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How would you all remove the slave aspects?

I struggled with this. I think that in part the module sets the scene well enough to show just how out of their comfort zone the heroes are. The Urdefhan surround them in this inhospitable desert, and their alliance is tenuous at best.

I think it's totally fine for the party to not be friends with the cult. I would then find a way for them to get the information needed, and describe seeing Urdefhan scouts watching them from far sand dunes as they travel, but not forcing them through endless encounters.

Though to answer the question you directly asked, you could spin the camp to be more of a place with captives for ransom (from shraen or duergar caravans). If you're trying to remove slavery altogether from the module, include more mindless undead in Shraen, and have the Forbidden District be off limits to any living souls. (Keep the dhampir bartender, he might be the only non-circus recruit ally in the whole book.)

Thanks for the feedback. I think I'll still change 2-3 of his spells (moving Magic Missile down to 7th level, and swapping Telepathic Demand for something else), but I won't give him any other special abilities or change his DC. (And Utter Dispair combined with Repulsion might make life hard for my barbarian.)

I think I had been thinking about the fight a bit wrong. He doesn't do a ton of burst damage, but he has so many spells and abilities to keep himself safe while the elementals, visions of danger and wand of manifold missiles do damage every round. (And it might last long enough for the mummy rot to trigger.)

Is Dyzallin... weak?

My players have finally made it to and through most of Shraen, and in prepping the showdown for the titular Lord of the Black Sands, I'm underwhelmed. Many of his spells feel right for his schemes, but with so many of them incapacitation or prediction based divinations that it feels like he only has a few actual options to be a threat to the PCs. Add on that his spell DC is honestly low (while technically high for his level, "At 15th level and higher, the extreme numbers become standard for spellcasters." GMG 65), and some choices like a heightened Magic Missile to a level 8 slot, I just don't know how he'll shine. [Why does he have Telepathic Demand when he doesn't have any way to telepathically contact targets? He has 5 7th level slots, but 3 of his 4 spells are likely useless against a 17th level party. I like that some of his spells are things he might be casting every day to build his power in Shraen, but it's too much.]

Can anyone who's run the fight chime in on how it went? Or someone with a better eye for numbers/boss building tell me that I'm crazy.

I'm thinking about pulling things from Book of the Dead or other sources to give him a few more interesting spells or abilities, but if he has TPK'd a bunch of parties as written I might back down.

I'm not trying to be an adversarial GM and I love my party, but I want this to be a fun and challenging encounter.

Leon Aquilla wrote:

The Lieutenants all use stats per the GM Guide on organizations.

Quote:

Might be a silly question, but has anyone seen any +1 striking runes anywhere in their read-throughs? I feel like my player (running this as a solo adventure with a GM PC) should have a +1 striking weapon at about level 4 or 5, but I'm not seeing that floating around anywhere. Am I missing something?

There's a smithy in the Iomedaen camp and they've been known to have runes on their weapons so I sold them there.

I looked but dont see any stat block. I only see them under the Npc section but that section doesnt list the classes mentioned in tha AP at all <ie, battlmuse, gurella>

I think that's because they're not expected to face the PCs in combat. The description of veteran or tactician are supposed to help you understand their roles as NPCs, not refer to a given stat block. It's the same as in Broken Tusk Moon, where Grandfather Eiwa is a "LG male human seer 4" or that Panuaku is a "hunter 2" while Merthig is a "hunter 8" all while the Hunter NPC from the GMG is a 7th level creature. These aren't mistakes or errors, but intentional omissions to not spend page space for statblocks that aren't intended for combat.

If you need a statblock for some reason though, I would go with a Captain of the Guard (level 6, so maybe weaken it) from the GMG for Montgrim with some combination of Palace Guards (GMG 206), Virtuous Defenders and Hellknight Armigers (Character Guide 120, 122). Switch a weapon out, change an alignment, or maybe even toss in the Mastermind for the tactician.