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The temple of Het Thamsya needs help. Their abbot has been meditating for 10 years and is now in grave danger. Help rescue him from a temple of automatons, giant wasps and human-wasp monstrosities. But don't wake him up!

  • 28 pages of temple-crawling adventure for tabletop role-playing games
  • Written using Cairn RPG and Into The Odd rulesets
  • Automatons: Learn to trick them, learn to command them 
  • Wasps and automatons, anything in common? Come find out! 
  • Over 30 pieces of original artwork, made by non-automaton labour
  • High-resolution unlabelled map files, including one erroneous map

Will the abbot survive? Will the temple still stand? Will there be hornet inspired mecha? You decide!

Specifications: 28 pages, Royal Size (34x156mm 9.21×6.14 inches) 

Set in Kala Mandala, a fantasy world centred on Southeast Asia

Writing, art and layout by Munkao
Development by Brad Kerr
Cultural consulting and additional writing by Elizabeth Gimbad

Stirring the Hornet's Nest at Het Thamsya is one of the winners of The Awards 2024!

Updated 7 days ago
StatusReleased
CategoryPhysical game
Rating
Rated 5.0 out of 5 stars
(28 total ratings)
AuthorCentaur Games
GenreAdventure
TagsDungeons & Dragons, One-shot, OSR, rpgsea

Purchase

Get this game and 2 more for $15.56 USD
View bundle
Buy Now
On Sale!
24% Off
$5.99 $4.55 USD or more

In order to download this game you must purchase it at or above the minimum price of $4.55 USD. You will get access to the following files:

Het Thamsya Final 1.1 A5 spreads.pdf 5.3 MB
Het Thamsya Final 1.1 A5 pages.pdf 5.3 MB
Het Thamsya Map Labelled.jpg 757 kB
Het Thamsya Map Unlabelled.jpg 606 kB
Sumgan's Map.jpg 682 kB
Illustration and Maps Het Thamsya.pdf 5.1 MB

Comments

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(+1)

This looks fantastic! I’ve only skimmed it so far, but I love what I’m seeing

(+1)

Thank you so much! So glad you are enjoying it. :)

hi there

Just wondering if any more community copies will be available?

Kind regards

(+1)

I'm not familiar with how to do community copies, but drop me an email wearecentaur at gmail.com, I'll send you a copy.

Thank you so much for your kindness and generosity in providing community copies of your game. I’m a disabled pension who can’t afford much so these free gifts really help me out in playing games and keeping my mind active. I won’t be broke forever so plan on coming back when I’m able to help out.

I really appreciate your hard work and kindness in providing community copies.

(+1)

No worries at all.
I'm happy you are interested in this adventure, hope you enjoy it. :)

(+2)

Ran this module as a one-shot (4.5 hours) with Cairn 2E playtest, though easily could have stretched it to two sessions as we rushed it a bit at the end. Almost all the players were new to the system and this provided an engrossing environment and looping dungeon to explore. Between trying to brain through the nature of the automatons to disgust (in a good way) at the half-wasps, we had a blast playing this. I was a bit generous with Satur no wake, but otherwise the characters were skirting death and “failure” at every corner. Plenty of space for a Referee to improvise if desired or just run this module strictly as written.

My only (minor) gripe was it could use a little more of why the adventurers would care. In a region of a thousand temples, what’s the consequence of one tiny temple dying? Treasure? Sure, but might need to raise the stakes or explicitly tie them to an NPC/mystery. I ultimately got lucky with my players rolling items and omens I could twist to drive them toward the adventure.

Again super minor critique. Overall this was a great time and I intend to use this again to introduce new players to OSR/NSR style gaming. Probably the best short-form adventure I’ve read/run in years. Can’t wait to see more from you!

(+1)

This makes me so happy to read! Thank you so so much. 🙏🙏

(+1)

I've run one session of this so far (using Brighter Worlds, a Cairn/Into the Odd hack). My impressions so far: This is perhaps my favorite OSR module that I have run yet, besting Winter's Daughter.

What makes it so great is the automata. They give the PCs something to "do" besides fight monsters. They can fight them, study them, and re-program them to their own ends using "command slips" that can be found scattered throughout the temple. The automata serve as puzzle, monster, and asset. I think the players had a huge sense of shared accomplishment when they first got a hulking "Tarantuton" working on their side.

