Friday, January 22, 2016

The Temple of Elemental Evil

Confession time.  I have never run or played through The Temple of Elemental Evil.
I think I was in the Villiage of Hommlet once, but that was back in the early, early days of the game.

So I have to admit I really want to run it now.  Though I want to tie it in to my current D&D5 game.
Trouble is that the characters are now already 7th level and in the middle of the Slave Lords.  I didn't want to start with T1 because for me it was more important to start with B1 and B2.

So I have the T1-4 supermodule on PDF, but there is a lot going on that I am not a fan of.  Not that it isn't good, it is, but not what I need or want.  Plus I am no fan linking Zuggtmoy to the temple.  Her powers are not elemental in nature.  Plus I always liked the idea that some remnant of Tharizdun especially in the guise of the Elder Elemental Eye.  Maybe this is an elemental themed patron for a warlock.  The idea is of course to play into the larger "Come Endless Darkness" plot line.  So yes this evil is related to the larger evil. Which might be Tharizdun. At least that is what I have always considered over the years.  Turns out that +Joseph Bloch agrees with me.  I already did S4 and WG4, so I guess I am going in reverse.

As usual I have an embarrassment of riches. Too much material actually.

I found some 5e Conversion notes that look really nice.
And I have a lot of choices when it comes to plots, ideas and adventures.
Of course I will use T1 The Village of Hommlet and likely a good portion of T1-4 Temple of Elemental Evil.  Given my particular desire to make an easy job far more difficult I am also going to look at versions for other editions.
I read through most of those last night.  T1 is easy, T2 will be a bit more work.  I think I am going to steal a lot of ideas from Return and Princes of the Apocalyspe.

While doing some research, I discovered this blog post, http://sagaworkstudios.blogspot.com/2014_08_01_archive.html that talked about T2 The Temple of Elemental Evil as promised  back before T1-4 came out.  It is a very interesting read to be honest. That is where the image above came from.

Here are some other posts I consider "must read" on my goal to build this gigantic conspiracy of evil.
To me "Expert" level (as listed on the T2 cover) is 4 to 14.  But I am more likely to do 4 to 8.  Then the characters of this adventure will then join the other characters of the Order of the Platinum Dragon to move on to GDQ.

So it is settled.  Zuggtmoy is out. Tharizdun is in.  What is his plan?

Simple. He wants out.  He has convinced all these different evil factions to blot out the sun and deliver the essences of gods to him they think they are going to obtain godhood, but in truth they will be freeing him.  Maybe each has a piece of the Elder Elemental Eye.  Lolth has Air, Orcus has Earth, Dagon/Hydra has Water and someone else has fire.  I kinda want it to be Asmodeus.  But I am leaving out the mindflayers.  Why Air for Lolth when she is underground?  Air represents what she has lost. Plus I like tying her to the Queen of Air and Darkness.

This will also let me try some of the new material coming out for 5e.  Like +Mark Craddock's Dhampir TK Monk!

What have your experiences been?  What should I watch out for?

5 comments:

Darnizhaan said...

You could always make your own dungeon, and just borrow the TOEE factions and infighting, which I always thought was the best part anyway.

Timothy S. Brannan said...

Yeah that is what I am thinking of doing.

Mike Bridges said...

I ran TOEE long ago and I recall it being fun to run but it was such a dense dungeon that nothing is really memorable to me except the warded doors. I think a total rework is the right move. Give it a personal touch. That's exactly what I'm planning on doing with Five Shall Be One for 5e.

JB said...

I converted T1 (well, actually, the first part of the T1-4 super module) straight to 3E back when I was still playing D20, and I had a pretty good time with it. I had originally intended to convert the rest of the thing but it was just too much work (plus, this was a PBEM campaign, so it was tough on a number of levels).

I don't see why you couldn't STILL run T1 for your players. You could beef up the encounters, or you could simply let them have a cakewalk...I mean, they'll still come away with ca$h right? And who doesn't like a chance to flex one's 7th level might every once in a while? Then when they get to the NON-cakewalk part of the adventure, well...

Little Odo said...

I ran it a couple of years ago. I missed out most of the references to Elemental Evil and ran it as Zuggtmoy's followers bid for her freedom. I removed most of the rooms as the dungeon is VAST, and as we were only playing once a week and needed it completed within a year that was all I coud do to achieve my goal (and the final session was very rushed). If you are interesetd, the write-ups are on my blog - please feel free to mine it for ideas... http://littleodo.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/doggerland-revisited-ad-style.html