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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Psion" data-source="post: 2008272" data-attributes="member: 172">Return to the Temple of Elemental EvilMonte Cook is perhaps best known by modern fans of the D&D game as the author of the D&D 3e Dungeon Master’s Guide. However, he is no stranger to adventure writing. In his dawning days working on the Dungeons & Dragons product lines, he was responsible for much of the material for the Planescape campaign setting. Indeed, two of the best adventures for the Planescape setting were super-sized campaign style adventures, Dead Gods and Tales of the Infinite Staircase.In my estimation, those two adventures were the best published adventures for D&D. I had often wondered how Monte would do if he tried his hand at an adventure for the D&D 3e game.At last I have a chance to find out. Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil is such a module, aimed at taking characters from 4th level to 14th level.The adventure is conceived in the same vein as a variety of other “Return to” adventures that WotC / TSR released prior to the publication of D&D 3e. Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil holds more promise, however, in that it gives us a fresh take on a classic adventure using the totally revamped D&D 3e system.A First LookReturn to the Temple of Elemental Evil (RttToEE) is a 192 page perfect-bound soft-cover book. The cover bears a color illustration by Brom. The interior is black & white, with ink artwork by David Roach depicting locations and possible situations from the adventure. The margins are of average size and the text density is high.The cartography is in a separate 16 page color booklet that is glued into the back of the main book. The cartography appeared attractive, though the printing on my copy was somewhat blurry.A Deeper Look(Warning: The following section contains some spoilers for secrets revealed in the adventure.)The original Temple of Elemental Evil was, according to the history in RttToEE, is a result of cultists of Tharizdun convincing the demoness Zuggtmoy that she could gain power through creating a temple dedicated to elemental evil. Iuz became involved thinking he could use the temple to strike at his enemies. The truth as told by RttToEE is that the princes of elemental evil are servants of Tharizdun, the destructive ancient deity described in various Greyhawk-based adventures. Tharizdun is also secretly the Elder Elemental God that the renegade drow follow in the Against the Giants and Drow trilogies.In RttToEE, the players must foil the plan of the cultists to uncover the Temple of Elemental Evil and open the gates to each of four elemental nodes. If this can be done, Tharizdun’s servants, the princes of elemental evil, can emerge and use an artifact to release Tharizdun from his prison.Needless to say, Tharizdun is a really bad Lovecraftian-type world eating entity and the players really do not want him wandering about.The adventure itself is sorted into 3 sections and 8 chapters.The first section deals with the characters escapades in and around the town of Hommlet (it has grown a bit from the days of the original ToEE, where it was merely a village.) The characters are really given little direction while in Hommlet, but poking around Hommlet will lead them to rumors of strange things going on at the moathouse near the town. There are some cultists of Tharizdun in town, but chances are that the party will not discover them until they have investigated the moathouse.There are some cultists trapped in the moathouse by a significant creature. Said creature could easily be the end of the party if they are not careful. Once the major encounter is dealt with, the party can explore the moathouse and find clues among the belongings of the cultists there that there are cultists operating in the town of Hommlet. If the party deals with the cultists in town, they may find the clue that they need to lead them to the second part of the adventure.A final chapter in the first section details the ruined village of Nulb and the Temple of Elemental Evil itself. It is inhabited by some hobgoblins and some other creatures that the players can take out if they please, but at this stage, the temple and Nulb do not figure prominently into the adventure.The second section details what is currently the stronghold of the cult of Tharizdun, the Temple of All Consumption. This is probably the meatiest part of the adventure. The Temple of All Consumption is built in an old volcano crater. The central part of the temple cannot be entered directly. After a brief bit of exploration in a local hamlet, the characters will have to head into a series of old mines that exist in the crater rim. The mines are inhabited by cultists and their various denizens, and there are four separate elemental temples situated about the mines.The mines are situated such that as the characters penetrate deeper in the mines in either direction, the encounters become more challenging. Though that seems like it will channel the players quite a bit, there are still a variety of possibilities as to the how this will play out. The four elemental temples compete with one another, and are constantly at each others throats. This will limit the possibilities for players sneaking into the mines, but once the players learn of the politics in the mines they can use it to their advantage.Once the players have discovered the secret to getting to the central section of the temple they may proceed there. By this time they should be able to handle the challenges there. The central section of the Temple of All Consumption is filled with some of the most powerful priests of Tharizdun, the doomdreamers, as well as a number of other daunting obstacles. In the end, they may run into a priest who had a change of heart and other clues that will point them back to the temple of elemental evil, where the excavations and rituals that will eventually bring Tharizdun to the world are beginning.The third part of the temple details the excavated Temple of Elemental Evil. To stop the plans to bring Tharizdun back, the players must confront some of the most powerful followers of Tharizdun, destroy the artifact that allows his return, and/or close the way to the fire node which has been opened.In addition to the adventure itself, the adventure has four appendices. The first is a listing of new magic items and monsters introduced (or reintroduced) in the adventure, including the grell, a favorite monster from the old days of AD&D, and new favorites like a half-elemental template.The second appendix gives the details of worshipers of Tharizdun, including special rules for insanity, two new clerical domains (madness and force), and a new prestige class, the doomdreamer. The doomdreamer are highly placed clerics of Tharizdun with powers stemming from their maddening communion with their dark deity.The third appendix gives all of the statistics for NPCs and special monsters encountered in the adventure.The last appendix are two player handouts. The handouts are clues that the players find along the way, memoirs that reveal important details about the plans of the cult.SummaryThe adventure is stuffed with a huge variety of encounters that should keep the players busy for months. The adventure purports to run the characters through a major portion of their careers, from 4th to 14th level. That it should easily do.Further, the material is well written and consistent with the D&D rules. That should not be a surprise given the author is one of the lead designers of the 3e system.However, I do not consider this to be Monte Cook’s best adventure by a long shot. His two campaign style adventures for the Planescape setting, Dead Gods and Tales of the Infinite Staircase, are just as epic in scope but have a far greater variety and creativity in the types of challenges that the adventurers face. For the most part, RttToEE is mostly a series of interconnected dungeon crawls.As I read the crater-rim mines, I was reminded of the second book of another campaign style adventure, the Night Below. The Night Below was similar to RttToEE in that it had the players facing an evolving plot that the players must grapple with. But the second book had many combat encounters that the players must plow through to get to there objective. In the end, it started to prove very tedious. I worry that the crater-rim mines could turn out the same way.Another problem I noted is that in the initial section, the players motivations are weak and the trail of clues is quite tenuous. The adventure could have used some suggestions for firmer motivations for the PCs and there should have been more to clue the players into what was going on in the town. If the players miss the diaries of the priest in the moathouse the whole adventure could pass them by.Still, the adventure isn’t bad for all this – it is still an immense adventure with tons of usable material with a sort of brooding Masks of Nyarlothotep feel to it. It just isn’t up to what I have come to expect from Monte Cook’s mega-adventures.RatingsThe adventure had outstanding ready to use gaming content. It features new creatures, new magic items, spells, domains, and prestige classes. The adventure has full color glossy maps with good keys. It also includes a large variety of solid and creative NPCs and other encounters.I consider the idea content to be about average. Though there are a few gems, overall I felt that the dungeon crawl feel was a little overbearing and the players were funneled in places, and the crater rim mines could easily become a tedious stream of encounters.RttToEE had good value for the money. Though it comes at a pretty penny, this thing is stuffed.</blockquote>

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