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Friday, February 20, 2015

Pay What You Want - The Tomb of Rakoss the Undying For Your Old School Campaigns

I've been seeing this module around since 2013, and I've been meaning to check this bad boy out for a long while. Mischief Inc has been teasing me with this one in my Drivethrurpg feed for a while and its an interesting run through reading through OA. As a pay what you want title its pretty damn well put together.


This module has several interesting features: A its truly edition nuetral and could be used with any edition of the world's most popular fantasy adventure game. Second it emulates many of the conventions and tropes of older edition adventures. Third this makes this adventure an easy fit for any old school retroclone. Everything from the stat blocks for the monsters, the artwork, the basic intro here is top drawer. If your going to get into a mid range module for an OSRIC or AD&D style game this module is a god sent. But here's the thing this module could easily be used with a swords and wizardry rule set or Labryth Lord especially with the advance companion. 
The basic plot of this adventure reads through like a TSR era adventure but more heavy on the sword and sorcery aspect. According to the Drivethrurpg blurb: 
Rakoss was a great wizard of ages past who served the Emperor of Maere. Tales tell of his prowess as a military strategist, but they also tell of his fall. It is said that although he won campaign after campaign for his emperor, just one failure earned the wrath of his master. The Emperor had Rakoss, his generals, strategists and personal guard sealed in a tomb somewhere in the Ganlaw Mountains, and cursed them.
Who knows what treasure was buried with Rakoss and his retinue, or what horrors remain to test any who might enter the tomb. Certainly only a brave few would dare seek out the final resting place of Rakoss, and even fewer can survive the terrors of The Tomb of Rakoss the Undying!
"The Tomb of Rakoss the Undying" is a challenging adventure for 3-6 characters of level 4 to 6.
Much of the fantasy elements are twists on the classic AD&D 1st edition of play and with a bit of work could easily be incorporated into a game such as the Astonishing Swordsmen and Sorcerers of Hyperborea rpg system game world.
The monsters are deadly and some of the encounters would have to be used with an experienced party. There is enough meat here to challenge the PC's on a number of levels. 
All in all the quality of the adventure is quite surprisingly good and the writing complex with plenty of adventure hooks for future releases.
Much of this module is well thought out and delivers on exactly what it promises, a pilot episodic adventure from Mischief Inc. It feels and plays with some very interesting twists on some potentially nasty enemies for the PC's and introduces a fully fleshed out vile villain with not a wrap up in sign. This is done on purpose but for a eighteen page adventure with quality artwork and more this is an essential adventure to grab. 

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