis overnight is an extremely beneficial power. I like the use of the Black Company as a wild card, both for being a secondary antagonist and even for John as an unexpected ally if the PCs play their cards right.
The Lunar Shrine is a much shorter and more straightforward event, involving a 3-day journey with skill challenges and possible random encounters with basilisks and fang dragons on the way there. The Shrine serves as an Oasis, with a fight waiting for them depending upon their Path of Fate. The Path of Devotion pits the PCs against Malicia, who wants the other half of the Scarab Key and threatens the PC's lives while multiple members of the Black Company are lying in wait hidden among the ruins. If the PCs are on the Path of Benevolence, they will instead fight Gorgoroth, and Malicia might appear at the end of the battle to buy the Scarab half off the party in exchange for diamonds, but will relent if they refuse. If the PCs are on the Path of Erudition, then Souk and Prophecy will be waiting there, intending to violently dissuade the party from pursuing the Roaming Treasury. They won't fight to the death, as they will want the PCs to participate in the Siege of Al'Kirat.
If for some reason any of the above participants have been killed earlier on in the campaign before the PCs come here, the party will instead fight an adult fang dragon. Fang dragons are a unique species of true dragon whose bodies reject all forms of magic. While they lack the elemental breath weapons common to their kind, their fangs can dispel ongoing magical effects, and their scales can reflect spell attacks. They can also cast Detect Magic and Dispel Magic, and their tails have scythe-like blades that leave deep wounds that deal damage via bleeding every turn.
Thoughts: I don't have much to say, although Malicia's demanding threat is explained rather poorly. The adventure says that normally the dragon would bargain with the PCs, but knows that the Black Company doesn't care about their survival and thus hopes that the party acquiesces to her demand in order to save them. She doesn't wish to side against the Black Company due to her unique sense of honor in not violating a contract. Given that the PCs are known to be the types of people willing to challenge an army of gnolls and maybe even fight a resurrected snake-god taking the form of a hydra, this very much smacks of the blackmailing Batman attempt from the Dark Knight film, and I feel that Malicia would know this.
Sekhmet's Storm is a wilderness hazard-based event with the potential for combat. The storm imposes a bunch of penalties to those inside, ranging from reduced visibility to ongoing damage from the sands. Combining the two halves of the Scarab Key animates it to fly ahead, leading the PCs to the heart of the storm and is easily viewable. PCs can also follow the Black Company this way if the bandits have an intact Scarab Key. Both ways take 2d4 minutes, but locating the Treasury without the Key takes 40 minutes with Survival checks to reduce the duration based on the result of the check. A bad enough failure on Survival causes the party to end up lost and outside the storm. As PCs take 1d4 damage each minute and the storm ruins any cloth or leather items that take 10 or more total points of damage, this can end up punishing PCs who don't use heavy armor for protection. Lastly, PCs must maintain concentration as if on a spell to avoid breathing in grit, and losing concentration causes them to suffocate.
The Black Company and its leader Garret Thorne may or may not meet their end here. The bandits are arranged into six convoys, and during one of the fights a bulette may suddenly burrow up from underground as a hostile third party. If Garret Thorne has one half of the Scarab Key, he will throw it in the opposite direction he's running to get the PCs off his tail after two fights. But PCs who seek to continue chasing him will find him willing to go down in a desperate last stand.
Content Warning: Suicide
Thorne has a dangerous amount of grimfire powder satchels strapped to him with a trigger in hand. He can press it as a bonus action, and PCs need a Passive Perception of 15 or higher to see the trigger. The explosion is 20 feet in radius, dealing 30d6 fire damage to those caught within the blast radius.
At the Eye of the Storm, the PCs come face to face with a giant lion formed out of sand glowing with a radiant light. She loudly introduces herself as Sekhmet, demanding the PCs to state their purpose clearly and warning them that she can tell what lies in their heart should they seek to lie. She uses the stats of an Empyrean, which puts her well out of range of the PCs having a fair chance of winning a fight with her. Even so, the adventure still has a list of what happens if she hits 0 Hit Points: the sandstorm ends, but the PCs have only 1 hour to enter the treasury and leave before it collapses. Sekhmet also only permanently dies if slain with the Golden Spear, which will cause rainstorms to gather and fall up to 1,000 miles from her place of death, lasting for 3 days.
