ToEE Campaign Bible

DM-side reference for our 5e-with-1e-sensibility run of T1-4. Not for player eyes. This document holds faction structure, chain of command, the loyalist undercurrent, the Spore symbol, the Hommlet spy network, and key planted seeds. The companion document is “ToEE NPCs” which holds the named-character reference tables.

Campaign Frame

System: 5e mechanics, 1e sensibility. Encounters are not balanced. Traps can be gruesome. Death is possible. The lesson for younger players is that the world rewards caution, parley, scouting, and retreat as much as combat.

Setting: Greyhawk, played in place. Hommlet, the moathouse, Nulb, and the Temple where the original module locates them.

Format: 2-hour sessions.

Goal: Transform the silo’d dungeon-crawl structure of the original module into a reactive story by selectively wiring in cross-cutting consequences. We do not pre-wire everything. We wire in only the parts that matter for the day, then improvise consequences when players act in unexpected ways.

The Power Structure of the Temple

The chain of command

Iuz sits at the top, off-screen. He is a demigod, the cambion son of the witch Iggwilv and the demon lord Graz’zt, and the literal ruler of the Empire of Iuz, a horror state in north-central Flanaess. His goal is the slow domination of the Flanaess, with Furyondy and Veluna next on his list. The Temple of Elemental Evil sits deep inside his enemies’ territory, in the Viscounty of Verbobonc, vassal to Furyondy. He inserted his agents after Zuggtmoy was bound, intending to use the Temple as a hidden military foothold deep in enemy lands. He doesn’t care about elemental evil. He cares about projecting power south. If discovered he can disavow it. He almost never appears in person.

Hedrack, Supreme Commander, Most Honorable Emissary of Iuz, is the on-site authority. Level 9 cleric, Dungeon Level 4, Area 417. He runs the Temple day-to-day. The four elemental priests believe they run their own temples and don’t realize Hedrack manipulates them. Senshock, his Level 9 wizard, is the operational right hand and crafts contingencies and traps throughout the dungeon.

The four elemental priests (Romag, Belsornig, Kelno, Alrrem) believe they are autonomous lords of their respective temples. They are not. Their faction war is real to them, but Hedrack’s hand is steering it. They report up to “the Temple” in vague theological terms; in practice, all reports flow to Hedrack. Any letter, courier, supply shipment, or piece of intel that originates anywhere in the Temple’s network — Hommlet, the moathouse, the elemental temples — eventually crosses Hedrack’s desk. Once the players are on Hedrack’s radar, they are on the radar of everything.

Zuggtmoy is bound on the lowest level, conscious and seething. The Temple was originally hers. Iuz keeps her bound because her name and her infrastructure remain useful while she herself is a threat. Freeing her would unleash a demon queen on the world. She has no operational control while bound. She is the original architect of the disaster and the final boss of the campaign.

The seven-faction structure

We treat the Temple as having seven factions. Five active ones the players will engage with, and two undercurrents that exert ever-present pressure.

Five real factions:

Earth Temple (Romag)
Water Temple (Belsornig)
Air Temple (Kelno)
Fire Temple (Alrrem)
Iuz overlay (Hedrack and Senshock manipulating the four)

Two undercurrents:

Zuggtmoy loyalists — scattered, broken people who never abandoned the Lady. Cooks, low-ranking acolytes, a captive priestess, a few bugbears who were originally hers. Leaderless after Iuz had the obvious leaders killed years ago. They watch for any chance to free her.
Falrinth and Smigmal — a hidden seventh layer. They pose as the loyalist movement’s leadership but are actually pursuing their own ambition. See the section on Falrinth below.

This is the structure we replace the original module’s “Lolth faction” framing with. The Lolth angle was a Gygax campaign artifact from the GDQ series and didn’t survive scrutiny. Lolth is gone from our canon. The characters Falrinth and Smigmal stay in their rooms on Level 3 unchanged mechanically, but their motivation is reframed.

Falrinth — The Hidden Seventh Layer

Falrinth is the central twist of the campaign. The players will, over many sessions, come to understand him in three layers, each one peeling away to reveal the next.

Layer 1, what the Iuz-aligned Temple staff thinks of him: A reclusive wizard in his tower on Level 3. Dangerous, antisocial, mostly left alone because he doesn’t interfere and he’s powerful enough that interfering with him would cost more than it’s worth. They don’t know what he wants. They don’t ask.

Layer 2, what the Zuggtmoy loyalists believe: Falrinth is the de facto leader of the loyalist movement. He says the right things about freeing the Lady. He gives them just enough — a kind word, a small mission, an acknowledgment of their devotion — to keep them faithful. They see him as their prophet, the wizard who will be elevated when Zuggtmoy is restored. They will die for him. Some have.

