There’s not a lot here that can be added to a campaign aside from the adventurers themselves, there are no new NPCs of note, no background or plot to pillage for a campaign, and no new ways to utilize the existing module (unlike what we saw with White Plume Mountain or Descent into the Depths of the Earth). Too, I find it difficult to place this novel in the context of Greyhawk canon the events vis-a-vis the Temple are fairly straightforward, but the very end of the novel mentions a brewing civil war in Veluna that I don’t recall happening in other sources. I would have liked to see a lot more of the iconic NPCs from the module we get our share of Elmo, but Burne and Rufus are on the sidelines, Jaroo is mentioned but never seen, Otis and Y’Dey are absent, etc. The writing was decent, the characters presented well enough that I could differentiate them from one another (unlike Against the Giants on both counts), but the whole seemed rather a bit lacking in verve. In the end, Elmo is dead, Zuggtmoy left imprisoned, the Temple itself leveled, and Prince Thrommel freed and off to Chendl to marry the fair Jolene. Reid takes the casual mention of a connection between Lareth and the demonness Lolth and runs with it, building a whole sub-plot of machinations between Iuz/Zuggtmoy and Lolth, which I found somewhat unnecessary. Now no longer “the beautiful”, Lareth is sent to destroy the intruders with an army of humanoids and a giant, but is himself slain and somehow rises as a shadowy spider-like apparition. Having failed to keep the Moat House safe from the intruders, he hies himself back to the Temple, only to be tortured and maimed by the high priest thereof, Hedrack. I thought that their being attacked by the famous giant frogs near the entrance to the Moat House was a nice touch, and the use of some Temple spies first encountered in Hommlet, who then later pose as fellow explorers of the Moat House was pretty well done. The village is attacked by brigands before the expedition can begin, but they soon make their way to the Moat House. A party of adventurers is summoned to the village of Hommlet by the powers-that-be to explore the happenings at the supposedly-abandoned nearby Elemental Temple.
This novel hews pretty closely to the original classic adventure module written by Gary Gygax and Frank Mentzer and published by TSR. Reid is probably much better known for his novels set in the Forgotten Realms, but this novel, published in 2001, is his first written for TSR before he moved on to the FR. Today’s bit of Greyhawkiana is the novel The Temple of Elemental Evil, by Thomas M.
'Black Market economy' with stolen items and fences.Īnd of course the new spells, new equipment and bugfixes that Co8 brought to ToEE, including more than 60 new feats.Caution: Spoilers (both of the novel and the modules it’s based on). Heaps of new and classic equipment from the PHB such as Disguise and Climbing kits, new magic items, and many alchemical items.ĭeeper, more thoughtful quest progressions, usually with multiple ways of completing quests. Over 60 new maps to explore, with more interactive environments (such as desks, shelves and cupboards commonplace) and over 40 quests New racial abilities such as Stonecunning and racial languages New class abilities such as Wild Empathy, Slow Fall, Illiteracy, new familiars, better control over animal companions, new spells, Domain skills, class-specific quests New skills - Alchemy, Handle Animal, Climb, Use Rope, Knowledge (Nature), Speak Language, Disguise and Forgery (NPC only) - and additional uses for skills such as Appraise, Perform, Spellcraft and Sleight-of-Hand Keep on the Borderlands expands on ToEE's excellent simulation of the D&D3.5 engine with the following additional features: Its been modded into The Temple of Elemental Evil, the 2003 D&D video game by now-departed developer Troika. The player needs only talk to the NPCs of the Keep and surrounding locales, and role-play their character, to find a variety of adventures, culminating in a journey to the infamous Caves of Chaos, where the party can fight, work for, manipulate or despoil the various tribes of monsters. The player controls one or more characters who have arrived at the Keep on the Borderlands seeking fame, fortune and adventure.
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