The Roaming Treasury is entered via Sekhmet's throat, and PCs can earn the right to enter via several methods. Uniting the Scarab Key is enough to qualify, but other deeds of great merit (quests determined by DM discretion) can also be used. Alternatively, the PCs can pay her in the form of a bargaining tribute with a valuable item worth at least 5,000 gold to trade for treasure within the demiplane. Lastly, she can administer a Test of Purity if a character explicitly seeks the Sapphire Ring. This involves a character demonstrating that they are pure of heart, and is judged by four open-ended deeds where the PC must tell of at least one time each they demonstrated this virtue during the adventure path. This takes the form of a DC 25 Charisma check, with a +5 bonus for each successful moral deed.
Sekhmet will not let the PCs loot her Roaming Treasury willy-nilly. The characters will be saddled with restrictions on what they can take depending on how they proved their worth to her, along with a listed reasoning for why. For instance, the Test of Purity lets them claim only the Sapphire Ring, but using a valuable item as a bargaining chip lets the PCs exchange it with an amount of treasure commensurate with the offered item's value. Entering by merit has PCs state precisely what they require and nothing more. Violating this social contract will result in a unique event, where the Treasury starts to collapse in a shower of molten metal and lava, and the PCs have 1 minute to escape. This event is even complete with a hazard-strewn map and 3 possible enemies seeking to rob the treasury (and the PCs): Malicia, the Black Company, or even the return of the Coiled Whisper cultists!
The Roaming Treasury has no map, for it is vast beyond measure as it connects to countless planes of existence through which visitors can add to its vaults. PCs can spend hours searching for a particular item depending on its rarity, although they only have 24 hours before the Treasury collapses and they can never enter it again. But if they're searching for an item that they explicitly told Sekhmet they sought upon being granted passage, she will instinctively guide the item to them.
There are 10 Fabled Treasures to find here on top of the Sapphire Ring and Rite of the Solar Throne, rolled randomly from a table until a number has been encountered up to the amount of PCs in the party. They can all be identified via DC 15 skill checks (almost always History) which reveals the item's backstory. They are all unique items and include such things as the Babr- E Bayan (three-layered armor that makes the wearer immune to the effects of Wish spells as well as immunity to fire damage and can walk on molten rock), Feather of the Simurgh (+2 to ability checks and saves when held in a free hand, can be used to resurrect a dead creature by laying in on the corpse, but permanently destroys it), an intelligent Carpet of Flying named Gomorrah (it, along with the Enchanted Horse, can leave the Treasury of their own volition as an exception to Sekhmet's rules, but the Aru doesn't tell the party this), Gulnar's Flower (a magic flower that only blooms once every thousand years in a heavenly plane of existence, cures a creature of all curses, diseases, poisons, harmful genetic abnormalities, and dispels and unattunes all magic items and effects when eaten; it can even overcome effects from the Wish spell, artifacts, and the gods), and the Magic Lamp (acts as an Iron Flask but only works on genies, can hold up to 4 genies at a time, and can be used to transfer a genie from a different prison). In the Magic Lamp's case, Malicia the black dragon is seeking it in order to obtain the wishes from the imprisoned genies in Kirat. The Lamp already contains one genie, an ifrit efreeti known as Ziba.
Aside from the Fabled Treasures, the Sapphire Ring is here as a Divine Relic, granted to Sekhmet for safekeeping. Its magical power is such that it cannot be transferred to other planes of existence and thus cannot be as easily hidden by Sekhmet as the other treasures here. Thus, PCs will have an easy time finding it if they know it's in the Treasury. The ring is guarded by arcs of lighting and is surrounded by a moat of lava, and these hazards can be safely bypassed if that character is granted permission by Sekhmet to take the ring. The Sapphire Ring grants immunity to natural hazards to the attuned wielder, and they cannot be moved against their will by such hazards. They are not immune to hazards that come from living beings, such as disease-causing bacteria and thorny plants.
