The Temple of Elemental Evil

The Temple of Elemental Evil   From     http://bruce.minuteproductions.com/dnd/temple.html

The opening speech:

We have questioned those who were involved in the sealing of the temple some years ago and were able to ascertain the following.

For many years, a cult of lawless evil flourished on the shores of the Nyr Dyv. Although the location of their temple is lost, these facts regarding it and its followers are known.

The cult was based on the premise that the elemental forces of the universe were lawless and opposed to the races and hence where considered to be evil. The temple and the cult sought to destroy all works of good and disrupt the existing order. Its members were thieves, assassins, brigands, and the like.

Fire was regarded as the first elemental evil, and its penchant for chaos fitted the premise of the cult. Water was likewise worshiped as an even more powerful force, in the form of floods, storms, and raging seas beating upon the land and ocean vessels. The epitome of chaos, however, was regarded as a combination of air and earth, represented by blackness and corresponding with the demonic Abyss. The combination was regarded as the complete negation of matter.

We believe this hierarchy may be reflected in how the temple was constructed.

The cult grew powerful and rich, attracting followers of the worst sort and offering them safety within the walls of the temple stronghold. From this fortress would the followers ride to rob, pillage, and lay waste to the lands about, tithing the cult from the spoils of carnage. Captives from those raids were brought back to the temple to serve as sacrifices. Children were sacrificed to fire, men to water, and women to the blackest evil. Some prisoners were kept alive and forced into slave labor.

Besides the extensive upper works of the temple, a deep labyrinth beneath the place was constructed, but virtually nothing is known about these dungeons except that they were inhabited by a plethora of creatures serving evil and chaos. It is rumored that a demon took up abode in the deepest level to better receive the sacrifices to it.

Eventually the neighbors of the temple grew tired of their depredations. All good, both lawful and chaotic, banded together to form a mighty host. Their army marched to the temple, fighting two battles along the way. The first was conclusive, thought those who held the field afterward, so they gained the reputation of victory, and their ranks swelled with local men. The second battle saw a great slaughter of kobolds, goblins, orcs, hobgoblins, and other evil persons.

The temple was thereafter besieged, fell, and its inhabitants put to the sword. It is reported by some sources that the temple and its precincts resisted complete destruction, but the majority state that the whole was razed so that the cult could never emerge again nor could any find where it once flourished.

This position seems to be untrue. Assess the situation and find out what state the ruins are in. Determine if there is any activity in the local area to substantiate the rumors of the temple again rising in power. You are authorized to enter the ruins of the temple using extreme caution. Ensure you are well prepared before you do so, daughter. Much depends on you.

Nulb

Buildings are mostly dilapidated wood. Some buildings have stone, but not many and there's not much stone. There's a sawn-timber and stone building across the river. This is the nicest looking building if I was paying enough attention. Nulb is an evil town.

Skole

A bar-keep in Nulb. He pointed us (me specifically) to some men on the docks who might hire one or more of us. He said he'd put in a good word. The men weren't supposed to be back for a couple of days or more when I talked to him.

Ostler

A bar-keep in Homlet. He is also the head of the town council.

Terjon

Cleric of St. Cuthbert. He's currently standing in for Y'dey.

Y'dey

Leader of St. Cuthbert's church. She had to leave suddenly on urgent church business and hasn't come back yet.

Elmo

Big fighter who protected the party when they were low level. He's in Homlet (I think).

Otis

Elmo's brother. He's a blacksmith in Nulb.

Burne

Magic-User in Homlet. Also the town constable. I don't like this guy. He gave us trouble when the two assassins tried to kill Desma (all we did in return was take some of their money). Personally, I wouldn't be surprised if he has turned to the Dark Side.

Mother Screng

An old Herbal Remedy in Nulb. We've discovered (9/25) that she's not quite what she seems to be. 10/31/1998 -- Balon, at least, now thinks Mother Screng is Y'dey.

Hruda

Mother Screng's daughter.

Al Turios (M-U/Thief) and Electra (Fighter/M-U) formerly adventured with this party.

Adventure (In the Beginning)

Elmo, for chainmail and axe (which he apparently didn't need), offered to help check out the moat house outside of Homlett after Zert, a fighter the party met at a bar, was eaten by giant frogs at the entrance of the moat house. The exploration of the moat house took place at the request of Ostler because of complaints that brigands were staging out of it.

On the edge of the moat house is a tower. Desma chose to look at the tower and got attacked by a spider, which wounded her badly. The party got Desma healed at the church. Coming back with Elmo, they cleared the top levels before they met giant rats. In the moat house, they found many people who'd been munched on as well as a secret door that led down to a maze of caverns. This was not a good place to be, but they did come out of it alive.

Adventure Feb 13, 1998

Discovered nothing in Nulb. There seem to be no unusual events, although we should assume Nulb has turned evil, in which case I've been asking the wrong questions. We left Nulb for the temple. It's a fifteen minute hike. The temple itself has glyphs on the front door. Desma and I will not go anywhere near that door. There's a tower in the northeast corner of the compound which has a locked door. There were little birds atop this tower, although Kerry heard sounds of large birds. Kerry and I shot arrows at the little birds. The little birds turned into at least ten large, vicious birds. We ran to a crawl space northwest of the temple main. We knew there were rats there, large rats because Oh Great DM doesn't like little beasties, but we decided that the rats were better than the birds. Chance found its way into our world and we survived the rats. We have arrived back at Nulb for rest and recuperation, but we know not what we'll find here.

Adventure

We've gone down the eastern stairs. There are many passages and rooms. Gnolls and hobgoblins have attacked. After the first melee we determined that the robe found in the rafters of the western cubby-hole room was non-magical. In the upper temple we did find several other robes of various colors, white, green, red and brown, some with symbols.

Adventure

Went back to the temple. In the tower, we fought many bad guys and came out on top. Gained possible magic kite shield and longsword. Two doors above. Through the right door we found much money as well as a list of names. In the left room is a potion, jeweled dagger, three bolts of silk. We went up the stairs. Down below, found several items, including magic cloak, magic arrows (9), and more money.

Adventure (Written by Joseph)

The party continued their exploration of the first level and encountered some stronger resistance. They ran into a dark naga, but managed to overcome it and retrieve its spell book. They also bumped into a few other minor critters like mummies, which promptly occasioned a trip to town to see about a cure for mummy rot.

