Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil

[Scrivener of Doom]

Honestly, it was fun. I don't know much about Greyhawk, but I got to read up on a lot of its lore. Fitting that in to what I wanted was an interesting challenge. (snip)

I'm like that with the Forgotten Realms. I've never felt the existence of so much lore was a constraint. I actually loved the process of researching all the tidbits of information that linked in any way to the adventure or campaign I was planning. I loved the challenge of making sure it all dovetailed together even though it meant more work. For me, that's part and parcel of the "intellectual" fun of DMing.

(I can also simply slap together an adventure with next to no background if I need to but the lore-filled ones are always more satisfying, IMO.)

 

[LostSoul]

You did it mostly right. Millstones cause injuries or death once in a while. The damage is a bit extensive though. A mere building collapse deals 1d8 damage per floors collapsing on you, as per Cityscape. If I understand right, that should have been 3-4d8 damage, plus the 1d6 damage after every turn spent under the rubble.

Thanks for the tip. I figured there had to be something to cover building collapses other than Earthquake (8d6 seems like a lot of damage), but didn't know where to look.

 

[LostSoul]

Last night's game log.

PCs are: Frick, a goblin Rogue; Brunner, a werebear Paladin; A'rra, a werewolf Shaman; Mers, a cat-elf Wizard; and Xod the Slayer, a human Paladin.

The PCs are a little messed up because the players created them, got invested in them, and then realized that the rules for building lycanthropes didn't work exactly like they thought. Brunner is taking "Werebear levels"; I forget exactly what we did with A'rra.

Whatever, it's fine. I didn't want to lose the momentum we had gathered by telling them they had to make new PCs.

Patchwall 3rd (con't)
Frick scouts the crumbled south-east moathouse tower
Frick is ambushed by a giant frog that tries to grab him with its tongue & swallow him
Frick avoids the danger while his allies shoot the frog
A grey ooze tries to melt Frick
Frick avoids the danger while his allies approach to help him out
The frog jumps in the water, followed by the ooze after it melts Xod's hammer
A blue dragon named Utreshimon blasts Frick with lightning
Frick avoids the danger, jumps on Xod's horse, and they ride away
Utreshimon corners A'rra but misses her
Everyone runs
Chat escapes his bonds and rides away
Utreshimon flies down A'rra and tries to bite her but misses
Utreshimon turns to Brunner and blasts him with lightning
Brunner smacks Utreshimon good
Xod and Frick turn back towards the fight
Utreshimon has trouble hitting Brunner or getting through his DR
Utreshimon breathes lightning on Brunner and A'rra again
Xod throws a bead of force at Utreshimon, which captures her
Some of the PCs follow Chat's tracks, but he is gaining ground
The wolf and the polecat continue to follow Chat's tracks as he turns to the west
The rest of the PCs head into Hommlet
Vesta asks Xod why Maridosen was dragged off
Xod charms her, then he and Frick help with the lunch shift
The cat-lady tries to see Canoness Y'Dey but butts head with Calmer and Turjon
The other PCs gather some information from Master Dunrat

Notes:
DR 5/silver is pretty awesome. It saved Brunner's life after he got full attacked by Utreshimon. Still, he went down after a few bites got through and he got blasted twice from her breath weapon (saved both times).

It's been a long time since I last DMed 3E. I am discovering a few things as I go along, such as this regarding awarding XP:

You must decide when a challenge has been overcome. Usually, this is simple to do. Did the PCs defeat the enemy in battle? Then they met the challenge and earned experience points. Other times, it can be trickier. Suppose the PCs sneak past the sleeping minotaur to get into the magical vault - did they overcome the minotaur encounter? If their goal was to get into the vault and the minotaur was just a guardian, then the answer is probably yes. It's up to you to make such judgements.​

While I find it lacking - I'd rather it listed some principles to use when making such judgement calls - it's very interesting. It almost suggests that 3.5's XP system is Quest-based.

After the PCs went back to town they questioned the Dominated Master Dunrat and got a lot of information from him. They asked him about the temple in the Outer Fane, so I started reading the entry from the Vestibule, Black Cyst, and The Greater Temple. I think that was pretty cool. I'm not one to shy away from giving information to players, and in this case it was well-deserved.

I am forcing the players to ask the questions of Master Dunrat instead of the NPCs, though. Which is more fun.

We'll see if the PCs can get to Chat before he blabs about what happened in Hommlet.

 

[Scrivener of Doom]

After your comments on [MENTION=3586]MerricB[/MENTION]'s thread, I think this thread deserves an update, [MENTION=386]LostSoul[/MENTION].

 

[LostSoul]

I started taking notes a while after this, so let's see what I can remember.

The PCs went back to the moathouse to kill Utreshimon, and did (Zod struck the final blow). They heard noises below but wanted to rest up before proceeding. That allowed the cultists time to leave.

They rested up that day. The next morning, the PC's animal companions/familiars came back and told them that Chat went to the next town over, stole a horse, and rode away.

