Day of Al'Akbar

Greyhawk Source

Day of Al'Akbar
Cover of Day of Al'Akbar, by Jeff Easley (1986).
Type:	Adventure
Code/Abbreviation:	I9 or TSR9178
Edition:	First edition
Author(s):	Allen Hammack
Editor(s):	Karen S. Martin
Cover Artist(s):	Jeff Easley
Interior Artist(s):	Mark Nelson
Series:	I1, I2, I3, I4, I5, I6, I7, I8, I9, I10, I11, I12, I13, I14
First Published:	1986
Pages:	40
ISBN:	0-88038-320-8
Class:	Officially published material

Day of Al'Akbar is a first edition adventure written by Allen Hammack and published by TSR. in 1986. The adventure consists of a forty-page booklet with a large color map and an outer folder. It bears the Dungeons & Dragons code I9, I meaning intermediate and 9 for adventure 9 in that series.

Plot summary

The Day of Al'Akbar is an adventure scenario set in a once peaceful desert land reminiscent of the Arabian Nights. The adventure contains two distinct settings, Khaibar City and the Sultan's palace.

Khaibar city is ruled by the bandit leader Al'Farzikh, and was once ruled by the sultan Al'Akbar. The people are at risk from a red plague, and the PCs are set on a quest to retrieve the magical artifacts that will save them. The scenario involves PCs searching the sewers underneath Khaibar to find the entrance that leads to the tomb of Al'Akbar, which contains the Cup and Talisman of Al'Akbar that they need.

The players' choices determine whether the search will involve wilderness encounters, a dungeon crawl through a sewer, tomb robbing, or investigating in a desert town, while the final confrontation takes place in the Sultan's palace.

Table of contents

Chapter	Page
Introduction	2
Journey to Khaibar	3
The sewers of Khaibar	5
Beyond the Walls	14
The Sultan's Palace	35
Artifacts	pullout section
Glossary of Useful Terms	pullout section
Pre-rolled Characters	pullout section
Players' Riddle Illustration	39

Notable non-player characters

• Al'Farzikh: 7th level assassin
• Vahtak: 6th level thief
• The Mad Dog of the Desert: 14th level Magic user/16th level assassin
• The Crescent Witch: 8th level Magic user

Publication history

Day of Al'Akbar was published by TSR in 1986 as a 40-page booklet with a large color map and an outer folder. The game adventure was written and designed by Allen Hammack. Jeff Easley produced the cover art. The city map of Khaibar is a 23"x33" poster.

The game adventure was developed by Bruce Heard and the adventure was illustrated by Mark Nelson. The map was drawn by Diane and David C. Sutherland III. Typesetting was done by Betty Elmore. The adventure was edited by Kerry Martin. The adventure was distributed to the book trade in the United States by Random House, Inc., in Canada by Random House of Canada, Ltd. and in the United Kingdom by TSR UK Ltd. The adventure's product number was 9178.

During third edition, the events of the adventure were confirmed in official material as part of the artifact's history. The Book of Exalted Deeds (2003) includes the city of Khaibar and Sultan Amhara in the history of the artifacts. It was further confirmed in fourth edition in the Dungeon Master's Guide 2 as well as Dragon magazine #379 as being the official history of the artifact.

Anna Meyer's popular fan-created, expanded map of the Flanaess (see also: Meyer map) places the Sultanate of Arir at the eastern end of the Dry Steppes, at the foot of the Crystalmists and Sulhaut mountains, southwest of Sterich. Although, it is somewhat modified, flipping the area east-to-west to help make it correlate to the already known geography.

Reception

Tom Zunder reviewed Day of Al'Akbar for the British magazine, Adventurer in January 1987 (issue 6). He first commented on the cover, saying, "Gary Gygax really must have left Lake Geneva at last [as Gygax] was really keen on the 'family' image - and these playboy lasses on the front cover would certainly not have passed in the old days". He calls the city map of Khaibar, "a wonderful bundle of colour" and "beautifully done, it has none of those annoying give-away labels, nor does it have the ugly grey squares which obliterated the Lhankmar(sic) map. A nice map, backed with useful hexes, and a good start to the package." He called the first three encounters on the trek to the city of Khaibar "extremely silly and unnecessary", and the subsequent sewer dungeons "so-so", but after that he found a "well-detailed city with some real potential for role-playing". He concluded the review, stating the scenario is "flawed, it does not explain the city in the best way - as an overall. It presents good material in a depressingly linear dungeons-style [...] It is, however, an excellent scenario for AD&D, providing plenty of excitement with a wonderful setting, well detailed and researched. The scenario is not at all bad, and a good referee could easily ignore it and just develop the setting itself, it's certainly worth it. D&Ders should buy this, others would not do badly in investing as well - not at all bad!"

In March 1987, White Dwarf (issue 87), Carl Sargent noted that although the town map is moderately useful and the adventure's Arabic environment is detailed enough, the adventure is overall an "uninspired effort". He called the wilderness encounters pointless and silly and noted the existence of errors in the game statistics. Sargent felt that the only noteworthy thing about the adventure was Jeff Easley's "sexploitation cover".

External links

Disclaimer:Any lore presented through the following links does not necessarily adhere to established officially published content, and the views expressed do not necessarily represent the views of the editors of this wiki.

• Braggi. Refitting I9 Day of Al-Akbar for Greyhawk. Canonfire! Enterprises.

References

Bibliography

• Cook, David "Zeb". Book of Artifacts. Lake Geneva, WI: TSR, 1993. Item code TSR2138.
• Hammack, Allen. I9 Day of Al'Akbar. Lake Geneva, WI: TSR, 1986. Item code TSR9178.
• Holian, Gary, Erik Mona, Sean Reynolds and Frederick Weining. Living Greyhawk Gazetteer. Renton, WA: Wizards of the Coast, 2000. Item code 11743.