Pathfinder Adventure Path #83: The Slave Trenches of Hakotep (Mummy’s Mask 5 of 6) (PFRPG)

Michael Kortes, author of Entombed with the Pharaohs and The Pact Stone Pyramid returns to Osirion with The Slave Trenches of Hakotep. This adventure features lots of dungeon crawling, but also some exploration and role-playing as the PCs try to complete the ritual necessary to bring down the flying pyramid of the Sky Pharaoh, Hakotep.

Likes
1) Best Hook in the AP: Flying pyramid shows up over Wati demanding the PCs turn themselves in or it will destroy the city. What more do you need? This hook still doesn't necessarily work with PCs as tomb raiders hook from the beginning of the AP but most PCs would feel responsible for causing this given that it's directly related to them killing the BBEG in the last book.

2) The Five-Pointed Sun: In the first part of the adventure, the adventurers must confront the master of The Five-Pointed Sun pyramid flying above the city of Wati. This dungeon has a few interesting features including a shifting tunnel that the players can control to allow access to different parts of the pyramid. However it's actually possible for the PCs to surrender and be lead directly to the commander of the flying pyramid to be judged, thus bypassing most of the traps of the complex. I like this because it actually gives the PCs an interesting choice on how to proceed: surrender and bypass all the traps but face the boss with limited resources (i.e. they have to hand over their weapons), fight their way to the boss, some combination of those two, etc...

3) The Sekpatra statues are a nice touch as they provide some background for interested groups about the commander of the flying pyramid, Isatemkhebet who is also the first major villain that the PCs face in this adventure. Isatemkhebet had the members of the Sekpatra family petrified, disfigured and put on display. Although it is difficult to do, it is possible for the PCs to free the family from their ordeal after which they can provide useful information and even some assistance in their fight against Isatemkhebet.

4) Scrivener's Wall: The scrivener's wall allows the PCs the opportunity to have a written exchange with Hakotep, the BBEG of the entire AP, before the final adventure. This is full of possibilities and significantly increases the meaningfulness of the first dungeon-crawl.

5) The Slave Trenches: In the next part of the adventure, the adventurers travel to the Slave Trenches of Hakotep which are the key to bringing down the flying pyramid of Hakotep. The PCs must deal with both the surface inhabitants of the Slave Trenches and venture into three different mini-dungeons, but they are free to do so in any order they choose. I like that the actions of the PCs in one part of the Slave Trenches can have both good or bad repercussions as they explore the other sections. (See below for examples)

6) Tef-Naju: The main guardian of the Slave Trenches is a sympathetic, intelligent and complex NPC called Tef-Naju. The immortal shaitan's motivations are well developed and allow him to become either the PCs' greatest ally or most enduring villain in this adventure. Tef-Naju's disposition towards the PCs will be greatly affected by the choices that they make as they explore the Slave Trenches.

7) Interesting Adversaries: Aside from Tef-Naju, the PCs can interact and potentially even make deals with a number of adversaries in this adventure. For example they can decide to ally or not with a vulture-headed sphinx in its power struggle against a mythic level roc. Ptemoneph, the ghost sorcerer who trapped himself in a psychic centipede jar, could also provide an interesting roleplaying opportunity. Jeshura, a div who betrayed Hakotep, could become another unlikely ally in the PCs quest to bring down the Sky Pharaoh.

8) Awe-inspiring items and surroundings: In a similar vein to the Scrivener's Wall, the Slave Trenches contain many fascinating artifacts that the PCs get a chance to play with. Many of these encounters are optional but serve to give the PCs a glimpse about what life was like in ancient times or further underline the magical might of their creator, Hakotep. For example, the Obsidian Figurines in the Lantern Vault can allow the adventurers to get an advantage against several of the guardians that Hakotep bound to the Slave Trenches, while in The Hall of Crawling Thoughts, the PCs can risk consuming some psychic centipedes to gain perspective (and bonuses) related to the ancient world (but woe to the PC who would gorge himself on psychic centipedes!)

