OAR - #6 - Temple of Elemental Evil - Vol. 1

TIE TEIPLE er ELEIEITIL EYIL

Full creditsfor the original edition ofThe Temple of Elemental Evil can befound in
its respective section ofthis book, where it is scanned verbatimfrom a prior printing.

1he credits thatfollow arefor the 5E portion ofthis work.

Original Writers Gary Gygax with Frank Mentzer
SE Conversion Design and Writing Chris Doyle and Rick Maffei
SE Edition Editing and Additional Support T im Wadzinski
Steve Chenault, James Floyd Kelly, Brendan
Additional Writing J. LaSalle, James Maliszewski, Jon Peterson,
Harley Stroh, Jason Vey
Special Thanks Chris Arneson, Clyde Caldwell, Jeff Easley,
Matthew Koder, Tracy Wadzinski
SE Edition Playtesters Alec Doyle, Lisa Doyle, Devin McCullen
Cover Design Lester B. Portly
Keith Parkinson, Dave Trampier
Cover Artwork Doug Kovacs
Endsheets Artwork Matt Hildebrand
Interior Layout and Art Direction Chris Arneson, Tom Galombos, Doug Ko­
vacs, Cliff Kurowski, W illiam McAusland,
Interior Art Brad McDevitt, Erol Otus, Stefan Poag,
Chad Sergesketter
Cartography W illiam McAusland
Scans and Restoration Steve Crompton
Joseph Goodman
Publisher

This volume is produced under permission from Wizards of the Coast. Dungeons & Dragons is a trademark of Wizards of the Coast. Good­
man Games and the Goodman Games logos are trademarks of Goodman Games LLC. Contents ©2021 Wizards of the Coast LLC, PO Box
707, Renton, WA 98057-0707, USA. Wizards of the Coast, D&D, their respective logos, and all adventure tides are trademarks of Wizards
of the Coast LLC in the USA and other countries, and are used with permission. First Printing. Printed in China.

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0NGiIIAL ADVEIITV�S REiIICAR._.IIA'fED • THE TEJlP:l LE 0F ELEJl:lEilTAL EVIL

TABLE OF CONTENTS

- SECTION ONE: ORIGINAL PUBLICATIONS -

CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION ................................................................................ 4
CHAPTER 2: Tr-4: THE TEMPLE OF ELEMENTAL EvIL - ORIGINAL PUBLICATION.... 41

- SECTION TWO: CONVERSION AND NE W MATERIAL -

CHAPTER 3: OVERVIEW OF THE ADVENTURE ........................................................ 225

CHAPTER 4: THE V ILLAGE OF HoMMLET .............................................................. 239
CHAPTER 5: THE RUINED MOATHOUSE & DUNGEONS .......................................... 27 5

CHAPTER 6: WANDERING AND WILDERNESS ENCOUNTERS ................................... 293

CHAPTER 7: THE V ILLAGE OF NuLB ..................................................................... 318

CHAPTER 8: RUINS OF ELEMENTAL EVIL .............................................................. 336

APPENDIX F-r: MAPS FOR VOLUME !.................................................................... 358

CHAPTER 9: THE TEMPLE OF ELEMENTAL EVIL - DUNGEON LEVEL . . . 384I . . .. ...
.... .......

CHAPTER IO: THE TEMPLE OF ELEMENTAL EVIL - DUNGEON LEVEL 2................... 410

CHAPTER I I : THE TEMPLE OF ELEMENTAL EVIL - DUNGEON LEVEL 3................... 443

CHAPTER I 2: THE TEMPLE OF ELEMENTAL EVIL - DUNGEON LEVEL 4 .................. 476

CHAPTER 13: INTRODUCTION TO THE NoDES OF ELEMENTAL EvIL ...................... 506

CHAPTER 14: THE AIR NODE ............................................................................... 520

CHAPTER I 5: THE EARTH NODE .......................................................................... 536

CHAPTER 16: THE FIRE NODE ............................................................................. 55 I

CHAPTER 17: THE WATER NODE ......................................................................... 568

APPENDIX A: DEITIES, DEMIGODS, & DEMONESSES . .. .. . . . .. .. . . ... .. . . . ... . . .. .. . . . . .. . 5 84
. . .. .. .

