[Review] The Trials of Ngura (5e); Met de hakken over de sloot

[Adventure] 
The Trials of Ngura (2020) 
Morten Braten (Xoth.net) 
Lvl 3 – 4 

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Something something something for all the promises of S&S something something something actual number is low something something this is an exception.  

Dr. Braten strikes again. A glancing blow that still achieves the impossible of making 5e feel like its gritty S&S fantasy. Yes you need a bit of tinkering. Yes this one could have used a bit more follow through to the point where I can almost read the dopamine levels dropping and yes, this still reads like it should have been written for ASSH or AD&D 1e but damn it it’s still S&S dnd that doesn’t suck. 

Premise is god tier S&S. No elves. No tiefling bards. No continual light lamps. The nomadic herdsmen of the arid wastes of Shoma select their tribal king by hosting a series of games at the Horns of Ngura, an ancient sanctum dedicated to a bull god. The PCs are at the games either to act as champions of one of the largest tribal leaders OR more appropriately, to rob the fucking place while the games are ongoing. Meanwhile, there is some creepy shit going on with the ‘brides of Ngura’ the priestesses given as children to serve at the temple and by creepy I mean Maze of the Minotard creepy.  

So is this the best bull-god themed S&S adventure evar? The devil is in the details.  

At its core this is very solid. We get a location that can be adventured through in the classic sense, complete with a set of catacombs underneath, some secret doors, guards etc. Etc, or the PCs might ignore it entirely and just try to win the games. The riches of the temple are renowned throughout the region. There’s distructable pillars that can be brought down, or statues that can be pushed to splatter the unwary. Also there is a fucking Golden Bull statue that the half-giant priestess can animate so it acts as a Gorgon. A mini-maze section below with a portcullis trap so the PCs are locked in with infant minotaurs. Craftsmanship (traps, map, secret doors, treasure placement, awesome treasure) is about standard-good for an AD&D module, a.k.a far above the norm for 5e adventures. 

What is missing is organization. The human defenders of the temple needed to have alarms, an order of battle, and some idea of what to do in case of said alarm. Maybe a list of where the guards are, approximately, by day and by night, and then a reduced list for during the games? This seems written in a way that a direct assault is tricky (after all, there are hundreds of nomads outside during the games, and they would probably take umbrage), but its not really written in a way to facilitate any sort of stealth. There’s NPCs but there’s nothing to really exploit, no flaw or inner weakness. Maybe put a guy in there who is in love with the priestesses and will help in exchange for one or two of them? Maybe the eueuch isn’t really that into being in the cult. Maybe a recent priestess falls in love with the PCs, or just wants to leave because there is weird shit happening in the catacombs, and the PCs can exploit that? Maybe some guy is captured, but he is actually an asshole and now the PCs are fucked?  

Yes I am spoilt because this thing does all the basics very well but it was aiming for the fucking stars and now we are barely making it into orbit. It frustrates me too because at the end of the temple section, Dr. Braten briefly glosses over these things in 3 paragraphs during which he gives no specific examples, which saddens me. And I have a right to be sad because me and Aaron wrote the best Bull-God specific S&S adventure for the OSR and it more or less covers these things.  

The Games…meh. Mostly straightforward ability score checks with a chance to get mauled by a bull if you fuck up. I mean it reads really cool. Stand up to a charging bull while painted red and wearing only a shield. Pull two bulls by the tails. There’s a riddle and there’s a math puzzle in there too, but I am looking for something more gameable. There is one good suggestion for when the PCs lose, but the PCs should be able to come up with that on their own; if they lose, sneak into the temple at night, leave a bag of foreign robes in the priests quarters, then during the crowning, accuse the other guy of treachery. Perfect! 

I don’t want to sound like this adventure is boring, it really is not. The flavor is good. The monsters are almost all standard but used in a context that makes them feel properly Swordery & Sorceric. There’s a few custom items that are awesome and some weird effects from altars and statues that, will probably end up not seeing that much use. Temple of Hypnos it ain’t.   

There’s a section added on where the PCs venture into a canyon to fetch the skull of one of the founders of the tomb, only to receive a bunch of visions that culminate into getting fake murdered by a Giant-King wielding a great vorpal blade, but its mostly tombs with shadows, a mummy here and there…its not phoned in but compared to Braten’s habitual pitch, this is tame indeed.  

So at its core, decent S&S, more Imaro then Conan. Dancing girls that charm the players. Weird bull cult shenanigans. Petty tribal rivalries. Restless spirits. Games of physical prowess and mental acuity. But the organization, or improvisation the GM must do to get it to go brrrrr kind of busts this one down. Solid but it could have been much stronger. 

A weary *** 

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