The Temple of Elemental Evil 2: The Controversial Finale

hello and welcome back to DM it all this is part two of our video series on the Temple of Elemental Evil this series started with the village of Hamlet so we recommend you check out that video first if you want to avoid spoilers and just hear our final thoughts jump ahead to the time shown here there's a sharp contrast between the third floor at this dungeon in the previous floors the elemental factions become less important the party finally gets some clues to the final boss and the difficulties starts to ramp up the entire third floor is actually the domain of the final boss though the party will not be able to reach them at this time the magical seal keeping this powerful foe in check also isolates them from the rest of their minions on this level the main enemies here aren't a huge upgrade from the previous area but the party now is a chance of encountering Giants that have wandered in from the fourth floor the third floor also sports a lot more exotic creatures and strange encounters in the previous levels for example this might be where your level 1 party first meets a will-o-wisp a flock of them can be found in a room filled with statues of iconic D&D monsters it's almost as though the module itself is suggesting that wisps deserve to be feared as much as dragons and beholders if you don't know why these annoying balls of light are a nightmare then be forewarned will-o-wisps are borderline impossible to hit they have a ton of health and an AC of negative 8 which roughly translates to an AC of 28 nowadays if that's not bad enough they also have immunity to most spells and the ability to turn invisible if the party encounters one they should just fall back and stock up on magic missiles the party will also come across a room composed of earth and rock and is filled with strange mushrooms a woman will come forward and warn the party that the mushrooms caused insanity and as she does so party members will start attacking each other in reality these are ordinary mushrooms while the woman is Alania in disguise lay Mia's have the upper body of a woman but the legs of an animal this Lamia is mind controlling the different party members who attack each other in order to cause chaos within the group there is also a room on this floor known as the pleasure chamber here the party will find a giant named scorp living it up as a king this guy realized that instead of just being another giant working on the floor below he could move up one level and lord over the weaker creatures up here the more interesting thing about scorp is why none of his former bosses have come looking for him that's because a level 9 druid has disguised herself as scorp on the floor below filling in form for the past few months this undercover druid is named Kella and she serves the same jurors as Giroux from Hamlet she can be recruited as a potential ally when the party reaches the fourth floor well these are some of the strangest combat encounters on this floor there are also rooms here that have been created just to mess with the party one example is a surgical room featuring a Frankenstein esque monster made up of different creatures it has an ogres head bear limbs gargoyle limbs and bugbear legs this monster is not alive and nor is it a serious threat it was created by the temple inhabitants as a practical joke that was abandoned when the temple fell the monster might appear intimidating but as the brain of a chipmunk and will act like one if the party uses one of the nearby magic scrolls to animate the dead there's also a chapel on this floor that claims to be one of good alignment based on markings on the wall this should already raise red flags if the party came across the werewolf room from our previous video if the party investigates this new area further they'll find a secret chamber with a vampire's coffin resting inside luckily for them the vampire has already been staked through the heart but in typical Gygax fashion this is a double fake out the vampire corpse is actually an illusion and the person within the coffin is a living paladin Prince this man has been trapped here in stasis ever since the temple originally fell if the party realizes the paladin's true nature and awaken him they will be knighted by the city of Aluna provided they survive they will also be gifted a unique and powerful magic sword of course they could just swipe the magic sword before waking him up since this is a Gygax module the most important thing on this floor is naturally hidden behind a secret door the party can also find the tunnel behind this door by entering through the broken Tower as the party traverses this secret tunnel a path of fire forms on the ground and illuminates the area a basilisk will appear in this passage as this is happening the basilisk is a lizard-like creature that can turn people into stone using its magical gaze this particular basilisk is an illusion but it can still petrify the party of they're convinced the creature is real the fire is part of an alarm system meant to warn the enemies in rooms nearby these are essentially the mini bosses of this dungeon and Gygax advises that the DMP as smart as possible if the party enters the northern room in this area that will immediately get attacked by an elf if the hero subduer the elf will tell them that she was under mind control and forced to attack them