APPENDIX B: CHARACTERS .................................................................................. 592

APPENDIX C: NEW MONSTERS ............................................................................ 636

APPENDIX D: NEW ITEMS & MAGIC ..................................................................... 684

APPENDIX E: HANDOUTS ..................................................................................... 699

APPENDIX F-2: MAPS FOR VOLUME 2.................................................................... 713

APPENDIX G: GLOSSARY ............ . . .................. ....................................................... 72 3

0R,jGiIIAL A.DVEIITV�S REiIICARJIATED • THE TElhPLE 0F ELElhEilTA.L EVIL

CHAPTER ONE

Gru111py Old D&..D and

the Trip to Ho11111I1 et

by Brendan J. LaSalle

0 ne of the best Dungeons & Dragons battles I ever That felt like coming home.

adjudicated took place right there in the Moathouse, Soon after one of my all-time favorite Dungeons & Drag­
kicking off my return to the Temple of Elemental ons battles took place, there at the Moathouse when my
Evil in unforgettable style. guys fell prey to Utreshimon, the blue dragon.

My buddies and I played 7he Village ofHommlet when we Later on, we would say that that dragon had absolutely no
were kids, making up new characters for the occasion. The place at that dungeon, that it was much too powerful for
inscrutable Michael Dion, my first truly great DM, ran the starting characters.
adventure, making the tiny town feel like a place full of spies
and secrets. We fought bad guys in the Welcome Wench, I saw a lot of abilities on display for the first time in that
bought equipment that never existed in our D&D world game. The blue dragon opened up with a lightning bolt
before (I recall that suddenly everyone owned a length of attack against the thief-who saved, and wound up tak­
chain and had nothing to do with it), and spent a lot of ing zero damage. A first-edition thief would have died no
time trying to figure out what was really going on. doubt. I remember thinking how cinematic it was-I could
see the thief falling into a split and dodging the lightning
I remember the wonderful moment when we came back bolt, which would go on to scorch the inner wall of the
from the Moathouse loaded with loot, so excited about how Moathouse.
the formerly aloof Burne and Rufus would have to give us
a little respect now. I mean, I had backstabbed Lareth the Then I got to watch as my old gaming friend I adversary
Beautiful and come home wearing an elven cloak. A5 we Don charged up for what would have been the first ever
used to say back then, after our victory you couldn't tell me smite attack I had ever seen...if he hadn't fumbled.

nothing. "Oh, that's pathetic," howled Don at the guilty die. Don

Our foray into Hommlet wound up kicking off a long se­ was famous for his uncanny dice luck.

ries of adventures with those characters, that (as I recall) I ruled that the paladin had fallen, and on the dragon's next
ended halfway through White Plume Mountain, when my action he put a giant claw on the paladin and just held
family moved to Texas. I picked up 7he Temple ofElemental him there, fighting the others with his bite and claws. The
Evil soon after we moved and scoured its pages but mostly ranger went down, got healed, and then went down again.
used it for ideas, because at that point I was running noth­ Everyone looked around the table-was the whole party
ing but homebrew in my D&D game (mostly using ideas going to die here? It was very, very possible that the second
stolen from 7he Savage Sword ofConan and the Lankhmar night of our campaign would be its last.
books, naturally).
But two rounds later the paladin made an amazing Strength
I didn't go back to the Moathouse until my return to Dun­ check and freed himself He got back in the fight, scoring
geons & Dragons in 2000, when the third edition lured me a big hit. Later that round the sorcerer hit the dragon with
back into the fold. I was so excited when Return to the Tem­ her last magic missile, also scoring big damage. Sensing the
ple ofElemental Evil came out. I wore that book out with turning of the tide, the dragon tried to flee but the monk
a highlighter and declared that it would be the first cam­ struck an extremely lucky attack of opportunity with his
paign I meant to run after my return to Georgia. I had six quarterstaff. Endgame, and the dragon falls.
fairly consistent players-remember when you could get six
folks at the table at the same time for year's worth of adven­ I remember the palpable relief when the dragon finally went
tures?-and we started with that walk through Hommlet. down, high fives and that wonderful laughter.

0zjGiIIAL ADVEIITV�S REiIICAR._.IIATED • THE TEJhPLE 0F ELElhEIITAL EVIL

Tim Wadzinski (right; with his mom) circa 1983,
sporting his prized AD&D lizardman jersey that
was purchased for him by his grandmother. He is
clearly thinking he'd rather be elsewhere, perhaps

even behind a DM screen.

