I5 Lost Tomb of Martek

Title: I5 Lost Tomb of Martek

Price: $5.00 (PDF)

Publisher/Year: TSR / Wizards of the Coast, 1983 / 2013

ISBN: 0880380998

Author(s): Tracy Hickman

System: Advanced Dungeons & Dragons

Character levels: 7-9

DriveThruRPG Link

Rating: 3/5

The Desert of Desolation trilogy ends with the Lost Tomb of Martek. In it, our heroes need to find the tomb of the legendary wizard Martek in order to finally defeat the evil efreeti that has been ravaging the land. It's a suitably epic climax to the series, but it doesn't quite come off.

Tracy Hickman had done a good job of incorporating both his previously written adventure Pharaoh and Philip Meyer's Oasis of the Lost Palm into an overall structure; the problems with the structure – primarily that the players might never release the efreeti in Pharaoh – are relatively minor and something that he would find a solution for in his later works. Both adventures had been seeded with mentions of Martek, a wizard who had foreseen the release of the efreeti and had put plans in place to see it defeated; all of the business in Oasis about the bride's handmark and the amulet is Martek's work.

Now all the characters need to do is find Martek's tomb and his Sphere of Power. The keys for the tomb are in their possession already – the three Star Gems, so all they need to do is get there. Between them and the tomb is the Skysea – a place where the sand has fused into glass, so the sky is reflected in the ground. To travel on it (as it becomes devastatingly hot during the day), the group need to acquire a cloudskate or skyship, which skates on a thin blade over the glass. It's one of the best concepts in the series, but unfortunately little more is done with it – only random encounters might threaten the group as they're on the skyship. It's a throwaway detail, really, but greatly evocative.

Hickman shifts gears when the group enter the first portion of the tomb, and we get the first major interaction of the adventure: the degenerate descendants of treasure seekers trapped in a magical garden. I'm not very fond of this section: you have the descendants of paladins and the descendants of thieves. They don't like each other, and I feel it detracts from the serious tone of the rest of the series – I don't mind occasional lighter elements, but this feels forced and wrong.

It doesn't help that the big thing wrong with the adventure is introduced here: three NPCs who try to steal the Star Gems and, if they do, spend the rest of the adventure being chased through the tomb as the group try to catch them.

What's wrong with that? Well, AD&D doesn't handle chases well. Fights against single NPCs are typically boring. And there are significant problems with fighting high-level magic-users, as Trifakas is (a 12th level magic-user!) – one or two failed saves and that's it for the party! Or Trifakas.

This wouldn't be such a problem if the next section of the adventure was good enough to stand on its own, but it isn't. Once within the tomb proper, the group still need to go on a treasure hunt for three crystal minarets. The three demi-planes they need to go to find them are great inventions, but only one of them is good for adventuring: the mobius tower, where everything is "time locked" and can't move (save through a few special instances). It's a good example of where theme and adventure potential come together.

Unfortunately, the Black Abyss, where space, time and magic begin to breakdown in fascinating ways, has no actual threat to it save random encounters and the potential NPCs, and the Crypt of Al-Alisk, despite once again being an interesting place at its core, lacks challenge – really, it comes down to working out a single teleport trap to complete.

And wouldn't it be easier to just wait near the door for the three NPCs to get the minarets, then defeat them and take the spoils?

That is the bulk of the adventure. The final section – the Citadel of Martek – involves the group finally bringing Martek back to life, him rewarding them, and finally an epilogue that closes the adventure and series in suitable style.

Tracy Hickman displays great invention in this adventure, but rarely is it employed on things that translate to exciting adventuring; setting-wise there's not much to fault, but the entire adventure feels incredibly light on good adventuring material. This is a great shame, as the first two parts of the Desert of Desolation are superlative.

Production-wise, the maps are very good and most of the (uncredited) artwork is also fine – the weakest part is the cover by Holloway. As with the other adventures in the series, it has two nested covers which have most of the maps printed on them.

GameStop Power Up Rewards Pro Program

 

Year ago, I was lured into becoming a member of the GameStop Power Up Rewards Pro program. For a yearly membership fee, I would get some great benefits that included the following:

At the time, this was worth it to me because I was picking up many of the exclusive Funko Pop's from GameStop. I would go in on a monthly basis to use the $5 per month pro reward to get Pops or action figures. During the length of my membership, I also got back into gaming so I bought a new XBox and started playing on a Nintendo Switch as well.

Another benefit that the membership included was I received points based on how much I spent, and those would accumulate over the course of a year. When I eared over 10k points, I could redeem those for additional benefits including money off for in-store purchases.

At the end of the year, I would often make a larger purchase and use these points to reduce the actual amount of out-of-pocket money I was using. It was a nice system. I was part of the program in a time when they provided membership cards. I would typically get an astonished remark from the customer service rep in more recent years as I believe they discontinued providing these card in lieu of just using your phone #.

