Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 zombiegleemax Oct 22, 2003 16:19:53	FOR DM's ONLY!!! I am a DM for a long time, and this is by far the most confusing situation that ever came to pass in any session. This thread concerns the "Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil", so there are some spoilers here. YOU ARE WARNED!!! My CE party has: 1. Human fighter 2. Human ranger (favors to hunt humans). 3. Human cleric of Erythnil 4. Halfling rogue After cleaning of Moathouse, they went back to Hommlet, in order to find the remaining cult members. When they did found them, by the will of the dices, two of their party members were caught up in the bead of force, and so was Master Dunrat. All other cultists were dead, and two other party members were alive and healthy. This should be an easy situation, they just wait for the bead to expire, and then they will kill the priest, but I added the element of diplomacy. The priest convinced them to join with him, because if they were smart enough to find him, then they are surely worthy of the job, etc. He promised them riches and many chances to kill innocent people, and thay agreed!!! The cleric became the cleric of Tharizdun, and is trying to take the Doomdreamer prestige class, and others are just bloodthirsty. I gave them several tough quests: 1. To convert Ingrith, using her paramour. 2. To convert Xaod to blackguard. 3. To steal an amulet from Terjon and set it up to priest of Ehlonna etc. Does anyone has an idea how to continue this thing? It looks like lots of fun, I even play the ToEE video game to pick up some ideas, but any comments/suggestions/ideas are welcome.
#2 Brom_Blackforge Oct 22, 2003 16:40:47	Well, if your party is determined to play the "bad guys" in this adventure, my suggestion is that you create an NPC party of "good guys" that are trying to shut down the Temple (i.e., that are doing what the adventure was designed for the PCs to be doing). That seems like the easiest way to deal with it. It would require relatively little modification from the adventure as written, except that your PCs would be chasing the "good guys" instead of being the "good guys." (If you have another gaming group, you could pit one group of PCs against another, but that would be a lot more work.) The alternative is to try to turn the party against the Tharizdun cult, so that they start doing what the adventure assumes PCs will be doing. (I mean, do they realize that, at least according to the LGG, awakening Tharizdun would mean the end of the world?)
#3 Greyson Oct 22, 2003 16:55:45	Wow, this is a proverbial "doozey." I like Brom's idea about adding a party of good aligned NPCs to compete with or fight against the cultists in Homlett and the Crater Ridge Mines. There are godd aliagned NPCs in abundance in the NPC Appendix. Xoad, Elmo, Burne et. al. But, the key here is idea of Tharizdun's ineffable evil and his goal of total annihilation. Even evilly aligned gods worked to imprison him. This issue must be understood by the PC who might think joining his cult or the EEG cult would be useful or worthwhile. A really good place to ask about and discuss this idea is the RttToEE forum at Monte Cook's Web site. Check it out HERE, and ask this question on that board. Those guys know a ton of stuff that pertains to RttToEE and would love to field this question.
#4 zombiegleemax Oct 22, 2003 17:10:42	I'd just have them occasional receive a "touch" of Tharizdun. Have one lose it for a round or two in combat and "accidently" in a mad lunatical frenzy attack one of his companions. They'll get the hint that Tharizdun worship isn't all its cracked up to be real quik I reckon. I reckon lol, No I'm not from TX Abysslin