They decided to go to Nulb instead of Homlett and upon some discussion with Mother Screng, the old lady who runs the herb shop, she said she should be able to work up a remedy for the ailment and charged the party a small fee to cure those affected. These were taken into the back of the shop where she cured them. The party suspects she used a cure disease spell in addition to a fake ointment. Desma, the cleric, also spotted and purchased two or three containers of Keoghtom's Ointment at a very reasonable price. Prior to selling the ointments, Screng questioned the party closely about their motives.

In the last game, the party found a large open area of the temple that has a dirt floor with a pyramid in the center of the room, but they did not enter the room. They proceeded down a different corridor and instead found a collapsing walkway to fall into. This encouraged the local rat population to come out en masse to greet their visitors. A small amount of confusion followed and in the end the party managed to escape with a few minor wounds after dispatching over 100 of the poor little things.

After resting the party waded through a small sea of puny fighters and a couple of talented individuals but could not locate the folks they were guarding. They decided to rest and the owners of the local establishment decided to return to pay their guests a visit. The gnome NPC was charmed and started to attack the party as the two evil clerics joined the fray. Things started to swing back in the party's favor until the gnome, Wonillon, placed a dagger against Balon's throat. The party hesitated and eventually let the priests go in an effort to save Balon's life. Wonillon gave himself up and the party was about to lock him back up when Desma finally managed to break the charm spell. The party then decided to rest for a few days to heal their wounds, while the priests have been free to roam, recuperate, and regroup....

Current Mission (09/11/1998)

Examine the cohesiveness of the various temples (earth, water, etc.). If they are cohesive, head back to Verbobonc and inform the priests there. They will take over preparing a full-scale attack. If cohesiveness is lacking, foment some discord and try to get the temples to tear each other apart.

Adventure Sep 11, 1998

We started off in Homlet resting and recuperating. We stopped by the general store for supplies. The proprietor was a bit nosy, but we thought nothing of it.

And so we headed out for the great wilderness, thence to the temple. We got a lot of stares in Nulb, but those people are rather irritating anyway, so we continued about our business. Shortly outside of town we decided to camp for the evening and prepare ourselves for the stimulation of battle. Around two or three in the morning, Skate and I, currently on watch, noticed much noise and light coming from Nulb. Some sort of riot, we figured, headed right toward us. We woke the rest of the party and got ready to move. Kerry determined that the mob was following us with a tracker in the lead. We hiked for an hour, rested, they caught up after another hour. We hiked for an hour, rested for an hour, and never saw them again. And so on to the temple, where we decided to descend another level.

At the second level we discovered a hydra (didn't kill it), a troll, four ogres, a carrion crawler, and just generally a very bad time. Some of us being paralyzed and the others badly wounded, we decided to camp out in the worst possible room. First, there were ghouls or ghasts. Then, just when we thought we were safe, a gelatinous cube. We survived though, everybody except Kerry. So we headed straight for Homlet. In Homlet, Desma went to the general store to look for a horse. The rest of the party was with Ostler while two assassins, owners of the store there, attacked Desma. Desma escaped, but we had a run-in with Burne, who seemed to think the attack was all Desma's fault. We ended up giving Burne 10% of the cash (not gems) and took the rest to Verbobonc, where we were able to resurrect Kerry.

Adventure Sep 25, 1998

Started off in Verbobonc. Spent a few days there identifying magic items (Balon spent the time failing to learn spells). We have a Wand of Disintegration, so we'll be pulverizing various things.

The people of Verbobonc, and everywhere else, are gearing for war from the Nyr Dyv area. Our new objectives are:

• Find out if there is any cooperation between the temples.
• Find out anything we can about Zuggtmoy.
• Map the temple for the priests of Verbobonc.

We have a new comrade: Willem. He's useless in battle (no training at all) but he can heal and he's a hell of a cartographer.

There's a connection between the moat house bandits near Homlett and the sailor's tavern in Nulb, but we don't yet know what the connection is.

Instead of going directly into the temple, we hit the tower again. Down, east for a long distance, south for a long distance, and here's the basilisk again. We finally determined it was an illusion, but Kerry got back stabbed in the process. We did, to our credit, turn the illusion a groovy shade of blue with our wand of disintegration. The backstabber escaped to the south, barring the door after her. We went through a door to the north and found lots of neat stuff. We hacked on the south door, heard mumbling as of a spell caster, and jumped ship.

So, back up at the temple, the doors we had previously destroyed have been replaced with brand new bronze wood doors. The good news is, we found some Cloud Giant tracks heading toward Nulb.

We finally decided to hack through the bronze wood doors. Fortunata spent fifteen minutes proving no door can defeat us, and after all that we descended to do the same 'ol same 'ol set of stairs. More impressively, we took the ramp down to the second level, where we came face to face with a creature of many mouths and eyes and way too many teeth. We did win after Skate slammed it and me with a cone of cold from our Wand of Disintegration. Then we had to kill a Troll from the audience before we could begin resting and recuperating for the next session.

Adventure Oct 9, 1998

Started off badly wounded. Rested, recovered, re-engaged. We managed to kill the hydra on the second level and several other bodies. We've had to face bugbears and various priests, human as well as or or half-orc. Oh, and we seem to have found the Temple of Elemental Fire. Two names came up in our searches: Grue and Harjin. We believe these are real names of fire elementals.

• Square on silvery grey priests.
• Circle on green robed priests.
• Eight-pointed device on red robed priests.

Note: the clerics here tend to run at the first sign of danger. Damnable COWARDS!

Adventure Oct 31, 1998

We mapped the remainder of the first level, except for the south most section of the temple room. Everybody is running from us these days; apparently, our reputation precedes us. We did manage to catch up to and kill a few gnolls and humans.

In the beginning, we got into a battle. Skate used the Wand of Wonder and got kidnapped by space creatures. We rescued Moose, who is now a regular member of the gang in place of Skate. Nice guy, but Skate looks better in a miniskirt.

We interrogated one human. The lieutenant in charge has said some disparaging things about the Priests of Earth (...too scared to sleep in their beds....). Later, we found a piece of paper that read:

Remember to check augury chamber to see if Belstro was lying.

