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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Libertad" data-source="post: 9763413" data-attributes="member: 6750502"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/Halh70t.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="width: 656px" />Unlike other chapters, this one has no intended level-ups, and is designed for PCs for 4th level. It begins after the party earns a place on the Skylark, a state-of-the-art airship docked at Al'Kirat, providing them a scenic trip of 14 hours to Kunaten Keep alongside the scholar Rumbold Tomekeeper. Zaluna Al'Zara, the Sultana's niece, is also onboard, but is under heavy guard and remains cooped up for most of the trip.After disembarking off the airship, the party's presence is registered by officials of the Seekers of the Sunken Flame,* given an overview of the town, and are assigned lodgings in the sprawling tent city outside the Keep. Most adventurers in Kirat are here, part of the upcoming expedition to the Great Pyramid. While in town, the PCs have the opportunity to meet various locals and visitors, such as Souk, who is there to evaluate the characters on behalf of Prophecy and asks them an open-ended question of which of three choices they'd accept from an angel in order to overcome a seemingly unwinnable situation. As can be expected, each choice corresponds to one of three Paths, and Souk reacts most positively to Devotion (a powerful weapon to vanquish one's enemies).*the guild in charge of the expedition.Another encounter involves intervening between a group of tiefling children bullying an otherwise friendly hill giant, who will attempt to forcefully move one of the kids away when he messes with her pet camel. This in turn will cause a nearby group of adventurers to violently retaliate against the giant. Nonviolently diffusing the situation at any point rewards the party with two scrolls of Scorching Ray on account that the hill giant is a valued asset to the Keep. To be fair, anybody who tries to antagonize a camel is putting themselves in danger, hill giant or no.The caravan expedition to the Great Pyramid is "fast-forwarded," as the huge mass of adventurers and scholars have the necessary preparations, and most monsters and raiders know better than to attack such a well-armed convoy. The caravan is joined by a group of cyclops from O'grila as part of a treaty with Al'Kirat in order to improve relations between the two civilizations. The Great Pyramid itself is nearly 800 feet tall, and a small team of Seekers have already been present for weeks at the Pyramid in surveying the land outside the structure. A senior tiefling Seeker by the name of Mantell Darsk will go over a list of rules for adventurers to follow, where various parties are assigned to explore particular sections of the pyramid at particular times, along with how treasure will be split up. While these rules won't be relevant in actual game play as the dung hits the fan very early on, a sidebar of authorial intent explains that it's meant to show the professional nature of the Seekers and adventurers. But what is unprofessional is that Mantell is quite bigoted in spite of his otherwise polite demeanor, as he devalues non-tiefling party members for presumed weaknesses. For example, he'll complain about how humans needing to rely on light sources to see in the dark is a liability for adventuring parties.Thoughts: While the chapter has a bit of a slow opening, it works as a natural falling-off point from the climactic boss battle at the end of the previous chapter, and helps set up the scope of the Great Pyramid expedition. It also provides an answer to the meta-narrative question of "what are all the other adventurers and high-level NPCs doing about this crisis?" that oftentimes plagues established settings. Well, as most of Kirat's adventurers are going to end up killed by the risen gnoll army, it better hammers home that it's up to the PCs to save the day!<img src="https://i.imgur.com/Q4UjAK4.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="width: 349px" />Part 1: Servants' Quarters takes place when the party of the PCs is assigned a section of the Pyramid to explore by the Seekers. They're accompanied by Mantell, who uses Scout stats but with tiefling racial abilities. The quarters are a 19 room dungeon crawl spread out across one floor. Part Two actually uses the same map, but rooms 20 to 30 are blocked off by a collapsed passageway filled with sand.Throughout the dungeon are Anubian Servants, mummified gnolls who look, smell, and behave like nonintelligent undead but in fact are technically alive due to the Ankh of Life's powers. They are otherwise noncombatants as they don't fight back, and there's no need to make rolls to kill them. Mantell and other NPCs will treat them as dangerous all the same, with the tiefling advising the PCs to kill them just to be on the safe side. As for actual dangers, there are starving rust monsters, a toxic colony of spores that have overtaken a larder along with insect swarms, and a poisonous snake in a bathroom with a unique kind of venom that acts more like a disease. The poison gradually drains Dexterity over the course of days as one's skin becomes more scalelike. The author notes in yet another sidebar that the unique poisonous snake and rust monster encounters are meant to further drain the party's resources beyond hit points in order to emphasize