I
opened my review of the fourth segment of Mummy's Mask,
Secrets of the Sphinx
with a comment about how I'm not a big fan of dungeon crawls. I
did that in order to set up a contrast with the fact that I actually
really like Secrets of the Sphinx—enough
to declare it a “dungeon crawl done well.” Conversely, I'm
opening this review with a reminder of it because the next segment,
The Slave Trenches of Hakotep
by Michael Kortes, is a pretty good example of why I'm not a fan of
dungeon crawls.
While
there are aspects of the adventure that I like (including one great
NPC), overall The Slave Trenches of Hakotep
is a long slog through a succession of dungeons, each filled with
traps and monsters, and many of them forming pieces in an overall
puzzle for the PCs to put together. Apart from that one NPC, there's
very little opportunity for roleplaying interactions, and very little
to keep the adventure spiced up and moving along. It will take many
sessions to play through, and most of those session will start to
feel like the same thing over and over again—and that's not good.
The
adventure has two main parts, both of them dungeon crawls. The second
is considerably longer, being made up itself of a bunch of
stylistically similar dungeon crawls. Of course, in an adventure path
set in Osirion, one expects dungeons crawls through old tombs and
pyramids filled with traps and ancient undead creatures. It's
part of the appeal. However, previous instalments of Mummy's
Mask have handled this much
better. The Half-Dead City
made a point of each of its three dungeons being very different, and
each one contained a history that unfolded as the PCs ventured
through. Secrets of the Sphinx
contained a complex political set-up that the PCs must navigate in
addition to the dungeon itself. Slave Trenches,
on the other hand, has pretty much none of that.
Having
recovered the body of Chisisek, Pharaoh Hakotep's architect, in
Secrets of the Sphinx,
the PCs now have the opportunity to use spells like speak
with the dead to communicate
with him. From Chisisek, they can learn that, in order to find and
bring down to the ground Hakotep's flying pyramid, they need to
travel to the titular Slave Trenches and follow a series of steps to
activate them. Hakotep designed the Slave Trenches as a way of
attacking and grounding Shory cities (the ancient Empire of Shory,
which was contemporary with Hakotep, was most well-known for its
flying cities and was an enemy of Osirion). Hakotep died before the
Slave Trenches were ever used for their intended purpose. However,
while they were designed to be used against Shory cities, they can be
used against any flying target, including Hakotep's pyramid.
Before
the PCs can go to the Slave Trenches, however, another flying pyramid
attacks Wati, and the PCs must hurry back there to defend the
city—and this is where the adventure itself begins. This opening
has so much potential and I was really excited by it when I first
started reading it. With the death of the Forgotten Pharaoh in
Secrets of the Sphinx,
Hakotep's ib (the
portion of his soul that contains his emotions and will) became free
and travelled to his pyramid to rejoin his ba
(his personality or psyche).
At that point, Hakotep reincarnated as a mummy lord. One of his first
actions is to send one of his
favourite generals in life, Isatemkhebet, now herself undead, to
collect the PCs. She does so by taking her own flying pyramid to Wati
and threatening to destroy the city unless they turn over the PCs to
her.
It's
great to see villains being proactive for a change, rather than just
sitting back and waiting for the PCs to come to them. Hakotep here
actually takes steps to deal with a threat against him.
Unfortunately, once Isatemkhebet reaches Wati, she stops being
proactive and just sits back and waits for the PCs. The adventure
even contains the line, “Isatemkhebet spends her hours patiently
lying in wait in her sarcophagus for the PCs to arrive and present
themselves to her” (19). She is literally a monster who waits in
her assigned room until the PCs arrive to kill her. One could almost
see this as clever meta-commentary,
if it weren't for the fact that virtually everything else in the
adventure does exactly the same thing. A few mummified harpy servants
show up at the entrance to Isatemkhebet's pyramid to take the PCs to
her, but otherwise, her pyramid is just a static location where
everything has its place and nothing ever changes.
What
makes the opening truly not live up to its potential, however, is its
treatment of Wati—or rather its complete lack of treatment.
Isatemkhebet attacks the city, but the adventure in no way gives any
indication as to how the city responds, not even a few guidelines.
The first two adventures of Mummy's Mask,
particularly the second, Empty Graves, put a lot of
effort into developing Wati, presumably so the PCs will care enough
to want to protect it now. During those early adventures, the PCs met
a lot of NPCs and presumably formed relationships and alliances with
many of them. Yet here, none of that
comes into play. The only previous NPC mentioned is Ptemenib, who
contacts the PCs to let them know what is happening and request their
help. The adventure then plunks the PCs at the entrance to
Isatemkhebet's flying pyramid and completely forgets about Wati. We
get no information whatsoever on the effect the attack has on the
city as a whole.
Now,
at this late point in an adventure path, it's impossible to know
exactly how things have developed in individual campaigns and which
NPCs the PCs have long-term relationships with. The adventure also
has a limited amount of space and can't possibly provide the GM with
everything. However, a
few guidelines on how
the city reacts would go a long way. Still,
this adventure could have been so much better and so much more
interesting if it had focused on the ramifications of the attack on
Wati rather than treating that as nothing more than a background hook
to get the PCs to the dungeon. There could be some factions in the
city that immediately want to turn the PCs over, while other factions
wish to fight it out. There would be huge roleplaying potential.
