Touch of Death is the third Ravenloft module, wrapping up the RA-series that would eventually be joined with the RM modules to form the larger Grand Conjunction plot (I should note that the Touch of Death is the first module to mention the Grand Conjunction prophecy, so you can see how they were adjusting on the fly and retconning as needed). It’s got mummies. Mummies don’t exactly fit my preconceived notion of Ravenloft horror/fantasy, but I don’t really care – I like mummies. I think they’re an underused and underappreciated boogeyman that don’t get enough cred. As a mummy module, I find Touch of Death extremely satisfying. It is also worth noting that the desert land of Har’Akir and its dark lord, the mummy Anhktepot, were both featured in SSI’s videogame Stone Prophet.
It is much smaller and much more straight forward than the previous two, both of which get tripped up on their ambitions. It ends, however, as many Ravenloft adventures do: with the party fleeing an evil they can’t hope to combat and realizing they’ve largely been bit players in someone else’s story. Bit of a bummer.
As usual, Stephen Fabian’s art is the highlight. I love the slightly jarring mix of medieval fantasy style adventurers with the region’s ancient Egyptian aesthetics. Touch of Death wasn’t Fabian’s first mummy rodeo. He also did the cover and interior illustrations for The Third Grave, by David Case, published by Arkham House in 1981. I don’t know if I’ll have a better excuse to share it (unless I start an insta just dedicated books, which, no, my wife would kill me), so I’ve included it here.
That’s enough Ravenloft for now – we’ll finish up the Grand Conjunction down the road apiece.
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