The Temple of Elemental Evil

For the 2003 Atari PC game, see The Temple of Elemental Evil (video game).

The Temple of Elemental Evil

Code	T1–4
Rules required	1st Ed AD&D
Character levels	1–8
Campaign setting	Greyhawk
Authors	Gary Gygax and Frank Mentzer
First published	1985
Linked modules
T1–4 A1–4 GDQ1–7 Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil

The Temple of Elemental Evil is an adventure module for the fantasy role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons, set in the game's World of Greyhawk campaign setting. The module was published by TSR, Inc. in 1985 for the first edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons rules. It was written by Gary Gygax and Frank Mentzer, and is an expansion of an earlier Gygax module, The Village of Hommlet (TSR, 1979).^[1] The Temple of Elemental Evil is also the title of a related 2001 Thomas M. Reid novel and an Atari computer game, and the term is used by fans of the setting to refer to the fictional Temple itself.

The Temple of Elemental Evil was ranked the 4th greatest Dungeons & Dragons adventure of all time by Dungeon magazine in 2004, on the 30th anniversary of the Dungeons & Dragons game.^[2]

Plot summary

These classic, early D&D adventures helped first popularize the World of Greyhawk campaign setting.^{[citation needed]} In the module T1 The Village of Hommlet, the player characters must defeat the raiders in a nearby fort, and thereafter Hommlet can be used as a base for the party's subsequent adventures.^[1] The adventure begins in the eponymous village of Hommlet, situated near the site of a past battle against evil forces operating from the Temple. The adventurers travel through Hommlet and are drawn into a web of conspiracy and deception.

The module is recommended for first-level characters, who begin the adventure "weary, weak, and practically void of money".^[3] They travel to a town that is supposed to be a great place to earn fortunes, defeat enemy creatures, and even lose one's life. While the town initially appears warm and hospitable, the characters soon learn that many of its inhabitants are powerful spies for minions of evil.^[3]

The T1 adventure stands alone, but also forms the first part of T1-4. In The Temple of Elemental Evil, the characters start off at low level, and after establishing themselves in Hommlet, they gradually work their way through the immense dungeons beneath the Temple, thereby gaining experience.^[1] T1 culminates in a ruined moathouse where agents secretly plan to re-enter the Temple and free the demoness Zuggtmoy, imprisoned therein. The Village of Hommlet module has been described as a beginner's scenario, which starts in the village, and leads to a nearby dungeon, while The Temple of Elemental Evil continues the adventure.^[4] In the next section, T2, the adventurers move on to the nearby village of Nulb to confront several nefarious opponents, including agents from the Temple. Based on the outcome of these encounters, the player characters can then enter the Temple itself to interact with its many denizens and test their mettle against Zuggtmoy herself.

History of the temple

The temple referenced in the module's title is an unholy structure located in the central Flanaess not far from the city-state of Verbobonc. In 566 CY, forces of evil from Dyvers or the Wild Coast constructed a small chapel outside the nearby village of Nulb. The chapel was quickly built into a stone temple from which bandits and evil humanoids began to operate with increasing frequency.

In 569 CY, a combined force was sent to destroy the Temple and put an end to the marauding. The army included regular forces from the human kingdoms of Furyondy and Veluna, dwarves from the Lortmil Mountains, gnomes from the Kron Hills, and elven archers and spearmen.

This allied army clashed with a horde of evil men and humanoids, including orcs, ogres and gnolls, at the Battle of Emridy Meadows. The forces of good were victorious and the Horde of Elemental Evil was scattered. The Temple was then besieged and fell within two weeks, although a few of its leaders managed to escape.

The site itself remained, however, and over the following decade rumors of evil presence there persisted. The Viscount of Verbobonc and the Archcleric of Veluna became increasingly concerned, and cooperated to build a small castle outside the Village of Hommlet to guard against the possibility of the Temple rising again.

For the next five years, Hommlet gained in wealth thanks to adventurers who came to the area seeking out remnants of evil to slay. Things quieted down for another four years as the area returned to peace and normalcy, but in 578 CY evil began to stir again, with groups of bandits riding the roads. In 579 CY, the events in the T1-4 module occur.

Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil is set fifteen years later, in 594 CY.

Publication history

The adventure module The Village of Hommlet was a 24-page booklet designed by Gary Gygax, and published by TSR in 1979.^[3] The original printing featured an outer folder and a two-color cover; the book was reprinted in 1981 with a color cover.^[1] The Temple of Elemental Evil was originally intended to bear the module code T2 and serve as a true sequel to The Village of Hommlet. Gygax began writing T2 soon after the publication of T1, but often stopped to work on other products, such as The Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth (Gygax 1981). The T2 version was never completed, and no module bearing the codes T3 or T4 was ever independently published. Instead, the material for the sequel was combined in 1985 with the original T1 storyline and published as an integrated adventure bearing the module code T1-4.

The original printings of T1 featured monochrome cover art by David A. Trampier, who also contributed interior art along with David C. Sutherland III. The 1981 and subsequent printings of T1 featured a new color cover painting by Jeff Dee surrounded by a lime green border. The expanded T1-4 book from 1985 features cover art by Keith Parkinson and interior art by Jeff Butler, Clyde Caldwell, Jeff Easley, Larry Elmore, Parkinson, and Trampier.