Bloody, bedraggled, out of spells and resources, the PCs Chris Doyle (center) is the Dungeon Master for a game
had survived to fight another day. That's how a fight with a run in a basement (of course) circa 1987. Devin Mc­
dragon should go. cullen (right) just did something exciting, while Craig
Rura (left) looks on. The split in the DM screens was so
I ran that adventure every week for more than a year, but by that Chris could easily access the cheese doodles (not
the time we had reached the Inner Fane schedules changed pictured) and Coca-Cola, both staples at the game
and we had to move locations and nights, and we took a table in the mid-198os.
break. We said we would pick the adventure up again-I
mean, we had made it to the Inner Fane!-but soon after That's my kind of gaming.
that Xcrawl became my life and we never revisited the ad­
venture. It is my sincere hope that this new edition becomes the
home campaign for new generations of young gamers, now
Looking back on The Temple ofElemental Evil, I see a prime innocent of all the horror and wonder that hides around
example of Gygaxian design, a style that I sometimes, per­ every corner of Hommlet and the Temple. I want them to
haps wrongly, call "grumpy old D&D." The Temple is a learn their gamer skills here, and to bring them along on a
true crawl, where you had best check for traps, search for thousand new adventures.
secret doors, and occasionally run from enemies that are
simply too strong to be defeated head-on, or you will per­ Watch out for that dragon, friends.
ish. You have to crawl smart, but you also have to be smart
about how you deal with Hommlet and your new allies as Brendan J LaSalle is a writer, game designer, and odd-job
well, because some of your "friends" are undoubtably serv­ man who had the goodfortune to discover his true calling in
ants of the Temple. You have to be a good dungeoneer and 1977 when he was introduced to AD&D. He is the author
role-player to survive. of several DCC adventures and supplements for Goodman
Games, Fat Dragon, Savage Mojo, Hand Made Games, Pan­
dahead Publishing, Troll Lords Games, and others. He is best
known as the creator ofXcrawl, the dungeon-adventure-cum­
alternative-modern-death-sport he has published since 2012.
He lives in Kennesaw, GA, with his wife, cat, and puggle.

0RJGiilAL ADVEil'fV�S REiilCAR_IlA'fED • THE TE.lb:PLE 0F ELE.lb:EilTAL EVIL

Memories of Hornrnlet and the
Temple-That-Never-Was

by James Maliszewski

I absolutely adore The Village ofHommlet. /sf Le.ve.I D'" 101 It_ s
There are a lot of reasons why this is so, but I think,
more than anything, it is the module's ominous, ··+·
brooding character. Unlike, say, the titular Keep from
••
The Keep on the Borderlands, Hommlet genuinely feels
The author's own sequel to T1, designed before T2 was pub-
like it's a community that sits on the precipice of dis­ lished.
aster. Though the forces of Good carried the day and
defeated the hordes of Elemental Evil a decade ago, ••
the victory was not total and everyone in Hommlet lead-in to DUNGEON MODULE T2, T HE T EM-
knows it-even if they dare not speak the truth. The PLE OF ELEMENTAL EVIL." T2, as originally con­
ruins of the Moathouse are stirring again and agents ceived, never appeared and I regret that. When we fi­
of Elemental Evil have infiltrated the village. Everyone
understands it's only a matter of time before Evil will nally did get The Temple ofElemental Evil, it was very
again rear its ugly head; it's simply a question of when
and whether Hommlet will emerge from the coming different from the module I had expected it to be and,
battle intact. in my opinion, not much like the module Gygax would
have written had he done so in 1979, as planned.
There's something powerful about this set-up, some­
The long gap between the publication of Tl and its
thing that strikes me as the perfect starting point for a eventual sequel gave me plenty of time to come up with
new campaign. I share with Tolkien the conception of my own conception of the Temple of Elemental Evil,
a conception that bore little resemblance to what we
history as a "long defeat" and The Village ofHommlet

touches on that theme obliquely-the notion that each
generation must stare Evil in the face and bar the way
of its advance, even though it's at best just a holding
action, for Evil can never truly be defeated in this life.
Obviously, I'm reading more into this module than
Gary Gygax likely intended, but that's part of the point
of this essay: module Tl (as it was known when I first
encountered it) inspired in me a lot of thoughts and
feelings that I find incredibly useful in kicking off a new
fantasy role-playing game campaign.

I cannot recall precisely when I first laid eyes on The
Village ofHommlet. At the earliest, it would have been

