{"id":8572,"date":"2023-05-15T07:21:00","date_gmt":"2023-05-15T11:21:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/?p=8572"},"modified":"2023-05-01T08:24:18","modified_gmt":"2023-05-01T12:24:18","slug":"cult-of-ankh-ra","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/?p=8572","title":{"rendered":"Cult of Ankh-Ra"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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By Nova Yttrium\nSelf Published\nShadowdark\nLevels 1-3<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
In this adventure, the PCs are hired to find the missing daughter Kyla of a wealthy merchant that has been kidnapped by acolytes of a cult that recently plagues the land and abducts women and men alike. The Cult of Ankh-Ra, as they call themselves, is trying to revive the forgotten goddess Ankh-Ra by sacrificing humans and performing an ancient ritual that they found on an old scroll in a former temple of Ankh-Ra that lies in ruins nowadays. Once the PCs reach the temple, they witness the result of the ritual: The soul of Ankh-Ra has been resurrected and takes possession of Kyla’s body. She then uses her magical powers to transport her temple from one thousand years ago into the current time along with all creatures that lived in her temple all those years ago. Can the PCs stop Ankh-Ra, banish her soul and rescue Kyla from the grasp of the cultists? [Ed: One hopes not \u2026]<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This nineteen page digest adventure uses about eight pages to describe about thirty rooms. It\u2019s one step removed from minimally keyed. So, you know, at least it\u2019s overwritten. It also lacks just about everything that actually brings a D&D adventure to life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There is one nice thing. You enter a room, a guard shouts that he\u2019s willing to die for his god and pulls a lever, locking the doors and causing the ceiling to lower, classic trap style. Ten rounds to get out, with a dude in the room. Nice twist.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Frank the merchant hires you to go get his daughter back, who was abducted for sacrifice \u201ca few days ago.\u201d Nice job Frank. You\u2019re father of the year for that one. You approach the ruined temple the cult uses and there\u2019s a flash of light and the temple repairs itself. Looks like In Media Res is the new hotness. Anyway, there\u2019s no pretext before the actual room keys. Yeah, there\u2019s eleven pages of intro, but none of it is about Frank, the abduction, the journey to the temple or anything else. It\u2019s just mostly creature stat blocks, up front instead of behind in an appendix. Not that there has to be more. But, you know, an order of battle for the temple would have been nice, instead of everyone just staying in their rooms and ying, the way they do. Or, even, sticking monsters on the map for reaction purposes. Whatever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Here\u2019s a kitchen: \u201cThis big kitchen spans the whole room and is used to prepare various meals for the entire temple.\u201d Yes, kitchens usually look like a kitchen. I would want to know if it ididn\u2019t, and don\u2019t want to know if it does. How about a dorm? \u201cMore than 20 simple beds are in this room.\u201d Now, why would you say that? Why would you say \u201cMore than 20?\u201d 6000 beds? 21 beds? Presumably the DM should know? No? It\u2019s not important? Then why the fuck mention it? And why put it in such imprecise language for the DM? \u201cThe pit is more than 10 feet deep.\u201d Uh huh. In other places guards \u201cperforming an obscure ritual\u201d. Or \u201cOne giant scorpion is being trained by a jackal guard.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is just minimal keying. It\u2019s one step removed from just listing \u201c1 scorpion, 1 jackal guard.\u201d There\u2019s no value in that. There\u2019s no language being used to bring the environment to life. To create a dynamic situation to be excited about. There\u2019s no thrill. There\u2019s jus a grind. One room after the next.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The resurrected queen, Ankh-Ra, is in Kyla\u2019s body at the end. Dressed in yellow and blue silks and covered head to toe in jewelry. Which is some nice imagery. That\u2019s what you do to your sacrificial victim to bring back your god. But, once you gack her, that\u2019s it. We never learn anything about the jewelry. You see, it doesn\u2019t matter. There was no thought about this. Fuck D&D. And so it goes, even with the puzzles. \u201cGive your goddess an offering and bow down or face her wrath! Also, put it in the bowl, at least 10cp worth, preferably in cash. No checks. ApplePay accepted. Exchange rate set by the latest edition of The Times.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Oh, hey, did I mention there’s not actually a cult? They don’t appear. Just the guards and shit, transported from back in time. This is just more garbage being churned out. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I\u2019m done with Shadowdark for awhile. To my readers great joy and mine own further cynicism. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is $3 at DriveThru. Preview is six pages. You get to see nine rooms at the end of it, so, decent preview.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
https:\/\/www.drivethrurpg.com\/product\/435860\/Cult-of-AnkhRa–An-Adventure-for-Shadowdark-RPG?1892600<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Nova Yttrium Self Published Shadowdark Levels 1-3 In this adventure, the PCs are hired to find the missing daughter Kyla of a wealthy merchant that has been kidnapped by acolytes of a cult that recently plagues the land and … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8570,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[29,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8572","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dungeons-dragons-adventure-review","category-reviews"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/cultof.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8572","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8572"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8572\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8573,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8572\/revisions\/8573"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8570"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8572"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8572"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8572"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}