but this elf is actually an evil half orc in disguise her name is smig Mille and she's the leader of the brigands from the broken tower smig mole is working for fallon a level 8 magic user that is trying to seize control of the temple forces the party can find fala rented a nearby room to the south and they choose to fight him who luckily just magic himself away when the tide of battle is no longer in his favor if this happens Falmouth essentially leaves the adventure for good out of fear of failing his superior officers what's important for the party isn't defeating thalaron but rather discovering what he was guarding they will find his lair nearby as well as a treasure chest of course after tsumugu mole and the basilisk the party should know better than to trust anything associated with fallon and yes this treasure chest is indeed another bit of deception if they open the chest it will fill the room with poisonous gas that will potentially insta-kill the party but it's not just this chest that is a fake out as the entire room here is a decoy falen set up a fake lair to throw off potential intruders the party has to find another secret door to locate pal Vince real lair is here they will set their eyes upon the orb of Goulding death at least that's what it's officially called but the name changes numerous times throughout the adventure sometimes it's the death orb sometimes the yellow skull and other times the golden skull we'll just call it the skull because that's what it looks like the skull is the key to ending the threat behind the temple and the DM is granted a poem that hints towards the object's importance it is up to the DM how this poem is delivered but it's important that the party is aware of what they are seeking whoever wields the skull will immediately ascertain its beneficial aspects the holder will be able to detect lies no everyone's alignment and even gain access to a poison spell and not only that but they will have inhuman charisma towards chaotic evil creatures to the point that they can stun weaker creatures with fear and awe of course there's a downside to all this as the skull is absolutely evil so evil the paladins and good clerics can't even hold the box that contains it each use of the skulls all power causes the character's charisma towards every other alignment to be secretly lowered by one point on top of making the character generally disliked this also makes them more vulnerable to the mastermind behind this dungeon the final boss will know that the party has the skull and will eventually try to persuade the holder to hand the skull over the percentage chance of their persuasion being successful increases depending on how much the skulls aw power has been used if the holder gives up the skull they permanently become a mindless slave for the villain and they will have to be slain by the other player characters the golden skull is incomplete by itself displaying four empty slots in need of filling think of it like the Infinity Gauntlet which gets powered up as gems are slotted into it the poem that hints towards the skulls existence refers to it as a key that was created around the same time it's the temple this key was broken by the final boss when the temple fell so that the forces of good could not tap into its full power putting the completed skull together and fixing the key is the main purpose of the fourth and final floor but doing this is optional as the skull alone is all that's needed to confront the final boss the completed skull will make the final boss much easier but the party will have to survive the hardest areas in this module in order to locate the missing pieces back when we suggested the party utilized the factions to their benefit on the upper floors it was mostly because of the consequences on this 4th floor all the enemies will be on high alert if the party has hacked and slashed their way to this point and the party will face stiff resistance as his floor is mostly made up of giants trolls and Etten's if the party is able to make their way through the fourth floor they will notice that some of these giants have a new symbol on their black armor this symbol looks like a jeweled skull which is the symbol of I use the demigod of deceit evil oppression pain and wickedness I use his one of the most prominent Grayhawk Dee Dee's as he Believe It or Not personally owns a chunk of the gray hawk setting I use rules his own empire with an iron fist his vile heart set on subjugating the entire world he can change his appearance but he is often identified as a frail old man this is why he is usually called the old one well suspecting I used to be the mastermind behind the temple is a good guess it's only partially true as he's working with the mastermind for his own ends the forces of good are usually masked near I uses border in order to keep him in check so I use needed a way to distract them if the temple succeeded with its original uprising Aya's would have a good standing with the temple leaders that now neighbored his border I was also stood to gain if the temple were to fall since the distraction would give him the opportunity to seize more territory the true mastermind behind the Temple of Elemental Evil was sealed deep within it when the temple originally fell I uses the entity that has kept the temp running in the meantime and he seeks to free the temples boss this priority isn't high on his