the feeling of being overwhelmed and helpless in the following chapter.The most significant find in this section of the pyramid is High Priest Asmara, an Anubian gnoll who unlike the other servants is capable of defending herself but is otherwise consumed with grieving. Asmara was the biological mother of Lord Ammu's firstborn, inheriting their father's divine blood and raised in secret so as to avoid his political enemies from kidnapping or killing the baby.Also in the room is the Onyxian Jar, one of the Divine Relics. Unlike other magic items, anyone who touches it instantly attunes to it, and holds the soul of Asmara and Lord Ammu's child. The text helpfully reminds that anyone who attunes to a Divine Relic can speak Anubian, allowing them to read the hieroglyphics in the dungeon. Asmara will attack the PCs if they touch the Relic, inspect the child, or attack her. The Jar itself is pretty powerful, where it grants the attuned the ability to see souls up to 1 minute after a living creature is killed, a constant Death Ward that renews at the start of each of their turns, and can draw a visible soul into the jar (must be humanoid, dragon, or giant, and spirit monsters get a DC 20 Charisma save) but can otherwise hold only one soul at a time. A soul in the jar can be asked up to 3 questions, after which it is then judged to be Harmony or Chaos; the latter absolves the soul of oaths, contracts, and sins in life, and Chaos utterly destroys it and it ceases existing.Souk was here earlier on orders from Prophecy, where he committed an act that will fill him with guilt and stir the first feelings of doubt as to the Sphinx's cause.Content Warning: Child Death[spoiler]Unfortunately, Souk arrived at the Great Pyramid hours before the PCs did, and committed infanticide by stabbing the baby with a Golden Spear specifically designed to absorb the divine essence of an Aru and their descendants. Asmara holds the dead child in her arms, grief-stricken.[/spoiler]Thoughts: This dungeon crawl is much lighter on combat than prior chapters, although this is by design as Part 2 is where things get a lot hairier. Part 1 serves as more of an "exploration by exposition," which thematically works quite well.<img src="https://i.imgur.com/TSBRmbx.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="width: 462px" />Part 2: the Great Awakening takes place once the PCs explored their fill of this portion of the dungeon, at which point Mantell suggests regrouping to a defensible position to look over their loot (he suggests the baths in Room 19) and assign the portion paid to the Seekers. After a Short Rest, an earthquake strikes, causing the entrance to collapse in a cave-in and the sand-filled passageway to drain. Every dead creature in the Pyramid is affected by a Raise Dead spell regardless of how long they were deceased, this process  known as the Great Awakening which is part of the Ankh of Life's power. The Anubians have portions of their body regenerated, but only the "vital" parts which still makes them look like living zombies as their organs are working but skin and muscle remain emaciated and with holes in places. The Ankh of Life cannot resurrect an Aru or any of their descendants, and it won't resurrect insects in order to not replenish the Darakni's numbers.While the Servants remain confused noncombatants, the many other gnolls beneath the pyramid are more than capable of fighting, who will begin spreading across the lower levels and killing anyone in their path. The PCs will hear screams and pitched sounds of battle when near a privy, as they're connected to the (unmapped and undetailed) lower levels. The PCs will encounter the bodies of dead adventurers as they explore, which contain useful gear such as a cleric with a Pearl of Power and +1 shield or a wizard with a spellbook of 1st and 2nd level spells. A human bard by the name of Melusine, who could've been encountered by the party earlier on in Kunaten Keep, is the first survivor the PCs come across. She is grievously wounded by a spear lodged in her stomach, which reduces her speed and requires a Medicine check to safely remove without causing further spinal damage and rendering her unable to walk at all.Mantell will realize that things are even worse than usual, as Anubians encountered in prior expeditions never displayed advanced tactics or weapon usage. Such gnolls will be coming up the stairs and holes in two different rooms every other round, and for game purposes are effectively infinite in number. The adventure does suggest removing gnolls from one room out of initiative if it's too much for the DM to manage. Complicating matters is that a piece of weakened floor will collapse and trap Mantell's leg, forcing the PCs either to free him or leave him behind. The only way out is via a balcony in the northwest section of the dungeon, which overlooks a great waterfall plunging to a river far below. This exit will be revealed after a random (1d4+1) amount of rounds at the start of the "Last Stand" encounter. Said encounter occurs in the large room adjacent to the balcony, where a huge rift forms and five adventurers (none of them are casters, they use Scout and Thug/Tough stat blocks) are fighting off a wave of gnolls.PCs who fall in battle will not result in a TPK. Lord Ammu will eventually appear if the PCs continue to hold the line, appearing with a rather grand entrance as the gnolls bow in his presence, glowing Ankh of Life