The Tomb of the Sand Sorcerer

By Lewis McMeekin
Mucker71
OSR
Levels 1-3

In ancient ages past, the high sorcerers of the endless deserts ruled with mighty magics and fiendish spells. As time went on and their empire fell to infighting, demonic influences and wayward spells, each subsequent sorcerer king and his fellows grew weaker and weaker, until finally a rebellion crush

This eight page adventure have a tomb with eight rooms. It’s garbage. 

Okok, yeah yeah, it’s garbage. But, get this, it’s Levels one through three, right? Yeah yeah, but, get this: it’s got EIGHT mummies and a lich in those eight rooms! I know, right? But, you see, that’s click bait, from me. The mummies are AC7 HP4. With an init of -3! They are zombies! So, you know, pretty interesting to put some zombies in mummy wrappings. (And give them a penalty to attack while wrapped up) Anyway, I thought it was cool. My “this is my tomb and I’m the sand sorcerer and I’m a lich now” is a different story.

There’s a central chamber to the dungeon with the other eight rooms hanging off of it. I’m not actually sure where you enter the dungeon. There’s some puzzle thing outside that you have to solve and then stairs appear in the earth, a kind of ramp. There’s this black semicircle on the central room in the dungeon, so, maybethat’s the ramp? I don’t know. Anyway, you go in to all of the eight rooms. Ones got the mummies in it. Otherwise, you just loot the rooms of a couple of boring treasures. Then, once you do all eight, and come back to the central chamber, the sarcophagus lid (magically sealed, of course) pops off the sarcophagus in it and Mr Lich appears. Or, rather, mr lich, lower case. AC14 and HP30. If he defeats the party then leaves his tomb and seeks to restart his empire. With his one spell “sand blast” and the ability to hover. Oh, and he drains 1 HP from each person in a small radius. Anyway, he’s restarting his empire. With AC14 and 30 HP. And one spell. I mean, sure, restart your empire my man. Until you run across a group of kids that throw rotten apples at you and you then die. But, also, who am I to shit on someones dreams? 

As for the rest of this … the map is uninteresting. These sorts of things are just “Have an encounter have an encounter have an encounter” Lame. Why have a map if there’s nothing to do on it? No exploration? [Ed: Because Byrce will slam you if you don’t.] No real interactivity here. The Get In puzzle and then the mummy and lich fight. No other real puzzles or things to do besides loot a bit. 

But there is TONS of text. Looooong sections of boxed text… yeah! It’s been awhile since that particular vice has shown up. And long DM’s text. That says nothing. Well, besides historical backstory that is meaningless. And the text there is contains overwrought text. “The

fabric, once vibrant and regal, is now weathered and worn, covered in layers of fine desert sand that cling to its every thread.”

*barf*

This is Pay What You Want at DriveThru, with a suggested price of $2.62. The preview is four pages and show you only the outside puzzle. Garbage preview. Garbage adventure.

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/444478/TOROHA–The-Tomb-of-the-Sand-Sorcerer?1892600

Also, congrats to Kelsey! I revisited DriveThru after an absence and saw a TON of new adventures in the OSR section … 95% of which were Shadowdark! I mean, I LOATHE the fact that they are there, but, also Shadowdark is the new hotness for sure. Congrats!