Instead, we get a succession of combats that could take place in any
adventure.
Once
the PCs defeat Isatemkhebet, they can continue on to the Slave
Trenches and call down Hakotep's pyramid. From Chisisek's body, they
can learn the steps they need to take to accomplish this: First,
awaken the magic of the Slave Trenches and 11 Sekrephere monuments by
activating the great receptacle.
Then focus the monuments on Hakotep's tomb by activating them in the
proper order. Then use an item called the pharaoh's key
to activate the Sun Disk and bring down the tomb. Each of these steps
is accomplished in a different one of several dungeons found
throughout the Slave Trenches (which cover a huge area). In each of
these dungeons, the PCs face undead, constructs, and traps before
reaching their current objective. There's very little difference
between these dungeons, so I won't go into a lot of detail about them
here. None of them contain any noteworthy NPCs to interact with and
none of them really have an interesting story or history to uncover.
Considering how old the Slave Trenches are (literally thousands of
years old), surprisingly little has ever actually happened there.
There
is one thing, however, that makes the Slave Trenches a little more
dynamic, and that's the presence of the shaitan genie Tef-Naju. His
presence helps to redeem the adventure somewhat, even if his role is
fairly small. Tef-Naju is the guardian of the Slave Trenches, bound
here in service by Hakotep thousands of years ago. Unlike
everything else in this adventure, Tef-Naju doesn't sit still and
wait for the PCs. As soon as he learns of their presence, he takes
active measure to find them and learn what they are up to. The PCs
are actually unlikely to encounter him for the first time in his home
(or keyed location on the map). He will move about to take what steps
he deems necessary to protects his interests, and he'll base those
steps on what he can learn about the PCs.
But
Tef-Naju is a far more interesting character than just this. Even
though he is the principal antagonist of the adventure, the PCs don't
necessarily have to fight and kill. They can, in fact, turn him into
an ally. The terms of his service to Hakotep require that he remain
guardian of the Slave Trenches until the first time they are used to
call down a flying object from above. In his youth, Tef-Naju eagerly
agreed to the terms out of greed for the riches he was promised. He
(and presumably Hakotep as well) never expected the service to last
so long, as Hakotep died and the Trenches were abandoned before they
were ever used. The PCs can make him realize that calling down
Hakotep's tomb will satisfy the terms of service and set him free. In
this way, as long as they aren't trying to destroy the Trenches
(which he is bound to protect), they can convince him to help them
achieve their goals. Tef-Naju is an example of a well-developed and
complex NPC with believable motivations and goals and is, without
doubt, the best part of this adventure.
It's
unfortunate that the rest of the adventure is so static. Completing
all the dungeons in the Slave Trenches will likely become
increasingly tedious. If I ever run this adventure, I'll likely
remove at least a couple of the dungeons in the Slave Trenches and
simply group the different steps to calling down Hakotep's pyramid
closer together. It really doesn't need to be as long as it
is—except, I suppose, to provide enough experience points for the
PCs to reach the appropriate level for the next adventure, but more
time spent on the ramifications of the attack on Wati can help to
fill in that gap.
Following
the adventure, “The Rise and Fall of the Shory Empire” by Neil
Spicer gives a great overview of this ancient empire. It covers the
history of the Shory Empire and its culture, and examines why the
empire eventually fell (in this case, somewhat literally fell).
Although the Shory Empire no longer exists (and thus, campaigns
aren't likely to be set there), the article provides excellent colour
for GMs to inject into their games. Background information like this
helps to truly bring a game alive, and this particular article is
both informative and entertaining to read.
The
next article, “Lost Treasures of Ancient Osirion” by Tim
Hitchcock looks at five unique artifacts from Ancient Osirion. The
artifact write-ups are similar in style to those in Artifacts & Legends, providing
not just a list of powers, but also a history of each item. I
sometimes wish all magic items in the game were treated in this way.
It makes them far more interesting than just a +1 sword.
Finally,
this volume's Bestiary contains
four new creatures, two of which play significant roles in the
adventure. A hanshepsu is a construct created from the sacrifice of a
willing human soul. It looks like a human with the head of some other
animal, such as a cat, hawk, or even a scarab beetle. A hanshepsu can
change the form of its head and each kind of head gives it different
abilities. Ossumentals are undead infused with elemental power. They
are in many ways like a combination of undead and elemental.
As
I both read the adventure and planned this review of it, I couldn't
help but think of the adventure it could
have been—an adventure where the PCs return to Wati and actually
defend the city from attack, rather than just go on yet another
dungeon crawl. The Slave Trenches themselves would be smaller and
occupied by a group of immortal guardians (of which Tef-Naju would be
just one), each with his/her own goals and motivations, and the PCs
would need to interact and deal with them either individually or as a
group in order to successfully call down Hakotep's tomb. Instead, The
Slave Trenches of Hakotep is a
very static adventure, one that just seems to go on and on from one
dungeon room to the next. There are certainly worse adventures out
there, but as it is, there is very little about this adventure that
compels me in any way to run it. The
support articles, however, are very useful.
Informative Blog Article Thanks To Share !
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