Description
Crack Open the Tomb, and Awaken Ancient Curses!
Come, friends, and shake the desert from your hair! The chill of night falls swiftly upon the dunes, and we should keep the darkness at bay together. Ah, you have a discerning eye! This is the seal of an ancient king, uncovered by a terrible sandstorm. Shall I tell you of the folly of Menet-Ka and of those who breathed their last in his service?
Last Gasp is an adventure set in the Southlands Campaign Setting, exploring the cursed tomb of an ancient king of great magical power, a magical river, and including both deadly combats and mysteries to confound tomb-robbers. It is designed for five or six 6th-level characters using the 5th Edition rules and includes two entirely new monsters, the rotting wind and the anubian, presented with complete 5th Edition stats.
Seek out the riches of a king, and may fortune favor you!
This adventure premiered at Gen Con 2015 in Indianapolis, to much acclaim, and is presented here in an expanded version.
Megan Robertson –
Set in the Southlands (or a suitable desert in your own campaign world), this adventure provides a classic spot of tomb-raiding for your party. We start with the background, the far-distant past some 2,000 years ago when the place was originally built and more recent events when details of the tomb – originally built underground near an oasis – were discovered by a merchant who fell into conversation with a hermit, who had a bronze plaque dating from ancient times bearing an account of its creation. If you are using the Southlands, there’s even a map to help you get oriented.
Getting the party involved and to the tomb is left up to you, the adventure concerns what transpires once they begin their exploration. The whole adventure revolves around the nature of the tomb’s defences (we cannot have these pesky raiders disturbing the place after all) which are based around trapping intruders until they run out of air. Review the rules for exhaustion, underwater combat, and rest and recovery before you start; and there are some helpful notes provided here as well. In-game time keeping will become important, and there is advice about how much time common dungeon-delving activities take to aid you.
The temple is mapped out clearly with full descriptions and details of everything to be found there, and the challenges and opposition that the party will face. Various puzzles and traps have been dotted around to test intruders and their operation and effects are noted, and of course there’s the odd mummy to contend with as well – I mean, we cannot have a desert tomb without mummies!
Bear in mind that this is a lethal tomb, with distinct potential for trapping and killing off the entire party. Suggestions are made in case you want to soften the blow a bit but if you feel that your party is up to the challenge some exciting and tense adventuring awaits…
Endzeitgeist –
An Endzeitgeist.com review
This module clocks in at 26 pages, 1 page front cover, 2 pages of advertisement, 1 page SRD, 1 page back cover, leaving us with 21 pages for this module for 6th-level characters, so let’s take a look!
This module is intended to be run in Midgard’s Southlands, though arguably, it can be transported with ease into just about any desert-themed environment that can feature a lost tomb. Even the desert-fluff can arguably be eliminated by refluffing the module.
All right, you know the deal – this being an adventure-review, the following contains SPOILERS. Potential players should jump to the conclusion.
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All right, still around? Great! So, this module begins pretty much with the PCs hired by one Wasil al-Jayib as hired muscle as the arrive and explore the ruined temple of Anu-Akma that contains the entry to the tomb of fabled Menet-Ka…and the first combat, which features, among other things the rotting wind creature deserves mentioning as a nice first taste of the leitmotif and things to come. Oh, and it should be noted that both the new creatures and Wasil feature their own, absolutely amazing artworks.
You see, the inside of the tomb not only has geomancy glyphs…it also locks down behind the PCs: From a junction, the PCs can witness a crackling flame powered by a gas reservoir and decipher glyphs in order to follow the correct path through the dungeon, in the footsteps of Menet-Ka…so yes, this module manages to perfectly emulate the feeling of exploring ancient, dangerous ruins and presents a level of internal consistency that is impressive indeed.
I mean, I could talk about one of the best examples of a “sand fills everything” trap I have ever seen in roleplaying games…but I’d still be tiptoeing around the one thing that makes this module pure, adrenaline-filled amazingness. Know how I mentioned the tomb sealing? It’s airtight. Every single action, every minute, the timer is ticking down. That gas-powered flame? Consumes air. Wasif’s habit of hookah-smoking when stressed? Kills air. Flaming monsters? Consume air. Dismantling that highly complex trap? Air’s running out. Each wing has its own supply, mind you, and helpful reminders littered throughout the module help you keep track of them, making running the module surprisingly easy! And yep, the module employs 5e’s great exhaustion-mechanics for the final stages of lack of air…
Oh, have I mentioned that the dungeon is littered with choices for smart PCs? Regarding the elimination of flames, regarding the conservation of the precious oxygen…and they’ll need to be SMART. After all, in order to escape, they’ll well need to find a broken tablet and decipher both halves….and finally dive down in a labyrinth-like section, flooded by holy Nuria Natal (if they blindly dove down there, then whatever deity may bless their souls…) and there, duke it out with a water weird and the ghost of Menet-ka himself!
Conclusion:
Editing and formatting are top-notch, I noticed no issues. Layout adheres to Kobold Press’ two-column full-color standard. The artworks herein are absolutely fantastic and the cartography in color is just as glorious, though I wished the module had player-friendly, key-less versions. The pdf comes fully bookmarked for your convenience.
