The River Temple by Joseph Mohr is a role playing game supplement published by Old School Role Playing for use with OSRIC. As such, it is covered by the Open Game License and some parts are considered to be Open Game Content as a result.
The supplement is available as a 19 page Pay What You Want PDF from DriveThruRPG. Two pages are the front and rear covers, three the front matter and three the Open Game License.
The opening paragraphs explain how piracy has become a problem on a river, and there’s a reward for the pirate leader.
For the Game Master explains this is an adventure for 4-6 characters of levels 3-4 with a good mix of classes, and that it could be placed on any river. It also explains that the pirates are holed up in a ruined shrine.
The River has some details on the river itself, a slow-moving river which makes piracy easier.
Encounters on the River have encounters on the river itself.
Encounters Around the Shrine covers those in the shrine’s area.
The Shrine Ruins briefly details these.
A Cult Long Dead has some brief details on the deities once worshipped at the shrine.
Encounters Within the Ruins has these.
Key to the Ruins covers these.
The Lizard Men has stats for them.
An Ambush has details on this potential river encounter.
Tactics has how the pirates will behave.
Other Possibilities explains what to do if the pirate leader is away.
New Monsters has a single new creature.
New Magical Items has these.
The final page of content has a map of the shrine.
The River Temple in Review
The PDF lacks bookmarks and is long enough with enough different sections that these would have been useful. Navigation is okay. The text maintains a single column format and some minor errors were noticed. Bar the map and covers, there are no illustrations. Presentation is okay.
As mentioned, this could be dropped into different settings, as long as an appropriate river can be found. Some other minor tweaks will need making, but otherwise this should fit in many settings. The adventure is somewhat straightforward, in that the characters just need to find and deal with a pirate leader, though the chance that the leader might not be at the base does add a degree of complexity. The River Temple can be found by clicking here.
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