Simon Collins
Explorer
Beware! This review contains major spoilers.
This is the eleventh booster adventure by AEG. It is designed for five to eight characters of level 8-12. It costs $2.49.
Production and Presentation: This module is 16 pages but each page is only ½ the width of an A4 page. The front (soft)cover features average colour artwork, the back cover features an introduction for the players to the adventure. There are two mediocre internal pieces of black & white artwork and the central pages contain a basic scaled map of the tomb of Amun Khonshu, which has some problems (see below). The final page and the inside back cover contains OGL bumpf. The inside front cover contains advertising.
The Story: A desert ranger seeks to save his life-long friend. Through research and rumour he has discovered that a magical ruby might save his friend. The ranger has recently discovered the location of the ruby, hidden in a secret tomb in the middle of the desert. He hires the PCs to retrieve the ruby for him. There are a few random encounters for the journey to the ruin included. When the PCs enter the tomb, they come across a number of deadly traps and creatures including tomb hounds, a canine version of a mummy. Finally they reach the sarcophagus of Amun Khonshu, a powerful mummy who casts spells that are written on his bandages. The ruby is hidden within the mummified body itself.
The High Points: The adventure evokes an excellent atmosphere of all that I have in mind when I think of an Egyptian tomb. One of the nice touches is that there are no doors – entrance to a room is gained by searching for it in the wall and hacking through it. Clues are given in hieroglyphics as to the background of Amun Khonshu in the tomb. The creatures are generally appropriate to the setting and most have reasonable explanations as to their presence.
The Low Points: There are four rooms with elemental traps (deadly ones – beware unlucky PC deaths). The Water room, though, does not appear to have an elemental trap. In addition, the room and its relation to the rest of the tomb are poorly (and confusingly) described – there seems to be something missing from the description. The map does not help to explain the text description. The DM will have to do some work to fit this in logically to the rest of the adventure. Perhaps the room is meant to be filled with water, but this is not mentioned.
Conclusion: I gave this an Average rating since this is a typical Egyptian tomb setting, with some good ideas and some poorly executed descriptions and explanations.
This is the eleventh booster adventure by AEG. It is designed for five to eight characters of level 8-12. It costs $2.49.
Production and Presentation: This module is 16 pages but each page is only ½ the width of an A4 page. The front (soft)cover features average colour artwork, the back cover features an introduction for the players to the adventure. There are two mediocre internal pieces of black & white artwork and the central pages contain a basic scaled map of the tomb of Amun Khonshu, which has some problems (see below). The final page and the inside back cover contains OGL bumpf. The inside front cover contains advertising.
The Story: A desert ranger seeks to save his life-long friend. Through research and rumour he has discovered that a magical ruby might save his friend. The ranger has recently discovered the location of the ruby, hidden in a secret tomb in the middle of the desert. He hires the PCs to retrieve the ruby for him. There are a few random encounters for the journey to the ruin included. When the PCs enter the tomb, they come across a number of deadly traps and creatures including tomb hounds, a canine version of a mummy. Finally they reach the sarcophagus of Amun Khonshu, a powerful mummy who casts spells that are written on his bandages. The ruby is hidden within the mummified body itself.
The High Points: The adventure evokes an excellent atmosphere of all that I have in mind when I think of an Egyptian tomb. One of the nice touches is that there are no doors – entrance to a room is gained by searching for it in the wall and hacking through it. Clues are given in hieroglyphics as to the background of Amun Khonshu in the tomb. The creatures are generally appropriate to the setting and most have reasonable explanations as to their presence.
The Low Points: There are four rooms with elemental traps (deadly ones – beware unlucky PC deaths). The Water room, though, does not appear to have an elemental trap. In addition, the room and its relation to the rest of the tomb are poorly (and confusingly) described – there seems to be something missing from the description. The map does not help to explain the text description. The DM will have to do some work to fit this in logically to the rest of the adventure. Perhaps the room is meant to be filled with water, but this is not mentioned.
Conclusion: I gave this an Average rating since this is a typical Egyptian tomb setting, with some good ideas and some poorly executed descriptions and explanations.