1981, since that's the publication date of the later print­
ing of the module with the green cover. Regardless of
the date, I bought and used the module with great suc­
cess and looked forward to its sequel. The cover of the

module proclaimed that The Village of Hommlet is "a

0R.iGinAL ADVEil'f'V�S REinCAR_IlA'f'ED • THE TEJhPLE 0F ELEJhEllTAL EVIL

finally saw in 1985. To come up with my own version, Armed with these paltry details, I set out to make my
own version of the Temple of Elemental Evil to use in
I scoured the pages of The Village ofHommlet for any my home campaign. I pulled out a piece of graph paper
and went to work, producing the first of several im­
details I could find about the nature of the Temple and agined levels. That first level, a reproduction of which
its inhabitants, no matter how small-which is pretty accompanies this essay, is quite small, as you can see,
much all anyone could do, since Tl provides little in consisting of only 28 numbered areas. Though the key
the way of concrete information. We learn, for exam­ associated with it has long since vanished, I can still
ple, that the Temple's minions wore ochre-colored robes remember a few of them, most notably area 7, which is
and that, in the final battle against the forces of Good,
they employed "a terrible demon." However, the iden­ filled with magical pools a la module Bl: In Search of
tities of the Temple's leadership are not mentioned at the Unknown (the first dungeon module I owned and
all, nor is the precise nature of "elemental evil," which
only piqued my interest more. The Master of the Moat­ whose design has influenced me ever since). There's also
house, Lareth the Beautiful, is stated to have some kind the very odd compass rose, which places south at the
of connection to the demoness Lolth, but whether that top rather than north. The level has two entrances (IA
means she was involved with the Temple of Elemental and lB), both of which are accessed by means of stairs
Evil or not is left to the imagination. from the surface, which reminds me that I'd imagined
thoroughly destroyed surface ruins resting atop the
Rather than frustrate me, the lack of explicit details dungeons I was mapping.
about the Temple within the pages of Tl inspired me.
I began to consider alternative ways to understand the I spent a lot of time imagining what the Temple of
Elemental Evil might be like, mapping out (I think)
paltry hints Gygax gave us in The Village ofHommlet. three subterranean levels, and beginning to key them. I
eventually stopped, after events in my home campaign
There were so many possibilities that I found it difficult shifted away from Hommlet and its surrounds, but I
to settle on a single one. The key to my making sense held on to the work I'd already done, hoping that I'd
of it was seeing the original monochrome cover of the one day have the chance to use it. Regardless, I'd had
module for the first time, which happened several years a great deal of fun thinking about the Temple, based
after I'd purchased my own copy. Drawn by the late,
great Dave Trampier, the cover depicts wnat I assume largely on the snippets The Village ofHommlet provided,
are the bandits from the Moathouse, as well as Lareth
which probably explains yet another reason why I hold
the Beautiful, wielding his mace and staff of striking. that adventure module in such high regard. For me, the
value of a module isn't simply in the information and
The armor of both Lareth and the bandits is embla­ ideas it contains, but in the way that the information
zoned with a flaming eye symbol. Was this the symbol and ideas inspire me to come up with my own. By that
of the Temple of Elemental Evil? If it were, what did measure, Tl is one of the greatest modules ever written.
this suggest about the Temple?
James Maliszewski started role-playing in the late Fall
Immersed as I was in Dungeons & Dragons and its of 1979, when he opened up a copy ofthe Dungeons &
lore at the time, the eye symbol immediately reminded Dragons Basic Set edited by Dr. J Eric Holmes originally
me of the manifestation of the Elder Elemental God purchasedfor hisfather. More than 40 years later, he's still
playing. James is known for his blog Grognardia, which
in Gygax's earlier module, Hall ofthe Fire Giant King. was thefocal point ofthe OSR movement in its early days.

Unsurprisingly, there are no details about the Elder El­ His memories and musings about role-playing games and
emental God beyond the fact that the draw worship related nonsense, as well as articles about the history ofthe
hobby from its earliest beginnings to the present day, re­
it, a fact reinforced (and complicated) in Vault of the main ofinterest to readers to this day
Drow, where it is stated that the Elder Elemental God

is a rival of Lolth among the dark elves. While I was still
uncertain about all the specifics, it now seemed obvious
to me that the Elder Elemental God had some connec­
tion to the Temple of Elemental Evil (though I was still
baffled, given the mention of Lolth in Lareth's entry in
Tl). So many mysteries!

