Temple of Elemental Evil pnp conversion to 4e

darkfeld01, your AARs (After Action Reports) of the D&D campaign that you are running make for fascinating reading. I certainly look forward to reading any other AARs that you post. I know very little about fourth edition D&D. What I have read of the Player's Handbook seemed very promising and an improvement over third edition (but it seems that I am in the minority about this). I am jealous that I can't play a PC in your campaign. I hardly ever get the opportunity to role-play tabletop D&D any more these days. You taught me that Ioun is the god of knowledge and magical study. Now I finally know where Ioun stones derive their name from. The more that I learn about the Greyhawk campaign setting, the more I appreciate it for being the original D&D campaign setting. I am very fond of the Circle of Eight wizards who created many of the D&D spells that bear their name.

You seem to be an extremely talented Dungeon Master. My old Dungeon Master told me that he would one day like to DM the PnP supermodule The Temple of Elemental Evil again with me role-playing a PC. But he lives in China now, so who knows if that will ever happen? The Temple of Elemental Evil has always been one of his favourite modules. He also loves the computer game adaption of it as well.

Let us know how your D&D campaign pans out. I bet that the confrontation between the good party of PCs and the bad party of PCs will be the highlight of your campaign (and that it will cause a lot of friction between players). Thanks for posting.

 

So this past weekend i met with the good group which i will be calling the Hommlett group from here on in. We ended up playing longer than i had thought but i had the whole Moathouse fleshed out already so i was prepared. Here is the party make up.

-Male Gnome Bard, secret agent of the church of st. cuthbert. He belongs to a secret arcane society that supports the church of st. cuthbert and the kingdom of veluna, they believe that the protection of arcane knowledge is extremtly important and that the churchs belief in law and order is one of the best ways to police that knowledge. His mission is to make contact with Cannoness Y'dey becasue she has gone dark and no messages have been recently recieved. He met with Terjon upon arriving in Hommlett who claims to not know her whereabouts but suggests exploring the near by moathouse as it has always been a location with trouble attached to it, but he also suggests not going alone and that there are generally adventerous types in the welcome wench inn.

-Female Elf Ranger, She is a bounty hunter and is in the area looking for a number of criminals that may be in the region. She meets with the mayor upon arrival, since he is the most formal legal representative, to anoounce her presance, set up a connection to local law for arranging payment from the viscounty of verbobanc, and tell the mayor to keep the militia out of her way. The mayor agrees but says that his town is not the place to look for criminals but suggests nulb or even the moathouse nearby since bandits have held up there in the past. He suggests that it might be dangerous and that she might like to find some allies to join in her search, and should try the welcome wench inn.

-Male Half-elf Hexblade (a warlock variant, he is a fey pact warlock), He is an Eladrin/Elven court agent from the confedarated kingdom in the gnarley forest. He is the son of a Human officer that pledged his loyalty to the coronal and become a mageknight in the kingdom. His father married and had him in the kingdom to a noble elf woman. His father went off to fight in the temple war and his body was brought back with a bloody hand print on his face. He was already a soldier in the coronal himself at this point and he applied himself vigoursly to prove his metal and do his father proud earning himself the gift of a fey pact blade (a blade of magicical ice that he summons) upon swearing his oath pact. He became an officer and was recruited as a spec-ops agent due to hs natural talent with locks and stealth. Now years later a member of the coranals royal family has been murdered and left with a bloody hand print on the corpse, the same MO as his fathers killer. Through inquiries with other kindoms they have learned of Smigmal Redhand the assassin and now Varis the hexblade is sent on a mission to find the whereabouts of his fathers killer and take her life. He heads to Hommlett to find out what information he can and make contact with an old ally of the elven court, Jaroo. Jaroo suggests starting in the moathouse as it had some involvement in the temple war but he suggests finding allies to accompany him.

-Male Dwarf Hybrid Shaman/Warden (with owl bear spirit companion he can summon), his estranged father fought in the temple war and never returned. He has no knowledge of what side he fought on or why. Now his dreams have become nightmares of his father covered in blood, a crown with blood dripping fangs, a dark shadow drinking from a bloddy goblet amoung other disturbing images. With his life interuppted by these tidings from the spirit world he feels a compulsion to close the door on this part of his past and move one. The player/character does not know that the father was one of Prince Thrommels Bodyguards and his fathers spirit is reaching out to him to save the prince. He unknowingly heads off to Hommlett to find out more about why the temple war happened and how his father might have been involved. He naturally heads to the Inn upon arrivial.

-Male Warforged personality Hybrid Warden/Paladin of Correllon, he is old, almost three hundered years old but after more than 200 hundred years in solitude standing in a forest in quite contemplation he has come to the realazation that despite his lack of a need to eat, drink, sleep or breath he is still alive and a part of the wonderful thing called nature that surrounds him. Correllons follwers found him in there woods and watched him carefully until he stirred. They took him in and their belief in arts, magic and nature as well as the protection of those things appealed to him. He know embraces life and almost greedily gathers objects to imporve himself and make up for the time he lost. As a paladin of Correllon he has been tasked with ferreting out lost magics to bring them to light and out of the hands of evil. He has been sent to the Hommlett region due to the increased activity of Lloths followers in the area. He heads to the inn upon arrival to recruit others to raid the moathouse and look for lost magics taht could have been left after its raizing.