PCs who are on the Path of Benevolence can find the Rite of the Solar Throne here. It takes the form of a scroll resting upon a throne, with twelve golden steps flanked by lion sculptures leading up to it. The scroll details the ritual necessary to enact the law of succession for the Anubian Empire's Pharaoh, which involves passing on the divine authority from the current monarch to their firstborn. Its primary purpose in the adventure path is to forcibly unattune Lord Ammu from the Ankh of Life, but has some pretty strict requirements. It must be read for 1 minute by an Aru, both the Divine Child and Pharaoh must be within 300 feet at all times, and that 5 High Priests are present to act as witnesses. In this last case, the definition of High Priest is broad enough to include anyone attuned to a Divine Relic. If all five "priests" approve of the transfer, then the Divine Child attunes to the Ankh of Life and becomes the new Pharaoh.
As for the Black Company, if Garret Thorne is dead and the fairweather ally had a literal change of heart, it's possible for the outlaws to be reformed and gain a pardon from Al'Kirat in exchange for fighting the Anubian army during the siege. In such a case, they will set up camp southwest of the city, making great use of grimfire pistols against the gnolls. The survivors will abandon their life of banditry and turn to living off the land as hunters. If Garret Thorne survives, he will make his way to Al'Kirat and make a deal with the devils at the Temple of the Five-Pointed Star. He will be reborn as a tiefling capable of casting Fireball three times a day, and will seek to kill the PCs during a convenient time during the Siege of Al'Kirat. Garret is not allied with the gnolls, rather being a lone wolf acting on his own.
Thoughts: The final part of the chapter has a cool potential fight with the Black Company, and I really like the Disney's Aladdin vibes I get from the Roaming Treasury. I also like how PCs can defy Sekhmet's offer and possibly abscond with more loot than they bargained for, albeit at the cost of a potential TPK.
Thoughts So Far: While overall a well-structured chapter, I do feel that some of the encounters can be deadlier than usual. One, the Black Company's arsenal of grimfire pistols makes them glass cannons. They're otherwise easy for Tier 2 PCs to take out, but a concentrated barrage can greatly injure characters and might even KO a few party members. Additionally, the 30d6 damage from Garret Thorne's last stand feels a bit excessive, even if it's potentially avoidable. On the other hand, the treasures in this chapter number among some of the most potent that aren't Divine Relics, so I also feel that the stakes are appropriately higher.
Join us next time as we cover the adventure path's climax in Chapter 11: the Siege of Al'Kirat!
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sevenbastard
Legend
Ummmm this feels like alot. Like I'm cool with adult content, but I also dont need to know the ins and outs of what my players bedroom interests are.
Now we are tricking people into cannibalism? Thats just gotcha DMing at its worst.
Also why does this lady live in a cave? I think the whole rich sexy lady bit works better if they have a nice country villa with harps and water features, versus a small damp cave.
Libertad
Legend
Note: I realized that I forgot to include the recommended levels for the prior chapters after the Great Wasteland. The Veil and the Flame and the Sunken City of Anan'Thul are intended for 5th or 6th level characters who should gain a level by the end of the respective chapters; the Enchanted Gala is suitable for characters of any level and should gain a level after they claim the Knife of Topaz; and Sapphire Sandstorm is designed for 7th or 8th level characters, and are expected to gain one level after leaving/escaping the Roaming Treasury.
The final chapter of Sands of Doom occurs when Lord Ammu's army reaches the city of Al'Kirat, and is suited for PCs of 9th level. They will level up to 10th during the progress of the siege, and then to 11th level after defeating Lord Ammu. The Siege is split up into four major sections separated by time, as the adventure takes place over the course of the majority of the day and to the dawn of tomorrow. To reflect the large-scale nature of the battle, there are two tables that add variable enemies and allies to encounters: Siege Reinforcements consist of both generic and named NPCs to aid the party, along with their stats and the conditions under which they're unlocked. Siege Reinforcements cost Reinforcement Points to deploy during an encounter, and the PCs otherwise have more or less free reign on who they can choose for what battles. The party starts with a default number of Reinforcement Points based on how many days are left before the army reaches Al'Kirat by the time the party hunkers down in the city. Reinforcement Points can also be gained by accomplishing special objectives during the chapter.