We haven't checked on that yet.

Adventure Nov 6, 1998

We decided to head out to Homlett to get Moose a nice, single target attack spell. Walking through Nulb at 10:00 am we were surrounded by street urchins begging for money. Moose, against the wishes of the rest of the party, chose to drop a copper, at which point the urchins damned near prevented our movement. As a warning, Moose killed one of the urchins with a magic missile. Desma and Balon were both irritated by this. Desma cast a hold person spell and Balon, not realizing Moose was already contained, smacked Moose with the flat of his battle axe. We carried Moose out of town and tied him up. Shortly after, we met some wolf creatures that remained undamaged against non-magical blows. Moose escaped us during the melee but didn't go far. After the battle, we argued, we talked, we argued again, we decided to keep Moose in the party.

Here we decided to head for the temple. An about-face occurred and we headed back on our way to Homlett for Moose's single attack spell. While in Homlett we talked to a mage who'd been to the temple during the great battle. He couldn't tell us much, but he did remember a room on the second level (a blue green room) where fire spells were useless. Moose didn't get the spells he wanted, but he did manage to learn a verbal only Fireball spell from a scroll of Balon's. In Homlett, we also learned the following descriptions:

• Y'dey: Female Human, 5'5, 30 years of age, blonde hair with brown eyes.
• Mother Screng: Female Human, 5'1, 70-80 years of age, grey hair with brown eyes. She's 40-50 pounds heavier than Y'dey.
• Hruda, Screng's daughter: 50-60 years of age.

We headed back to the temple and went in on the left side instead of the more typical right. In the top level we tried unsuccessfully to set a trap. Realizing that we were wasting time we headed down to the second level. The second real monsters of the session were trolls. Three of the ugly beasties. It took some doing, but we kicked their asses.

At one point we heard bugbears yelling, Kelno! We're not yet sure why. Near here (eastern side, close to the secret door), we found a grey room with books and scrolls on subjects such as sacrificial techniques and the chaotic nature of air. In the latter text we found references to demons that have been banished from our plane a time or two.

In the southeastern area, where the Temple of Elemental Water is, we found a room with some sort of creature or image chained to the bottom of a pool. The pool was apparently acid, not water, and either the creature at the bottom or some other creature nearby gave us irresistible suggestions to swim down and remove the chains. Somehow,while fighting several priests and such things right outside, we managed to all survive the acid (if I remember correctly, only one of us actually swam into the acid; the others were successfully held back).

The following is courtesy of Joseph with some minor editing:

We entered the outer chamber where we found a large rectangular room, about 90 feet long and 40 feet wide. In the middle there was stone altar or table about four feet tall that had water in the concave top of it. In the water appeared to be a bunch of gems and coins but we did not try to grab them. On the far wall there was a a series of basins emptying from one into the next, four in all. The water did not overflow the bottom basin.

In each corner there was a column about 20-30 feet tall, all topped by what looks like stone gargoyles. In the center of the south wall there was a big statue, looked like a weird conglomeration of sea creatures and monsters. Behind it was a curtain the looked like seaweed and water. We walked through that into the room with the pool. It appeared there was a trapped Triton in the water that was calling for help, its voice sounding in our minds, not our ears.

It said if it was freed, it could help us escape from the carving of a kraken on the wall that would be arriving very soon (note this is different from the statue). At this point the ranger began stripping off her backpack and armor while the mage quickly shed his pack and jumped in. He surfaced quickly and was screaming in pain, managing to drag himself out of the pool, blistered and bleeding as if he had been in a pool of acid.

Every minute or so, someone in the party heard the voice pleading for help in their mind, but around this time another distraction appeared in the form of two clerics from one of the doors we passed coming in. They began casting spells on the party. The fighters rushed forward to engage. was able to hold the cleric and also cast silence on the party to prevent spell casting. The mage moved out of the silence and cast lightning bolts at the pool and the Triton with no apparent effect.

Then, as we were dealing with the first clerics, as third appeared and as we started to attack him, the pool called out to Balon and he knew he had to help it. Balon began to strip off his armor so he could dive into the pool. During this time, the cleric pulled out a scroll and cast Water Strike on Balon and Desma. Balon went unconscious and Desma was still fighting.

We managed to kill the main cleric, Belsornig, but Held the other two for questioning.

We then got out of the room as quickly as possible, into the room the clerics has come from and that is where the game stopped.

Adventure Jan 23, 1999

We had stopped in the 20'x30' room east of the Water Temple, with a wardrobe, ready to question the clerics. We asked the name of one. He replied, George.

We asked what was in the pool. He smiled wickedly and said, You already know what was in the pool.

At this point, Moose cast a Knock spell to open the wardrobe to find clothing, and some green robes. He took some, but the taking of the clothes was fairly uneventful. We tortured the two clerics. Cleric One says, Belsornig makes sure he's our only point of contact. We mostly hear about people coming to join the temple, we see the guards, and of course the trash we bring in.

Cleric Two tells us Kelno is the Air Temple priest. The Air Temple is apparently located north of the grey room. We asked them about Zuggtmoy. Cleric One says, He passed through six months ago looking for treasure.

Cleric Two threatens us, and in doing so lets us know Zuggtmoy is a woman. So we kill the first cleric.

The second cleric tells us a fair amount:

Belsornig, who's in charge of the Water Temple, the strongest temple on this level, is trying to subvert the followers of Kelno, who's in charge of the Air Temple. The Water Temple doesn't seem unfavorable to Alrem, who's in charge of the Fire Temple. He doesn't remember who's in charge of Earth.

If we go down the stairs west of Water, through the mushroom forest, and to the east we'll find the Greater Temple. Belsornig has talked about a charming lady down there and there are also huge guys, some with two heads. The Greater Temple holds the highest powers of all the Temples, or something like that.

Cleric Two also told us that Purify Food and Drink and Part Water spells would hurt the acid pool, which is not of this planet. So we then had a long discussion of how we should deal with the pool, finally deciding to leave it alone.

In the room to the south, a bedroom, we found two books on Water Elementals. In the western long room, we found a magical trident. Moose grabbed the trident and immediately said, I'm going for a swim.

