The goal of this module is to stop an evil Vudran cult from taking over. I liked the "Indian"-flavored touches that were present throughout. However, I felt that the last, 10th Level encounter would be a bit too tough for a non-optimized group of 8th Level PCs. PCs can make it easier on themselves if they figure out what special powers and advantages the Big 3 Bad Guys have in advance, before they attack their hidden temple. The encounters are all cinematic set-pieces (no boring 15-by-15 rooms here!); they reminded me of the "Mortal Kombat" movie (which in this case is a good thing).
I enjoyed the "Feast of Dust Module." It is divided into three main chapters, to be played in sequence, and I found the first two chapters stronger than the last, as they had the most interesting characters for PCs to interact with. The last chapter of the adventure had interesting encounter locations, but the Big Fight with the Jackal Prince is not in the most dramatic/dynamic location and his minions feel underdeveloped. Since the Jackal Prince's minions are mostly evil outsiders, it's likely traditional Good PCs are going to hack-n-slash their way through rather than negotiate - as was suggested for one encounter with a daemon who wants to exchange an artifact for a secret password. There is also one map that has a staircase but no indication of where it leads (the other maps are better-marked).
Overall the adventure is solid, if a bit less dynamic in the last chapter. I really liked the gazeteer to Dimayen in the back and all of the new monsters in the monster appendix, and there were nice details on the artifacts that the PCs can use, which bumped my rating from 3 stars to 4.
I enjoyed this book much more than I'd expected to, given its subject matter (the torture-loving nation of Nidal). Isiem is a wizard who descends into a moral wilderness under the rule of the Umbral Court, and then finds his way to a kind of redemption in the end. Some reviewers have complained about the two parts of the book not holding together very well, but I didn't experience that. There's lots of food for thought here, more than what I'd expected from a fantasy novel. Some of the questions Merciel raises are: What does it truly cost to cling to one's nation, tribe, or land? Can people ever truly atone for the evil they do? Ought one's morals and principles be sacrificed in order to survive, and is that ever justifiable? This novel is actually pretty deep. Despite all of the action in it, a lot of it is about Isiem's inner journey.
I like this entery in the LoF Adventure Path. The DM needs to be careful to foreshadow how some of the NPCs connect to the Big Bad Guy, and also drop hints about the captain who made a deal with BBG, or else I could see the capt. coming out of nowhere as a "deus ex machina." I especially liked reading Clinton Boomer's set piece; it had a cool, classical feel to it.