list though as he's currently taking advantage of the true leaders absence I use is not some looming background presents either as the party can actually encounter him themselves one way is through Supreme Commander Hedrick the leader of the temple forces and the quote unquote mouth of I use within hedrick's extravagant quarters the party will find an ebony skull on his mantle if hedge rack is threatened he will use this skull the summon I use himself and remember I uses a literal God that the party will have to engage in combat fortunately there is hope if the party manages to survive for two to nine turns the lawful demigod Saint Cuthbert will appear and challenge I use himself I using cuthbert will revive and heal everyone on their respective teams essentially resetting the fight on more fair terms and then the two gods will teleport away as they would rather settle their differences away from mortal eyes if this feels random know that Saint Cuthbert has been monitoring the situation within the temple from the sidelines and he is actually another reason why I use his hesitant to free the final boss on his own direct actions from one Dede will often invite direct actions from other deities the bad news is that Cuthbert only has a 90% chance of showing up when I use is summoned that means that every eye whose appearance has a 10% chance of being a complete death sentence I use helped create the golden skull along with the temples true mastermind so he is able to take advantage of it in similar ways this includes potentially taking control of the person holding the skull the silver lining if you can call it that is that the person holding the skull can never be harmed by EIU's or the final boss whether it be directly or indirectly so at least the party avoids a total team wipe array the greater temple is located near the center of this dungeon floor and it contains its own stone altar behind the altar is what looks like a curtain but is actually closer violet fungi characters can be hit up to six times by this fungi and must make a saving throw each time failing the saving throw means the character will quickly start rotting one limb will fall off per round and the person will lose 10% of their overall health with each missing limb if the rot reaches the torso the character dies immediately the fungi can only be attacked with certain spells and magical edged weapons it takes 100 damage to destroy the curtain and it will not show any sign of injury until it is finally destroyed the best way to bypass this curtain is to acquire black scarab artifact all of the important leaders in the greater temple carry these scarabs in order to access the hallway beyond everyone except the ogre leader that is his scarab is actually fake one that the temple leaders gave us a joke and he's too stupid to realize it passed the curtain our three smaller altars in a hallway covered with precious stones messing with these altars or the greater temple altar will cause I use to appear additionally taking too many of the precious stones from the hallway will also cause I used to appear the party should even be careful mentioning I use because simply saying his name here has a chance of summoning him this area is of particular importance because it contains both the temple payroll and the only method of communicating with the final boss at the end of the hallway the party will find a circular room with an indiscernible pillar of light at the center any non evil person that tries to enter it will immediately level down with no saving throw once inside the light the characters will see a throne covered with gems if a character sits on the throne they will be put into direct psychic contact with the final boss the final boss will probably then proceed to charm and/or mind blast the person so now is a good time to finally discuss the true identity of the final boss even if the party doesn't get mind blasted by them personally they will still see their statue in the greater temple this is likely the biggest controversy behind this module as the popularity of Hamlet led to a lot of speculation people wondered who the true mastermind behind the temple was and Hamlet even teased a few possibilities one tease was lares the leader of the moat house soldiers lera this' described in the DM notes as a favorite servant of loth aka the Spider Queen the Spider Queen being the evil goddess of the black elves known as the drow but Gaius was working on the Spider Queen series at the same time as he was developing the Temple of Elemental Evil he feared the two adventures had finales that were too similar so wolf was largely dropped from the final version of the temple her followers were reduced to just a small faction within the temple forces on the other hand the Spider Queen series itself added different candidate for the temples leadership position the series did so by teasing the existence of a mysterious deity known as the elder elemental God this God was viewed as the most likely culprit behind the temple not just because of the name but also because of the eye insignia worn by the motor House soldiers the symbol was known as the eye of fire but many people speculated this was actually the elder elemental I the notorious symbol of the elder elemental God yet another compelling possibility for the final boss was also the elemental princes of evil these four beings are essentially deities