0NGiIIAL ADVEII'tV�S REiIICARJIAfED • THE TEJl:rPLE 0F ELEJl:rEIITAL EVIL

GaryGygax,TSR,and the
Temple of Elemental Evil

by Jon Peterson

T he story of The Temple ofElemental Evil is, in many emental Evil was finally published in 1985, so it was
respects, the story of the first decade of Dungeons
& Dragons itself. Gary Gygax conceived of the reprinted almost verbatim on the right-hand column
Temple when D&D was still a small hobby, at a time of page 27.
when no one yet sold adventure modules. Later, its
name was teased in products just as D&D became a Adjacent to the Temple was an unfortunate town
mainstream phenomenon, from which point Gygax called Hommlet, which lived ever under the threat that
had so many demands on his time that work on it stag­ the evil of the Temple would rise again. Many of the
nated until he enlisted Frank Mentzer to see the thing townspeople were non-player characters, but others
finished-which it was, but just weeks before Gygax were played by the core team that worked out of 723
himself would be ousted from TSR. Its development Williams Street. Gygax mostly insisted that his players
cycle practically mirrors Gygax's career at TSR. take on new characters, rather than the ones they had
previously played in Greyhawk.
In the spring of 1976, TSR had only just turned from a
hobby into a career. The company had newly occupied So Dragon editor T im Kask played the village priest, a
a building, at 723 Williams Street in Lake Geneva,
Wisconsin. Just the previous October had Gygax and druid who was originally known simply as "Tim, the
his partner Brian Blume begun to bring on full-time Lusty Druid." Dave Arneson played the trader who
staff, the likes of T im Kask and Terry Kuntz, and then lived to the northwest of Hommlet, on the road toVer­
Dave Arneson, Mike Carr, and Dave Megarry. With bobonc. Arneson developed lists of his stock and sup­
all of these gamers on hand, there were going to be plies, and drew up a map of the trader's establishment,
games around the office. They played Napoleonic min­ which was adapted into Map 4 in the 1985 edition of
iature wargames, they played Fight in the Skies, and, as
Gygax would write in a note on April 19, "I am ready­ the Temple-as well as an illustration of what players
ing a small fantasy campaign."
would see when they walked in the door. Rob Kuntz
Gygax's new campaign was set in the fictional world was the exception to the rule, bringing his Greyhawk
we would later call the World of Greyhawk-the first character Robilar to the Temple, and ultimately laying
waste to it.
references to Oerth began to appear in Dragon this
The town of Hommlet had its share of intrigue, as
year-which contained Dave Arneson's Blackmoor and agents of good and evil schemed to their advantages,
Gygax's own City of Greyhawk. Its earliest maps always but the main event was the Temple itself. The 1976
show Nyr Dyv, the "Lake of Bottomless Depths," and area map of the upper works shows the putatively aban­
this new campaign would be set near its shores where doned Temple among a cluster of buildings in various
"a cult of chaotic evil flourished." Chaotic evil, inciden­ states of disrepair. A ruined refectory to the northeast
tally, was a fairly new idea at the time, as Gygax's four­ of the tower then contained a trapdoor, a way down
fold-model of alignment had only just been unveiled into the dungeons below. But originally, there was no
fixed underworld beneath the Temple. Gygax would
in the February 1976 issue of 1he Strategic Review. This later note, "I used some random dungeon generation
methods as a test of the systems when I put the design
cult had occupied a " Lost Temple of Elemental Evil,"
and its 1976 description was among the few original together." The very first issue of TSR's Strategic Review

artifacts that were still on hand when 1he Temple ofEl- magazine described a method for dynamically rolling
up dungeon layouts on demand, an idea he was then
refining.

0zjGiilAL ADVEilTV�S REiilCAR_IlATED • THE TEJhPLE 0F ELEJhEilTAL EVIL

�o� e pe iod of nany yeb-s a cu t of chaotic evil
flourishc' somevhe�e on �he shores of the .yr Dyu.

lthough :he location of the Lemple is lost, these
facts re er ing it, and ts followers, are known.

�he cult was based on the premise that t!'le elementr€!.
forces of the universe are chaotic and opposed to .
mankind, i.e. evil. �he tereple of the cul�sought to
destroy all wor�s of good and disrupt order. Its
r.:embers were thieves, assassains, ·o!'igands, and the
like. Fire was regarded as the first elemental evil,
and its perchant for chaotic occurrance fitted in
with tbe precise of the cult. Likewise, water was
worshipped as an even �ore powerful force of chaotic
evil, wate r in the form of floods, storms, and raging
seas beating upon the land and sinking ships. The
epitone of chaotic evil, however, was regarded as a
combination of air and earth -- represented by black
and corresponding with the Demonic Abyss. !his com­
bination was regarded as a complete negation of oatter.

The cult grew powerful and rich, attracting followers

of the worst sort, and offering safety to them within

the walls of its temple stronghold. From this fortress

these followers would ride forth to rob, pillage, and

lay waste the lands thereabout, tithing the cult with

the spoils of this brigandage. Captives from these

raids were brought back to the temple to serve as human

sacrifices (children to the fire, men to the water,

women to the blackest evil) or to slave their lives

away in bondage. Besides the extens ive upper works of

the temple a deep labyrinth beneath the place was

constructed, but virtually nothing is now known about

these dungeons other than that they were inhabited by

creatures serving chaos and evil. It is rumored that

jatodebmeottnertoroekceuni v aebothdeein the dee-oest level in order
acrifices to him.

