Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan
1980 - Harold Johnson & Jeff R Leason - for levels 5-7, reprinted in 1982
(For reference, the version of this module I will be reviewing here is the 1982 re-release with updated artwork and cover, the main contents of the adventure are the same in both versions)
It has been a while since I last rambled on about an AD&D module with a view to giving it a few marks out of 10, and this adventure is the reason why. It was the 1st module in the 'C' series, with C being short for 'Competition'. This selection of adventures made no attempt to hide their tournament leanings, as that was precisely their original purpose, with C1 being played at Origins '79 as 'Lost Tamoachan' before becoming an official publication for public consumption. The main aim of such modules was to provide tournament attendees, most likely experienced players, with a steely challenge - they would all use the same pre-generated party to tackle a dungeon that was designed to test them to their fullest, with each group scoring points based on number of rooms visited, puzzles solved, and characters remaining alive - all within a fixed time limit. Commonly the dungeon would be designed with the capabilities of the specific characters in mind. Thus, when dropped into a campaign game such tournament modules could often present serious difficulties - the party would not be designed specifically to cope with the adventure, the players would approach the challenges differently without a session time limit, and would have a greater amount of attachment to their PCs!
The Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan is first and foremost, a wonderfully evocative dungeon crawl. Set deep in Greyhawk's Amedio Jungle, it draws heavily on real-world Aztec/Mayan mythology - the creatures, the names, the puzzles, the decorations and the treasures have all been lovingly crafted with a Meso-American feel. The writers have put in a whole lot of painstaking research, and gone into great detail, and I love this aspect of the module. The atmosphere is unique among D&D adventures of the era. Take a look at the room description below:
This adventure is heavy on the traps - in fact most locations are a trap of sorts. Many are not immediately deadly though (there are exceptions!), but designed to slowly eat away at the party's various resources. The nastiest of these traps is one that extends throughout much of the dungeon - a lingering poison gas. Yes, even the air in the Shrine is out to kill the PCs, doing poison damage to every party member every turn. This is clearly a mechanic used to ensure tournament players get on with the task at hand, and ultimately to contribute heavily towards a character fatality or 3 - either through basic hitpoint loss, or by causing carelessness as a result of their hasty attempts to escape. Inhabitants of the Shrine are not especially numerous, and most are not especially difficult, though some do pose an added challenge brought about by the environment in which they placed. Again though, the intention seems to be one of slowly draining the party - a form of 'death by 1000 cuts'.
The images in the illustration booklet are mostly fantastic.
Presentation is a bit of an issue in places. On the plus side there's lots of Erol Otus, some nice work from Darlene, and a splendid book of illustrations to be shown to the players as they enter certain locations to help them visualise their surroundings. The map is clear, plus there are several specific room maps to assist the DM. But some of the smaller internal images are a little lacking, and the module does suffer from being a thick wall of text in places using a dense font. With the complexity of many of the locations there is a lot for the DM to absorb before they can run the module effectively.
Classic Otus cover art
As a tournament module, C1 is very very good indeed. It's a highly entertaining romp, filled with unusual and thoughtfully designed locations, has interesting puzzles for the players, and bags of atmosphere. A slight downside is that, due to the circumstances, the players might not linger long enough to appreciate much of this - and with them unlikely to scour the dungeon as thoroughly as old school groups tended to, much can and will be missed. I spent hours reading and digesting every location in the module, only for my group to explore about 50-60% of it while completely bypassing the rest.
But few DMs would buy and prepare C1 for use in a tournament. Most of us are looking for adventures to plug into a campaign. And here is where it presents a number of issues. Firstly, if it is to be used in a campaign the gas must at least be toned down somewhat (I used 1 point of damage per 10 minutes instead of 1d6, and allowed every PC a save vs poison to negate it). The pregen characters come supplied with a scroll with 3 Slow Poison spells on it, one PC has a full jar of Keoghtom's Ointment, and the Cleric has Neutralise Poison memorised. How many campaign groups will begin so perfectly prepared - unless of course they have been metagaming? The pregens are at the top end of the suggested level range, and all have decent hitpoints - again, in a campaign this is unlikely to be the case. Treasure doesn't matter much to a tournament group, but to a campaign party it's a raison d'etre - and there is very little in the module to make it feel as though the rewards are worth the effort needed to survive - however that's easy to fix by doubling the value of some of the choice trinkets! Plus, players who love to roll dice and hack and slash may feel a little frustrated.
I almost feel as though I should award it 2 ratings, 1 for tournament play and 1 for campaign use, but I won't. I ran it as part of my campaign, I made the changes I thought necessary, and my group got through the adventure in 2 full sessions by the skin of their teeth and without any character deaths - though it was very close on a number of occasions. Constant, repeated poison save and slowly dwindling hitpoints really added to the tension, and they reached clear air in the nick of time.
I thoroughly enjoyed this adventure, despite the amount of work needed. It slotted nicely into the Forbidden City in module I1 and made for a great change of pace from the sandbox nature of that module.
Presentation: 7/10 – lots of Erol Otus and a great booklet of illustrations make up for the dodgy font and occasional lack of quality internal art.
Brawn: 4/10 – the party will probably miss the toughest scraps - better for their survival chances though.
Brains: 10/10 –attention to detail is sublime, the theme is enticing, the atmosphere enthralling and the traps are deadly.
Overall: 8/10 - a worthy module for a one shot competition style game, and pretty simple to 'fix' for campaign play - just be sensible about it!
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