Adventure Site Contest 3: Ophidian Temple

​Written by Scott M.
For AD&D, levels 5-7
Snakeman Demon Shrine
Drums in the jungle herald the return of the snake-men to their evil temple.
Blood sacrifices to their demon-god begin anew.
Who will stand against their evil plans?
   Jungle, drums, incense, ancient demon temple, snake-men. Be still my beating heart, friend of the contest Scott M has given us a PULP ADVENTURE. Are we going to diss Temple of Doom as the weakest of the Indiana Jones trilogy (THERE ARE ONLY TRHREE), or are we going to zestfully scream “KALI-MA!” and leap into the fray with our bullwhips at the ready? It’s midlevel AD&D, of course we’re running in screaming.
   Do I really have to go in depth on the story here? Snake-men are doing what snake-men always do, in this case kidnapping entire villages for mass sacrifice to summon a snake-ape hybrid demon god named ASTHASK'SS, which is a baller name for a snake-ape hybrid demon god. There’s a timer here where the snake-men complete their summoning a day after kickoff, but I’m willing to give it a pass from my usual en media res rant because there’s a lot of telegraphing that you’re on a clock, with chants and drumbeats getting more and more intense over time. Beyond that, dude, it’s an evil temple, go assault it and murder all the snake guys and run away with the loot.
   Temples have a lot of different layouts, which means there are a lot of different map designs. Designs based on churches are wide open and hard to sneakily explore, while mixed and jumbled designs that make less sense as places of worship typically work a lot better for gameplay. This map…kind of makes sense as a worship place, but it’s definitely more of an exploration space, simple and without a lot of verticality but with some genuine choices in navigation. I want to highlight the entrance for praise: The stacked stairs give a nice looming sense of threat as well as some fun tactics in a gorilla combat. 

​   Oh gorillas? Yeah, this is a snake-ape hybrid demon god, so of course we’re also going to be fighting apes in addition to the snake-men. Other monster threats are fun, with stuff that makes sense like a trapped couatl and a necrophidius and the demon (if he’s summoned), plus some added spice with the western area of the site kind of breaking down; a mantrap filled with boring beetles has fallen through the ceiling and some giant ants have broken through the floor good variety.
   Although there are an acceptable number of classic “fall down” and “stuff from walls” traps, the biggest non-creature threat in the environment is a thick, cloying incense that fills the temple, in some rooms so thick that PCs in the area for a full turn need to save or fall unconscious. Remaining for hours in that room will kill them. So yes, there’s a potentially hilarious terrible run of luck where all your level 7 party TPKs from walking into a room and breathing. Not likely, of course, but it’s a good challenge to add, always nice to pressure these midlevel characters. They’re big boys at this point, make it hard.
   I don’t have a ton to say about treasure, it’s good. Mostly ancient coins and jewelry guarded by boss fights and hidden by secret doors, that’s all fine. The only standout is in the mantrap room, where the whole freaking wall is inlaid with gold, 40,000gpv worth. It’s there for the taking after you defeat the nasty environmental threat/monster threat that is the mantrap, but it takes a long time to scrape all that…while the drums are beating louder and louder, and the demon is nearer and nearer to once more entering into the waking realm. That’s good design right there.
   I’m trying to imagine a campaign you couldn’t put this into. I guess the snake-and-ape vibe wouldn’t translate well to a frozen northlands milieu but some modifications can be done without doing much violence to the overall site. If you have a jungle this is an auto-include.