Eventually the neighbors of this temple grew tired of

t!1ese depradations. 1All good, lawful and chaotic,

mbaanrdcheeddtotogetthheertetmopfreo,rmf:a:gmhtigihntgy host. Their army way.
two battles on the

The first was inconclusive, although the forces of

good held the field afterwards, so that they gained

the reputation of victory, and their ranks were swelled

by many men from the area. The second battle saw a

great slaughter of kobolds, goblins, ores, hobgoBlins,

evil men, and the like. The temple was thereafter

besieged, fell, and all of its inhabitants were put to

the sword. It is reported by some sources that the

toop e and its precincts resisted complete destruc�ion,

but the majority sta�e that the whole was razed so that

the cult could never em rge again nor any find where

it had once flourished.

Gygax's original 1976 write-up of the Temple ofElemental Evil setting.
0NGiIIAL ADVEIITVR,!OS REiIICAR.I. IATED • THE TEJb:PLE 0F ELEJb:EIITAL EVIL

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Gygax's drawing of the town of Hommlet was a bit more condensed than the version published in T1.

0:ajGiIIAL ADVEIITVRJ:S REiIICAR_IIATED • THE TEJh:PLE 0F ELEJh:EIITAL EVIL

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Arneson's overhead map of the Traders' Establishment in Hommlet.

0NGiilAL A-DVEilTV�S REiilCAR_IlATED • THE TEJb:PLE 0F ELEJb:EllTA-L EVIL

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Gygax's 1976 map of the surroundings and entrance to the Temple. I
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0RiGirrn.L ADVEIITVR!OS REiIICARJIATED • THE TEJhPLE 0F ELEJhEIITAL EVIL

It was only in 1976 that the first products resembling 'T ZGY,'" which is "a pass in an area of the Temple of
D&D modules and campaign settings became availa­ Elemental Evil."

ble: like the Wee Warriors' Palace ofthe Vampire Queen, The Village ofHommlet was released for Gen Con X II
and the Judges Guild's Guide to the City State. TSR itself in 1979, along with the Dungeons Masters Guide and
the module White Plume Mountain. It turned out to
would not get into the business of producing modules
until 1978, when it turned its Origins and Gen Con be a pivotal moment for the history of Dungeons &
tournaments of the year into the seminal G1-3 Giants Dragons: shortly after Gen Con, the disappearance of
modules and Dl-3 Drow modules. Once the demand 1 6-year-old college student James Dallas Egbert III dra­
for modules became apparent, many other past tourna­ matically catapulted the game into mainstream noto­
ments would be republished as modules-including an riety. Suddenly D&D product flew off the shelves of
introductory installment of the setting of the 1976 TSR hobby stores, and the modest town of Hommlet found
itself in the hands of many more eager gamers than any­
office campaign, Tl: The Village ofHommlet. Its cover one could have expected.

informs us that it is the "first of 2 modules" and that it Given how heavily it was promoted in Tl, T 2 became
serves as "a lead-in to Dungeon Module T 2, The Tem­ one of TSR's most hotly anticipated products. When
ple of Elemental Evil."
the World of Greyhawk folio came out for Gen Con in
Hommlet had grown since Gygax drew the original
1976 town map on a single 8.5'' x 11" sheet. As more 1980, it delivered a few tantalizing hints of what would
people joined TSR, they too adventured in Hommlet: await. Its "Gazetteer" situates the village of Hommlet,
for example, T im Jones, who came on staff in 1977, and the Temple, in the Viscounty of Verbobonc, and
would play the cleric Terjon. The original map had no names the great historical conflict that razed the Temple
church to Saint Cuthbert, no brewer, no stonemason, the " Battle of Emridy Meadows." It also helps us de­
and certainly not the guard tower and castle begun by code the curious black scarab marked "T ZGY " in Tl,
Burne and Rufus, who were played by Ernie Gygax and explaining that after the fall of the Temple (spoiler alert)
Skip Williams, respectively. The "Lusty Druid" played "the demoness Tsuggtmoy (or Zuggtmoy) was impris­
by Tim Kask has been renamed Jaroo Ashstaff in Tl. oned in the ruins of the place, with special wards to
Another thing that had changed since 1976 was that prevent her escape." She, it would transpire, was the
Dave Arneson no longer worked for TSR, and had great evil lurking in the heart of the Temple.
recently sued the company. The trader in the 1979
In 1980, Gygax had generated around 100 pages of
Hommlet module, Rannos Davi, has a name that un­ draft material for T 2. The environs of Verbobonc grew
over that time, as now a town called Nulb acted as a
scrambled into Arneson, and his assistant, Gremag, has buffer between the somewhat stable community of
a name suspiciously similar to that of Megarry, who re­ Hommlet and the evil of the Temple. In place of the
mained a close ally of Arneson's. They are portrayed in randomly generated dungeons he used back in 1976,
Tl as evil agents of the Temple, but the traders do hold Gygax now had begun working on four levels of a dun­
an important clue, one that hints of the future direction geon: the "Interdicted Prison of the Demoness Zuggt­
of the Temple: "a small black scarab with the glyphs moy" was sealed into the third level. The key to enter­
ing the prison lay in a variety of mystical wards, as well
• • as with four elemental "nodes" accessible through the
• Temple, which were originally called the Air Cavern,
Arneson's perspective map of the Traders' Establishment. the Earth Burrows, the Fire Pits, and the Water Maze.

