X5 - Temple Of Death

System: Dungeons & Dragons

Code: #9069

Type: Adventure

Levels: 4-14

Author: David Cook

Year: 1983

Publisher: TSR

Format: 32-page book

X5 - Temple Of Death

X5 Temple of Death is a very interesting module. It is a continuation of module X4 Master of the Desert Nomads. In the first half, the player characters have to travel through a vast network of mountain passes to get to the source of the attacks. Basically - the characters are entering a foreign kingdom. That's right, you read correctly - an entire foreign chaotic kingdom. A kingdom complete with towns and cities and tribes of orcs and ogres and gnolls and bugbears. Once in the kingdom, the party has to determine where this Temple of Death is located. Then there is an entire temple of clerics and fighters who will kill the characters if the characters are discovered. The first half is very well laid out. The 2nd half - uh - no. The DM is under fire to come up with lots of stuff on the fly. How will the characters infiltrate the Temple, how will characters deal with the various evil clerics in the various cities? This is an entire KINGDOM of people who mostly would kill the characters, or at least report them to the authorities if they knew what the characters were really up to. Yea - this one is something else. This could easily be made into a much higher-level module. Or even an empire-building campaign.

So the characters defeat the Master. What happens then? NO IDEA! The module doesn't have an aftermath section. Are the characters hailed as heroes? Are they hunted down as evil villains? There is still an entire ARMY of chaos that is wandering the known area (known to the players). Do they conquer this new Kingdom they have discovered? Do they attack all the chaotic humanoid settlements that abound in this kingdom? Do they just try to get out by the skin of their teeth? What are the consequences of defeating the master?

Here is my take. The characters do NOT defeat the master. Maybe they think they do, but the master lives on. The characters travel back to civilization, and all is well for a while - however long you want. Weeks to months to even years. However, it is eventually time for X10 Red Arrow, Black Shield where the entire known world (to the PCs) erupts in war! Yea - now that is what I call an adventure! Trash the entire place! Fight entire armies of chaos! Become true heroes!!

Alternatively, modules X4 and X5 can be played as part of X10, after the war starts the heroes have to travel to the chaotic country of origin to dispose of the master there since he is leading the troops from afar. First, the characters have to go around and recruit allies from other nations as described, but once the nations come together and the invading armies are defeated - THEN it is time to seek out the Master and put an end to him. I don't know - I've never run it that way. But it could work!