Grotto – Temple of Elemental Evil Area of the Week 05/23/03

This page is a part (Dungeons of Elemental Evil #307) of a playthrough that spanned the year of 2003. All the information was taken from TSR’s original AD&D adventure, the Temple of Elemental Evil.

For the DM: This is the domain of two leucrotta, previous pets of Zuggtmoy. Their den is the small cave to the southeast of the circular chamber. They are now cared for by the ettin in area 306, but not nearly often enough to suit them; they are voracious.

For the players: This circular chamber, some 40 feet in diameter and 40 feet high at the apex of its dome, is made to appear as if it were a natural setting (albeit bleak and disquieting). The walls are hewn to appear as boulders, and detritus is spread by the walls. Jagged rocks likewise protrude from the perimeter in seemingly natural manner. Even in the relatively open center, the floor is uneven, with cracks, ledges, and loose rock.

The whole area is dimly lit by a gray light, with no apparent source but nonetheless leaving pools of shadows near the walls. A cold, damp breeze moans and sighs throughout, and the air smells foul. A bone projects from a fissure to the east, and near it is a full skeleton clad in chain mail. A leering skull atop a low slab of rock to the northwest seems to taunt you.

For the DM: The leucrotta attack anyone foolish enough to enter their grotto unless the intruder is a demon or some other monster obviously involved with the Greater Temple.

Leucrotta (2): AC 4, MV18″, HD 6 +1, hp 34, 29,
#AT 1, D 3-18, SA imitate voices,
SD kick hooves in retreat (D 1-6/1-6); XP 747, 707

The skeleton in the grotto is dwarven, clad in chain mail +1. At the bottom of a nearby crack (three feet deep and six inches wide), just a foot or two from the skeleton’s right hand, is an axe + 1. A backpack under the skeleton contains typical adventuring equipment, and a belt pouch holds eight vials of holy water.

In the den is another dwarven skeleton, scattered in many pieces. Mixed with the bones are five quarrels +3, a broken light crossbow, a broken shield, tattered chain mail, an intact shortsword, and a belt with four small pouches fashioned thereon as part of the belt. One pocket holds three gems (an amethyst and two pearls, each worth 100 gp); the other three pockets are empty. This belt magically reduces weight; each pocket can hold 100 gp (or ten pounds weight) as if it were but 1 gp (or a tenth of a pound). However, nothing larger than one by two by three inches can fit into a pocket, and the maximum cubic volume capacity for a pocket is three by six by twelve inches. (Thus, vials of holy water would easily fit, but a dagger or wand would not, in most cases.) The belt is worth 5,000 gp (XP Value 1,000).