Adventure Site Contest: Tomb of Rassanotep

​Written by Jeff Simpson
Seven Voyages of Zylarthen (OD&D), Levels 2-3
Tomb set in a desert (or as a pyramid subsection).
  In the steppe-studded badlands is a small oasis commanded by the enigmatic nomad known only as the Blue Dove. It is not large nor opulent, lacking the dancing girls frolicking in its pool, but it is nonetheless necessary to pass through if travel through the desert wastes is to be successful.
  As you sleep in your communal tent, a dread wind howls and travel outside the tent is prevented by a raging sandstorm. The next morning, your host is found mostly-buried under the sand, the tatters of his turban blowing lazily. As he is uncovered, it is seen that only his skeleton remains, his skin flayed by sand and his left hand outstretched, pointing with a bony finger. If this heading is followed, it will lead to a cliff face where aeons ago, Rassnotep the Mogul, a minor noble of a long-dead line, was interred.
  The world-renowned artist and author YeOldeJeffe herein blesses us with the lushly illustrated Tomb of Rassanotep, an Egyptian-themed 10-room site charmingly introduced by the blurb above. As universal an archetype as Fantasy Egypt one can never have too many tombs and the dusty little site here has the clever suggestion that it can be independent or inserted into a large !Egyptian pyramid location.
  The two-pages are single-column, with neat, clean language and strategic use of bolding. The flavor of the stick-figure art and the dryly humorous introduction is about all we have to go on for spice, but the content is clear.
  Map is…a little bit linear, with the ten keyed locations that are less loops, more branches on a tree and not loaded with exploratory geometry. The main sarcophagus of the titular Rassanotep is surprisingly early but this is OD&D, the true goal of any tomb crawl is the treasure hoard, which is nicely set up with a false wall. The first room gives a solid taste of what’s to come, with an obvious door leading to a pit trap, while the secret door to the rest of the tomb is behind a message in hieroglyphics, specifically opened by pressing the word “Opening”. Hope you make the roll to translate or I guess we’re not playing D&D tonight, though.
  The linear map is not complimented by the notable lack of random encounter table or order of battle, which of course is completely rational given the static nature of a tomb, but it is a trifle bit sad on the interaction/exploration front. The story of this adventure site is going to be one of “poke the passive thing”, not anything dynamic goes on here. There will be some fun encounters when the players in all their gormless glory do poke things, fortunately…nice nasty traps abound, scary monsters are present, and secrets are typically telegraphed. Horrific fights like one where you get dumped into a pool of water filled with level-draining giant leeches, and the regenerating thoblin(?) Rassanotep will definitely risk life and limb of the hapless PCs. My favorite “trap” is actually room #4, which is occupied by the living statue of a cat, painted to look like it is solid gold. Just close the door and you lose nothing at all, but it sure looks like a king’s ransom is represented by that dangerous little bugger. Bonus points for the treasure room with the false wall, too.
  Treasure is reasonable, given what I believe is 7VoZ’s silver standard, at 8,600sp plus a “bejeweled scepter” (no value given) and a +1 sword (plus “DM’s discretion extra trait”). There are also some nifty things like a brick of solid naphtha, which is used as 10x lantern oil…I can dig it. That treasure room having thousands of copper is hilarious, better have paid attention to the dead architect’s draft plans that noted the tomb complex was supposed to have nine, not eight, chambers. 
  As noted in the introduction above this is designed for slot-in-ability, and it’ll function very well in any game with a faux Egyptian (or other desert civilization) ruin motif. Pass on the pluggability quotient, then, with flying colors. Stick in in a desert and critiques aside you can definitely have a fun night of D&D with this thing.
  Further reviews:
Shocktop
Grützi
Owen Edwards
EOTB

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