Day of Al'Akbar
 | |
| Code | I9 |
|---|---|
| Rules required | AD&D (1st Edition) |
| Character levels | 8 - 10 |
| Campaign setting | Generic Arabic |
| Authors | Allen Hammack |
| First published | 1986 |
| Linked modules | |
| I1, I2, I3, I4, I5, I6, I7, I8, I9, I10, I11, I12, I13, I14 | |
Day of Al'Akbar (I9) is a Dungeons & Dragons module written by Allen Hammack and published in 1986.
Plot summary
Day of Al'Akbar is a scenario set in an Arabian Nights-style desert land, where the player characters search the sewers under the city of Khaibar for an entrance to the tomb of Al'Akbar to find the holy Cup and Talisman, which can save their home from a plague.[1] The module describes Khaibar City and the Sultan's palace.[1]
In this adventure, the player characters must save Arabic lands from a red plague by retrieving a magical artifact.[2] The city of Khaibar is ruled by its bandit leader Al'Farzikh, where Al'Akbar was once the great Sultan of the city.[3] The adventure involves wilderness encounters, dungeon crawling in a sewer, tomb-robbing, some detective work in a desert town and a final confrontation in the Sultan's palace.[2]
The land of Arir, a once peaceful desert country, has fallen into the hands of infidels. The ruler, Sultan Amhara, was killed in the battle for the capital city of Khaibar where he left behind one of the greatest treasure stores ever amassed, including the Cup and Talisman of Al'Akbar. However, a deadly plague sweeps over the land. The holy men could cure the plague if they only had the Talisman, which the player characters must find.
Table of contents
| Chapter | Page |
|---|---|
| Introduction | 2 |
| Journey to Khaibar | 3 |
| The sewers of Khaibar | 5 |
| Beyond the Walls | 14 |
| The Sultan's Palace | 35 |
| Artifacts | pullout section |
| Glossary of Useful Terms | pullout section |
| Pre-rolled Characters | pullout section |
| Players' Riddle Illustration | 39 |
Notable non-player characters
- Al'Farzikh: 7th level assassin
- Vahtak: 6th level thief
- The Mad Dog of the Desert: 14th level Magic user/16th level assassin
- The Crescent Witch: 8th level Magic user
Publication history
I9 Day of Al'Akbar was written by Allen Hammack, with a cover by Jeff Easley, and was published by TSR in 1986 as a 40-page booklet with a large color map and an outer folder.[1] The city map of Khaibar is A1 size.[3]
Design: Allen Hammack
Developer: Bruce A. Heard
Editing: Kerry as Martin
Cover Art: Jeff Easley
Illustrations: Mark Nelson
Cartography: Diane and Dave Sutherland
Typesetting: Betty Elmore
Dedication: to my parents with love, for extraordinary tolerance and encouragement, and to Jeff, Chris, and Marie, for their support and love. Special thanks to Susan Hammack, and Sandy Brachman, and Katrina.
Distributed to the book trade in the United States by Random House, Inc., and in Canada by Random House of Canada, Ltd. Distributed to the toy and hobby trade by regional distributors. Distributed in the United Kingdom by TSR UK Ltd.
product number 9178
ISBN 0-88038-320-8
Reception
Tom Zunder reviewed Day of Al'Akbar for the British magazine Adventurer #6 (January 1987).[3] He commented first on the cover, saying that "Gary Gygax really must have left Lake Geneva at last", as Gygax "was really keen on the 'family' image - and these playboy lasses on the front cover would certainly not have passed in the old days".[3] He calls the city map of Khaibar "a wonderful bundle of colour" and "beautifully done, it has none of those annoying give-away labels, nor does it have the ugly grey squares which obliterated the Lhankmar [sic] map. A nice map, backed with useful hexes, and a good start to the package."[3] He called the first three encounters on the trek to the city of Khaibar "extremely silly and unnecessary", and the subsequent sewer dungeons "so-so", but after that he found a "well-detailed city with some real potential for role-playing".[3] He concluded the review by stating that the scenario is "flawed, it doesn't explain the city in the best way - as an overall. It presents good material in a depressingly linear dungeons-style [...] It is, however, an excellent scenario for AD&D, providing plenty of excitement with a wonderful setting, well detailed and researched. The scenario is not at all bad, and a good referee could easily ignore it and just develop the setting itself, it's certainly worth it. D&Ders should buy this, others wouldn't do badly in investing as well - not at all bad!"[3]
Carl Sargent reviewed the module for White Dwarf #87. Sargent noted that although the town map is moderately useful and the adventure's Arabic environment is detailed enough, the module is overall an "uninspired effort".[2] He called the wilderness encounters pointless and silly and noted the existence of errors in the game statistics among other flaws. Sargent felt that the only noteworthy thing about the module is Jeff Easley's "sexploitation cover".[2]
See also
References and footnotes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Schick, Lawrence (1991). Heroic Worlds: A History and Guide to Role-Playing Games. Prometheus Books. p. 102. ISBN 0-87975-653-5.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Sargent, Carl (March 1987). "Open Box: AD&D Adventures". White Dwarf (review) (Games Workshop) (87): 2–3. ISSN 0265-8712.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 Zunder, Tom (January 1987). "Shop Window". Adventurer (Mersey Leisure Publishing) (6): 10–11.
- Braggi (February 17). "Refitting I9 Day of Al-Akbar for Greyhawk". Canonfire! Enterprises. Retrieved 2007-04-01. Check date values in:
|date=(help) - Hammack, Allen (1986). Day of Al'Akbar. TSR, Inc.
External links
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