We tried to block him but he promptly turned and walked through a secret door and encountered Cleric Two, whom we'd let live (My word is my bond). Having sworn to kill that cleric if every seen again, Moose wanted to kill him now, but had no chance against the grip of the trident. He continued walking north through the room, bypassing the acid pool.

The rest of us split up, Fortunata trying to block Moose, the rest of us worrying about the cleric. The cleric sent, via the pool, Balon, Moose, and Kerry to the Elemental Plain of Water. Fortunata, for that transgression, removed the cleric's head. Finding the pool unwilling or unable to cooperate, Desma purified the pool until it died. Fortunata noticed something in the ceiling and managed to dislodge it with an arrow. It turned out to be a scroll which read:

On three in six lies nine
but none shall ever see
vile good cloaked by fair evil for eternity
will you answer, answerer, where is your power, pray?
with the whelp of Mitrik and there until doomsday.

Meanwhile, the three in the Plane of Water made it to an island while being attacked by vapors. We took some damaged, Kerry popped off the Wand of Wonder (Why not?) shooting ice into the water, and we finally transported back to our home plane.

We managed to subdue Moose and get the trident away. Fortunata beat him pretty good in the process, but perhaps he'll thank her in the end.

Oh, and by the way, Belsornig, when we searched him, happened to have a key engraved with the word D'Lyss.

We rested up and healed fully in the Water Temple, where there seemed to be no danger of roaming creatures. We then headed north and west toward the prisoners the clerics had told us about, the trash.

We entered a room that seemed nice, friendly, out of place with the rest of the temple. Two awfully nice gents with white wings and dulcet tones were there, wondering about our presence, apparently knowing nothing of the evil in the rest of the temple. They said we could give all of our weapons, armor, etc. to them and, while we waited outside, they'd empower all items with beneficial magic that would last seven days. Some of us balked, some did not, and we patiently waited outside to the count of 77. Upon stepping into the room again, we found it to be far more normal, with no sign of either the white winged creatures or the possessions we'd left in their care. We continued through the room and Desma noticed a secret door, which we opened to discover werewolves and the items we'd left behind. In this room was also a lens that looked into the other room, projecting our images into white-winged angels. Goofy, but true.

We continued on to find the prisoners (There'll be guards for us to kill!). Kerry took us around a bit while she trotted after and killed bugbears. The game ended in a smallish room, occupied by a bugbear and an ogre. Kerry had killed the bugbear and Desma and Balon were worked on the Ogre when Moose decided it was high time for a fireball. The room wasn't large enough, however, so all of us, including Moose, got burned. Desma and Balon decided to whack Moose good. Desma got there first and pierced him with a spear. At this point, there arose a terrible fury in the real world and we were given the verdict, This game is over!

Adventure Apr 16, 1999

Well, the game is not over, but Moose is dead. Killed by Desma's rage (rumor has it Desma has had nightmares about the event; one of us in the party thinks she's just being a weenie). Not a lot happened this time around. We discovered more prisoners, among them Fortunata's brother. Three other prisoners were Sir Jeif, Countess Tilihee of Selene, and Tai. Tai joined our party as a scout.

Some of us noticed her remarkable ability with thieving tools. Beginner's luck, she said. Never saw thieves' tools before in my life.

She may believe it, but the rest of us remain skeptical. Sir Jeif gave Balon a suit of elven chain, so Balon can finally cast spells while fully clothed. And, at long last, the greetings and givings and cryings were over, Fortunata left with her brother and the two nobles, and the rest of us were free to resume killing anything that moved.

In a huge dining hall Desma noticed a 10' portion of the wall exhibiting a strange reddish glow. We didn't touch the wall. We just walked quietly away. There was another room with a pool and some bluish algae or something. Having learned our lesson, we didn't swim.

There was a neo-otyugh. Big, scary creature. It crushed Desma, fell in love with her, fell asleep, nearly killed Tai, and just generally behaved in a very anti-social manner. Balon performed admirably as Armored Spellcaster, sending flurry after flurry of Magic Missiles into the creature. Kerry got a few solid hits in. And finally the good guys (persons?) won. We rested, healed, chased more bugbears, women and children this time, and lost them. At about this time Desma pooped out and we all went home.

Adventure Apr 30, 1999

Desma wakes to find a note in her pillow:

You have upset the balance of this place and only the whirlwind can put out the flames. The wildfire you have unleashed will be your undoing without my aid. Though we have come to hate each other it is in our interest to join forces for a brief time.

Kelno the Prefect
Most Loyal Servant of Elemental Air

Desma also had a dream in which the read glow we'd seen spread through the halls, eventually coming out of the walls, oozing like blood and bursting into fire. There was a priest, Alrem, who pointed at one of us. The person Alrem pointed to was dying, but Desma could not tell who it was. A wind appears, pushing back the fire. The wind becomes a whirlwind filled with blades. The fire starts whirling and the two split off, a whirlwind of air and blades and a whirlpool of bloody fire or fiery blood.

We found a storage room filled with junk and two chests. Tai opened one, disarming a trap with such grace and style that we had no trouble believing her when she said, Never done this before, but I've watched people do it. No, really. The second chest gave her more difficulty. Desma was called in to help and both were hit by a poison gas which made them queasy and weak for a few hours. We did find a spellbook in that second chest.

In a large room with a pool of urine a Minotaur statue came to life and knocked Balon around a bit. Balon did a good deal of damage himself (and here we must offer a completely objective, Rah! Rah! Rah!). After the battle was over a secret door was found on the east wall (by Desma?). Kerry opened it so she could get her chest pierced. There were men back there, men with weapons. Balon and Tai pulled Kerry out of the way (Kerry screamed in rage and allotted blood curdling looks to the both of them). Balon hammered one of the men with a magic missile that turned out to be overkill. The other bad guys ran. We gave chase only to discover Alrem and his henchmen: mostly trolls and skeletons. It was our turn to run. We ended up in a room from which there was no escape. Alrem gathered his forces on the other side of the door. One troll bashed through the door and attacked Kerry. Balon cast grease, several magic missiles, and a Fire Arrow. Desma Held Alrem and caused trouble for our adversaries. Tai just kept clicking her Wand of Wonder, giving us the ever so wonderful Super Fabio (who posed for us, but did little else) and various other effects, some of which helped our cause. Somewhere along the way, Kelno slit Alrem's throat and Balon got killed. But the rest of the party survived the battle.

