The Tomb of Rakoss the Undying is an Advanced Dungeons and Dragons adventure for characters of 4th to 6th levels of experience. The adventure is written by Alex Karaczun and Bob Pennington. It was published by Michief, Inc in 2016. The module is twenty four pages long from cover to cover.
This product is rather slick. It looks just like a regular TSR adventure. The style and format of the module give you the sense that you are reading a professionally made adventure from the makers of Dungeons and Dragons. Of course….it is not from TSR. It is a third party work.
Rakoss is an ancient wizard from long ago. He was once a powerful leader of a great army. He was defeated in battle and entombed in the place in which he and his officers retreated. It is certain that vast amounts of treasure and magic were buried with him at the end.
Things that I like about The Tomb of Rakoss the Undying
It looks and feels professionally made. It looks almost exactly like one of the old TSR modules. The maps also look similar to those published adventures from so long ago.
The challenges in this adventure seem level appropriate and the module does not give away the farm for killing weak creatures. The adventure involves a non player character who clearly attempted to become a Lich. But a Lich would easily destroy a group of this level. So this encounter never actually occurs.
There are a couple of interesting puzzles/magical tricks. Particularly interesting to me is the sacrificial shrine. This is basically an altar which will have magical effects if supplied with human blood in sufficient amounts. This is rather a unique magical trick and is right in line with the kinds of things I like to put in my own adventures.
The background is rather short. As are most of the room descriptions. These things are always a plus in my opinion.
There is boxed text with this adventure. Many other critics regularly gripe about this sort of thing. I personally do not mind boxed text if it is short and to the point. The text here is short and to the point. This makes it more than tolerable.
There is a new magical item introduced which is quite useful but perhaps not all that original. There is also a new monster introduced which is also not that original but is appropriate to this adventure.
The adventure offers pregenerated characters which makes this useful for a one shot game.
What I do not like about The Tomb of Rakoss the Undying
While I can live with short boxed text….I do not like boxed text that reads differently than I would talk to my own players. Stilted language that no one uses is not a good thing to put in read aloud text. Unfortunately this module does do that a couple of times. I find that irritating. The dungeon master should either paraphrase for himself or herself or the text should be written in a way that normal people would describe a room. Otherwise the boxed text is just a waste of space.
The players never actually encounter the Lich. But they do encounter his spell book. And that is a mistake at this level. That treasure alone is far more valuable than any of the challenges met in this dungeon. Earlier when I said it did not give away the farm I was speaking of gold and valuables. As for this spell book I would never drop that valuable of a spell book without actually encountering a creature that could use it. To be perfectly honest….the magic user in the party is going to be far happier than the rest of the party with the loot obtained in this adventure. Because after this adventure he will have a full spell book of spells from 1st to 5th level. And presumable the magic user will only be 6th level at a maximum when playing this. Does that seem fair an appropriate? Not to me.
There are also other magical items that a magic user character is going to love finding. The other players not so much.
Would I recommend The Tomb of Rakoss the Undying to others?
Yes. I would. It looks like a great little adventure to use as a one shot with new players or old players who have need of such a diversion. It would work well for one or two nights of play. It is old school and looks and plays like one of the old TSR modules. More than likely even players who seem to have read everything there is to read about AD&D will not have read this one.
Would I play this adventure with my own group?
I would. If I needed a one shot to run or if I wanted an adventure for that level range this adventure would work well. I have a group where some of the players have read everything and seem to know all the rules, monsters and statistics. They will not have read this one (not likely anyway).
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