Q1 - The Evil Temple of Fraz-Urb'luu (Part 2)

In these posts, I'm going to work my way through the adventure.  I don't know that I can recall the exact order that the heroes encountered the rooms, but I will relate any anecdotes that I can think of as I describe the rooms.

The temple itself was a kind of Mayan ruin (or an idealized one) that had a pyramid-like structure with a sacrificial altar at its top.  There were no easy steps to climb (like in the picture below) but a clever adventurer might be able to find an entrance at the top as well as the main doors at the ground level.

The altar found atop the pyramid is the trigger for a permanent illusion of Fraz-Urb'luu.  He appears and "swallows" the person on the altar.  That person is actually teleported into the dungeon level.  (More about this later...)

I built the adventure with illusions as part of the theme.  Fraz-Urb'luu is the Demon Prince of Illusions, so I figured his temple would have a lot of them scattered around.

Level 1 Map

I am going to fix the text from my module in the room descriptions.  I was apparently a terrible speller in high school.  When I post the PDF of the module at the end of these posts, you'll see all my misspellings for yourself.  :)

Here we go --

1-1 "The entry is blocked by a pair of giant, bronze, rune covered doors.  They swing out easily, if pulled, despite their mass.  The runes are in demonic.  They name the temple and the demon prince, Fraz-Urb'luu.  If the priests are warned they will use a glyph of warding on the door."

The heroes will have no trouble entering the place.  If they are careful, they won't get blasted by the glyph.  If they are sloppy, they can expect a rude surprise.  I put a lot of contingency bits into this adventure.  I was trying to have the priests react as real people might if their temple was attacked.

You can also tell that I spent a bit of time with the map.  There are details in the rooms and I've shaded around the edges.  The adventure got some fair use when it was played; the dark spot near the top punch is where I reinforced the map with tape.

1-2 "The Pillars Have Eyes: At the top of each pillar, is a circle of 4 eye-like stone carvings.  If the priests are ready they can use the pillars to watch the party with these pillars.  This is done from room #5.  They can monitor this room and rm. #3 if the doors are not closed.  The pillars radiate strong magic, but not evil."

I remember that the characters entered through the door at #1 and then entered this room.  They poked around in the area long enough that the priests were alerted to their presence by use of the pillars.  The characters did get into these rooms first...

1-2a "The Antechambers: These rooms hold ceremonial garb.  2 ornate jeweled daggers can be found, value 50 gp each.

The characters dressed up as worshippers using the temples own ceremonial garb.  Not entirely convincing, but a clever idea anyway.  Eventually...

1-3 "Entry Chamber: If the party barges in, this room will be empty.  If they come in the guise of worshippers, the high priest will meet them here.  He will detect alignment on them and be cordial in any case.  If the party is mostly good aligned, he will mess around with an amulet he is wearing and in a few seconds an adept will enter from the worship hall.  He will show the adventurers in, leave through the back doors, rally six guards and surprise the party in 2 rounds.  The shaded area is blood red carpet."

I distinctly remember roleplaying this encounter.  I remember describing him fiddling with his amulet like it was a nervous habit.  Kraalnar, the high priest, did arrive and he did play it cool.  I improvised a bit and I didn't have him fight with the adept and the six guards.  He had already retreated to safer quarters.  He was a bit overconfident and figured his men could take care of this threat without his assistance...  he was wrong.