So, the next step was to bring back Balon, who'd proved himself to be a pivotal force in the party (purely objective analysis). A trek was made to Verbobonc where the priests of Cuthbert were willing to be bribed with magic items. Apparently, sometime while he was dead Balon told Tai she could have the elven cloak if she helped bring Balon back to life; Tai remembers this clearly, Balon does not. Either way, Balon is alive and kicking and ready to kick some Elemental Butt.

The party also learned in Verbobonc that the war is in full swing. Is it quickly becoming our purpose in life to save the world?

Adventure May 14, 1999

Desma reported to her temple where she was told we must destroy each of the elemental temples (it is whispered that the Great God, DM, screamed, Yahoooo! when he determined that this would be our fate). She was given tools to do so: for water, a bottle of phosphorus gleaned from the sacred mountain; for air, a very small box containing the bones and earth of St. Angus; for fire, a vial of glowing holy water blessed by every good priest in the city; for earth, a fan made from the feathers of a lammasu. The guardians of each temple must be killed first. Then the item must be blessed and placed on the altar. Finally, Desma must pray for 10 minutes.

We spent a few days in Verbobonc studying spells and weapons and learning about earth elementals.

Earth

Not very bright. The give lots of damage when on the ground. They are not good against air or water based attacks. If they are under the effect of a control spell, a dispel magic will break the control, but if the dispel fails the elementals get stronger.

Air

Also not very bright. They hit hard in the air and can form whirlwinds 40'-100' in diameter destroying g everything in their path.

Fire

Doesn't do much damage. Fire can, of course, burn things and are affected most by cold attacks. Their kin are fire snakes and salamanders.

Water

Does almost as much damage as earth. Their kin are nereids and water weirds.

On the first night, Desma dreams of a large, encroaching darkness. She was holding forth her holy symbol, praying for light and felt unclean.

On the second night, Desma dreams of a huge tapestry full of bright and shining colors and also of darkness. She comes closer to the tapestry to see the individual threads, each of which represents a person. Our lives are in these threads. Moose's thread was supposed to continue on with us.

Heading back to the temple, we stopped by Mother Screng's. Eventually, after very much discussion, we decided to head to the water temple on the second level. The first thing we learned there was the meaning of the word plynthe:

Plinth

1 a: the lowest member of a base: SUBBASE b: a block upon which the moldings of an architrave or trim are stopped at the bottom 2: a usu. square block serving as a base; broadly: any of various bases or lower parts -- see BASE illustration 3: a course of stones forming a continuous foundation or base course

We're waiting for further adventures to determine the meaning of architrave.

Tai wanted the pretty things in the basin, but Desma warned against touching them as she had determined previously that the basin was trapped. We tried unsuccessfully to pull down one of the gargoyles. Then Balon, ever the quick thinking hero, tossed a coin into the basin at which moment all four gargoyles came to life and attacked. (Note: during this battle the DM admitted he was wrong. About what, we will not say in deference to him. Later, he was almost, but not quite, proven wrong about being wrong.)

When killed, the gargoyles appeared to be zombies wearing cloaks of some sort. Was this mystery solved?

During the battle with the gargoyles, Tai was playing with the big thing and got it moving toward her. We managed to kill all of the gargoyles with Groo's help (Tai had again been playing with the Wand of Wonder). Kerry got steam rolled by the big thing, a juggernaut, but as she was steamrolled her bottles of Keoghtom's also were crushed, so she was damaged and healed simultaneously. At the end, just before it steamrolled Balon, Kerry, extremely angered by now, gave it a solid whack with her rod and destroyed it. That appeared to be the end of the fun in this room for all except Tai, who instantly became fascinated by the pretty thing in the altar.

So, after all had been killed and tallied, Desma began giving the altar its last rites. During the ceremony Balon grew very afraid and ran (damnable chicken!). Kerry and Tai gave chase with difficulty, but were successful when Balon finally passed out.

We then headed for the temple of air, where we surprised a couple of dudes. Balon blasted one with a Flame Arrow. Kerry thwacked one hard. Tai managed to backstab one nicely. Balon was held. And very soon after Tai pressed the button on the Wand of Wonder. It blasted one to smithereens, taking the other out as well. Desma quickly began the rites and this time Balon wasn't alone in his fear. He, Tai, and Kerry all went careening through the corridors in search of safety.

When we rallied, we headed straight for the fire temple, laughing, celebrating, and saying, Boom! along the way. At the fire temple, with all of our talents combined, even with Balon present, we were unable to piss anybody off, save one salamander, for a very long time. Finally we got some tiny salamanders going in a pit. Each salamander had several mirrors, so we couldn't tell which were real and which were just illusions. Balon should've have cast a lightning bolt and destroyed all of them at once while they were still small, but the big weenie was afraid of hurting his comrades and getting skewered like Moose. So the salamanders got big and strong. It was a tough battle, one we barely lived through, but we did manage with the help of our respective gods.

After that we all decided it was time for a nap because Balon was getting whiny.

Adventure

So, we start the session with a long, fruitless discussion of how to destroy the temple of Earth. We finally decide to send fearless Tai, but soon we were deep in combat with four elementals. The good news is that for quite some time they stayed in their own separate zones, so we were able to pick the first two off individually. Desma's Protection from Elementals spell helped significantly.

But then a priest stepped out from the south wall. A bit of waving hands and all that and the elementals no longer stayed in their zones. We had destroyed two by this time, but the remaining two were quite a problem. Balon hit the priest with a lightning bolt and then a series of irritations (Balon being very good at irritating people). Tai saved the day when she cut the priest's throat. Desma came close to death, but we succeeded in our mission. The last of the four temples was destroyed.

After the anti-temple rite, we rested. Desma had a dream: she remembered a jagged bolt of lightning at chest level ripping through people's bodies. She remembered a charming, beguiling woman walking up to Balon, kissing him on the cheek (Balon immediately started drooling upon hearing this). She remembered nasty, large creatures with two heads and clubs in their hands. And, finally, she remembered a slimy black thing that we couldn't damage.

Then Kerry had a dream of the party climbing out of a dark pit into sunshine. As we walked away, the pit grew darker and seemed more daunting. In another of Kerry's dreams, we were standing in the pit facing the darkness. We find our path through to the heart of the pit by focusing the light from outside into the darkness.