 

So the party was all in the tavern and the usual NPCs were there as well. Furnok was at a corner table shuffling cards, Toruko and Kobort chatting by the fireplace, Tupperello talking with Nash (couldn't find a name for Eddies father, he is a possible love intrest for the elf ranger), Zert at a corner table drinking alone, Spugnoir sipping wine, and Elmo pretending to be sloppy drunk. The warforged Rubiks called Borst McLeery the dwarf over and asked if he would like to join him in raiding the moathouse. The Elf Ranger Xanaphia Nailo overheard the word moathouse and went over to inquire. While they chated details on the moathouse Furnok soliciated a game of cards or dice from the Hexblade Varis Quinn, Varis being completely broke declined but agreed to return later, he noticed then that the warforged, dwarf and elf were leaving together after having just met, he goes over and introduces himself and mentions that he is aware of the moathouses location and can guide them there, at this point the bard Roswyn stops playing his lute and offers his services as a "man to keep their spirits up." They agree to head out together. Before leaving they are approched by Spugnoir offering to pay them if they can bring back books, scrolls or whatever historically significant things they can find and don't need.

On the way out of town Melanies little brother billy throws a rock at Rubiks, she makes him apoligize and introduces herself to the party, after some talk about how jealous she is of their lifestyle and promises made to return and tell her of their adventures, they then depart. Varis leads them easily to the Moathouse where they are ambushed by Bog Toads. They then head into the courtyard where Varis leads them into the tower to investigate a glint he sees in the rubble. Xanaphia wonders alone through the broken open hall doors while the rest of the party fights the giant spider. She heads off towards the storeroom and gets nearly killed and eaten by the horde of rats on the stairs headed down. She is saved by the others having learned a valuable leason about wondering off alone. Rubiks investigates the kitchen by himself and gets attacked by the giant tick that hits first round and attached to his chest, it nearly kills him while his pride didn't allow for calling for help and with only a single hit point left he frees himself and tosses it out into the hall. It imediatly attacks Borst the dwarf cause it lands next to him, he quickly removes it from being attached to himself, throws it back in the kitchen and closes the door. Rubiks attacks it killing it before it can kill him.

Roswyn opens the door to the lizard room and is promptly attacked, he slams the broken old door breaking it from its hinges and the lizad charges. Borst summons his spirit companion behind the lizard and Roswyn in a attempt at a spell that would teleport and ally behind the lizard he rolls a one, he instead swaps places with the lizard, placing it in the hall and him by himself in the room behind it. Rubiks opens the kitchen door only to find himself face to face with the lizard, they fight it a while and upon Rubiks dealing the death blow with his warhammer he feels the lizard sag under the blow but his hammer clang of metal inside the lizard. He promptly shoves his metal arm into the lizards body and extracts a magic light shield. The party decides to the gnome can take it as the Dwarf and Warforged prefer to keep their heavy shields.

They move on to the snake in the side room, kill it and retrieve some magic gloves that the bard also takes as it gives a bonus to damage with attacks against will. They then move onto the bandits held up behind their locked door. Varis picks the lock, and they bust in, the bandits are ready after all the noise they have been making. Melee breaks out, Varis is knocked unconsious, Roswyn is able to bring him back up and he is the one to deal the killing blow to the bandit leader. They find the bandits burried treasure and retrieve some art objects coins and a Delvers light (a flash light attachement for warforged head or chest), Rubiks attaches it to his chest like iron man (sigh) and they find the secret passage down.

The party heads down, fights Lubash who unwittingly gives up that they are not wearing the uniform so must be killed, save Nybbal (who gives them the gnome friend ring) and the two merchants. Nybbal leads the merchants back up the secret pathway where he grabs some equipment from the bandits and leads the merchants back to Hommlett.

The party heads towards the west towards the stairs and Xanaphia notices the hidden door frames behind the trash heap as well as the trip wire that would drop the green slimes on the main stairs. Varis disarms the tripwire and he and Xanaphia both pick the locks on the two doors after they get them cleared away. They resupply and make plans to return and take what they can back to Hommlett.

They then fight the zombies and end up finding the sectet passage in the torture chamber, this leads them to the burial chamber where they are jumped by four ghouls. This fight is nasty and Rubiks, Varis and Borst spend time on the floor unconsious. The ghouls are finally killed and their treasure is found. I had originally used the random treasure feature in Masterplan to generate art objects for treasrue, in this section the art object was an Eladrin crown and i was also giving them a magic bow. I decided that the crown and bow were on the same corpse in the bone pile the ghouls have. More on the significance of the corpse later.

