I'm hoping someone will help me understand how in the original ToEE, the various factions entered and exited the temple.
To my knowledge, there are only two non-magical ways to enter the temple:
1) The side doors around the corner from the Grand Entrance (p. 40, areas 1 and 2 on map 11).
2) The secret tunnel leading from area 3 in the Broken Tower (p. 38, areas 3 and 4 on map 10), which connects to another secret passage that leads to area 335 on level 3 of the Temple (map 14, pp. 86-87).
Given that Falrinth has "too many enemies" in the temple (p. 88), and that he also is in possession of the Orb of Golden Death, then it is clear that the secret passages leading to/from his chambers see little (i.e., no) traffic.
The side doors on the main level of the Temple, however, are barred from within, and nobody stands watch on the inside (i.e., no one is there to guard against intruders or lift the bar for allies). Since the various factions of the temple are at war with each other, wouldn't they want to battle for possession of the main entrance (thereby controlling access to supplies and new recruits from outside)? Given the placement of the various factions, I imagine it would be easiest for the Earth temple to control the entrance. How do the others get their people to/from the outside world??? Why is no one guarding the main entrance???
This is how I handle it: Based on the appearance of the upper works, the idea seems to be that the intended impression is that the Temple is a deserted ruin. This is no doubt by design of the Greater Temple. The four elemental factions may be rivals, but they are all under the control of the Greater Temple. To keep the ruse of deserted ruin believable, you couldn't have individuals wandering in and out willy-nilly. Entering and exiting the temple is probably restricted to after dark if at all possible. When someone inside needs to venture outside, they would be escorted to the entrance by guards that would bar the doors again before returning to the dungeons. Entrance would be restricted to prearranged times, so that a guard could be there to allow entrance.
A party that hacks through the doors the first time around, and dose a noticeable amount of pillaging would no doubt be met by guards the next time the attempted entrance into the Temple.
Scott
I think also that most of the Temple's forces are too busy being involved with internal conflict to venture forth that much. None of the factions are going to wish to see a sizeable amount of their troops leave the vicinity for fear that they will be attacked by another faction in their weakened state. Perhaps one or two emissaries may be sent out occasionally for recruitment reasons. The Earth and Fire factions seem to rely on Rentch and Wat in Nulb to provide a flow of recruits. The Air and Water temples may have people performing similar roles elsewhere.
Most of the external Temple activity is in the form of bandits and brigands. These groups have easiest access to the Temple through the tower in the temple grounds and then the secret passage into the temple.
Like ScottG said the Greater Temple are still trying to keep their activites secret. Bandits are more readilly explainable than gnolls and bugbears with Temple emblems.
I've been running the original ToEE as well and there are a lot of untidy ends I've been coming across - it's a good adventure but needs a lot of refining.
Falrinth can also exit from the side tunnel (in the secret tunnel leading to the tower) that leads to the well near the farmhouse out in the woods, instead of the tower.
The factions of the ToEE are not at war. There is infighting, but should the infighting interfere with the plans of Iuz, the Greater Temple leaders would beat somebody down...hard. The factions vie for influnce and probably murder each other only if they can lay the blame on another faction(the best result) or not be discovered at all. The Greater Temple(and Iuz) encourages this to weed out the inept. The temple factions aren't fighting each other through the halls. Their infighting is more subtle, scheming, and conniving and thus the various temple faction agents come and go as they please, but with great care lest they fall victim to another faction or be dicovered by outsiders. _________________ - Moderator/Admin (in some areas)/Member -
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