• But when could Gygax find the time to finish it? He
now was the president of a thriving medium-sized busi­
ness, with revenues doubling or even quadrupling each
year. It was a time when Gygax wrestled with whether
he really wanted to be a game designer or a business
executive, and most of the time, the demands of the

0R,jGiIIAL ADVEII'fV�S REiIICAR._.IIATED • THE TElb:PLE 0F ELElb:EIITAL EVIL

business took precedence. He would promise in the Gen Con XVIII, in late August 1985. They called it a
"supermodule" because of its sprawling length-TSR
November 1981 Dragon, "Yes, Virginia, I am work­
bundled it with a reprint of The Village ofHommlet, as
ing on it, and T2 will be out no later than Gen Con
XV "-which would be the summer of 1982. And yes, the Hommlet setting was so crucial to the game. The
the original specification of Zuggtmoy as the "Demo­ whole project would be coded as modules Tl-4, with
ness Lady of Fungi" (which would appear in the 1985 the intent of providing a sandbox where starting adven­
turers could advance to 8th level. Mentzer himself ran a
Temple on page 123) is dated as a "rev. 11/81," evidence hastily assembled tournament version of it at Gen Con,
and his name appears on the cover of the module after
of his continuing efforts to get it over the finish line. Gygax:'s.

Early in 1983, Gygax could inform Dragon magazine Sadly, the release of the Temple marked the end of an era

that he only needed about five more weeks of work on at TSR: just eight weeks later, Gary Gygax left the com­
the Temple project, which was "formerly designated as pany in a dramatic boardroom showdown. He retained
module T2 but which will be released as WG 2, part 1 enough control over the World of Greyhawk to at least
and 2." The "WG" series stood for the World of Grey­ publish fiction related to it, and his "Gord the Rogue"
hawk, but the original modules slated to be released series would feature Zuggtmoy as a major figure in nov­
in the series never appeared: WG4 would be the first.
However, finding those five weeks simply was not in the els like Artifact of Evil (1986). But even after Gygax
cards for Gygax:, as the spring of 1983 would mark a
major shift for TSR: the company underwent a signifi­ could no longer work with TSR, the Temple lived on.
cant reorganization, which led to Gygax: refocusing his
effort on media opportunities out in California. After TSR was purchased by Wizards of the Coast, they

Gygax: had long been grooming Frank Mentzer to take frequently revisited it, as in the Return to the Temple
over responsibility for the design of D&D going for­ of Elemental Evil (2001). Atari published a computer

ward-Mentzer's revised Basic Rules released in 1983 game version of the original module in 2003. Today,
D&D continues to tap into the concepts of "Elemental
demonstrate him helming TSR's flagship product. So in
the autumn of 1984, we should not be surprised when Evil" in adventures like Princes of the Apocalypse; Zug­
Gygax reported, "Frank also has the 300 or so pages gtmoy can be found in Out of the Abyss and Morden­
kainen's Tome ofFoes. And in this volume, you can see
of the manuscript for module T2 (Temple ofElemen­
tal Evil)-a bequeathal of guess who." Mentzer had the both the original, Advanced D&D-era Temple, as well
as experiencing a version updated for today. You will be
difficult job of updating much of the early work on the treading a path walked by the originators of Dungeons
& Dragons, a rare intersection that nearly everyone re­
Temple for the contemporary D&D system (Unearthed sponsible for the original game touched in some way.
Arcana would come out before it, say), but his job was W hether that cult of elemental evil will rise again is
now in your hands.
not merely a clerical one: he filled in a number of gaps
and added several key elements to the Temple. To give Jon Peterson is the author ofPlaying at the World.
just one example, the due poem given of page 44 of the

