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Sunday, November 9, 2014

Free OSR Adventure Resource - TM1 The Ogress of Anubis From New Big Dragon Games Unlimited For Your Old School Sword and Sorcery Campaigns

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This OSR adventure doesn't get much press, that's a damn shame because this is a lovely old school Egyptian style romp with some really inventive action and adventure cues. Between the set up & the plot this one makes a really nice old fashioned sword and sorcery adventure with a central Egyptian plot straight out of an old pulp magazine with a modern sense of play and style.
The plot goes something like this :


Azeneth believed the life of the high priest (or priestess) should be as comfortable as that of the kings and the gods. She spoke her contempt for her father’s “weakness” loudly and publicly, almost from the time she learned to talk. As she neared her teens, she made it known her plan was to supplant her father and become high priestess of the temple, sometimes claiming it was her place as the incarnation of the goddess Nekhbet.
Many say Azeneth has the power to command serpents, and it was she who sent the asp that killed her father Kemosiri. Regardless, she siezed her position as high priestess of the temple and set about her accumulation of power and wealth. 
Recently, children from the villages around the temple have begun to disappear. Rumors abound that Azeneth is sacrificing them and cannibalizing them because she believes this will make her wealthier, more powerful, and more divine. The people of the villages have begun to refer to Azeneth as the “ogress of Anubis”—believing it was Anubis himself that made this woman mad, and commanded her to consume the children she sacrifices.
Someone must end this reign of fear and terror, and try to return the children alive—if it is in the will of the gods.
 
Right so the set up of this adventure places the PC's at ground zero of the Egyptian style action and deals them into a very dangerous and nasty situation. A quick pace is set with this adventure and the vile villian really does live up to the hype of the plot blurb. Because of the very nature of the plot in this adventure the PC's are going to be heavily invested in terms of both time, energy, and as well as the action here. The adventure farely seeps with a sense of dreaded horror and adventure. While not strictly Lovecraftian with a few tweaks this adventure could easily be adapted into the world of Astonishing Swordsmen and Sorcerers of Hyperborea but it really does stand on its own merits. And the author does a marvelous job including all kinds of old school goodies to help run this adventure with your favorite old school retroclone. There are enough goodies under the hood for this adventure to become a full blown campaign world on its own. Seriously this adventure comes with a ton of resources to adapt it for a wide variety of retroclone resources. 
Includes the following: information for adapting to different OSR rules editions; adventure background; regional overview (small map + info on villages and wandering monsters); information on the temple compound and its vicinity (including wandering monsters); a detailed map of the temple compound; a 4-page detailed encounter key for the temple compound; new monster (animal mummy w/ 7 variants, statted for Oe/BX/1e); "generic" stats for all monsters and NPCs mentioned in the adventure; 12 pre-generated NPCs w/ details; 10 adventure seeds (for continuing adventures in the area); and 8 additional unkeyed maps (7 tombs, 2 caves, 1 sunken city) for use with the adventure seeds.

This adventure is a complete world into itself and can easily be added into a whole different campaign with a drop and drag flick of the DM's wrist. On the whole I've enjoyed the read through today on this one.
 Place this adventure within your favorite retroclone desert, go to town with the plot elements and adjust where you need to. There's so much happening with this adventure that there's room for at least three more sub -adventures from the bones and frame work here. The 12 Pre generated PC's could easily appear within your own adventures foreshadowing the events of  
The Ogress of Anubis and act as a bridge gap for the events of this adventure.
Then there are the several other locations that appear within the confines of this adventure enabling further Egyptian hi jinks to occur. All in all this generic tool kit approach of this adventure makes it an excellent resource. The fact that it's free is simply an added bonus. All on all I was extremely pleased with this adventure and highly recommend it for your old school gaming experience. 

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