So, we head to the third level of the temple. We quickly got into a fight with a bunch of creatures, including a hill giant and a warg. We won that battle just barely. After that we found the wizard's room again. The wizard and his familiar wasted us with the untimely help of an assassin. Desma was killed in action. Then we decided to look at the wrong map, which exploded and killed Tai. That left Kerry and myself to haul two corpses to Verbobonc for resurrection.

Adventure

In Verbobonc we took some time to learn a few things. Balon learned the Knock and Strength spells. Desma, once she was brought back to us, reported to her temple. Tai, also alive again, learned about the poisons Balon had given her.

We learned that on the fourth level of the temple underground there were areas for all four elements and one greater temple. There are reports that the temple was sealed as much to keep things in as out. Desma's folk think the key to destroying the temple is inside it, but they aren't certain of that.

On the way back to the temple, in Nulb, Tai decided to pick the pocket of a loud, obnoxious man. She failed miserably, so we had to join in and incapacitate him.

At the temple, we headed for the wizard's room first, hoping to find and kill the assassin. We had no luck there, but we did find a great deal of cool stuff, including some groovy spell books for Balon, a mirror that he broke, and a box reeking of evil. There was a huge argument about whether to open that box. Finally, Desma cast Divination and received this answer:

The keeper of the keys carries a heavy burden. Keys themselves are not the true concern, but rather what lies beyond the portals they open. Choose the keeper of the keys well.

So then we argued about who should open the box. Kerry, through shear tenacity, won that argument and opened the box. Inside was a gold, skull-shaped thing. Desma was very bothered. Kerry was bothered, but not as much. Balon and Tai said simultaneously, "What's the big deal?" So Kerry picked up the skull and promptly had a conference with the DM.

After the Picking Up of the Skull, Kerry seemed fine. Strong, steady pulse, responsive pupils, answered questions correctly. Things at that point seemed rather hunky-dory.

We headed to a room with mushrooms. A riveting woman was there, but she didn't kiss Balon, so we killed her. Actually, we didn't kill her just because she didn't kiss Balon, although Balon figured that was reason enough. We killed her because she got mean. We didn't like that.

After that we ended in a well lit room. Very nice at first, until we noticed the evil beasties. Jackals, rats, harpies, that sort of thing. And two prisoners, a man and a woman, up on a platform. The jackals and rats were trying to get to them, so we decided to intervene. The harpies noticed us first and attacked right away. As we were wearing them down, the two prisoners shed their chains and attacked us also. They turned out to be jackalweres. Then the jackals joined in. There were some near deaths on our side, but we were victorious. The rats turned out to be mere illusion.

After that we rested.

Adventure Jul 16, 1999

So we start the session with resting. As soon as we finished resting we had to fight three hill giants. They did enough damage that Balon and Desma required rest again. So we both Napped. A few minutes into our naps a black ooze came in the door and started consuming the giant corpses. Kerry and Tai managed to wake up Balon and Desma finally, and we huddled to discuss our options. We decided we could probably kill the ooze somehow. Balon threw a Magic Missile at it but wasn't sure that had any effect. Once it had eaten Desma's armor we decided to run like mad. After all, the dream said we couldn't win.

We rested again on the second level just long enough to replenish Desma's spells.

Heading back down, we found a circular room where some bad guys, Leucrotta, ruined Kerry's shield before we were able to pulp them. Staying to the eastern side of the level, we found some human, orc, goblin, hobgoblin, and bugbear prisoners. Kerry killed one of the bugbears handily, but we refrained, against Balon's wishes, from killing the rest of them. Up north of there, we found some Shadows that weakened both Kerry and Balon (they did get their strength back) until Balon destroyed them withLightning Bolts and Magic Missiles. We also got to kill more two-headed creatures. After those battles, we were ready to rest until next time. Besides, it was getting to be time for Balon to kick everyone forcibly out of his house.

Adventure Aug 13, 1999

We tried to rest in the red room, but Desma and Balon were unable to sleep for no particular reason. So we headed south. Along the way, we encountered the black ooze again and managed to avoid it nicely. On and on we headed to the round room near the Lamia. While Balon and Desma slept, Tai and Kerry heard booming voices. Once Balon and Desma were finally prodded into wakefulness, the voices went on their merry way and were never heard again. So again Balon and Desma slept, this time to full capacity.

So after we were all healed and at full spell capacity, we explored several rooms. In one there was an elven corpse. We stepped into the room carefully, but not carefully enough. There was a banshee there, screaming, invisible, and just plain bad. Tai was killed, Desma and Kerry were sent running in fear, and Balon was left to do the killing. He did do some damage, but not enough before the cowardly banshee punk fled. After a while, Desma and Kerry came back and Tai came back to life. Apparently, she's a favorite of her god, Peylor (?).

So, anyhoo, we're looking for a banshee. If you see one wandering around alone, let us know.

Then we looped around to a fairly large room with long work tables and a roper. A tentacle snaked out and grabbed Kerry, weakening her until she could barely lift her sword. Balon got a few apparently ineffective Magic Missiles in while Desma was almost sucked in and eaten. At the last moment Balon cast Grease all over her and she was able to wriggle free (and what a wriggle! OooWEEE!). Balon was almost sucked in, but the gang managed to pull him out just before he passed out. And, in the end, we did what we always do: we won.

West of there, through a secret door, we found a room with an altar. In this room was a note:

Venerate this shrine, then haste away all ye of good faith.

With a Detect Evil spell we determined that there was another secret door and a room. A Detect Magic spell pointed us to the far wall where we found an invisible lump. We Dispelled Magic and found a sarcophagus. Here we found another message:

Let the good ones use their newfound strength to seal in the horror of darkness to prove their faithfulness to right and justice. We who wrote this lacked the power to do so.

In the sarcophagus was, apparently, a vampire with a stake through its chest. So it seemed like a good idea to go ahead and follow the directions on the notes, but something gave us pause. Tai mentioned that it reminded her somehow of the note we'd found, "On three in six lies nine...." Very good recollection there. We probed and searched and conferenced and studied the note upside down and backwards. What's nine? Who's Mitrik? Desma used Divination to get this answer:

With Answerer and nine combined in Veluna your reward shall you find.