Conversely, Special Enemies lists both generic and named NPCs and monsters who can be deployed during particular encounters, with similar conditions for how PCs would "unlock" them over the course of the adventure path. Needless to say, most of these enemies are triggered by the party earning the wrath of a surviving villainous individual or faction, or otherwise failing to eliminate such an enemy earlier on in the adventure path. Strangely, while Asmara is present as a Special Enemy, she otherwise is not brought up at all in the rest of this adventure, either as a deployable ally or for possible involvement in the Rite of the Solar Throne.
There is one supposed "ally" of Al'Kirat who actually threw his lot in with Lord Ammu in secret: Yasar-Al-Fajr, the efreeti ambassador from the City of Brass. As to why, his mission is to procure rare Anubian artifacts, and dealing directly with the Anubians will cut out the city of Al'Kirat as a middleman. He established contact with Lord Ammu a week before the siege via Sending Stones, and sent his agents to place satchels of grimpowder in key positions along the city's walls to be breached during the siege.
PCs will receive an urgent Sending spell if they're not in Al'Kirat in four days prior to Lord Ammu's arrival. If they cannot return in time, then Vizier Rashid will teleport to them to assist with a speedy return, or the Skylark will be deployed to pick them up. Al'Kirat is on lockdown, with citizens under curfew and the city fielding 4,000 soldiers to line the battlements. The army's commander will establish a telepathic link between one PC and several other VIPs in order to share instant updates and reports. We get a rundown of the Anubian army's numbers and major divisions. They include Anubian rank-and-file soldiers, magi who use Heka amber and magical runes to cast less-powerful versions of Meteor Swarm as long-range artillery, O'grillan orc quislings who sided with their invaders, a brood of fang dragons, and a gigantic Brass Titan construct that is basically a souped-up Iron Golem whose unique size grants it special rules in combat. Besides Lord Ammu, High Commander Annubarack is the primary general of the Anubian forces, who rides on a fang dragon and has magic items to aid him in battle.
The PCs will be invited to a secret Merchant Council of Al'Kirat's movers and shakers in order to determine major actions. Measures are determined by majority vote and we get a rundown of various NPCs, what factions they represent, and if they have any particular status or sway in the city to make their votes count more. None of this really comes into play, as the VIPs already planned major strategies and will instead consult the PCs about Lord Ammu and the Divine Relics. If the PCs have been particularly defiant of Prophecy during the adventure path, she will activate sleeper cell cultists who will first warn the party to obey "the Lady in Dreams." If they refuse, other cultists will then kidnap an NPC the party particularly likes during the Noon of the Siege event. No matter how powerful or well-defended the NPC is, they will be tortured and killed, and the words "You Will Obey" are written in blood on a nearby wall.
Content Warning: Suicide
The kidnappers slit their throats after killing the NPC so they can't be taken alive.
Thoughts: I like the main set-up in that it rewards PCs who have been particularly quick and proactive, granting them additional resources and allies that will then pay off for the campaign's climax. I'm not a fan of Prophecy's off-screen murder of an allied NPC, as it's very Deus Ex Machina. It can also stretch suspension of disbelief if said character is too powerful or canny to fall in battle against CR 1/8th NPCs. Yes, they use the Cultist stat block, my use of the word wasn't as a generic descriptor!
Dawn of the Siege consists of three encounters that involve waves of enemies, and even with XP leveling there's enough for characters to go from 9th level to 10th by the end. The first encounter takes place on the battlements surrounding the city, where the PCs and Kirati soldiers fight against pteranodon-riding orcs, High Commander Annubarack astride a fang dragon (he only participates for one round before retreating), and finally the Brass Titan mecha which can also attack the wall itself. If the Titan strikes the wall 10 times, it will create a breach that allows hordes of soldiers to effortlessly invade the city. This results in a Nonstandard Game Over where most of the city's inhabitants will die, but the PCs can still achieve a pyrrhic victory by confronting Lord Ammu in the final encounter. There's also placements of ballistae on the wall that can fire bolts coated in explosive grimpowder.
The second encounter deploys the PCs to the Artisan's Quarter, where the grimpowder satchels planted by agents of the efreeti traitor go off. By default, the PCs are aided by Kirati soldiers against Packs of Orcs, which are basically like Swarms of small monsters but applied to medium humanoids instead. If Annubarack is alive, he will arrive by fang dragon, not directly participating but shouting out orders to the orcs while the fang dragon casts Dispel Magic on any hindering AoE spells put up by the PCs and their allies. The party will get the opportunity for a Short Rest after this encounter's resolution.