Layer 3, the truth: Falrinth is a long-game schemer who intends to seize the Temple for himself. The original module’s text gives this away in one sentence: “He plans to use Smigmal as a tool to achieve control of the remaining Temple forces, so he can become ruler of a domain of death and destruction equalling, even surpassing, that of Iuz.” Zuggtmoy is one of his tools, not his goal. The loyalists are cover. The elemental rivalries are levers. Hedrack is the obstacle.

Why he stays despite the danger. The prize is too big to abandon. The Temple is the most concentrated source of power in the region — bound demoness, infrastructure, troops, dungeons, a foothold for the right kind of ambitious mind. He has invested years already. He is not going anywhere until either he wins or he is defeated.

His operational role: keeping Hedrack from consolidating. This is the key insight. Falrinth is not strong enough to challenge Hedrack directly. So he doesn’t. Instead, he is a destabilizing force. Whenever Hedrack moves to unify the elemental temples, or settle one of their feuds, or absorb a faction, Falrinth quietly disrupts it. A bribed messenger here. A forged letter there. A critical document that goes missing the night before a meeting. Hedrack genuinely cannot consolidate the Temple, not because the elemental priests are too proud (the module’s reason, which is weak) but because there is a wizard on Level 3 who notices any movement toward unity and quietly breaks it. The faction war is sustained by Falrinth.

This is the answer to “why doesn’t Hedrack just take over completely?” — because Falrinth is preventing it.

Smigmal as co-conspirator. She is not a true believer in Zuggtmoy. She worships power, and Falrinth is the one who will deliver it. To the loyalists she is his faithful enforcer. In truth she is his partner in the whole deception. She is the only person he genuinely trusts and the only one who knows the real plan. She is also, after a decade in this place, possibly the only person keeping him grounded enough to function.

Kriitch the quasit. In the original module, a gift from Lolth. We reframe it: Falrinth bound the quasit himself in a desperate ritual years ago. He tells the loyalists it is a sign of Zuggtmoy’s favor. The truth is murkier. Mechanically the quasit functions as written.

The late-game betrayal. This is the gold-plated payoff. Over many sessions, the players come to see Falrinth as an ally. He gives them intel against Iuz’s people. He helps them navigate the elemental priests. He even helps them descend toward the deeper levels. They come to think of him as the only sane voice in a Temple of monsters. Then at the climax — at Zuggtmoy’s prison, or just before — they discover what he actually wants. They have been working for him the whole time. That is the campaign’s earned reveal.

The Zuggtmoy Loyalist Undercurrent

The loyalists are real but broken. Iuz had the obvious leaders killed years ago. What remains is scattered, leaderless, fanatical, and small. Cooks. Acolytes. A captive priestess in the cells. A handful of bugbears who were originally Zuggtmoy’s troops and never fully accepted Iuz’s authority. They communicate through a hidden symbol (see the next section). They watch for any destabilization of the Iuz regime, because chaos is their only path to freeing their goddess.

How they react to player actions. When the players start killing Iuz-aligned people, the loyalists cautiously help. A door is left unlocked. A captive gets a meal. A single useful clue is planted where a player will find it. The players will not know who is helping them or why. They will just notice things going slightly more in their favor than they should. That is the loyalist undercurrent making itself felt.

A tragic NPC type for the table. A young acolyte who genuinely believes Falrinth will free Zuggtmoy. The players might befriend her, be helped by her, feel sympathy for her. She is the human face of the cost of Falrinth’s manipulation. When the betrayal lands, she dies for nothing or learns the truth and breaks. Either way, she makes the betrayal hit harder than abstract politics could.

The Spore — The Loyalist Symbol

The loyalists communicate through a hidden symbol. It needs to be simple enough to draw on a doorframe with a finger or a knife in seconds, obscure enough that no one recognizes it immediately, and ignorable enough that a Temple guard who sees it shrugs it off as graffiti or mold.

The symbol. A small spiral with three dots, drawn in a single continuous motion. The spiral curls inward (clockwise from outside, ending at center). Three dots sit equidistant around it: one at the open end of the curl, one to the upper right, one to the lower right. Thumbprint-sized.

What it means. The spiral represents fungal growth — mycelium spreading outward from a center. The three dots are spore prints, the seeds of the next generation. The symbol says: the Lady will rise. It is a statement of faith and a way for one believer to recognize another without speaking.