They went back to the moathouse, ignored the new tracks leading away, and explored the moathouse. Pretty sure Zod was killed by the ghouls. Spugnoir also died. Zod was raised by Y'Dey and had an encounter with St. Cuthbert, who smashed him on the head with his cudgel and back into the land of the living.

They cleared out the moathouse; Zod had the Black Fruit from the Spike and lucked out with some CHA, I think. They found the strange statue in the caverns.

They weren't sure if they wanted to deal with incorporeal undead next, so Burne teleported them to Rastor. (They knew about Rastor and the cult's operation there from Dunrat.) Burne thought he might be too well-known to sneak about in Rastor, so he'd teleport back, but Scry on Zod every dawn so they could keep in touch.

The PCs used the ochre robes they found on Dunrat and Festrath to bluff their way into a meeting with... the Lord of Rastor, I forget his name. Oh right, Tal. They said they needed to buy as many slaves as possible right away. He agreed and they set terms - I think there were 30 or 40 slaves there at the time.

I'm not sure about the order of what happened next: The PCs spotted Chat arriving in Rastor after nearly riding his horse to death. He spotted them and a chase broke out; the PCs finally cornered and killed him.

The PCs assassinated Tal in his office and impersonated him with a Hat of Disguise. The fire temple had a wagon there - they were doing their weekly purchase - and the PCs used it to smuggle the slaves out. The fire temple forces followed them, but the PCs killed all of them. They had a random encounter with another group of temple slavers and killed those as well.

The PCs let the slaves go free in the next town and gave them a fair bit of cash. For this they gained thousands of XP and all went up at least one level.

 

[LostSoul]

After freeing the slaves, the PCs went up into the mountains to find Mount Stalagos. They came up with a plan to blame Naquent for the missing slaves - they were from another (secret) temple nearby and heard that Naquent was planning to take all the slaves there and become the high priestess. I don't know if anyone believed this story, but the Chaotic Evil cultists - especially Tessimon - were happy to help out anyone who could help them rise in the ranks.

Now time was passing behind the scenes. It took a few days for the temples to notice that something had gone wrong in Rastor - they'd send a wagon out during the week, and it should return the next night, and only then were they alerted. Tessimon knew something was up before the rest of them, so she started to cast Scrying and even Called a Quasit.

Here are her questions and the answers:

is the group working with the fanes? no
is the group known to us? no
is the group sent by the forces of good? no
are they local? no
will scrying on them work? yes
are they ready for me? no​

Tessimon started Scrying on "the one who killed Tal", which was Zod, but was unable to find him (because the lack of connection gave him the +10 save bonus). The PCs spotted the scrying sensor and became anxious.

Faschish sent troops to Rastor and had Choranth assume control. She started buying what slaves she could with the cash they had left over.

Tessimon prepares to strike at the Fire Temple, just like in the module.

The Earth Temple decides that they might as well sacrifice the nearby humans manning the main gate, which puts Mereclar on a state of alert.

Naquent makes her rounds, paying off everyone, collecting their incense, and - because they don't want to be blamed for what's happened in Rastor - she doesn't learn about the chaos rippling through the Temple of All-Consumption. (Chaotic Evil, after all...)

By the time the PCs make it to the Main Gate, the whole scheme is starting to fall apart...

 

[LostSoul]

As the PCs are making the trek to Mount Stalagos, Tessimon's Scrying breaks through Zod's defences. She Calls a succubus to make contact with them and act as a go-between. The PCs tell her their story and Tessimon asks them to meet her in the Fire Temple.

Into the main gate. Mereclar is on heavy alert, but not from outside - it's the troglodytes that have him worried. He doesn't buy the PC's story, but he doesn't care. He just wants to put an end to the violence, and the PCs promise to smooth things over.

The PCs head to the Earth Temple and the troglodytes, being troglodytes, buy their story. The PCs promise to ally with the Earth Temple when Naquent arrives and sacrifice her on their altar. There are some tense moments when the Earth Temple thinks about sacrificing the PCs, and when the PCs get into a misunderstanding and kill the pet manticore, but that's smoothed over.

They travel through one of the bridges - the duergar-led one - on their way to the Fire Temple. The duergar gives them a false map that leads them through the giant ape lair, so they end up fighting and killing the apes.

They make it to the Water Temple but try to pass through without seeing Kelashein. They almost make it past the final guard post but get drawn into a fight. The PCs retreat into the bugbear dens (which allied with the Water Temple - after the chaos hit, Kelashein decided they needed extra support, so she paid their asking price) with the Water Temple mobilized behind them. A massive battle takes place and the PCs barely survive. They find a hole leading outside of the mountain and rest up in the wilderness.

Tessimon contacts the PCs via Sending and they plan an assault on the Water Temple at midnight the next day. The PCs are late but do enough damage to ensure the Fire Temple's victory.

 

[LostSoul]

The PCs head back into the Temple of All-Consumption and meet Tessimon face-to-face for the first time. She's pissed off at them for their lack of support during the battle. Well, that's just her excuse - she's Evil and Chaotic and doesn't really need a reason. She plans on using the PCs to help her kill Naquent, so she can become Hedrack's assistant, and possible Mistress of the Outer Fane. If the battle against Naquent goes well, she'll turn on the PCs as well.