The third encounter involves claiming key city streets as choke points to hinder the Anubian army's advance. The battlemap for this encounter is a wide thoroughfare, with rows of buildings containing narrower allies and passageways to serve as additional entry and exit points. The PCs and their allies have 10 minutes to make preparations for the eventual assault, and gain additional Reinforcement Points to spend as rounds gradually pass. The enemies will enter the map via three different pathways, and there's rules for setting up improvised barricades of debris. The enemy forces are arranged into three waves: the first is an orcish warlord riding a triceratops aided by packs of orcs, rock-throwing hill giants, and a pair of black dragon wyrmlings. The second wave involves Anubian warriors consisting of both traditional soldiers and spellcasters, and the third wave marks Annubarack and his fang dragon's last stand.
If the PCs can hold out for 10 rounds, reinforcements arrive to push back the Anubians and end the battle. But if the PCs defeat Annubarack, they will absorb the energy that comes out of his Obsidian Blade (a broken Divine Relic) and each gains +1 to an ability score that isn't their highest or lowest.
Thoughts: The wave-based combat encounters are quite innovative, and I like how they have alternative victory and failure conditions. My one criticism is that the adventure really wants Annubarack to die during the third encounter and not before, which feels rather railroady on account that many gaming groups will likely prioritize enemy commanders over faceless mooks. And 9th level is high enough for many parties to adequately deal with aerial opponents and also having ways to prevent their retreat.
Noon of the Siege sees both the Kirati and Anubian forces digging into their fortified positions. The Anubians are confined to the Artisan's Quarter, and combat shifts to hit-and-run house-to-house skirmishes on both sides. As a result, the PCs have some breathing room to explore the safe portions of the city to catch up with surviving allies. The book provides six social encounters, such as consulting with Rumbold Tomekeeper to learn that Lord Ammu is using enchantment magic on the fang dragon broodmother, and that ending it can rob the Anubians of their draconic allies; learning from Vizier Rashid that Lord Ammu's palanquin throne is covered in an antimagic aura that might be disrupted by a fang dragon's bite; visiting the slums, which are now reigned over by beastfolk who used the invasion to start a slave rebellion, and PCs who show sympathy for their cause can convince them to give 1,000 soldiers to fight the Anubians in exchange for universal manumission; or take part in a debate at the Temple of the Five-Pointed Star, where the devils of Asmodeus are willing to help fight the Anubians in exchange for being allowed to engage in Diabolical Contacts outside the temple grounds.
This event lasts until the DM deems it narratively appropriate to move on, at which point the PCs gain the benefits of a Long Rest.
Night of the Siege focuses not on the Anubian forces, but the metaphorical enemy within. The Sultana Zanara Zin'Zara is scheduled to travel to the next war council via a secret, heavily-armed convoy. Yasar the efreet leaked the convoy to Lord Ammu, who intends to use an elite group of soldiers to assassinate the city's leaders. However, Yasar is impatiently ambitious, and throws a wrench in this plan by deciding to attack the convoy first with summoned swarms of fire elementals and salamanders.* The PCs get wind of the intended attack on the convoy via telepathic communication regarding a potential mole, and are instructed to travel to the convoy's current location to provide additional security. Yasar's gamble was partially successful: several council members were killed, but the Sultana, her guard, and 16 Merchant Council members are still alive. During this time, multiple Special Enemies might attack the party, with the book providing suggestions for individual foes based on ideal skillsets and narrative elements. The combat takes place on an urban battlemap, with the convoy starting at the far south and the PCs at the far north. The party will need to pass through a gatehouse watched over by the Special Enemies, and the Convoy members are guarded by Kirati soldiers. The nameless Merchant Council members use collective stats of a large-sized (noncombatant) crowd with 160 hit points, where one NPC dies for every 10 hit points they take.
*These plot-based summons make use of the efreeti casting Wish, as there are no spells in the default 5e rules that can summon waves of mid and higher-CR monsters.