Dan Dillon’s “Last Gasp” may not sound like much on paper and I am firmly convinced that my review does not do it justice, but I tried. You see, this can be played as an adventure…sure. But its mechanics and traps make it an amazing hazard-book as well, even if you’re not at all interested in the module.
Ahem, let me spell that out for you: You DO want to run this. Heck, you probably want to run this even if you’re not playing 5e! For one, this is a defiantly, dauntingly old-school module in all the right ways: Much like e.g. LotFP’s “The Grinding Gear”, this represents a truly phenomenal dungeon that rewards player intelligence more than simple luck. It presents a dungeon that is as much a character as any adversary, one suffused by lore and flavor in every single room…and it represents a dungeon that rewards the players and PCs for engaging it, for thinking, getting invested, getting into the mindset of the place. If you run into this, expending to easily crawl through it, you’ll die horribly. And that’s how it should be.
This is NOT an easy module. Don’t play it as your first 5e-module unless you’re already a veteran of RPGs. It is, however, the most rewarding 5e-module I’ve read so far, one that dares to refuse to kowtow to the assumption that players aren’t smart enough. Sure, if that’s how you roll (for once, yes, I do judge…), the module does have an easy-mode suggestion, but my contention is…why draw the fangs of this majestic beast of a module? That’s like playing a point and click adventure with the walkthrough open without even trying. This module is hard, yes, but it is a difficulty that is both FAIR and EARNED. This is a module that challenges players more than it challenges PCs and in this day and age, that is absolutely AMAZING. Each combat, each interaction, each trap – everything is carefully and deliberately-crafted with a craftsmanship and artistry that manages to stand by the best of Midgard-modules, evoking a sense of consistency rarely seen in modules for current rules-system.
In case you haven’t figured that out yet: I consider this module to be a masterpiece that is significantly better than its humble page-count would suggest. Whether for convention purposes, to bring some respect or challenge to your games or to simply experience this shining jewel of a module; heck, even from just a scavenging-perspective, this is worth every cent of its asking price thrice. Seriously, get this. Even if you usually only play OSR-modules. Even if you play a different system in your main campaign and only are cursorily familiar with 5e, this is worth converting. I am baffled by the fact that the first module by Dan Dillon I’ve read is this damn good. If this is any indication of what he’s capable of, then let the man write more adventures! I’m so not kidding when I’m saying that we NEED more modules like this. I’ve rarely had this much fun with a short module. This receives my highest recommendations, 5 stars + seal of approval and it qualifies as a candidate for my Top Ten of 2016.
Endzeitgeist out.
Jackie –
Very fun and deadly one shot. Excellent traps and mechanics. If you have a group of people that love a challenge and surviving by the skin of their teeth then this is for you.
I will say that, as written, it’s not a good module for brand new players. If you have an inexperienced group, you will likely want to tone down the difficulty a bit.
Armin –
I bought this model and found it to be great. However, there are two issues that I was wondering if I could get help with.
1, the pre-generated characters referenced in the module are not included with it. 2, there are no “player friendly” maps, so I can’t actually USE these maps with my players without pain stakingly editing them in Photoshop since they point out where all of the traps are.
Is there a way to get those pre-gens or non-marked maps?
Thank you.
Head Kobold –
Yes, those are both available when this adventure is run at conventions. We’ll dig around and see what we can find.
Armin –
Great! I look forward to seeing them. Once I have them I can run the adventure for my friends. Hopefully it will be posted somewhere that is easy to find.
Donald Morton –
This is a great module. I’ve ran it twice, and both groups of players loved it. Lots of great lore flavor, great descriptions, good mechanics. Good mix of traps, puzzles, and combat. The tension that comes with the air mechanic keeps players engaged and on the edge of their seat. Heavily recommended.
jshands –
I am very excited by this module, but I would also like the pregens referenced in it as well as “player friendly” maps, has there been any progress in locating these?
Sibilith –
I too am aching to run this module, but need player-friendly maps for Roll20 play. If there is anything you could do for us online players, we would immensely appreciate it!
terence.lamb09 –
This really does look awesome! Cant wait to throw my group into this. I will carry on with what’s been said about player-friendly maps, if there is some.. please can we have!!
kurt –
Our group is top notch fun. This matched . There are so many epic moments, new ideas and what a great flow!!We love you Mr. Dillon. more please
Leonard –
Loved this adventure by Dan Dillon. Some of the best puzzles I’ve seen in a published adventure that my players really enjoyed. Also liked the abstract nature of exploring the catacombs without having to detail everything. I’ve stolen this design for other adventures! Awesome final boss too, made great use of a monster I did not fully appreciate until I played this adventure. You might like to know that this game was originally designed to run with pregen characters that didn’t have specific spells/abilities that spoil the game, but you can probably figure that out pretty quickly.
Chris Taylor –
Great adventure….looking forward to running this for my group of experienced players to see how they fare. Any chances of getting the pregens or the player-friendly maps? Thanks!
Austin Grindy –
Really looking forward to running this, though I do have a formatting complaint. Section 10, Infidel’s Rest, describes the Hall of Vengeance, which is Section 11, and vice versa. The map also follows this labeling, making it a confusing read compared to the map.