Naquent is spotted leaving the Middle Fane (we called the Outer Fane the Middle Fane, and the Black Spike the Inner Fane) via the bridge that leads into the Air Temple, so they plan to intercept her that way. However, Naquent is so alarmed by what's happened that she heads back to the Middle Fane; the PCs, along with Tessimon and her guards, rush to meet her before she reaches the cover of the lightning towers.

Tessimon summons a giant shark and they ride it to the bridge. It leaps out of the water and slams Naquent while the rest of them jump off; Tessimon nearly falls into the lake. Naquent drops a Flame Strike but is blinded by a Glitterdust and then swiftly killed.

The PCs turn on Tessimon, who tries to escape on the shark. The PCs kill the shark and she sinks like a plate-mail covered cultist to the bottom of the lake. Aurrah casts Water Breathing and goes to watch her die, then steals her stuff.

Hedrack was alerted to the fight so he comes out. He demands to know what happened; the PCs use their story on him, and he buys it (lucky Bluff check). Zod is named as the leader of their group, so Hedrack takes Merz (the wizard) and Frick (fighter-rogue) with him to make up for the loss of his apprentice.

Hedrack leaves Merz and Frick with Satau the Mind Flayer for interrogation. Satau asks a series of questions about Zod and their motivation, but never divines that the PCs are here to destroy them. (I think the answer to his question "What does Zod want?" was "Love", which was true and we rolled a d6 to see if that was the PC's first thought. After that, the questions Satau asked didn't come close to uncovering their ruse.)

Satau, satisfied, lets the PCs go. They wander around the Middle Fane, checking out the different rooms without much incident. Finally Hedrack comes looking for them and is annoyed that Satau just let them wander around. He has Frick - who is acting a Merz's goblin slave servant - bring them food, but Frick acts like a buffoon and really irritates Hedrack.

Hedrack decides to show who's boss here and by just how much, so he takes Frick to the demonic machine. Frick won't go in and a fight breaks out.

 

[LostSoul]

Merz and Frick are inside the Middle Fane, alone, with a pissed-off Hedrack. Hedrack plans to cast Geas on Merz once he overcomes her and then he'll have her suitably punish Frick for his insolence. Much pain awaits the PCs - if they can even survive.

The PCs lead off with a wall of ice that allows them some time to plan. They cast a Sending to call the other PCs to them. Hedrack grabs some guards to help him out - no clerics, though, because he doesn't want to show any weakness. A half-dozen ogre guards come to his call.

The PCs have a pretty simple plan: Frick will use the Hat of Disguise to impersonate Hedrack and have the ogres attack him (which they don't, but it really confuses them), and he sticks a Silenced pebble to Hedrack with a tanglefoot bag. Hedrack, buffed up, figures he can kill Merz in melee combat, so he just tries to close the distance, waiting for the tanglefoot bag to dry up and fall off.

Frick gets chased away by the ogres (I think he and Merz swapped hats) and is nearly killed, but lures them into combat with some Flesh Golems. The Golems make short work of the ogres.

Hedrack slowly closes on Merz, battling his way past summoned dire wolves, while Merz blasts him with her 5th-level wand of magic missiles. The tanglefoot bag dries up and Hedrack notices the pebble fall, so he kicks it towards Merz. Merz then has her invisible familiar drop the pebble into Hedrack's pouch just as he casts Blasphemy. (We don't really use turn-by-turn initiative; we do, but just for ease of play. We assume that all that stuff is going on at the same time, so Hedrack's Blasphemy didn't work. I think we rolled opposed Init checks to see.)

Now Hedrack is low on HP and starts to retreat, but another dire wolf blocks him, and he keeps taking hits from the wand of magic missiles and critical hits from the dire wolf. Frick returns to block Hedrack once the wolf is killed, and the goblin rogue is nearly killed, but Merz finishes off Hedrack.

(If only I had noticed Hedrack's scroll of True Seeing... then he would've noticed the familiar and could have negated the Silence. Tough luck!)

The other PCs arrived shortly thereafter (thanks to the Sending) and Zod put on the Hat of Disguise, impersonating Hedrack. They explored the Fane a little more and met Varachan, who told them how long it'd be until the Triad were out of resources (and thus would stop to see what was going on), so they decided to leave the rest of the cult alone. Zod would be there to impersonate Hedrack (basically just holed up in his chamber; Chaotic and Evil insane guy doesn't want to talk to anyone, not very strange), while the PCs tooled around Greyhawk looking for treasure (and XP) to help them defeat the Triad before their time ran out.

 

[MerricB]

I'm like that with the Forgotten Realms. I've never felt the existence of so much lore was a constraint. I actually loved the process of researching all the tidbits of information that linked in any way to the adventure or campaign I was planning. I loved the challenge of making sure it all dovetailed together even though it meant more work. For me, that's part and parcel of the "intellectual" fun of DMing.

Lots of lore is rarely a constraint on those running games. It's great for inspiring adventures and games. The problem comes when you want to write official products... at that point, fitting things into lore becomes a lot more tricky.

Cheers!