The more Merchant Lords who survive, the better support they can give to the PCs before the final battle in the form of fungible Treasure Point assets to "spend" on magic items. If the Sultana survives, she can accompany the PCs in the next encounter for 0 Reinforcement Points. The survivors urge the PCs to head to their intended meeting point at the Hall of Memories, fearful that it is also under attack. The next encounter takes place outside the building, where a remorhaz summoned by Yasar plus one Special Enemy is attacking the structure. After a mandatory Short Rest, the PCs meet up with the rest of the attendees in the Hall, and inevitable talk of a traitor within the ranks circulates as Vizier Rashid raises the issue.
Ferreting out the traitor can be done via narrowing down the list of suspects in determining which NPCs are capable of commanding summoning magic, as well as skill checks that point to suspicious behavior on Yasar's part. The efreet is concealing his Sending Stones in a small bag, and if the PCs previously encountered Hamza they will recognize the magic items as matching the ones he used to contact Lord Ammu. Yasar will fight to the death if confronted, and the Vizier, the Sultana, and any other allies present will join the PCs' side. However, the efreeti isn't alone, as he will have more fire-themed allies summoned in to join him in combat, although they will prioritize killing the Merchant Lords first.
Alternatively, if the PCs accuse Vizier Rashid of being the traitor and persuade the Council, then they will fight him instead, where he is aided by Morgiana (if still alive) as well as 1d4 Invisible Stalker bodyguards. Once the dust clears, Anubian spellcasters will unleash more Heka-charged artillery on the Hall of Memories, forcing the PCs to conduct skill challenges to help evacuate people as the building collapses.
Thoughts: Given the generous use of Special Enemies, the initial encounters are highly variable and thus cannot be so easily judged, but I like how the combat continues the themes of non-conventional victory/loss conditions in order to ensure the survival of Al'Kirat's leadership. I also like how the PCs can end up fingering the wrong person of being the traitor. While Rashid is definitely a likely suspect, I wish there was more discussion on what would happen if the party casts the blame on other characters, like the Church of Asmodeus or heck, even the Sultana or her niece!
The End of the Siege has the PCs emerge from the wreckage to the sight of a crowd of citizens scarred and wounded from the siege, but still willing to provide aid and assistance in what ways they can. As the sun rises in the east, a rainbow-hued giant bird soars across the sky, recognized as the Simurgh of legend. It sheds feathers which fall to the city, resurrecting corpses and providing Heroic Inspiration and the benefits of a Long Rest to the living. Even if the PCs are indoors, fate twists to have at least one feather touch each party member somehow. As the Anubians were already miraculously resurrected by the Ankh of Life, they do not receive the benefits of the feathers. This is a great morale boost to the people of Al'Kirat, and each friendly named NPC who died during the Siege has a 25% chance of being revived.
Lord Ammu resides in the Burning Ring arena to the city's south, deep in Anubian territory. The Merchant Council convenes as they discuss ways to defeat the Pharaoh once and for all. PCs can come up with their own plans, but the book suggests four proposals by NPCs: using an underground network of tunnels previously used by the Veiled Syndicate for smuggling operations, feigning a letter of surrender to get physically close to Lord Ammu, or gaining the aid of Asmodeus' devils or the beastfolk slaves in exchange for their aforementioned demands.
The Ember Ring is technically a five-room dungeon crawl, but the bulk of the events and combat takes place in the center, where Lord Ammu resides on his magically-warded palanqain. Besides his many faceless Anubian minions, Lord Ammu also has Ma'rut (a unique monstrous pet based off of the Egyptian goddess Ammit, and is a physical fighter with a fire/necrotic breath weapon that can consume the souls of dead creatures), a dominated fang dragon adult who is the broodmother, and the possibility of either Yasar-Al-Fajr or Malicia as Special Enemies if either survived during the course of the campaign. Malicia is only an enemy if the PCs are on the Path of Devotion and possess the Golden Spear, and during combat will plead for the PCs to not destroy the Ankh of Life.
