Even without Greyhawk connections, I9 Day of Al-Akbar deserves more love. Reading it after all these years it’s quite good, despite rough editing, harems, and the cover art. More mini-campaign than one-shot module, it boasts three different dungeon environments to explore, a hex crawl, and a significant urban area with a beautiful map. Best of all, it serves as an excellent amendment to a flawed and better known Greyhawk module: WG8 Fate of Istus. Besides their titular deities from the Baklunish region of Greyhawk, both modules feature similar plagues that beg to be linked together.
The intro to I9 reads:
“A plague now sweeps the land; red blotches on the chest mark the onset of the disease, and within a few days death is imminent. The elder priests of all temples of Law and Good put aside their differences and banded together to fight the plague. They agree that if the Cup and Talisman could ever be found and reunited, curing balms could be made in enough quantity to stop the disease.”
Obviously, this sounds a lot like the Red Death from WG8, published three years later. The artifacts of I9 offer a better resolution to the plague than a greater god arbitrarily testing PC classes on their skills. WG8 shines as a city gazetteer with a couple great one-shot scenarios, but is worthless as a campaign. Its Red Death remains a notable pre-Wars event in Greyhawk canon, but the plot is so bad that later authors rarely address it and DM’s ignore it. Istus’ meddling flies in the face of Greyhawk’s divine non-intervention and the product was a hasty attempt to bring Greyhawk into a new edition by mimicking the commercial success of the Time of Troubles. Instead of getting brand management and staff writers together for a novel line and series of modules like Forgotten Realms received, TSR asked a few freelancers to whip up a disjointed 128-page anthology. The last chapter has been all but de-canonized in every product since.
I9 gives Greyhawk’s Red Death the module it deserves and ties up an unsatisfactory loose end in the timeline. WG8 provides the generic Day of Al’Akbar with a canon event of significance to the wider Flanaess. Together, Greyhawkers get a desperately needed adventure on the west edge of the map.
Gamers are often hung up on I9’s geography because the Flanaess notoriously lacks the sandy dunes called for in most Egyptian and Arab-inspired D&D scenarios. Day of Al’Akbar is no different, but less reliant on its dunes than B4 or I3-5. Any region with scarce water works fine. No pyramids or sandstorms here, just one burrowing monster easily substituted. The mountains to the north are merely an escarpment and means to avoid getting lost. The module could be placed in any remote part of the Paynims, Ull, or the Dry Steppes.
Geography aside, I9 requires significant DM work because it’s massive, not bad. Allen Hammock is known for his tournament gauntlets (Ghost Tower of Inverness, Aerie of the Slave Lords, and Knight of the Black Swords) while Day of Al’Akbar is a campaign module like the later Tomes series. It’s also condensed to the point of feeling truncated, like the Haunted Halls of Eveningstar. The wilderness map is virtually undescribed outside three short encounters. It begs for development; a village, a subplot, and another location to explore would go a long way here. If one wanted to add regional politics, some factions, and incentives to build strongholds here, I9 could go from being a campaign to a full sandbox like ToEE.
More than the wilderness map, the bulk of prep time should be spent on the town. Without more hooks, motives, and planned encounters, players will probably miss the potential of this chapter and invisibly fly to the last area and attack the bad guys. Adding an informant for the players to contact, a McGuffin, and a little more espionage really brings the town to life. DM’s should also detail motives for notable inhabitants, chart relationships and alliances, and consider plausible outcomes and impacts of player actions.
The editing needs work, with some map errors and incorrect recommended PC levels. The cover says 8th – 10th, the title pages claims 4th – 8th and the pregens are 9th – 12th. The title page probably received the final edit, with 4th – 8th level PC's best suited to the final villains.
Last and most intriguing, a handful of supernatural agents and proxies appear to aid and hinder players, not dissimilar to two famous Gygax modules featuring Greyhawk artifacts. DM’s should develop these agents, their masters, and more wheels within wheels. Likewise, the named NPC villains should have more foreshadowing and lesser agents to make the inevitable showdown meaningful.
Overall, an excellent Greyhawk module. Overlooked because its lack of Greyhawk content, its release as a non-Gygax one-off in the midst of legal tumult at the end of 1st edition, and the fact that it requires prep time on par with ToEE or Vault of the Drow. Like those modules, Day of Al’Akbar is worth it.
I agree with your review, vestcoat. Day of Al Akbar has always been a favorite of mine. In my youth, I was mesmerized by that city map, planning encounters I could add to it.
I will note that the most irritating issue to me was the delayed blast fireball grenades.
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