1985 Temple was one of Mentzer's contributions.

Thanks to Mentzer's efforts, and Gygax's willingness to

delegate, The Temple ofElemental Evil finally arrived for

0RjGiirn.L ADVEfftV�S REiilCAR__IlATED • THE TEJllPLE 0F ELEJlEl ilTAL EVIL

Building in the Shado'W of the
Temple of Elemental Evil

by Harley Stroh

T he Temple ofElemental Evil casts a long shadow. The form moving in the mists ahead of a gathering storm.
adventure captures a milestone in D&D's evolution: Arguably the finest cover of its era, it beggars any au­
the birth of the TSR "supermodule" and precursor thor's attempt to match it with mere words, and lays
of the adventure path, even as Gary Gygax handed the truth to the maxim that it is art that drives RPGs. How
reins of the iconic adventure to Frank Mentzer. The re­
sult was nothing short of a triumph, a mega-dungeon often has a designer, musing on the cover of Temple,
fully worthy of the tide.
yearned to write a passage that conveys one tenth of
As a young gamer (innocent enough to convince my­ the malevolence and mystery promised in Parkinson's
self that the Savant-Sage and Pluffet Smedger the El­ painting? We've all fallen short.
der were real!) I devoured the richness of the Temple's
history. The wealth of bizarre names and intersecting In my own contributions to the collective body of role­
backstories set the standard for how I imagined settings
should be designed. It would rake me decades to con­ playing games, it is difficult to overstate the influence
sider that perhaps PCs' own actions could drive that
backstory-adventures becoming history, and history of Temple. The keep of chaos in DCC RPG #67: Sail­
informing adventures-rather than requiring a com­ ors on the Starless Sea was designed to evoke memories
pleted setting, neatly orchestrated by the judge.
• •
Later, as a DM, Temple was something of a (un)holy
grail, a massive undertaking worthy of the tide of Ad­ THE LOST TSR Jh:ODVLE!
vanced Dungeons & Dragons. There was no mistaking THE Jh:OATHOVSE

this massive delve for the readily segmented Caves of The cover to TSR 's 1984 release ACS: Player Character Re­
cord Sheets bears a striking resemblance to a scene from
Chaos. Instead, Temple's hundreds of rooms offered a The Temple ofElemental Evil. Was it in fact an illustration
that was originally intended for other purposes-per­
seemingly endless series of encounters to thwart and haps even as the cover to a never-released adventure
harry adventurers. The mere act of exploring the dun­ Tz?
geon threatened to release the fell demoness from her
eternal prison. The seven factions, each vying for su­ In an effort to find out, we asked legendary TSR artist
premacy within the Temple, set the stage for internecine Clyde Caldwell, who painted the image. "This painting
conflict far beyond my 12-year-old ability to apprehend was the first painting I did after coming on staff at TSR,"
nuance in the battle of Good versus Evil. Taken as a Clyde told us. "If memory serves, it was supposed to be
whole, it isn't surprising that the adventure's scope ex­ used as the cover of a module called The Moathouse. So
ceeded my youthful enthusiasm, or that most of our that was the title I kept for the painting. For whatever
delving involved quickly scanning the treasure totals reason the painting wasn't used for quite a while. I don't
of the next encounter to determine whether or not the know if the module was canceled, or if it appeared with
pending encounter was worth the reward. a different cover, or if the module's name was changed.
No one ever told me. It was later used on the Player
Finally, as a writer, Temple has always beckoned, like Character Record Sheets."

the demons atop the posts in Keith Parkinson's brilliant TSR's art director at that time, Jim Roslof, has unfortu­
cover illustration. It speaks to Parkison's talent and skill nately passed away. We were unable to verify any more
that-devoid of any adventurers or foes-the illustra­ information about The Moathouse. It's a tantalizing bit
tion "simply" depicts the Temple, and a single, robed of history regarding a TSR adventure that never came
to be.

••

0R,jGiI1.A.L ADVEI1TV�S REiI1C.A.R..I1.A.TED • THE TEJllPLE 0F ELEJlEl llTAL EVIL

Was this painting originally intended to be the cover art to T2: The Moathouse
before TSR repurposed it for ACS: Player Character Records�

0zjGiIIAL ADVEIITVRJ:S REiIICAR.I. IATED • THE TElhPLE 0F ELElhEilTAL EVIL

Opening scene from Dungeon Crawl Classics#67: Sailors on the StarlessSea, designed to evoke memories of the Moathouse.

0 R.iGiIIAL A.DVE II'fVRJ;S RE i II C A RJIATED • TH E TE Jl:l PLE 0F E L EJl:l E nTA.L EVI L