in hand, as he casts Harm on the adventurers until all are fallen. They will be stabilized and captured alive by the gnolls, which causes Chapter 5 to start differently than if they escaped. The Onyxian Jar will also be taken out of their inventory, and it will then be attuned to Asmara who has since been resurrected.The awakening of the Anubians has drastic consequences for Kirat, to say the least. It's one thing to reawaken to what may as well be foreign tomb-robbers picking over your home. It's another to discover that one of those tomb-robbers may very well be guilty of killing the legitimate heir to your Empire. This will cause Lord Ammu to pretty much declare war on the civilization of Al'Kirat. As for O'grila, its territory is viewed as holy by the Anubians, who seek to "liberate" it from the hands of the orcs and giants living there. Anubians from all across the continent will begin to converge on the region of Kirat, soon totalling around 100,000 soldiers. Half of these Anubians (50,000) will invade O'grila, which will be conquered in two weeks and only a minority of local population centers continue to resist. 10,000 Anubians will prepare to advance on Al'Kirat. The book doesn't say what happens or is expected of the remaining 40,000; presumably they're a variable factor for the DM.Any PC who is attuned to the Onyxian Jar and escaped with it, will earn Lord Ammu's special enmity. He will believe the holder of the Onyxian Jar to be the one who murdered his child.Last but not least, If either Mantell or Melodyne survived, PCs will get the opportunity to earn potential rewards later on. A surviving Mantell will use his connections among the Seekers of the Sunken Flame to reward the PCs with 500 gold pieces each, and he'll be a recruitable NPC ally for the siege of Al'Kirat at the campaign's climax. As for Melodyne, she will tell the PCs to leave her behind during Chapter 5, as her wounds (which manifest as 1 level of exhaustion) cannot be restored save by Greater Restoration or a month of bed rest. They can still opt to help her regardless. The PCs can learn about her husband Narian during conversation, who is afflicted with a cancerous, genetic affliction. It can only be healed by a Wish spell, a diabolical contract, or Gulnar's Flower, the last of which is a unique restorative treasure detailed later on in this book. He will be indebted to the PCs if they heal him, where he becomes a recruitable NPC ally for the siege just like Mantell.Thoughts: I tend not to be a fan of explicit railroading. While the cave-in is meant to prevent the PCs from leaving the way that they came, I can see some gaming groups attempting to leave the pyramid and divide their earnings rather than doing so at a defensible area as per Mantell's advice. As for the "effective infinite enemies forcing a retreat," I'm also not a fan of that, although it is blunted a bit in that PCs will be captured rather than killed. In such a case, the party's stubbornness or unluckiness brings with it penalties in the form of starting the following Chapter without their gear and in a weakened state. I do like how PCs who take risks ensuring the survival of allies will pay off for them down the line, either via material rewards or more forces in the final chapter. I also appreciate how the end of the chapter goes over the brief geopolitical ramifications of the Anubian's mass revival.As for Souk's crime, this is quite the inversion of the otherwise helpful prophecy-giver in countless fantasy stories and RPGs, as technically this makes Prophecy responsible for the ensuing war in the rest of Sands of Doom. The adventure does acknowledge the very real possibility of the PCs turning on her and Souk, particularly if/when they find out the latter's role in things. However, it does bring to question why Prophecy wants to cause this war; while the book does sort of answer this in regards to the possible endings for this adventure path, Prophecy motivations are not made that much clearer than the fact she wants to wipe out the Aru's influence for whatever reason.Thoughts So Far: Overall I like this chapter. The dungeon crawl has a good build-up, the atmosphere works well in informing the players of the enormity of the situation, there are opportunities with potential payouts for saving allies or leaving them to their fates. I have noticed that a lot of these chapters so far involve quite a bit of NPC companions, but their stats are usually such that they don't render the rest of the characters obsolete and are more a helpful addition than a case of Main Character Syndrome that plagues so many DMPCs.Another thing to note is that this module contains Content Warnings for various subject matters that can be triggering to people. It's listed at the beginning of the book, and is overall accurate. However, Sands of Doom does drop the ball later on in Chapter 7 which is well…full of that kind of material to the point that removing and changing it will result in a lot of work for the DM, as well as not being accurately described at said beginning of the book. The death of Lord Ammu's child, while being a rather important impetus for the rest of the campaign, is more easily changeable by aging them up to adulthood should that be an issue for one or more players.Join us next time as we see how the PCs get out of this sticky situation in Chapter 5: Alone and Afraid!</blockquote>

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