for their respective elemental forces they weren't around for the original elemental evil campaign Gygax ran but they could have been used as replacements for loft later the princes were even used as final bosses in a 1983 Frank Mentor adventure meant for the greyhawk setting as well as the fifth edition take on elemental evil princes of the apocalypse but no the final boss is not named after anything elemental nor does she have much to do with the elements the final boss is known as uh Kurt Moy if you think Succot Moy sounds like a goofy name she's kind of a goofy villainous modern versions have made her look more horrific and menacing but her original version had a bulbous body tiny head and grandmotherly scowl and even the modern versions can't change the comical nature of her plan in the Temple of Elemental Evil you see suckin Moy is actually the spider queen's rival but instead of something inherently cool like spiders suck it Moy is the queen of fungi because of this second Moy had a difficult time amassing her own army of devout followers and she couldn't really compete with her rival so she created the Temple of Elemental Evil to fool people into following her by accident evil villains would come in thinking they were worshiping the destructive elements or one of the other deities we listed but in reality they were all serving a fat and insecure mushroom woman second my even encouraged the factional disputes within the temple to ensure the elemental fanatics never actually seize control of the greater we do have to admit however that this reveal nicely explains why the elemental evil theme is so subdued throughout the whole adventure since it was always just a front for Sukkot moines her inclusion also had some unexpected color to what could have been a more cliche adventure about elemental dungeons since few could guess that she was behind everything unfortunately none of this dampens the disappointment players might feel if they're looking forward to a cool final boss the dismay by fans even led to some retcons when Wizards of the coast release the returned to the temple of Elemental Evil in 2001 that module firmly established the elder elemental God as the true mastermind behind the dungeon and revealed that suct moy was merely a pawn so even some of the future D&D writers weren't happy with the mushroom woman twist as for the battle against up to moy herself we'll get to that in a bit the final thing to note on this fourth floor are the elemental nodes these are partial dimensional planes created by sucked Amoy to mimic the real elemental planes she uses these nodes to contain her elemental specimens as well as her prisoners there are portals through these nodes in branching rooms near the greater temple though it's important to note that some of these rooms contain portals to the actual elemental planes instead it's impossible to tell the difference so the hero should interrogate some temple guards to learn which are which accidentally teleporting to the elemental planes is basically a death sentence since non elementals can't survive there for too long the fire elemental plane for example basically resembles hell nan metrical items brought to this plane will immediately begin to melt and characters have to roll saving throat to avoid the same fate the nodes are slightly better though since up demoys set up some magical protections for the inhabitants more importantly however is that the elemental nodes thankfully provide a way to return home it's not easy to find this method but it still exists within each of the nodes the party will need to find an elemental gem that fits into the golden skull when each gem is joined with the skull they will grant the holder an appropriate elemental spell as well as the ability to summon elementals and demons any creatures summoned by the skull well technically help the Skull wielder but they will do so in a way that maximizes damage to nearby people the skull is still an evil skull after all but even without the skull the party can at least use the gems to escape the nodes there are portals in each of the partial planes that normally just teleport characters from one node to the other the gems however can turn these portals into safe passages back to the temple each gem will also allow the carrier to survive within their respective elemental plane otherwise individuals within each node will take elemental damage every ten turns the elemental nodes themselves are actually larger than the entire temple of Elemental Evil with the air and water nodes being particularly massive so the party will need to prepare an advanced with some healing items because it may take a while to find these gems the party would also be prudent to enhance their elemental resistances even though a D and he only has spells for resisting cold and fire the good news is that magic works differently in every dimension plane and modules that cross realities often feature a modified spell list these fellows are often used to nerf high-level spell casters but here it's a huge benefit for the party most elemental spells now reflect the elemental plane they're cast in resist fire for example can be changed to resist earth or water part water can now be used to part rocks and fire the downside to this is that it takes two to three castings to learn the new versions of the spell though the Kesser will be aware of the potential