Adventure Site Contest 3: Temple of Bast

Written by John Nash
For Rules Cyclopedia, level 3
Extremely catty temple
On the wilderness edge lies the Temple of Bast, forgotten guardian deity and patron of cats. A tempting target for looters, the temple is currently occupied by an evil magician and his Gnoll henchmen.
   Excellent, we have another returning high-performer. John Nash’s pig-themed-dungeon made it into last year’s compilation, so this time we’re going for another animal theme in the form of a cat goddess’ temple. It’s nice to be running this often enough that I start to notice styles in some of the regulars. If its Nash, it’s going to be a very solid back-to-basics dungeon crawl, sketched in a warm and very attractive pencil-on-graph-paper style, run in B/X. Check, check, and sort-of-check (BECMI/RC is in the lineage, but it's very cool to see a rare Rules Cyclopedia adventure).
   Our site’s story is pretty much what you’d expect, there’s a Bast Temple being looted by a wizard and his gnoll minions, so you’re going to fight a mixture of cats and hyena-men. Despite the goddess being Egyptian, the site is only vaguely pyramidal and the desert flavor is limited to just a few mummies and desiccated zombies. The cats present are panthers and mountain lions, which makes this technically South America I guess? Don’t worry about it, just crawl the dungeon. 

​   As expected, the map’s line-work is very nice and makes for an attractive picture, but my real focus as always is going to be on the exploration flow, and that’s generally very good. As always, verticality helps add a lot, the main route down is a stairwell in the center but a nice little secret statue-access from the side building opens things up a lot. The outer walls are an interesting tactical wrinkle and navigation matters thanks to the pretty punishing little random encounter table. The rotating bridge over a chasm in the middle of the lower map is a cute element, and can potentially be a very fun bit of interaction. Really my only critique is what the heck is up with that key sequence? Normally you go either via expected exploration flow, or else just top-to-bottom, left-to-right. This…this makes so little sense it makes me want to draw a connect-the-dots to see if there’s some kind of secret message. Baffling.
   Our monsters will be encountered a little randomly here but it’s a solid mix. Simple bruiser fights like cougars and gnolls and zombies predominate, but there are some variations with an ambushing grey ooze and of course the wizard endboss. The spirit of old school is alive and well with nasty curveball enemies in the form of a mummy and a living statue that attacks if you lack a Bast blessing. Good roster, all doing interesting things, I approve.
   Traps are also traditionalist, pits and pressure-plates-unto-blades and the like. Completely fair for an ancient crumbling temple/pyramid, I can dig it. Except, of course, I can’t actually dig in…sand excavations can potentially be fun in this situation, but nothing is offered here. That’s fine. I like interactions like the secret passage cat statue’s head being worn, rubbing the head opens the passageway. There are a lot of cat-themed interactions, like a cat statue that knocks a trap off the counter, yarn-offerings for the boo, etc. Cute.
   Treasure, helpfully summarized at the beginning as 15,311gp total, is a nice mixture of specie, jewelry, potions, and the odd unique items. Oft neglected in these cases, the wizard’s spellbook is indeed present for the magic users always hungry for more. Standout items are a ring of animal control, and staff of healing, and the Cat’s Paw, a Dagger +1 with a charm person effect. Nothing huge but all very appropriate for level 3 Basicmen. I really like the addition in a sarcophagus of some very powerful higher-level spell scrolls, that’s always good.
   This is going to be an inclusion in any campaign. !egypt is a standard location on most campaign maps but the flavor isn’t strictly pharaonic. The cat flavor is a little on the cutesy/humorous side but not even remotely at “joke adventure” level, just enjoy a few chuckles before a panther rips out the thief’s spine. Good solid temple to explore. I’m sensing a theme so far…