T1-4 The Temple of Elemental Evil was written by Gary Gygax with Frank Mentzer, and published by TSR in 1985, incorporating T1 The Village of Hommlet.^[1] The module was a 128-page book with a 16-page map booklet, and featured a cover by Keith Parkinson and interior illustrations by Jeff Butler, Clyde Caldwell, Jeff Easley, Larry Elmore, and Dave Trampier.^[1] The module includes descriptions of two towns, the Temple itself, and four large dungeon levels.^[1]

Although initially written as a stand-alone series, T1-4 was made to dovetail into A1-4 Scourge of the Slave Lords when these two campaigns were revised in 1986 as supermodules. The combined campaign then culminates with the GDQ series, incorporating modules G1-G3 Against the Giants; D1-D3, which introduced D&D fans to drow elves for the first time; and finally Q1, Queen of the Demonweb Pits, in which the heroes fight against the spider demon Lolth herself. These last adventures were also combined and republished as a supermodule bearing the code GDQ1-7, Queen of the Spiders.

In 2001, Wizards of the Coast published a novel by Thomas M. Reid also bearing the title The Temple of Elemental Evil.^[5] The heroes entering the Temple seek to find a way to save the world from a demon struggling to escape captivity, and an evil demigod working to gain control over the demon.^[6] This book was a novelization of the original T1-4 adventure, and featured characters based on those that Reid and his friends had developed while playing the module as part of a Greyhawk campaign in college.

The novel received both positive and negative reviews. One common criticism was that the pacing felt rushed and that entire sections of the original module were not present in the novelization. For example, the characters in the novel do not spend time in the village of Nulb, and the elemental "nodes" from the module's climax are entirely missing from the novel. Reid has subsequently stated that these issues were caused by the 90,000 word limitation Wizards of the Coast enforced for the book, leading him to cut out significant sections of his initial draft.

Wizards of the Coast also published a sequel to the T1-4 adventure in 2001, the 3rd Edition module Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil.

Wizards of the Coast published a remake of The Village of Hommlet adventure for Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition and released it through the RPGA.^{[citation needed]}

Reception

Kirby T. Griffis reviewed The Village of Hommlet in 1981, in The Space Gamer #35.^[3] Griffis found it a very playable module, noting that the module could be very fun if run by a good DM. Griffis commented: "Players 'get into' their roles, the thieves stealing from the revellers at the inn, the fighters getting drunk under the table."^[3] He also found the map to be well-keyed, and noted that important buildings have floor plans mapped out. Commenting on the imbalance of power, he noted that "some of the evil spies are entirely too powerful for the party to tackle, and the local high level good characters are hardly ever interested in aiding the adventurers."^[3] Overall, Griffis found The Village of Hommlet to be a very good introductory adventure, and recommended it as an introduction to D&D.^[3]

The Temple of Elemental Evil was ranked the 4th greatest Dungeons & Dragons adventure of all time by Dungeon magazine in 2004, on the 30th anniversary of the Dungeons & Dragons game.^[2]

Dungeon Master for Dummies listed The Temple of Elemental Evil as one of the ten best classic adventures, calling it "the grandfather of all huge dungeon crawls".^[7]

Lawrence Schick, in his 1991 book Heroic Worlds, says of The Temple of Elemental Evil, "If you like huge classic dungeon crawls, this is probably the best of the lot."^[1]

Computer game

Main article: The Temple of Elemental Evil (computer game)

In 2003 a computer game, The Temple of Elemental Evil, based on the original T1-4 module was released. It was developed by Troika Games and published by Atari. It remains the only D&D related computer game set in the original Greyhawk setting.^[8]

References

1. ^ ^{a b c d e f g h} Schick, Lawrence (1991). Heroic Worlds: A History and Guide to Role-Playing Games. Prometheus Books. p. 114. ISBN 0-87975-653-5. 
2. ^ ^{a b} Mona, Erik; Jacobs, James; Dungeon Design Panel (November 2004). "The 30 Greatest D&D Adventures of All Time". Dungeon (Paizo Publishing) (116):  68–81. 
3. ^ ^{a b c d e f g} Griffis, Kirby T. (January 1981). "Capsule Reviews". The Space Gamer (Steve Jackson Games) (35): 28. 
4. ^ Livingstone, Ian (1982). Dicing with Dragons, An Introduction to Role-Playing Games (Revised ed.). Routledge. ISBN 0710094663.  (preview)
5. ^ Reid, Thomas M. The Temple of Elemental Evil (Wizards of the Coast, 2001)
6. ^ Slavicsek, Bill; Rich Baker, Kim Mohan (2005). Dungeons & Dragons For Dummies. For Dummies. pp. 375. ISBN 9780764584596. http://books.google.com/?id=xNU7E01MCEgC&pg=PA373&dq=dragonlance. Retrieved 2009-02-12. 
7. ^ Slavicsek, Bill; Rich Baker, Jeff Grubb (2006). Dungeon Master For Dummies. For Dummies. pp. 322. ISBN 9780471783305. http://books.google.com/?id=pSG3zxln4FUC&pg=PA322&dq=temple+of+elemental+evil. Retrieved 2009-06-19. 
8. ^ Cain, Tim. The Temple of Elemental Evil. New York: Atari, 2003

• Cook, Monte. Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil (Wizards of the Coast, 2001).
• Gygax, E. Gary. "More 'Meat' for Greyhawk." Dragon #55 (TSR, 1981).
  • Gygax, E. Gary. The Village of Hommlet (TSR, 1979).
• Gygax, E. Gary and Frank Mentzer. The Temple of Elemental Evil (TSR, 1985).

Review: The V.I.P. of Gaming Magazine #4 (1986)

External links

• T1 - The Village of Hommlet at The Acaeum
• Supermodules at The Acaeum (includes information on T1-4, A1-4, and GDQ1-7)
• The Village of Hommlet at the TSR Archive
• The Temple of Elemental Evil at the TSR Archive
• The Village of Hommlet at Pen & Paper
• The Temple of Elemental Evil at Pen & Paper
• Review of The Village of Hommlet at RPGnet (#1)
• Review of The Village of Hommlet at RPGnet (#2)
• Review of The Temple of Elemental Evil at RPGnet