Why it works. A spiral is one of the easiest things in the world to draw. A finger in dust, a knife in old wood, a fingernail in damp plaster. Three dots are equally fast. The symbol can be left in under five seconds. It can be tiny enough to escape notice on a doorframe, on the underside of a chair, on the inside of a cell door, in the corner of a tapestry.

How to deploy it at the table. Never describe it as a symbol when the players first see it. Describe it as ornamentation. “The phylactery is a leather bracer with a small bronze plate, etched with a decorative spiral and three small dots.” That is it. No emphasis. No “you notice.” Just one descriptive sentence among several. Players who write it down or remember it across sessions will start connecting dots themselves. Players who don’t will still recognize it when it appears prominently in Falrinth’s chamber.

Where it appears.

Lareth’s phylactery at the moathouse, etched as decorative scrollwork. The first appearance. Players who examine the magic item closely (which they will) see it.
The moathouse, scratched into the wood frame of the door to Lareth’s private chamber, low to the ground.
The trading post in Hommlet, on the underside of a workbench. Rannos and Gremag don’t know what it means. A visitor left it months ago. Only seen if players actively search the place.
The Temple proper. Scattered: scratched on a doorframe in Romag’s territory. Painted faintly on the underside of a stone bench in a Level 2 corridor. Drawn in dust on the floor of a cell where a captive priestess was held. Woven into the embroidery of a tapestry in a guard room. The Temple staff don’t see them. The loyalists do.
Falrinth’s chambers, several times, including one larger version on the wall behind his bed, partially hidden by a hanging. This is where the players, if they have been paying attention, finally connect it. The symbol they have been seeing for sessions belongs to him.

An optional table-level detail. Lareth might trace a small spiral with his thumb on his palm during a parley, the way someone might tap fingers when nervous. The players notice the gesture, file it away, and later when Falrinth makes the exact same gesture during a conversation, they realize what it means.

The name in DM notes. Just call it “the Spore.” It is short and memorable.

Lareth — The Early-Reveal Vector

Lareth is at the moathouse, not in the Temple proper, so he is not in the NPCs document tables yet. But he is one of the most important NPCs in the campaign because he is the players’ first encounter with the loyalist undercurrent — without them having any idea what they are seeing.

His position. Officially, Lareth answers to Iuz’s chain of command and reports to Hedrack via courier. He has been sent to rebuild Temple forces in the area. The original module describes him as “one of many so charged.” That is his cover.

Secretly, Lareth is one of Falrinth’s people. The original module’s text already hedges this — it says Lareth “sought to serve both the Temple and Lolth.” We replace Lolth with Zuggtmoy. Lareth is a Zuggtmoy loyalist who hedged his bets toward whoever could keep him alive. When Falrinth absorbed the leaderless loyalist movement, Lareth came with it. He is now a double agent.

What this means for the campaign. When the players kill Lareth at the moathouse, they are not just killing a generic Temple cleric. They are killing one of Falrinth’s own people. Falrinth knows. Falrinth waits. Falrinth eventually decides whether to take revenge, recruit them, or use them. By the time the players reach Level 3 of the Temple, Falrinth has been thinking about them for many sessions.

What to plant in Lareth’s lair.

Two correspondents, two letters. A standard letter from “the Master” (no name) commanding Lareth to rebuild forces and report quarterly. Players read it and shrug — standard Temple business. A second letter, hidden better — under a floorboard, in a false bottom of a chest — from a different correspondent. No salutation, no signature. Different handwriting. More intimate tone. Addresses Lareth as someone who remembers “the Lady,” speaks of “her restoration,” ends with a phrase like “the wind moves the seed before the seed knows it grows.” Meaningless to the players. Will mean something later. The clue is the existence of two correspondents writing different kinds of mail. Lareth is reporting to two people.
The Spore on his phylactery. Lareth’s phylactery of action (a 1e magic item, give it the 5e equivalent of advantage on saves vs. paralysis, hold person, etc.) bears the Spore as decorative scrollwork on the bronze plate. Described as ornamentation, not as a symbol.
A name on a list. If Lareth has any kind of correspondence or roster — a list of recruits, a tally of supplies, a brief notebook — slip “Falrinth” in among the entries. Just the name, no context. Players who later meet Falrinth on Level 3 might or might not connect it. Either way, the seed is planted.
Optional: the gesture. During parley (if the players parley with Lareth, which they might given how the original module describes him as cunning and willing to bargain), have him idly trace a small spiral on his palm with his thumb. Don’t mention it again. When Falrinth does the same thing fifteen sessions later, the realization is the players’ to make.

