TGAT: Session 26

Temple of Elemental Evil 1st Edition Cover Art

## The Great Ziggurat of Boccob

Inside the large main room which is unlit beyond the sunlight from outside, and draped in cobwebs, is a large carved obsidian wall on the western side depicting an old bearded man battling a huge chained fiery demon and its army. On the eastern wall is another carved obsidian wall depicting the start of the The Dawn War, the primordials led by a tanar'ri demon vs. the entire pantheon. The most noteworthy image being that of Dendar the Night Serpent, devouring one of Selûne's most favoured creations, the sun.

Richard Dickens searches the room and finds a handful of canopic jars scattered around the room. Some of these were carved from blocks of obsidian and featuring horrific visages of demonic entities; with others made of pottery and bearing a bearded human man. Richard Dickens opened one of the pottery jars to find a green and sweet smelling liquid inside.

Dipping his fingertip inside and tasted it and felt energised and refreshed; in response he poured a quarter of the contents of the canopic jar into the gullet of the near-comatose Einrik Stürmkarst who recovered from his stupor and all his wounds miraculously healed. Richard Dickens then poured another quarter of the contents into the toothy maw of Cubone who similarly recovered. Restored to full health the trio proceeded inwards opening the large doors to the north.

Thirty feet in front of these doors was another doorway that is sealed closed by a huge slab of bronze. The bronze slab hums with arcane energy and is encrusted with eldritch runes. The party turn left and enter a triangular room, the floor covered in filth, and the odd bone, which diverts their eyes down. However as they walk inside they are quickly forced to look up when they hear the loud territorial hoot to spot an owlbear charging towards them!

The party absolutely slaughter the owlbear which doesn't even get the chance to make a single attack before it drops dead. At this point they spot an iron manacle around its ankle connected to a sturdy looking chain securing it to wall. As the party observe the creature, an Orc peers around the corner of the room to the south and charges towards the party whist projecting a battle cry proclaiming they have murdered his beautiful Henchwig, only to suffer a similar fate as his beloved ursine bird monster.

The party investigate the room he came from and find storeroom containing nothing of notable value beyond an acrid lingering stench of troll. They continue west along the corridor and find a secret door in the western corner. Cubone searches it for traps and finds nothing so they open the stone door revealing an unlit staircase spiralling down. They decide to close the door and continue on wards and return here later. At the end of the corridor they find a wooden door to the right, and Einrik Stürmkarst finds another secret door in the northern wall. Cubone searches this door for traps and finds an arcane rune and decides to leave the rune well alone.

Meanwhile Richard Dickens listens against the wooden door and can hear creatures talking in an unknown language on the other side. Einrik Stürmkarst also presses his head against the door and confirms that they are speaking goblin. *They are discussing the freeing of their lord and how much power they will amass when he is told of how they helped release him, and proceed to scheme about how they will spend the new wealth and women they will be granted.*

The door is not locked so the party discuss a plan and agree to get Bushy kick open the door, run in and batter everyone as the rest of them pile into the room and kill everything else. Executing the plan the door is bust open and inside are four bugbears, as agreed they pile inside and assault the unprepared goblinoids. After two rounds, two of the bugbears have been killed and a door to the east opens, and two more bugbears join the fray along with two goblins. The fight continues and the party take a handful of wounds but eventually destroy these foes and proceed into the room the second group of goblinoids emerged from which is strewn with the odd piece of bedding and personal effects.

Einrik Stürmkarst finds yet another secret door to the south. Cubone searches this door for traps and finds a noxious smelling liquid on a movable section of the stone door; to clean the door he fetches his decanter of endless water in his bag, then points it in the doors direction and says *"geyser"* to activate it. A 20-foot-long, 1-foot-wide stream of water explodes from the flask at a rate of 30 gallons per round. The considerable back pressure sending Cubone flying backwards into the wall causing minimal damage but enough for him to quickly deactivate the decanter. After reinspecting the well doused door the contact poison had been washed away, and all three of the adventurers could hear a huge creature walking around on the other side.

The party decided to instead head through the wooden door to the north. Richard Dickens attempted to open the door only to find it had been locked, the noise of the door mechanism prompted a wet and sloppy sounding gruff response in common ***"What dat racket?"*** from the other side. Richard Dickens responded ***"We are under attack, come out and help us fight!"*** rather unconvincingly. The smug, moist and lachrymose voice said back ***"I t'aught y'all goblanfolk 'ad da keys? Why don't-jah come in?"***.

Cubone unlocks the door and opens the swollen wooden door; revealing the watery utterance to have been produced by a 9 foot tall, 500 pound, troll with moss green rubbery hide, putrid gray hair. Who launched into combat without hesitation, flailing wildly towards Cubone grabbing him in one hand. Richard Dickens and Einrik Stürmkarst ran into combat with the troll to free their friend and after a couple of rounds they were able to down it. Cubone finished it off by dumping four acid vials on its unconscious body.

## Hall of Verdigris

No other rooms left to explore they returned to the room to the south and opened the secret door into the Hall of Verdigris. This huge hall, 40' x 90', has an arched ceiling exact height is not discernible as many buttresses and arches form a tracery of shadowy dimness. The floor and walls are covered in slabs of polished stone, apparently azurite-malachite from the swirls of blue intermingled with the deep green. A soft cloudy greenish luminosity seeps from the walls and floor, seemingly floating in the air, making the whole chamber appear as if deep underwater.

In the middle of the west wall is a great sheet of bronze, a bas-relief of an underwater vista - seaweed, shells, and various forms of marine life. The head of a fish-like thing projects from this, a most hideous visage. Its ghastly maw emits a stream of water, which falls into a tiered series of four basins. The fourth and largest never overflows.

Near the mid-portion of the hall, some 40 feet from the east wall and 30 feet from the north wall, is a bronze altar with many marine creatures sculpted in bas-relief upon its sides. It is about four feet high and round, with a ten-foot diameter. Its top is concave, and a shallow basin apparently about two feet deep is filled with water. The bottom of the basin is filled with coins, a sprinkling of gems, and many small seashells.

About four feet South of the altar basin stands an eight foot high idol of serpentine stone, expertly sculpted to depict a writhing, amorphous agglomeration of fish, eels, octopi, and other marine monsters. The alcove to its rear is covered by a drapery apparently fashioned from seaweed and water! Each corner of the hall is filled by a triangular plinth, filling it and extending about 20 feet upwards. Atop each of these columns is a gargoyle-like statue made of bronze. The bronze doors, gargoyles and fountain are all covered with verdigris; even the damp air seems to smell of the sea.