FreemanGames Campaign Journal

Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil
Campaign Journal Entry 0
Our Heroes Adventure So Far…

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Sections:

Duvick’s Pass
Hommlet
Moathouse Courtyard and Ground Level
Moathouse Lower Levels
Moathouse Secret Chamber
Hommlet
Nulb
The Temple of Elemental Evil Ruins
 

Duvick’s PassIt was in the mining town of Duvick’s Pass that our noble heroes all met.  Here, our adventurer’s paths all crossed, which would be an event that will rock the foundations of  the very world. Sensing a town in need, the heroes set their energies to work as a group.  The Burning Plague had shut down the mines and was quickly infecting all in town.  Only our heroes had chanced upon using the mountain pass at the same time were healthy enough to risk saving the town and stopping the plague. 

 Most of the adventurers were strangers to one another, but all joined forces and quickly set off into the mines.  There they met strong opposition of Ibixian, or more commonly called Goat-folk.  Though fierce warriors, they were no match for the heroes.  When the final showdown occured, the goat-folk leaders, priests, were slain and the water supply cleared up.  The threat of the Burning Plague was at an end.

Upon further investigation, it was revealed by knowledgable group members and the local priests in town, that the tabard with a blue square and the holy symbol consisting of a triangle with an upside down Y in it, were indication of followers of the Evil Elemental Eye, specifically the water aspect of the cult.  They recalled taht 25 years ago, a temple was built that possibly reverred Zuggmoy (Demon Queen of Fungus and molds), Uzz (half-demon son of the Demon Prince Grazz’t), and / or Llolth (Demon Queen of Spiders).  From that evil temple, armies has surged forth.  Within three years, all the neighboring localities had formed armies to send.  At the battle of Emridy Meadows the evil army was defeated.  Now, nine years later, the Moathouse has been used by bandits in the area as a hideout. 

The adventuring group decided that they must band together, and further investigage this resurgence of a once-thought extinct evil cult.  The local priest of St. Cuthbert suggested the heroes travel to find his old mentor, Cannonis Yday.  She taught the priest in Verbobonc, but was now in charge of the Church of St. Cuthbert in Hommlet.  After gathering supplies and a regional map, the heroes set out for Hommlet to speak to Cannonis Yday about cultists of the Evil Elemental Eye.

Hommlet 

Upon arriving in Hommlet, they were quickly met by Elmo, a magistrate for the city, and one of Burne’s Badgers, who they found out were the militia in town.  Upon learning they were adventurer’s and being offered a drought of his favorite drink, Velutian Fire Amber,  at the tavern of his suggestion, the Welcome Wench, he quickly warmed up to the adventurers.

First the heroes secured rooms and a meal at the Welcome Wench.  Here, in the common room, they met many who marked them as adventurers.  They met a bard named who was eager to travel to the moathouse, where he claimed to hear undead bumping around nearly a week before.  Too eager they thought, and did not take him up on his offer.  Here they also met Spugnoir, who seemed a bit shady and roguish.  He too was looking for an adventuring party and thought the Emridy Meadows (site of a former major battle) were a better choice than the Moathouse.  Of note also in the inn was a gnome reading by the fire, keeping to himself, the bartender and owner, Gundigoot and his wife and an attractive serving girl, Vesta.  The inn wanted 2 gp a night for a room, and another gp a night for a key.  The town boasted both a Temple to St. Cuthbert and a fairly new temple to Pelor.  Hommlet is a mostly human town of around 1,000 people.

The next day, at the Church of St. Cuthbert, they must get by the annoying cleric who runs the day to day business, Calmere.  After a sizeable donation, he is much more eager to be helpful.  He leads them to an audience with Cannonis Yday.  She tells them of the former temple and its defeat at the Battle of Emridy Meadows.  She also tells them that Moathouse was an outpost for the Temple and could hold clues.  It could possibly house the bandits who are plaguing the area.  She awaits their report back on what they may find.

The following section takes place over the course of 4 days…

The Moathouse Courtyard and Ground Levels

The heroes travel to the Moathouse and upon entering the courtyard are ambushed by a medium size Blue Dragon!  The evil creature gains the upper hand early, with a tactical use of his breath weapon, a line of electricity.  The adventurers quickly mobilize against the dragon, stall the dragon, by opening negotiations, though the dragon is cocky and not reasonable in his requests.  He is so cocky, he tells them to call him ‘Master,’ when asked what his name was.  The battle ensues once again and is hard fought.  The two groups fight to a near standstill.  The dragon flies off, fearing for its life against these hard fighting and resilient heroes. 