The Hommlet Spy Network and Cross-Cutting Mechanisms

The original module wrote silos. Hommlet, the moathouse, and the Temple are three separate adventure locations whose state does not propagate between them. A clever party doing detective work in Hommlet has no impact on the moathouse or the Temple, and vice versa. This is the central design flaw and the thing we are deliberately fixing.

We do not pre-wire everything. We wire only what matters for the day. But it is worth knowing the shape of the network so that when players poke at it, we have answers.

The Hommlet agents (per the original module)

Rannos Davl (Level 10 Thief) and Gremag (Level 7 Assassin) at the trading post. Direct servants of the Temple. Report Hommlet activity to a brigand courier on a regular schedule. Hire out a groom and a man-at-arms who are also spies.
Zert at the Welcome Wench inn. A Level 2 Fighter spy posing as a mercenary waiting for a caravan. Eager to join adventuring parties as a hireling for an equal share, then betray them.
The construction laborer at Burne and Rufus’s tower (Area 32). Level 2 Fighter. Reports to the traders. Will become a guard at the trading post once the tower is complete.
The traders’ groom and man-at-arms. Both serve in the village militia, both spy on it for the shopkeepers.

That is at least four spies on the Hommlet militia rolls, in a village of maybe 250 people. The Temple has a meaningful intelligence presence.

Cross-cutting mechanism #1: The brigand courier

The original module mentions a brigand courier who moves between the moathouse and Hommlet but never names or stats him. We make him real.

He has a name (DM’s choice — pick something earthy, like “Branth” or “Oren”). He rides between the moathouse and Hommlet on a fixed schedule. He carries one letter in each direction per trip. The trader-side letters report Hommlet activity. The moathouse-side letters report bandit operations and supply needs. If the players intercept him, they get the actual contents of the most recent traffic, and they learn the moathouse is the destination. If they replace the letter with a forgery, they can manipulate Lareth’s beliefs about Hommlet — or Romag’s beliefs about the moathouse, since the courier eventually feeds into the Temple’s own communication chain.

This single NPC turns two silos into one system.

Cross-cutting mechanism #2: Lareth reports to Romag, not just to “the Temple”

Pick one of the elemental priests as Lareth’s specific superior. Romag is the obvious choice given proximity (Earth Temple is on Level 1, the closest level to the surface) and given that Romag is actively building forces and would naturally want a moathouse outpost in his portfolio. So Lareth reports to Romag monthly via a separate courier. If the players attack the moathouse, Romag finds out within weeks. If they take a long time clearing the moathouse, Romag sends reinforcements. If they kill Lareth and take his gear, Romag can recognize the gear when they later show up on Dungeon Level 1.

Of course, Lareth’s true superior is Falrinth, who learns of his death through a different channel.

Cross-cutting mechanism #3: The Hedrack council

Hedrack holds council with the four elemental priests on a fixed schedule — every 11 days (a Greyhawk-flavored unit). Each council, the priests bring grievances, request resources, accuse each other. If the players are observed by any one priest, that priest brings it up at the next council, which means the entire Temple knows their description within at most 11 days. Player choices have temporal stakes.

This is also where Falrinth’s destabilization happens. Documents go missing the night before councils. Couriers carrying agreements get bribed. Hedrack’s careful work to forge unity gets undone again and again, and he doesn’t quite know who is doing it.

Cross-cutting mechanism #4: Visible state changes between visits

If the players come back to a place they cleared, things should be different. The moathouse, after Lareth dies, gets occupied by a small Earth Temple recovery team Romag sent. The traders, after Lareth dies, become visibly more nervous and start packing wagons. The Earth Temple, after the players are spotted on Level 1, has Romag move his treasure to a different location.

This is improvisation work, not pre-planning work. The DM tracks who saw the players, what was reported, what is mobilized, and who has been sent where. A session journal on the side. The reward is that the world feels alive.

The retaliation hook (already in the module)

If the PCs kill Lareth at the moathouse, the original module specifies what happens next. The traders try to find out what happened. If any of Lareth’s possessions surface in Hommlet, the killers are made. A 10th-level assassin is dispatched to Hommlet within 5 to 20 days to eliminate them. This is a beautiful old-school consequence and we run it as written. Jaroo and Terjon will help defend the players if they are attacked.

What This Structure Does for Play

The thematic point of all this for younger players: the world is populated and connected in a way most published 5e adventures aren’t. When something bad happens in one place, somebody somewhere finds out and reacts. That’s the old-school sensibility we are aiming for.

The practical point: the players have many ways to engage with the Temple beyond combat. They can pose as agents of one faction to get past another. They can find documents that reveal the cold war. They can capture a Fire Temple priest who will rat out Water to save his temple. They can play Romag against Belsornig. They can be helped by mysterious anonymous loyalists. They can be befriended by a wizard who is using them. They can, late, realize Hedrack was the real boss all along, and then realize Falrinth was the real real boss.

