[No-Artpunk] #7 Temple of the Beggar King (OSE)

Temple of the Beggar King
Jesse Gerroir (edited by Matthew Seagle)
OSE
Lvl 9
Pages: 41 + 3 maps
Classification: Ship of the Line

I have observed on occasion that as an instrument to gatekeep artpunk, No-Artpunk is in many ways an imperfect tool, as nothing prevents aspiring contestants from submitting material that leans heavily into thematics, atmosphere, evocative description or intriguing concepts, provided they abide by the contest parameters and it is in fact fun to play. Previous year saw the release of the elite Stirring of the Slumbering God, this year we are delighted with Temple of the Beggar King.

Pullitzer-prose, unconventional encounters and a hair-fine sense for dramatic foreshadowing are the watchwords of Temple of the Beggar King. In ancient days, the Beggar-King, the holy man of a sinister buddhist sect, preached his doctrine of the transience of all things, and soon his teachings found their way among even the elite, and waves of suicides struck the realm, and many sojourned into the cult’s stronghold in the deepest eastern sands. A company of picked royal guard is sent to deal with them, and neither they nor the cult are heard from in a thousand years. Through one of many hooks, the characters discover that this cult might still exist, and threatens the realm once more. Dare you enter the desert in search of what has been forgotten?

A good concept not quite perfectly implemented: Within the temple of the meditations of the Ascended-One distort reality, and some spells are altered. The idea is that reincarnation is real and divination spells will be distorted, giving the information of that past self, which is rolled on a table. In some cases this works. Locate Object only works if your past life would have been familiar with it. If I try to find a key and I roll ‘An Orange Tiger with a scarred face,’ I, the DM, can figure out if a Tiger would know that. But then with Teleport or Dimension door, we get ‘swamps bodies with past life temporarily.’ How long? Where are the stats for all these past lives?

An uneventful journey through the desert, at the behest of a guide, the boy Omar, at the worn statue of a long dead king. In a pinch, two weeks travel is acceptable, although giving definite distances is more flexible. There is a chance of sandstorms, but as written, the effect of these is not clear. I can look at the Control Wealther spell but in this case, all the sandstorm would do is restrict vision and prevent missile fire. Since there is nothing else in the desert, this component is vestigial. The boy Omar is one of the reincarnated monks of the cult and will seek to lure the characters into a death trap, cutting his own throat as he does so. That’s cool. Here you would want to consider what happens if the characters, who made it to level 9, try a detect evil or ESP over the course of those 2 weeks.

What the adventure does well is stimulate a sense of progression through discovery. The upper layer of the tomb is mostly desolate. Blocked entrances with warnings of cryptic doom. Faded frescoes. A grand setpiece, a fake door with 33 locks, each of them trapped, some of them valuable, with the actual doors concealed somewhere in the mutals. That’s good stuff. There are multiple entrances into the dungeon which is a good impulse, but they are only one or two rooms apart.

Encounters are all standalone, hand-crafted, artisinal D&D. Some of the monks of the complex have achieved a sort of transcendent undeath where they have absorbed the echoes of their past lives and will attack the party alone, which is sporting of them. Unfortunately, the presence of a 9th level cleric will reduce these 8 HD monstrosities to little more then an irritant. The rest of the upper level are mostly traps, your poisoned pit traps, your trapped gemstone buddha idol with acid spray, a room with crumbling scrolls with rot beetles . These encounters often provide a hint as to the true nature of the cult.

The second level is where it really gets going and the weirdness is cranked up. Proper random encounter table (frequency not set). Half the encounters are spell-like effects, but also serve to up the sense of dreadful anticipation. In fact if this adventure does something well it is convey its nature through interaction. Exploration in the truest sense.

6. The shadows thicken, all torches go out. In the darkness an emptiness abounds shining from below like light does from above

Pools of ectoplasm, where the cult (and the characters) can merge with the ghosts of their past lives (which are like the shedded skins of the spirit). Koan doors. A walled off passage, each brick a bound demon. A procession of blind monks, each carrying a different urn filled with emptiness. A treasury with all its valuables destroyed (or are they?), a testament to the transience and impermaneance of the mortal world. A sacred ark where the characters can gaze upon the deaths of their past lives, in reality, a lethal trap. Speaking of lethality, if level 1 is comparatively forgiving (excluding the 36 ghast ambush) and reluctant even to use lethal poison (neutralize poison is certainly available to level 9 characters), I suspect level 2 might go a bit overboard. Each of the Defiling Monks can cast desintegrate 1/day, a canticle of unmaking (admittedly they will target PC items, which is also brutal). Then there are also the Calcified Monks, who can cast Flesh to Salt 1/day. These are occasionally encountered in groups of 6 or 8. The pregen cleric has a ring of spell turning, but everyone else does not have as much as a single ring of protection, meaning death here is quite likely.

What Temple of the Beggar King gets right, and I mean flying colors right, is the transition, the last section, a placid underground garden littered with the detrius of the Beggar King, prior to his ascenscion. You swim down into a corkscrewing tunnel in the centre of the placid pond, and face its 6 deadly traps, only to emerge (though you descended) into the Sunken Grotto, there to face The Ascended One, an eyeless giant, whose gaze brings horrifying memory of past lives, whose touch reshapes, and whose blood forms into ectoplasmic echoes (Spectres). I suspect that with 50 hp he will not last very long if the PCs get as much as a single 3rd level spell off, although his abilities are likely to cause serious disruption and the appearance of the Spectres is going to cause quite the consternation, making it a challenging fight for 4 9th level characters.

Treasure is well described, ornate, thematically appropriate, and the distribution is a little fucked. The first level has 343k, 200k of which is virtually unprotected. The second level has 12k, although there is a reliquary with damaged magic items which, if repaired, are quite powerful and the 3rd has nothing.
There are some consumables in the form of scrolls in the beginning, but the bulk of the magic treasure is wondrous items. I’m trying to determine if the contest stipulations have been adhered too: Incence of Past Lives, Cursed Crown of Impermanence, Singing Bowl, The calcified and Defiling monks, the Demon, the Six Emptinesses might (if I am ungenerous) constitute an item each, but it is mostly above board. I would have given a boon, some sort of profound insight, once the Ascended One is defeated, anything from a Wish, to a permanent statt boost, something that feels like a reward after the hardship.

Pictured: literal touch attack

The adventure has included 4 Pregens, which includes two int 5 characters Albrecht of the North and Terell the Robber, and these must be the most, low-class impoverished level 9 characters in the realm, with only a single +1 weapon between them, no magic armor or shields, and about 3 magic items each. The wizard does have a crystal ball, which is cool, maybe consider an extrapolation of what happens when he tries to Scry the Ascended One (although the answer here is GAZE ATTACK)?

Some implementation warts aside, pretty good adventure, very well written, imaginative and good use of exposition via interactivity. I suspect it works reasonably well with the pregens provided, but might require some fine-tuning for your average 9th levelers. It is OSE so we are yet again killing God (or in this case, the Buddha) but at least we are 9th and not 3rd level while we are doing so. If you can get the fundamentals a bit tighter you shall have glory indeed.