Which didn't tell us a whole lot. We decided we had two clear choices: we could remove the corpse from the sarcophagus or we could pray at the altar. We chose the former. There was no sudden burst of excitement after the removal, and we found nothing further in the coffin. So, while Balon cocked hisMagic Missiles, Desma slowly removed the stake. As the vampire's chest healed, it was all Balon could do to convince the other members of the party to just let it happen. "No," he said, "I refuse to cast aFlame Arrow."

The vampire turned out to be Prince Thrommel, Grand Marshall of Furyondy, Provost of Veluna, Paladin Lord, and One Slick Dude. Answerer, his sword, had been disguised as a crucifix. He was pretty excited about being alive and mobile again, so he said, "Thanks." And after we'd escorted him to the surface (he said he didn't want to hang out with us because we weren't cool enough, or maybe it was because he had really important business to attend to or something) he handed out some gifts, his signet ring to Desma and his chain of office (a necklace) to Kerry, and went on his way to Mitrik, which turned out to be the capitol city of Veluna.

So there we were, left alone again in this big, scary temple, left alone to figure out what to do next. But here we remembered a cant Desma had recited after waking from a dream:

The Two united, in the past,
A Place to build, and spells to cast.
Their power grew, and took the land
And people round, as they had planned.

A key without a lock they made
Of gold and gems, and overlaid
With spells, a tool for men to wield
To force the powers of Good to yield.

But armies came, their weapons bared,
While evil was yet unprepared.
The Hart was followed by the Crowns
And Moon, and people of the towns.

The Two were split; one got away
But She, when came the judgment day,
Did break the key, and sent the rocks 
to boxes four, with magic locks.

In doing so, She fell behind
As He escaped. She was confined
Among her own; her very lair
Became her prison and despair.

The Place was ruined, torn apart
And left with chains around the heart
Of evil power - but the key
Was never found in the debris.

He knows not where She dwells today.
She set the minion's path, the way
To lift Her Temple high again
With tools of flesh, with mortal men.

Many now have gone to die
In water, flame, in earth, or sky.
They did not bear the key of old
That must be found - the orb of gold.

Beware, my friend, for you shall fall
Unless you have the wherewithall
To find and search the boxes four
And then escape forevermore.

But with the key, you might succeed
In throwing down Her power and greed.
Destroy the key when you are done
And then rejoice, the battle won.

Adventure Aug 20, 1999

We met the black ooze again. It ate Tai's elven boots before she could get away. We managed to dodge around it and escape, though, before we suffered too much damage. From there we went to the hexagonal room. Tai snuck in to take a look and promptly encountered four trolls, one from each of the four doors. She was incapacitated before she could react. Kerry and Desma engaged the two trolls nearest Tai while Balon launched Flame Arrows before he was attacked by the remaining two trolls, who bashed him into unconsciousness. Desma stopped the bleeding for both Tai and Balon while Kerry continued to chop any troll that came near her. Desma brought Balon back to consciousness and, still laying on the floor, he was able to pop off some Magic Missiles. After that, Balon had no spells left and not enough health to engage in combat, so he used oil to burn the downed trolls so that they would not cause further difficulty. The last troll decimated Kerry but, noticing that it was alone now, was ready to panic. Desma sent it over the edge with a fire spell, so we didn't get a chance to kill it.

We headed to the second level to recuperate and then, fully healed, went back to the third level and around to the northwest room. There was plenty of junk there. As we began our search something swooped down from the ceiling and enveloped Kerry. Tai, with a heck of a lot of panache, slaughtered it before Kerry suffocated. We found pretty rings, a bejeweled mace, and other expensive stuff.

Once again, on the way to a room we affectionately call "The General Store" to get some boots for Tai, we encountered the black ooze. Nasty, irritating thing, that. We escaped again, but Balon's wonderful elven chain isn't quite what it used to be.

Next, we visited the Augury Chamber. It reminded all of us of those funky little eight ball oracles even though those funky little eight ball oracles hadn't yet been invented. I think the best answer we got out of it was, "I dunno."

Now it was time to check out the bronze room. We used the Scout Fishing method, sending Tai, with a rope around her, into the pit as bait. The Umber Hulk in the room, stupidly falling for our trap, attacked Tai and confused her with a spell. We reeled Tai in and decided the battle just wasn't worth the effort. Unfortunately, the Umber Hulk had other ideas and we were unable to escape quickly enough when it dived into the floor and came up underneath Kerry, sucking her into a pit. Balon went to the edge of the pit but, without enough light to see clearly what was happening below, was forced to remain useless. So Tai, saving the day, used the Wand o' Wonder to turn the Hulk into a pool of water.

The third level was pretty well cleared by now, so it was time to consider the fourth level. We had a meeting to discuss the issue and opted for casting Strength on Kerry and Invisibility on Tai. Tai snuck down to take a look, only tripping occasionally. She discovered way too many trolls, wearing tabards with red, horned skulls, guarding key areas. Further up, in a large room, there was a human wearing a black robe with a golden skull emblem that looked like the skull Kerry has. In that large room was a huge altar with silk cloth and a symbol of fire (red with gold thread). Behind the altar was a purple curtain 20' wide by 10' tall. On either side of the altar there were symbols for each of the four elementals.

As Kerry and Desma appeared to be falling asleep, and it was already past the time when Balon should have forcibly removed everyone from his home, we didn't go further into the fourth level.

Adventure Sep 10, 1999

Tai went down to scout again. The trolls seemed to notice her this time, or at least they knew something was amiss. In the southeast area, in a rounded room, Tai saw a very strangely dressed ogre, knuckle-bones as bracelets, various other odd adornments. It was at this point that she realized some creatures could probably see her just fine in spite of her invisibility. But this ogre was apparently not an ogre-magi, for it did not see her. And in spite of her newfound trepidations, and in spite of her distressing tendency to trip over her own feet, she was not discovered. Not yet, anyway.

She found an iron chest with quite a bit of money, and later she found three chests. The first contained rocks. The second was trapped; she became paralyzed for hours from the poison. After that she joined the rest of the party for a conference.

We tried drawing the nearest two trolls upstairs, but they didn't fall for it. We tried to attack from two directions and botched that, although one troll is now permanently at half strength from the burns.