We got just up to the point of entering the hornet's nest. I'm glad they didn't get much further because I feel like the motivations of the NPCs here could use more fleshing out. It's nice that there are two factions of hornets, but I'm not entirely sure how to play the characters. I'm gonna have to do some work on my own on that. Similarly, there's a sentient automata the PCs can find called "The Bookworm." I wish there was a bit more about its motivations, its wants and doesn't wants.

Those aren't huge gripes though, given how good the module is overall. I'm looking forward to finishing it up.

(+2)

Oh gosh. Thank you so much for the REALLY kind words! 

It truly makes me so happy to hear how you and your players respond to the automatas!

Thanks for the feedback on the hornet nest section too, if your game plays out differently from your feedback, do let me know. I'll see what I can do for future versions. (Or even if just for making future adventures better)

A kind of dungeon with 25 locations that are well connected and contain three or four storylines in a small space, sometimes quite bizarre, but attractive. The foundations of the temple described are in Southeast Asia, the interior looks as if it were taken from the dreams of Asimov or Miéville. The background is only hinted at, which makes the adventure all the more flexible. I was a bit surprised about R4 and the "Consequences" (...when does the cobra perceive the player characters as intruders? Is it enough to open the door here to cause the downfall of Het Thamsya as a temple?), otherwise that's a Dungeon that I can only recommend.

(1 edit)

Thanks for the rec!

Re: Screeching Cobra, my intent was to have the cobra provide an obstacle to the party escaping through this way, but I can see how it could feel really sudden and wake Satur without any player choice.

A possible remedy could be that the screams from the Cobra starts off softly and gets louder with each moment in the room, giving the Party enough time to go back but not enough time to get to R3.

I will try and amend this when I have time.

Thanks again!

(+2)

I absolutely love this. Thank you for making it!

I'm red-green color blind and am having a lot of trouble reading the hostility chart on page 16. Is there any chance that you would consider adding different stroke styles to show the relationships with a dimension in addition to color?

(+4)

Thank you!
I did not think of this, I apologize. Will fix this and upload it in a day or two.

(+2)

Uploaded. Let me know if the new changes does not work?

(+2)

Much clearer! Thank you so much.

(+2)

Hiti Oku Kalabus!

(+3)

OMG! I COMPLETELY FORGOT THAT YOU CAN READ THIS! IM SO EXCITED!!

(+1)

I am a Kadazan btw. I know some words. This one is pretty easy. I think those are Dusun.

(+3)

Ah i see. Yeap! it's in Dusun from Eli Gimbad. :)

(+4)

Unique and interesting adventure. Very well executed for use at the table.

My only recommendation is to add a link to your Patreon here or on your main Itch page so people like me who found you here can find you there too.

(+3)

Thank you!
And that's a great suggestion for the Patreon, I'll add a link once I've sorted out my Patreon. 

(+5)

Beyond the characteristically amazing art, this is an inventive game from one of the most exciting talents in the scene. I ran to pick this up. You should too. Can't wait to get this to my table!

(+2)

Thank you for your kind words! I hope your table enjoys the adventure!

(+9)

A delightful entry from Munkao of Centaur Games; a whimsical 'dungeon' that is part of a larger temple school complex. Complete with factions, loot, and a charming gimmick with automatons functioning by way of mantra command codes (with a helpful little side-bar on how to change/subvert those command codes.) The goal of recovering the meditating body of the school's founder (without waking him up!) is also a good hook and challenge to consider.

As is to be expected of a project by Munkao, the art is rich and everything you'd hope to see presented in the text is rendered for us. Humanizing touches such as etchings on the wall in the Chamber of Quiet Practise - capture the whimsical mundanity of a lived in place. 

Written with use for ItO/Cairn - and thus with an easily adapted lingua franca of probability spreads. Well worth the $6.00 asking price, and a ripe plunder at its initial sales price.

(+3)

The kindest review! Thank you!

(+3)

Hi!

Would it be possible to get a PDF that's pages instead of spreads?

Thanks!

BQ

(+3)

Sure! Let me work on it, should be up in a couple of days!

(+1)

Awesome! Thanks!

(+6)

Actually, a lot less work than i expected. Just uploaded!