As for Lord Ammu, he is a CR 14 opponent, already attuned to two unique Divine Relics which grant him increased stats as well as unique abilities. He doesn't have any Legendary Actions or Resistance, but he can perform up to 3 Reactions per round which include casting spells and imposing unique debuffs on enemies. Lord Ammu is also proficient in all saving throws and has access to a wide variety of divine spells, making him a pretty tough opponent. His antimagic throne is selective, meaning that it protects him from magic but he can freely cast spells while on it, and will not get up unless he is forcefully moved off or if the throne's protections are dispelled. At some point during the battle when things are looking against him, Lord Ammu will demand the divine intervention of Anubis, which takes the form of the sky tearing open to a vast, purple cosmos as the Pharaoh is bathed in powerful light. At this time, pillars of red sand begin reaching up towards the rift, as the Will of the Sands seeks the life force of the Duaat.
Anubis does manifest, but will choose to bless the PCs with the benefits of a short rest. Lord Ammu does gain 100 temporary hit points, and the arena becomes difficult terrain due to all the red sand. The Pharaoh cannot be defeated as long as he is attuned to the Ankh of Life, for it will immediately resurrect him should he hit 0 hit points. The means of defeating him depends on which of the three Paths of Fate the PCs are on: Devotion requires destroying the Ankh of Life with the Golden Spear, targeting it as an object; Benevolence requires performing the Rite of the Solar Throne which forcefully unattunes him; and Erudition requires a Wish spell cast to unattune him once he hits 0 hit points. Although in this last case, the Ankh grants limited access to its power to an unattuned holder in casting the Heal spell as a bonus action without expending a spell slot.
Once this special condition comes to pass, the true final battle occurs as the Will of the Sands asserts itself, using its corruption of Lord Ammu to commandeer the Pharaoh like a puppet. Lord Ammu has a new stat block for this, where his magic is instead innate spells related to earth-based elemental attacks, such as a modified Tsunami that takes the form of sand rather than water. He also automatically conjures living motes of sand which mimic the effects of Bigby's Hand, but can move of their own accord. Besides his spells, the Will-controlled Lord Ammu can cause a mote to take damage in exchange for firing concentrated streams of sand at targets, and also can take 3 reactions per round which include casting spells, shifting damage from one mote to another, transforming into a whirlwind of sand, and entombing a single target.
Any surviving allies of Lord Ammu and enemies of the PCs will flee, recognizing that this is no longer the Pharaoh they once knew. Anyone besides the final boss standing in the arena's sands begins sinking into it if they fall prone or don't move during their turn. Trying to use the Magic Lamp to imprison the Will of the Sands will fail, destroying the lamp but dealing 70 force damage to it and nearby creatures in an AoE.
Much like the first phase of this battle, Lord Ammu's true defeat depends on the Path of Fate: Devotion requires striking Lord Ammu at least once with the Golden Spear, which also robs him of the use of being able to shift damage between motes; Benevolence requires that the PCs protect the Divine Child, basically fighting Ammu as normal but also ensuring the survival of the new Pharaoh; Erudition requires casting another Wish spell to sever the Will of the Sand's connection to Lord Ammu. In this final case, Lord Ammu can then be touched by the Ankh of Life to be resurrected, but this will leave him in a coma. Souk will teleport into the arena to try and stop this process, attempting to destroy the Ankh which immediately breaks if it takes a single hit from the Golden Spear.
Thoughts: Lord Ammu looks to be a powerful opponent for 10th level PCs in both phases. My main concern is that the amount of NPCs on both sides of the battle (PCs get a lot of Reinforcement Points) can result in a lot of factors for the DM to juggle. Add onto this the special conditions for defeating Lord Ammu plus the terrain effects,there's a good chance of something being forgotten about in all the note-taking.
Sand's of Doom's Epilogue takes a look at likely endings for the adventure path. Once Lord Ammu is defeated, Al'Kirat uses the capture of various high-ranking Anubians to force the army to retreat from the city as leverage to end the war. The Anubian Army is still much larger than Al'Kirat's, so the nobles and army are allowed to depart after hostage exchanges during a ceasefire, and they don't have to pay any reparations to the city. The PCs are rewarded each with 10,000 gold pieces, a parcel of land in the city, a grand statue in their likeness, and permanent position in the council with full voting rights.
If Sultana Zanara Zin'Zara is dead and not resurrected, her nice Zaluna will take her effective place in leadership after inheriting her wealth, setting policies to make Al'Kirat more welcoming to outsiders and beastfolk. Zanara's will included having most of her wealth dedicated to renovation and construction in the Slums, which are now filled with tidal waves of red sand that ends up quarantined. The will also bequeaths the collective ownership of Kunaten Keep to the PCs, along with 50,000 gold pieces for its reconstruction and upkeep.