change after the first attempt despite the size of the nodes in the amount of time that could potentially take the section for them is surprisingly short most of this chapter is composed of monster stats and random encounters even the treasures are randomly generated there are barely any descriptions for the area's here and the only points of interest are vague locations like the cave south cave hidden cave and North cave note that this chapter is basically the final section of the book so it does feel like an afterthought compared to the rest of the adventure the level of detail that made the Temple of Elemental Evil such a joy sadly gets lost here the book itself even refers to this section as rough notes that the dungeon master should refine on their own it also advises that the DM should not use the random encounters as written but instead slowly scale up the fights in an appropriate manner this book never had the stipulation before which suggests that this section did not get a lot of play testing it also claims that this section was intentionally made short in order to say book space but it feels more like they were 5 years past their deadline and they needed to get this thing finished this is especially ironic since the section lives up to the elemental evil concept the most and is not only optional but painfully bare-bones this section was barely featured in the video game adaptation and it was even fully emitted from the novelization on the bright side the material provided creates a decent starting point for an elemental campaign you get the maps and a decent assortment of elemental monsters and even if it's a disappointment compared to the rest of the adventure a rush finale is still better than no finale given that looked as though elemental evil would never come out besides the gems in the portals the party can also recruit some of the new party members here too they only appear in random encounters with a 1 out of 100 chance but they're still considered important to get illustrations within this book the book doesn't have that many alliteration so it's strange these 1% NPCs get that honor when it's unlikely the party will even meet them there might have been bigger plants with these characters at one point considering that they have fairly interesting backstories the party can encounter a bandit leader a peasant weaver a demon disguised as a sorcerer the former air temple high priest a mad wizard and the last survivor of a previous adventuring group if the party has the skull finished or unfinished they can head back to the ground floor where the empty chapel area resides with the skull they will neatly know the correct order to activate the floor tiles around the mysterious throne in this area yeah we call this a puzzle before but it's really not much of one the party will then be able to use the throne as an elevator to the third floor they will then be on the other side of a magical seal that is keeping sucked a moyes separated from the rest of the third floor note that they can also reach this area by using the elemental notes as well most of the rooms here reflect the temples fancier areas that there are some rooms with earthen floors swarms of writhing fungi and walls covered in slime the decorative art even depicts humans being eaten alive as fungus crawls up their bodies there are also some fungi monsters for the party to fight some of them are standard enemies that can move and attack the party but there are plenty of oddities in one area there's a cluster of tiny mushrooms that mimic human faces in eyes they will search hearing from the sidelines as they're more humanoid brethren take on the party there's also a room entirely made up a plush furniture that is just poisonous fungi in disguise even the carpet releases poison Spore clouds that can instantly kill a character if the party reaches sucked noise thrown they will discover an old crone sitting atop it she will offer the heroes a pillar made of electrum in exchange for leaving her alone she is referring to one of the 12-foot tall pillars in the room next door the other two pillars are made of gold and platinum the party will be able to carry these pillars until they reach one of the sealed iron doors like the one at the front entrance the pillar will then fly from their hands and smash open the gates remember that these are the doors keeping sucked a moyes imprisoned within the temple the pillar be destroyed from this effect and the Crone will offer one of the other pillars to make up for the loss if the party is greedy or dumb enough to keep playing long they will eventually destroy all four doors and freeze sucked Amoy but even if the party only smashes one of the doors they have increased sucked Amore's ability to maneuver around the temple she will then get added to the list of possible random encounters on the appropriate floor if the party rejects the old lady and her money pillars the woman will fumble some switches on her throne before killing herself with a laser light show but this light show is an illusion and the old lady took the opportunity to hide behind it nearby curtain if the heroes find her comically hiding like The Wizard of Oz the old lady will point out the countless precious gems that cover her throne she will ask the party to take them all these gems are yet another seal on luck demoiii and removing them as a second way to grant her her freedom