It has recently come to my attention that some changes have been made to the program that now make it not worth the expense, IMHO. GameStop has completely phased out its reward points system for Pro members, which officially ended in 2026. While the $25 annual membership cost remains the same, you can no longer earn Pro Points on purchases, and all existing points have expired. Also, the $5 monthly coupon can only be used in-store through their app.

I had installed the app a few times on my phones over the years, and 98% of the time I could not get it to function properly. Because of this, I uninstalled it from my phone. Last month (June 2026), I was made aware of the change to the program and I needed to use the app to use my monthly coupon. I made another attempt recently (July 2026) at a different location thinking that perhaps the rep at the last store just didn't want to help me. I got the same response. When I complained to each of the reps that I was never able to get the app to work correctly on my phone, they both said the same thing: "Yeah, I know bro."

This is an unacceptable response to the problem! While I understand that there is probably nothing the local reps can do to fix the issue since it is now part of the corporate policy, I shouldn't have to be forced to try and get a stupid app to work on my phone just to utilize the benefits of the membership I have held and paid for for so many years.

Because of this change in their program, I will not be renewing my membership once it expires and I also urge any of my readers who still pay into this same program to do the same. I doubt that it will cause a large enough impact, but it's a start. The new lack of real benefits outweigh the cost of membership, IMHO.

I'm sure there are those of you who will continue to use this program because you make more purchases of gaming products that the small discount makes it worth your while. That's fair. I did notice that on my last purchase, I did not receive the typical discount on the figures I bought. Based on what I'm finding online, I should still have received 5% off those purchases.

I10 Ravenloft II: The House on Gryphon Hill

Title: I10 Ravenloft II: The House on Gryphon Hill

Price: $6.99 (PDF), $12.99 (Softcover)

Publisher/Year: TSR / Wizards of the Coast, 1986 / 2016

ISBN: 9780880383226

Author(s): Tracy and Laura Hickman

System: Advanced Dungeons & Dragons

Character levels: 8-10

DriveThruRPG Link

Rating: 3/5

This adventure, while not as well received as the first, ground-breaking, Ravenloft it did have a lot going for it. For starters, it was much more classically Gothic in nature. An old family, an ancient curse, ghosts, a strange and charming young Alchemist by the name of Strahd von Zarovich.

I should point out here that this adventure, while having the Hickmans in the by line, was really just an outline and some notes. Tracy Hickman had left TSR in 1985. The adventure was given over to David Cook, Jeff Grubb, Harold Johnson, and Douglas Niles. Now personally, I can see the sections that were created by Grubb and Niles. I had become very familiar with their works by this point. I honestly believe that if they had started from scratch, this would have been a different sort of adventure. 

Not that I am complaining. I rather enjoy this adventure, significant warts and all. It is more Gothic than Ravenloft I6 was, complete with an epic battle on lightning-streaked moors. 

This adventure introduces many elements that will become central to the Ravenloft campaign setting. The Weathermays, the lich Azalin, the d’Honaires, the Timothys, will all appear again in the Realms of Terror boxed set. 

One thing that won't make that much of a splash though is the big surprise of this adventure; the Alchemist Strahd. Is he the distilled goodness of the Vampire Strahd? Is the Vampire the distilled evil of the Alchemist? Or is there something else?  Like the first adventure, this one has a random plot device. Instead of fortune-telling cards, we get a mesmerist's session. The nature of the two Strahds can be found here.

Or not.

Again, the Alchemist doesn't make a significant impact in the later AD&D 2nd Edition. The Ravenloft campaign setting is all but forgotten in future treatments.  This is not a bad thing, really; the whole Alchemist deal felt like a bit of a retcon in some respects.  Though I can imagine running this adventure now for, say, the 5e players who know who Strahd is would be a lot of fun.

At 48 pages, with more isometric maps, it is larger than the original Ravenloft adventure. There is also a lot more going on. Though fans of "hack n slash" style D&D are going to be disappointed. Oh there are monsters here and they are deadly as hell, but that is not what the adventure is about. Those are just obstacles to the real adventure.

There is a small section of this adventure titled "The Dreams of Barovia" which is rather fun. The idea is that you play I6: Ravenloft and I10: Ravenloft II concurrently. The character move back and forth between one reality to the other. Playing the same characters but at different times and places. For example, the characters fall asleep in Barovia (I6) and wake up in Mordentshire (I10) wearing different clothing. 

I ran it this way back in college. My old High School DM, Bob Grenda and I ran it together for his normal group. We took turns DMing, with me taking I10 while he ran I6. We did it in a marathon session from a Thursday night to Sunday. It was fun but I forgot to tell my roommates and girlfriend at the time I was doing this and they had no idea where I was. This was the early 90s, so before everyone had cell phones. I found my notes, it was 10/26/1991. 

It worked well, but it was really deadly. HP loss and wounds carried over from reality to reality, which really upped the fear.  I'd love to try it again sometime, but I'd make some tweaks.

If you didn't like Ravenloft I then this one will feel like more of the same. But I enjoyed it and there is still a lot of untapped potential in this adventure for me.