Adventure Feb 16, 2001

Desma had a dream about wading through the firepits on the second level. Which, of course, meant we had to poke and prod. Forgetting, for a moment, that we would be facing fire, Desma chose every spell that didn't involve fire in any way. Her god chose to forgive her, correcting this minor oversight, and we were on our merry way.

After digging through the coals and getting rather crispy, Desma managed to pull out an iron box. Tai handily disabled traps and opened the box. Inside the box:

• 2 lightly glowing potions
• 1 medium glowing ring
• 1 medium to brightly glowing shortsword
• 1 person in a jar of amber, glowing extremely brightly
• 1 bottom of box glowing quite rather brightly

Desma casts a Dispel Magic on the bottom of the box, narrowly avoiding the destruction of us all. Tai gets the short sword, Balon gets the ring, Kerry carries the potions, and the jar of amber, let's talk about the jar of amber. Kerry pulled out the putty and the little figurine. She started cleaning the little figurine, wiping putty away, and the little nipper started breathing. And expanding. It grew into....AMBER PUTTY! Who is now an additional member of our party.

So then it turns out Tai's new little sword is a rather, uh, powerful item, with a higher intelligence than any of us have, and all sorts of wonderful powers. It can do lightening bolts. And put out fires. But it's not very wise, so we're not going to let it guide our party. Too much. Tai is now talking more to her sword than to us. His name is Frederick. He tells us the skull Kerry has is the key, but it is incomplete. We're pretty sure we knew that, so we're not impressed by the high intelligence yet.

And that leads us back to the fourth level where west is death. So we want to go east. Then again, there are trolls there, and lots of them. Balon learns, on the fly as it were, Invisibility Sphere and Fly. During the inscribing process, he casts Invisibility on Tai three times each day so she can scout. We determine that during the night, between 1am and 9am, FST (Furyondy Standard Time), things quiet down quite a bit. Later, maybe the eighth day or so, they quiet down even during the day, leaving fewer and fewer guards to impose on our adventure. So we're thinking maybe it's time to get brave, to face the dangers and save the world, or at least try to get rich.

Besides, we have Frederick.

So, Invisibility Sphere and Silence in place, we walk quietly to the red corridor on the east. Because west is death, as we all know. And there's an Ettin. He's sort of blocking our way so we're going to boldly charge him, Frederick in the front, leading the battle, slicing and dicing our way into the history books. Or, like I said, maybe riches. Whatever we can get. We're easy.

Tai gets a surprise attack and even with Frederick's help manages to accomplish nothing. Screaming silently with fury, she slices again and this time chops the two-headed monstrosity nearly in half. Balon clipped its toenails nicely. Bash, bash, slam, and the thing, a true coward and nothing else, ran into the portal thingy in the center of the room, leaving us in yet another quandry: do we, as well, enter the circle or do we tuck tail and run.

So, of course, being the brave souls we are, we sucked our guts in, puffed our chests out ("Puff up! They hate that!"), and discussed it for a few minutes before finally edging slowly into the circle. Disappearing and reappearing does a body good. Especially when one ends up where one does not instantly die. A final bit of damage to the ettin and down he goes, finally converted into the much loved experience points.

We're in a small room with a corridor leading off. There are two bodies here, one female and one male, certainly dead. Tai recognizes one of the bodies as someone who'd been dragged through the real world a few days ago. The heads are pulped and the bodies are badly burned. We also find a footprint. A large footprint. A footprint that explains the 35' ceilings. It's rather a shame we can't go home yet.

The obvious choice is to head down the corridor. There don't seem, really, to be any other options. Onward. Forward. Yes, sir, we're going to face this challenge with little or no trepidation. After all, we kill ettins efficiently. We're going to make this happen or die trying. Around a turn, forward, onward, into a large room with a firey pit surrounding a mound. Frederick says, "Oh, yes, I've seen those. Fire elemental or my name isn't Frederick." Sheesh. Better than a Saturday picnic any day, I'm sure. Onward, yes, forward, because back doesn't provide for escape.

Desma wants to cast a dispel elemental, but the fire beast moves in too quickly and she backs off, holding her spell for a later moment. Kerry steps in and the beast hits back, hitting hard. Amber stepped around and flung a lightening bolt, zotting our opponent somewhat less effectively than she might have. Tai then manages to get Frederick into the fray, zotting again. And back and forth and back and forth and, POOF!, he disappears, dead and gone. We won again. Not quite as efficiently as against the ettin, but we can certainly be proud of ourselves.

Beyond the pit of fire there are three glowing symbols, portals again, a grey circle, a brown triangle, and a green square. Kerry and Balon muck around in the pool of fire for a while, looking for boxes or anything else unusual that might be hidden in there. Kerry runs out of fire protection and pops on out of the pit to be replaced by Desma, who manages to find a box right away (the luck of some women!). Balon helps get the box out and then stays out while Desma mucks around some more looking for...well, she doesn't find anything else before her fire protection wears out. We don't know what she was looking for, but you just don't argue with women.

The box is complete with magic lock, which Desma is unable to get rid of. Balon doesn't have the correct spells. A Great Discussion ensues, about whether Tai should give it a go, whether she could even handle a magical lock, whether Balon should try his last scroll-bound Knock spell, whether we should rest and hope Kerry and Amber don't die from the heat, or whether we should just open the ding danged thing and hope for the best. At long last the decision is made to use Balon's last Knock. A whirlwind comes out of the box, but we have, in a cowardly fashion, backed far out of the way, and so are unharmed. Inside the box are:

• 1 smoky quartz gem
• 1 water flask
• 1 suit of half-plate mail

The smoky quartz gem, 1 ea., forces another Great Discussion: where should we put the gem? The skull-key has four dimples, front, back, and either side. No distinguising marks on any of them. No features to tell where each gem should go. And the decision is made to leave the decision of placement to a later date. Kerry reaches in to get the gem for safe keeping and...POP! She's gone.

We wait a bit for her, but she doesn't pop back. When all else fails, you tend to look a bit toward logic or blind luck. This time we opt for logic. So we step into the grey circle. The box had been air, with a smoky gem, so that seemed right. And there's Kerry, right there on the other side of, you know, whatever.

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Send updates, suggestions, etc. to Bruce Alon King