The dungeon is not a hundred-and-fifty rooms of monsters who all hate the party equally. It is a place where everyone hates each other, where one ambitious wizard is preventing peace, and where a bound demoness waits at the bottom for someone to make a terrible mistake.

UPDATES TO MAKE TO THE NPCs DOCUMENT

The following changes need to be applied to the companion document “ToEE NPCs.” These bring the NPC tables into alignment with the canon established in this Campaign Bible. Six targeted edits, listed below.

Change 1 — In “The Seven Faction Leaders” table, replace the Lolth row.

Find the row that currently reads:

| Lolth faction | Falrinth (L8 Magic-User) + Smigmal Redhand (L7/7 Fighter/Assassin) | Areas 336 & 337, Dungeon Level 3 | Wizard with a quasit familiar gifted by Lolth, plus his murderous lieutenant. Plotting to seize the Temple from Iuz when the moment comes. |

Replace it with:

| Zuggtmoy loyalists | Falrinth (L8 Magic-User) + Smigmal Redhand (L7/7 Fighter/Assassin) | Areas 336 & 337, Dungeon Level 3 | Nominal leaders of the broken loyalist undercurrent. Publicly, devoted to freeing the Lady. Secretly, schemers using the loyalist movement as cover while they work to keep all factions destabilized. Their real goal is to seize the Temple themselves when Iuz’s grip slips. |

Change 2 — In “The Seven Faction Leaders” table, remove the Zuggtmoy loyalists row.

Find and delete this row entirely:

| Zuggtmoy loyalists | Zuggtmoy herself (bound demoness) | Area 565, Node | The Lady of Fungi, bound in the deepest level. No human leader on site; scattered cultists dream of freeing her. The ultimate prize and threat. |

The faction is now represented by Falrinth and Smigmal in the row above (per Change 1). Zuggtmoy herself stays in the Level 4 table as the bound demoness; she is already present there.

Change 3 — In the Dungeon Level 3 table, replace the Smigmal row.

Find the row that currently reads:

| Smigmal Redhand (L7/7 Fighter/Assassin) | 336 | Lolth | Half-elf assassin in love with poison and human suffering. Falrinth’s enforcer. Wears jeweled belt worth 3,200 gp. |

Replace it with:

| Smigmal Redhand (L7/7 Fighter/Assassin) | 336 | Zugg | Half-elf assassin, Falrinth’s co-conspirator and partner in the deception. To the loyalists she is Falrinth’s faithful enforcer. In truth she shares his real plan — power for themselves, with Zuggtmoy as the tool, not the goal. Wears jeweled belt worth 3,200 gp. |

Change 4 — In the Dungeon Level 3 table, replace the Falrinth row.

Find the row that currently reads:

Replace it with:

| Falrinth (L8 Magic-User) | 337 | Zugg | Long-game schemer hiding behind devotion to Zuggtmoy. Acts as the loyalist movement’s leader because there is no one else, but his real plan is to seize the Temple for himself. Actively destabilizes any move toward unity among Hedrack’s people — a bribed messenger here, a missing document there. Will dimension door away if cornered and remain a long-term threat. |

Change 5 — In the Dungeon Level 3 table, replace the Kriitch row.

Find the row that currently reads:

Replace it with:

| Kriitch (quasit familiar) | 337 | Zugg | Falrinth’s quasit, bound to him during a desperate ritual years ago. Sees, hears, and warns Falrinth telepathically. Falrinth tells the loyalists it is a sign of Zuggtmoy’s favor. The truth is murkier. |

Change 6 — Add a new section above “Dungeon Level 1 — Earth Temple’s domain.”

Insert this new section. It should appear above the Dungeon Level 1 section, since chronologically the players will encounter Lareth before any Temple NPC.

Outlying Servants — The Moathouse

NPC	Room	Faction	Summary
Lareth the Beautiful (L5 Cleric)	Moathouse, Master’s Chamber	Iuz / Zugg	Sent to rebuild Temple forces in the area. Officially answers to Iuz’s chain of command and reports to Hedrack via courier (and to Romag of the Earth Temple as his proximate superior). Secretly one of Falrinth’s people — a Zuggtmoy loyalist hedging his bets, a double agent. The first place the players will encounter the loyalist undercurrent without knowing what it is. His phylactery bears the Spore symbol as decorative scrollwork.

End of update list. After applying all six changes, the NPCs document will be in alignment with this Campaign Bible.

generic Created May 2, 2026