The Master's chamber is lavishly furnished,
with thick rugs, wall hangings, and soft
chairs, couch, and cushions. Wines, liquors,
and dishes of sweetmeats abound. A brazier
continually burns, warming the place and <temperature = x>
sending a fragrant incense into the air. Silver
serving pieces and goblets (worth 4, 000 gp for
all) and an alabaster box filled with unguents
(total value 800 gp) are in plain sight. Hidden
in a cabinet is an exquisite piece of jewelry,
made with matched fire opals (ten gems worth
1, 000 gp each) on a gold chain and settings
with diamond chips (5, 000 gp). The New Master,
Lareth, is described more fully below. He
carries but 9 pp and one black opal (1, 000 gp).
On his left arm is bound a phylactery of
action, a clerical magical item which makes
the wearer impervious to paralyzation of any
sort, including all hold spells and spell-like
powers.
<total treasure XP: 20,845>

Lareth will aid his guards' melee with his
spells, keeping a defensive posture while
commanding his troops' attacks. He will
melee if necessary, and probably after using
his spells. He wields a mace in his left hand <horseman's mace>
(D 1-6, -2 "to hit" as secondary weapon) and
a staff of striking in his right (staff + 3, D 4-
9, 20 charges; uses 1 per hit, or 2 for double
damage, 3 for triple).

If seriously threatened, Lareth will offer
all his non-magical treasures—jewelry,
coins, and all else—as ransom for his life. If
Lareth is slain, there will be cautious and
discreet inquiries in Hommlet, as the servants
of evil therein make every attempt to
find out what happened. If any of Lareth's
possessions turn up, the slayers are
revealed. An assassin of 10th level who can
speak the alignment language of the individuals,
as well as those of major allies, will
come to the village in 5-20 days to eliminate
the offender(s). DM, handle this as you see
fit. Jaroo and Terjon of Hommlet will certainly
aid those attacked. If the assassin is
killed, nothing further will be attempted.

Lareth: AC 0 (plate mail + 1); Level 5 Cleric;
hp 44; #AT 1; D 1-6 (mace) or 4-9 (or
more, from staff of striking-, 20 charges
remain); SA spells (see below); SD immune
to paralysis (phylactery of action); XP 770
S 18 I 9 W 18 D 17 C 16 Ch 18 Com 21 (T5, FR 16 = x )
THACO 17 with mace
THACO 14 with staff
XP 629

First level: command, cure light wounds
(x2), protection from good, sanctuary
Second level: hold person (x2), know alignment,
resist fire, silence 15' radius
Third level: cause blindness, continual
darkness

Lareth the Beautiful is the dark hope of
chaotic evil—young, handsome, well
endowed in abilities and aptitudes, thoroughly
wicked, depraved, and capricious.
Whomever harms Lareth had best not brag
of it in the presence of one who will inform
the Demoness Lolth!

    T5: As discussed earlier, and elsewhere, Gary had a major change in direction while developing
    this adventure. His original plan to use Lolth was scrapped, and Zuggtmoy was created as her
    replacement. Some references to Lolth appeared in the published adventures, but all such
    references should be considered editing errors. Both Lareth and Falrinth should be played as
    followers of Zuggtmoy.

   T5: Lareth should be a follower of Zuggtmoy, not Lolth. Gary originally had Lolth as the demoness
    behind the ToEE, but decided to drop her after the GDQ series.

Lareth has been sent to this AREA to rebuild
a force of men and humanoid fighters to
gather loot and restore the Temple of Elemental
Evil to its former glory. He is but one
of many so charged, of course, but is looked
upon with special favor and expectation. He
and his minions have been careful to raid far
from this AREA, never nearer than three or
four leagues, travelling on foot or riding in
wagons of the traders from Hommlet. None
of the victims are ever left alive to tell the
tale, and mysterious disappearances are all
that can be remarked upon. No trace of
men, mounts, goods, wagons or draft animals
is ever found.

Evil to the core, Lareth is cunning. If a situation
appears in doubt, he uses bribery and
honeyed words to sway the balance to his
favor. He is not adverse to gaining new
recruits of all sorts, and will gladly accept
adventurers into the ranks (though he will test
and try them continually). Those who arouse
suspicion will be quietly murdered in their
sleep. Those with too much promise will be
likewise dealt with, for Lareth wants no potential
usurpers or threats to his domination.

>> Interlude.

Lareth's dual weapon use (answered by Gary Gygax) +

Quote:
Originally posted by ScottGLXIX
Gary, I remember not too long ago you were trying to remember what a bit of the poem refering to Thrommel in the ToEE meant, the nine, On thre, in six, lies nine... Did you ever remember what the nine was for? Also, for many years, I was always curious about Lareth from the moathouse being a cleric of Lolth, it never really went anywhere in the published version. I'm guessing now that you had originally intended to go with Lolth, but because of using her in the GDQ series you wanted to come up with something new, and Zuggtmoy ended up being behind things at the temple, and Lareth could just be considered a cleric of Zuggy, or did you have bigger plans for Lolth?
Scott

Well Scott...

Thinking back, I believe that the "nine" was meant to refer to Thrommel being the ninth of his line in succession for the crown--and his level, which of course could not be "known" per se. the trouble is, one forgets to set forth all the information created as backstory.

As for Lareth, yes, I did plan to develop Lolth in a different direction.
The Q1 module sort of shot that idea down in flames...
She would have made a comeback via the EEG, though, as he was planned as the central baddie in another adventure module...that I never got around to writing 

Cheers,
Gary

Quote:
And following the stream-of-consciousness post which I seem to inadvertently be making, I would ask you to clarify the rather curious statement found in T1, to the effect that if harm came to Lareth the Beautiful, the Demonness Lolth would take it ill. Was she somehow involved in the rise of the Temple?
It's resurgance?
It seems to be something of a contradiction with the Gord novels, which posit a link between Zuggtmoy and Graz'zt (and, by connection, Eclavdra), who if anyone is, is not in Lolth's good graces.

I was intimating that Lolth had taken a shine to Lareth, as he was beautiful, regrrdless of where his loyalties, if you will pardon the misapplication of the concept, lay.
Lolth too can covet another's property... 
 

Quote:
Originally Posted by Marshal Lucky
When my group played The Village of Hommlet, we defeated Lareth's men and took the survivors prisoner. To make sure Lareth couldn't cast any spells, one of our fighters smashed his jaw and bound his hands. This prompted one of the other players to do his dead-on Al Pacino impression for the rest of the game session (Michael Corleone got his jaw busted when he was arrested in The Godfather). When the party handed Lareth over to the village elders (who decided to try him and string him up), this crazy guy starts with the whole "I'm out of order, YOU'RE out of order!" shtick and right before they hanged him, he did the "I'm dyin' over here!" bit. We had to stop the game we were laughing so hard.

Levity in tha game is great IMO. A bit of comedy reinforces the drama of past events, that to come as well.

Cheers,
Gary
 

>> Interlude.