From here the party makes it's way off to the pool with the giant crawfish. They are of course caught by surprise and ambushed, the crawfish nearly destroys them. During the fight and the insuing attempt to keep the body from sinking into the pool (they had some crazy idea that they could get the body back to town and make money selling it as a delicacy) they knock the skeleton with the scroll tube and money pouch into the pool and are unable to grab it before it sinks. Rubiks, not needing to breath, jumps in and sinks to the bottom. He conts out the coins (180 gp) and puts 80 in his chest that he has chained to his back, then he ties a rope to the crayfish corpse and starts climbing out. He then gives the scroll tube to Roswyn the bard and splits the 100 gp with the party, taking a share of 20 for himslef. They decide it is time to rest as they are nearly out of healing surges and daily powers.

After resting in the pool room they move off towards the masters chambers skipping the passage towards the gnolls room. They try to bluff the guard because they are wearing the cloaks from the storeroom but since they still don't know the hand sign they are attacked and the alarm raised. They take one of the guards hostage and fight in the hall as more arrive from the barracks. A few rounds in and Selucas the former knight captain of valuna, wanted for treason (i beefed him up a bit to make a bounty on his head for Xanaphia), strides into battle with out flinching and uses his rechargeable power that can knock a target prone, i roll a crit and knock Varis uncounsious with one hit. Nothing says bad ass like striding into combat on your first round and taking someone down. Xanaphia identifies her prey and starts to unload on him, he is pissed and starts to fight harder. At this point Lareth is heard shouting asking what all the commoation is about. He strides into combat the next round in the hall way and the party is even harder pressed with him using area affect spells, his aura bolstering his allies with temp HP and Selucas adjacent to him. The tide turns as Selucas is brought down and Xanaphia nails a crit with her bow that bloodies (half HP) Lareth, he screams "My Beautiful face, what have you done?" and charges her, his aura changes and he gets nasty. They are finally able to bring him and his soldiers down, and with his last breath Lareth says "But how, I'm Lareth......?"

The party searches the bodies, Xanaphia cuts off Selucas' head and puts it in her backpack. They raid Lareths' chambers, find his tapestries and lush carpet devoted to Lloth and even the greedy warforged paladin of correllon burns them instead of selling them. They find his diary and read a little about his plans, about Nulb and his recent additions of a band of mercs (the Nulb party) and how they have done well and a vague discription of their exploits, it also mentions that they were recently sent off to eleminate some rangers in the woods nearby. They retreave the items there which include arcane and relgious reagents for casting rituals. The session ends here with only the gnolls, bugbears and secret portcullis trap in the hall to clear the moat house, then the big three fight on the way out.

 

so about the crown and bow on the skeleton in the ghouls lair. on a whim i told Varis the hexblade that the crown is that of the coronals royal family and with his history check he knew that a member of the family used to use a magic poison bow and that he died during the temple war and his body was never recvoered. Varis convinces the rest of the party to allow him to keep the crown to return to the family and that if there is a reward he will gladly give it to them for he wants nothing but to honor his peoples lost hero. They agree but the bow goes to Xanaphia as she is the only who uses it, on the condition that if she ever upgrades that the bow will be returned to the royal family as well instead of sold.

The reason that this is important is that the scroll tube from the crayfish pool has two rituals, one is detect secret doors and the other is last seen vision. I decided on these before the session and now during the session the party decides that it would be a good idea to take the skull of the eladrin and use last seen vision to see the last moments of the royal eladrins life before he was killed in battle, to gain knowledge of his killer and any other knowledge of the battle itself.

So this leaves me the perfect oppurtunity to drag xanaphia and varis further into the story, because what Roswyn is going to see when he performs the ritual is the royal eladrin archer fighting along with his allies, one of whom is Varis' father, and then a blade sprout from the chest of the archer, he will look down at the blade and then a bloody hand will grab his face from behind and pull him backwards throwing him to the ground as his killer passes, he will see the dark clad figure with the red blood dripping hand and bloody blade stalk off towards his allies (Varis' father) and then nothing as he dies.

Xanaphia has a wanted poster (one of several) for Smigmal Redhand for $10,000 gp, Varis obviously wants her dead as that is his mission, so that will tie their fates together.

Thats all i got for now, the plan now is to have the Nulb party out of the way for awhile so the Hommlett party can clear the moathouse, the big three and make their way to Hommlett and get involved there more, maybe even go to Nulb.

I will report back in with further info as the story unfolds, as always critisism, encrouagements and ideas are more than welcome.

 

Just like to add my support.

I like both 4e and 3.5. Played 3.5 to death and so 4e is a nice change, plus it's great to have melee chars and non magic users kicking some serious behind in 4e.

I tired 4e in pnp and various virtual TT. I started working on a "PnP" conversion using the NWN2 engine for use with a digital table top, dusk till dawn in the chaos scar, quite fun if small delve.

A 4e version of ToEE would be great, I'd be amazed to see one actually appear. Still I'm still playing this game 7 years on, so there's no rush!