Room of Bones – Temple of Elemental Evil Area of the Week 05/02/03

This page is a part (Dungeons of Elemental Evil #219) 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 quarters of a troll chief named Oohlgrist, an honored guest of the two trolls nearby (in areas 203 and 218), who serve opposing factions of the Temple. Each seeks to win Oohlgrist’s favor, for he can bring a score or more of great trolls to align with the one preferred. This room was especially decorated for him, and he is brought choice victims for dinners. Though evil and cruel, Oohlgrist is wily and cunning. He has no intention of risking himself or his followers unnecessarily. He intends to milk the rivalry to the utmost, then joining neither side unless certain that those involved can triumph without any great struggle involving him or his trolls.

For the players: Something has taken considerable pains to decorate this disused storeroom. The walls are covered with a plastering of excrement and bones, to form both patterns and shelf-like bone ledges. Skulls leer from these shelves — human, humanoid, dwarven, and various sorts of other creatures as well. The floor is a conglomerate of bones and ordure. A large armchair and crude table of sorts, each fashioned from bones, stand in the northwest corner. In the southeast corner is a heap of torn cloth, leather scraps, bits of tapestries, and pieces of rugs. Suddenly the pile moves, and something rises — a huge troll!

For the DM:

Troll chief: AC 2, MV 9″, HD 6 + 6, hp 50, #AT 3, D 6-9/6-9/4-14,
SA attacks as if 10 HD, SD regenerates
(3 hp per round starting 3 rounds after being damaged),
wears ring of fire resistance; XP 1050

Oohlgrist wears bone armor (worth a gem in trade with a troll or ogre) for a -2 AC bonus (included above). He also wears a ring of fire resistance on the little finger of his left hand, a necklace of gold with four small rubies given to him by the priests of the Fire Temple (jewelry value 4, 750 gp), and a jeweled belt given him by the priests of the Water Temple (silver with four nice emeralds, jewelry value 5, 250 gp). In a pouch at his belt is a necklace of adaptation, also a gift from the Water Temple followers. (DM, be sure that you make saving throws for these items if Oohlgrist is attacked by magical means which could damage them. ) A potion of extra healing is concealed in a small leather pouch under the pile of old cloth.

If confronted by a party demonstrably capable of killing him (and thus obviously a fair match for the various Temple factions), he tries to parley. (Of course he’d rather eat humans than talk with them, but…. ) Being a tribal leader, Oohlgrist knows rudimentary Common. His first offer is to spare the characters’ lives if they pay ransom of gems or many precious coins. Failing that, he simply tells them to “go away, and Great Ugly Troll Chief spare you”; he has other things to do, and isn’t hungry. If that ploy fails, he offers his ruby necklace, and then his belt of emeralds (but never any of his magic items).

Last, he volunteers (so to speak) to aid the party in overcoming one of the Elemental Temples, and will settle for as little as onequarter of the loot gained thereby (but first asks for half). Oohlgrist actually fights well if he perceives no treachery, and if the characters fight as well. If they try to betray him, or expect him to bear the brunt of the fighting, he immediately switches sides. Oohlgrist will not cooperate for any extended period of time. If the characters are weakened, he turns on them.