Mini-Dungeons: Nekh-Ta-Nebi’s Tomb

This pdf clocks in at 2 pages and is a mini-dungeon. This means we get 2 pages content, including a solid map (alas, sans player-friendly version) and all item/monster-stats hyperlinked to d20pfsrd.com’s shop and thus, absent from the pdf.

Since this product line’s goal is providing short diversions, side-quest dungeons etc., I will not expect mind-shattering revelations, massive plots or particularly smart or detailed depictions, instead tackling the line for what it is. Got that? Great!

This being an adventure-review, the following contains SPOILERS. Potential players may wish to jump to the conclusion.

Still here?

All right!

The tomb of Nekh-Ta-Nebi can be used as its own tomb of a minor noble or as part of a bigger complex, if you’re for example running Gary Gygax Necropolis, Dunes/Desert of Desolation or Mummy’s Mask. The complex itself is pretty much a straight-forward Egyptian-themed dungeon, complete with plague zombie retinue and undead hyenas, the latter of which have their stats handily modified), culminating in fights with a mummy and a shadow.

Conclusion:

Editing and formatting are very good, I noticed no significant glitches. Layout adheres to a beautiful 2-column full-color standard and the pdf comes sans bookmarks, but needs none at this length. The pdf has one piece of neat full-color artwork. Cartography is full color and surprisingly good for such an inexpensive pdf, but there is no key-less version of the map to print out and hand to your players.

Jonathan Ely’s Tomb of Nekh-Ta-Nebi is as straight-forward a mini-dungeon as you’ll get for the theme – it is solid in its theme and execution and there is nothing wrong with it. Conversely, it also is kind of unremarkable. No room, hazard or encounter really blew me away and the overall complex left me unimpressed. Now this may well be the jaded bastard in me speaking, but I found this mini-dungeon lacking in anything remarkable that sets it apart. While this means that this pdf probably fits into every Egyptian-themed scenario, it also left me thinking that I can brew a scenario like this up on the fly. Time-starved DMs may still consider this worthwhile, even though I, as a person, didn’t. As a reviewer, I can value the solid craftsmanship, though, and for the time-starved DM, this might work. hence, my final verdict clocks in at 3 stars.

You can get this solid mini-dungeon here on OBS!

Endzeitgeist out.

Comments