As for O'grila, its eastern half becomes territory of the new kingdom of Anubia, with its western half a decentralized assortment of various kingdoms. Anubia is ruled by various gnoll noble families, whose first major policies involve searching for more of their buried cities and the missing Aru. The Great Pyramid, called Ankhara in their language, serves as their capital city.
Further developments depend upon which of the 3 Paths of Fate the PCs followed. Devotion results in the Will of the Sands fully taking control of the Anubians, as the destruction of the Ankh of Life robs them of their last bit of supernatural resistance to the foul force. The Will-puppetted gnolls will grow in number as they kill more of their independent brethren, before eventually going to war against the Darakni. All as Prophecy intended.
Benevolence causes the Will of the Sands to withdraw back into the Wasteland with Lord Ammu's corpse, becoming permanently imbued with supernatural sapience as the result of feasting on his divine essence. Lord Ammu is born anew, albeit it is uncertain to what extent this new being is the former Pharaoh, the Will given physical form, or a hybrid of the two beings. Anamnesis, the Aru guardian of the gates of the Duaat, appears back in the mortal world to validate Amen as the new Pharaoh. This Anubia has a much more peaceful foreign relation policy with Al'Kirat and O'grila. The Ankh of Life is used to keep its citizens shielded against the Will of the Sands, although its corruptive influence remains. It is this corruption that will subtly push Anubia to expand eastward, going to war with the centaur tribes and thus causing more corpses for the Will to claim. The Will takes the skeletons from Anan'Thul to raid more Anubian tombs to expand its army for an eventual war with the Darakni. Prophecy finds this arrangement acceptable but not ideal, as the Will lines up with her ends but isn't controllable by her.
Erudition has a reawakened Lord Ammu establish contact with Anamnesis, who learns of Prophecy's role in the death of his daughter. He shares these findings with Anubia at large who devote themselves to hunting and thwarting the sphinx's influence. The Pharaoh will also undertake an extensive policy of cleansing the Wasteland of the Will of the Sands' influence, using the Ankh of Life to drive back the red sand and also unearthing more Anubian cities in the process. This reduces the Will of the Sand's power, allowing the Darakni to make headway against the Will's undead warriors and expand their territorial holdings. Prophecy is now fearful, realizing that she'll need to put her plans in motion before they're ready.
As for what these plans of Prophecy are? Well, according to a potential sequel to this campaign, they involve clones of the sphinx using the stolen divine essence of various gods to create a new Divine Relic in a city overrun with Darakni. This relic will be used to unseal a gate to the Abyss and summon a primordial serpent known as Sera'Aku, as this supposedly is "the only way to prevent this world from turning into ash and dust." The last surviving Aru will meet together once again, preparing to wage war against Sera'Aku.
Unfortunately, this sequel product is unlikely to be made anytime soon. In a video made by the author, he explains how writing Sands of Doom forced him to take more time away from his YouTube channel, which is his main source of income. While the book indicates that future content is planned, it's unlikely when or if we'll see such products.
Thoughts So Far: From determining the city's survival to the fate of the Anubians and the region of Kirat as a whole, this chapter makes for a dramatic climax to the Sands of Doom campaign. Lord Ammu isn't a pushover either, and combined with his ample access to spells and battlefield control abilities, the combat should be quite fluid and tactical in feel. I also appreciate how various decisions made during the siege, as well the survival and deaths of key NPCs, further cause long-term changes to the region. I do wish we had some more opportunities to reveal Prophecy's end goal to the PCs in actual play. At the very least, the party will surely be asking what was the point of all this when they find out her role in the death of the Divine Child, and thus the crux of the major events in this campaign.
Join us next time as we finish up this review with several Appendices!
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Libertad
Legend
1. But have you considered that detailed erotic services help with verisimilitude simulationism? /s
2. I can only speak for myself, but accidental cannibalism is a real boner-killer.
3. My best guess is that being on the run from Eurydice means that she can't hide out in Al'Kirat, and harpies surveying from the sky won't be able to spot underground lairs. But yes, the whole abandoned mine isn't really thematically suitable for her vibe.
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