In the courtyard they find a bloody curved dagger.  On the steps to the moathouse they find two corpses, both seemingly well armed and armored water clerics of Elemental Eye.  Inside, they find the that the ground floor is nearly deserted, all but for a pudding that attacks the heroes, eating their weapons.  With the loss of some gear, they triumph however.  Soon, the roguish member of the group finds a secret stairway to the lower levels.

The Moathouse Lower Levels

In the first room they enter, an evil cleric sends over a dozen skeletons and one large skeleton after the heroes.  They prevail over the undead threat and even defeat the water temple cleric.  She had been praying over incense and other magical items, that turn out to be a rod of revealing when combined. 

Upon travelling further, they find themselves soon ambushed by Ghouls.  It is down there that they also find Gnolls working together, which they dispatched.  Being well-studied adventurers they realize the danger and kill some and only drive off the rest.  The ones who escape vanish mysteriously, through magic or some secret door the heroes cannot detect.  The heroes then find and rescue a powerful wizard, who attacked when they found him.  It turned out he was the alchemist from Hommlet, who was trapped here, hiding from the ghouls.  Having made a stalwart friend and ally, he shared information about a secret passage out, and how he policed the moathouse often, and was not prepared for what he found here this time.  The heroes healed him up and sent him home, and he offered a discount on his potions and services to those heroes whenever they needed them.

Later that night, while sleeping in watch shifts, the Ghouls jump the heroes.  The battle is very hard fought.  Many of our adventurers find themselves paralyzed by the Ghouls throughout the fight.  The clerics turn and drive off most of the Ghouls.  The evil clerics who sent the ghouls in could not re-command them to approach our heroes, who now turn on the two clerics, one a troglodyte and the other a human and their Gnoll ally, seemingly a captain who dual-wielded weapons.  The trog and gnoll are felled in combat and the human tries to flee, but is run down and caught, where he promply surrenders.  This human turns out to be the same one who wrote the journal the heroes discovered in the ruins as well. The heroes return to Cauldron and question the villain with a Zone of Truth.  He is very elusive in his questioning, but does give away the fact that the masterminds behind his involvement are at the Temple of All Consumption.  After heated debate over what to do with the prisoner, ranging from freeing him, to slaughtering him helplessly, to giving him a fighting chance to die with honor, the adventurers decide to leave him locked in the brig at the Temple of St. Cuthbert.  They journey back to the moathouse after re-supplying.  His journal spoke of a monster below and a joyous find to the Dark Lord.  These things had not been discovered yet by the heroes.  It also spoke of the Doomdreamers and a other cryptic and evil sounding things. 

The brief visit to take their prisoner to Hommlet ends and they return to the Moathouse lower levels.  The heroes find the secret passage out, sealed up like the alchemist told them.  They also find a complete maze of tunnels, seemingly dug by hand, one claw at a time.  They assume the ghouls did this. In these tunnels, they find the weapons they lost to the ghouls in the ambush, as well as an odd shrine to an evil god.  They cannot ascertain to who or what the shrine pays homage.  There are four secret compartments on the shrine.  The odd mix of items there-in, a drum, some incense, and other evil type items.  The heroes take it all, but do not mess with it.

Giving up on the ghoul-dug maze, the adventueres investigate what is below the former pool of water.  According Thom’s journal, they found a secret chamber below a pool of water.  Having found the hole, with a pulley system already nicely rigged in place by the cultists, the heroes begin to descend to investigate.  The chute down is unnatureally cold.  The first elevator pully system stops atop a huge glowing obelisk in a massive chamber.  The obelisk glows with writhing purple energies.  The heroes hurry across its surface one by one to the next elevator.  The purple veins snake towards the heroes as they pass over the surface, but none are caught by them. 

Upon this trip down, the heroes are ambushed from above by a Grell!  The aberation floated down on them and attacked.  The main pulley operator panicks and the elevator rocks, having one ally fall nearly 150 feat into the darkness below.  The heroes then get their act together and fight the aberration hard, until it drops another ally that has been paralyzed off the platform, who lands on the former ally!  The Grell then paralyzes and carries off one of the Heroes. 

Those remaining on the elevator quickly lower to the ground, to find that the two who fell are ok, but out, due to an evil cleric here, under the effect of a fly spell.  With ranged attacks, the remaining heroes drive off the cleric, who cuts the ropes to the lower elevator, but then screams out in pain and is never seen again (his fate was revealed later.)  Meanwhile, in the grells nest, our lone adventurer fights off the creature until they kill it, through sheer luck and perserverence.  They then use over a 100 foot of rope to try and lower themselves to the ground, coming up somewhat short.  They drop to the floor and barely survive.