9) And the award for the Best Trap of the AP goes to: Telekinetic Enucleation Trap. Let me quote my favorite section "The telekinetic forces attempt to forcibly pluck eyes from sockets - on a success, the eyes drop to the ground and roll down the sloped floor toward area H5." I like that this adventure also features some non-standard traps such as the Haunted Items that can lead to some of the PCs becoming possessed. I also like the teleportation trap in the Guardian Vault that can lead to one of the party members being split from the rest of the group.

10) Great Ending: As the Slave Trenches are activated, the PCs have to battle hordes of giant skeletal creatures that rise up to stop them. The battle over, a giant flying pyramid comes crashing down next to the PCs. It's epic, it's cinematic and it leads right into the next adventure.

Dislikes

1) Information dump at the beginning at the adventure: Within the span of a single encounter (when the PCs interact with Chisisek's mummy) all of the following terms are introduced: Aeromantic Infandibulum, Akhumen, Khepsutanem, Sekrepheres, Tekramenet, Sekrephrenet and Akhumemnet. This felt too confusing even for me, and I know all the background of the adventure, imagine how the players will feel.

2) Overuse of mummified template: There are just too many monsters in this adventure that are given the mummified template. In some cases it works, but in others it comes across like a weak attempt to add some Egyptian flavor to a monster that would otherwise seem completely out of place in this setting. I'm especially thinking of the mummified Gray Renders and Spinosaurus (although I do like what Sensuret, the Tribe-Eater is meant to represent, just not the templates that are stacked onto it).

Overall Impression
The Slave Trenches of Hakotep is my favorite installment in the Mummy's Mask Adventure Path and the best Paizo adventure I've read in a while. Michael Kortes has created an evocative adventuring site on a grand-scale that provides a good mix of open exploration, dungeon crawling, role-playing and epic storytelling. Great stuff. 5 stars.

I have really liked the adventure. The first part was your basic dungeon crawl, albeit set in a flying pyramid, and most of the monsters were mummified, just to add a little of something extra.

The second and third parts were basically the same, save that there were more puzzles than in the first part, and there were the undead elementals, that tended to appear whenever our DM felt they were needed to appear. "Slave Trenches" was a straightforward dungeon crawl (no KP or anything like that) and we really enjoyed playing it.

On the flip side there was a distinct lack of setting - of Wati or anything like it. The previous two parts were in reverse: very acting-heavy, but they were interconnected, we had an idea where to go. Here it was all rather loose and unconnected, and, frankly, when we shifted the background from Wati to Tephu it didn't change anything important in our dynamic. Otherwise, it was still a great game.

I really like the layout of this adventure. I feel that having multiple six to ten room dungeons trumps the one dungeon with forty to sixty rooms. This adventure is well laid out. I like the NPCs, the fights, the dungeons, and the traps.

I see a few potential downfalls: one, the activation order seems a little hard to figure out and could potentially take some time and bog things down (but having to think this late in the game isn't that harsh a downfall). The second, I see the possibility of an anticlimactic ending. If the PCs fight the boss prematurely and defeat him, then the final fight might just be a push over.

All together a good tone was set for this adventure and I hope they keep the good work going into the final step.

Read my full review on Of Dice and Pen.

While there are aspects of the adventure that I like (including one great NPC), overall The Slave Trenches of Hakotep is a long slog through a succession of dungeons, each filled with traps and monsters, and many of them forming pieces in an overall puzzle for the PCs to put together. Apart from that one NPC, there's very little opportunity for roleplaying interactions, and very little to keep the adventure spiced up and moving along. It will take many sessions to play through, and most of those session will start to feel like the same thing over and over again—and that's not good.

Short Version: A solid adventure that didn't quite gel for me.

This adventure has good encounters, brutal traps, some interesting NPCs, and a solid central conceit that'll keep PCs moving.

But the setting of the adventure never really seemed organic to me. It doesn't come across as anywhere that was intended to be used, which works for the tombs throughout the path but seems much weirder here.