the good news is that she will only be able to flee back to her home dimension and she will not be able to leave that realm for 66 years oh and the gems are haunted by demons and will need to be exorcised if the party doesn't want said demons randomly attacking them in the future remember that this is a Gygax module tritscher has to be faked and/or deadly in order for the adventure to be fun if the party ignores the old lady's requests and tries to leave the old lady will reveal that she of course is up Tomoya in disguise she will then transform and initiate combat sucked amore will be stronger depending on how many doors the party helped destroy even in her fully bound state though she can still terrifying silence opponents at will for her basic attacks sucked muy can spend her turns striking four times or she can just trample any short opponents and if that's not bad enough she can basically become permanently invisible remember that while this dungeon is meant for a party with a maximum level of eight sucked muy is essentially level 49 the only good news is that dr. Moy is a Demon Lord and not a demigod like I use so defeating her is not nearly as impossible as besting the old one if sup Tomoya is destroyed the elemental nodes collapse with her but she will try to barter her treasures in exchange for her life because the traps guarding these treasures are pretty brutal one is an incident art another is a more mundane lightning trap and there was also a larger version of that scythe trap from the fire temple you know the one that just cuts off whatever it touches with no saving throw the most brutal trap though is the one that shoots a massive jet of green slime all over the party always remember that green slime permanently changes whatever it touches into green slime which is a fate worse than death since you can't bring them back with a resurrection this module is merciful enough to grant a saving throw here but imagine beating sucked Amoy just to lose your character to this if the party is a bunch of goody two-shoes they might also consider destroying the golden skull itself they will have to expose the skull the four types of extreme elemental damage but destroying the skull also destroys the temple dungeons this will also traps up Des Moines in her home plane for 40 years truth is ending means that sucked Moya will survive but at least you saved the party a lot of hassle by not having to fight her so is it worth running the Temple of Elemental Evil may be the major barrier to entry is the fact that this is a gargantuan commitment this is obviously a massive dungeon and it will take dozens of long sessions to play through we haven't met many people that even played the Temple of Elemental Evil much less beaten it on top of that it's also a difficult dungeon to even run the dungeon master has to do a lot of reading to properly coordinate the enemies the players on the other hand might not even fully understand the consequences of their actions because they might play this as a standard adventure the heroes really need to know what they're in for and what kind of place saw the dungeon encourages characters who like to break down the door will have a lot of difficulty compared to characters who prefer diplomacy stealth and exploration even though the temple was adapted into multiple video games is really not module that works outside of the pen and paper format this is not a hack and slash adventure and even if it were turned into one it would get very repetitive most of the same enemies repeat throughout the dungeon and you will not learn their most interesting details if you focus purely on the combat the most impressive aspect of this adventure is the sheer amount of detail provided both in the characters and in the locales this story is less about a typical dungeon expedition and more about the heroes infiltrating and dismantling an underground multi-layered base of operations there's a tense atmosphere that pervades the entire book thanks to the excessive amount of descriptive text as well as the overwhelming strength of the enemy forces the party will never truly be sure what danger awaits them within each room nor at each encounter it's a very uniquely pen-and-paper Dungeons & Dragons adventure that really embodies the old-school sandbox style it's not an adventure that most people can run but it's an experience that can't be captured in any other format other than D&D thank you for watching DM it all extra thanks if you made it through our entire series on the temple of element evil as always please like subscribe and comment down below also ring the bell to stay updated on all our upcoming videos we're guessing most of you never ran this module but would you consider it and if you did run it what was your experience like also did you enjoy our deep dive into our first super adventure and would you like to see more multi-part series like this thanks again for watching and we'll see you all next session [Music]

Channel: DM It All

Views: 138,149

Keywords: Hommlet, Temple of Elemental Evil, St. Cuthbert, Gary Gygax, Frank Mentzer, Troika Games, DDO, Neverwinter, Princes of the Apocalypse, Moathouse, Nulb, Lareth the Beautiful, Verbobonc, Critical Role, Spoony, Adventure Zone, Dice Camera Action, Lolth, Spider Queen, Earth, Fire, Water, Wind, Greyhawk

Id: bhIpySGuO7g

Length: 30min 49sec (1849 seconds)

Published: Wed Jun 19 2019