In the floor of this massive chamber, they now see that the obelisk comes down to a single point, no bigger than a silver coin, which balances on a stone cylinder carved with spikes.  This chamber is also deathly cold.  The heroes investigate, finding a portal carved to look like tentacles.  Everytime the heroes touch it, a Grell comes out.  After two harrowing fights, in which the heroes ‘lose’ one of their own to an airborne grell, they quit messing with the portal.  The lost hero somehow managed to grab the former heroes rope when he killed the grell.  He was stuck, nearly dead suspended from the ceiling beyond the view of the party.  The party quickly begain searching for a way out, for the cold was getting to them, constantly weakening each of them.

They found no exits, only the portal and a pool of water.  They soon decided that the best climber must climb up the remaining elevator rope and repair the pulley system.  Through grueling and arduous labor, the lone hero saves the day and the party is able to escape the frigid and evil cavern.  Alone, succumbed to the cold, one hero is left hanging.  After much arguement, the fastest of the team left for Hommlet with all due speed, running himself ragged throughout the night.  The other party members sleep, all but the climber from before.  He sets his mind to saving his comrade who he fears will not survive the night in the cold chamber.  Through an amazing feat of rope-work and strength, the lassos his allies rope blindly and pulls him to the obelisk.  He then works hard trying to drag his friend up the side of the Obelisk, which unbeknownest to the hero, is draining his downed ally the entire time.  He successfully saves the rest of the party.  The one who returned to Hommlet comes back, after visiting the alchemist and getting a potion of levitate to find the entire party resting and alive.  Having had enough out of this trip to the Moathouse, the heroes head to Hommlet.

Hommlet

The heroes return with news of what was found for Cannonis Yday, only to find she has left for Verbobonc.  The heroes then decide to flush out Spugnoir, as he was specifically mentioned as aiding the cultists in the moathouse and in town.  They end up chasing him to the mill, where some of them fight him in the street, while others investigate the mill, finding the trap door where the head of this cult and his body guard hide.  The two are quickly dispatched, but during the fight, a spy in with the mill workers stupidly casts Burning Hands and sets the whole mill ablaze.  Some of the heroes are trapped in a globe from a bead a force in the fire.  A mad race insues where Terjeon from the Church St. Cuthbert is brought to the scene in time to put out the fire and dispel the force bubble.  It was a close call.  Unfortunately, the town guard become involved in the clean up and keep the heroes from performing their own thorough investigation.  Instead, they must sneak out what they find in the hidden cellar, including another journal.  They warn the town guard of the deadly trapped chest in the cellar and leave them to deal with it, out of frustration at having their hands tied.  Elmo is pleased to learn that one of the cultists responsible is still alive and imprisoned, and the heroes leave it to the town of Hommlet to decide the fate of Greynor Thom. 

At a loss for leads, the heroes talk to Berne and Ruphus, the town’s founders and adventurers who are the leaders of the town.  Berne suggests they travel to the ruins of the Temple of Elemental Evil and dispose of a Hobgoblin threat that Berne’s Badgers have not been able to take care of.  The heroes, despising hobgoblins, and wanting to check for further evidence of the cult, agree and head out.

Nulb

This small town seems to be set in a steady drizzle and fog.  It emanates and reaks of evil.  Within the town, the heroes search for shelter.  In one wreckage of a building, they disturb an old gnarled man, and then leave him be.  Shortly, the discover a housboat washed up on shore of the river.  There they encounter wraiths and gelatinous cubes.  The heroes retreat, luckily with their lives.  They all nearly died and decided to camp outside of town, and avoid Nulb altogether on their journey to the Temple of Elemental Evil Ruins to clear out the Hobgoblin menace.

Ruins of the Temple of Elemental Evil

The heroes tactically assualt the temple, laying waste to the first two waves of Hobgoblin defenders at the outer wall.  Inside, the goblinoids are prepared, but not prepared enough, the first wave of goblin skirmishers and hobgoblin troops are all but destroyed by magic combos like web and then fire magics.  The elite hobgoblin soldiers draw the heroes further into the temple, where a heated and close battle ensues.  Nearly every hero is taken down at some point, until it is just the Hobgoblin leader, a feirce two weapon fighter using a double bladed sword and his priest.  When the leader is taken into a wrestling stalemate, the priest betrays him and gathers up the rest of the hobgoblins, mostly women and children and runs away.  The remaining hero releases the hobgoblin to go extract his revenge, again ending in a stalemate.  In the temple, the revived heroes find a prisoner from town, —–.  They agree to help him back to town and find a place to rest for the night…