The Temple of Elemental Evil

Days of travel have brought you to the scoured lands. You know only rumors of this place. And what you know is shrouded in mystery. The lands were once fertile and verdant. But an ancient evil constantly plagued the land, revisiting horror upon each new generation that dared try to settle these lands. Then one day it was as if the hand of a spiteful god reached down and tore the land away, leaving behind only this barren and devastated place.

Whatever happened those many decades ago, it certainly left the land a total waste. Hardly a tree grows, and what does is sickly and gnarled. The is no lush grass, only twisted brambles and cracked hardened clay. A cold biting wind blows, seemingly from all direction. You try to lift your spirits, another day or so and you will be through this hell scape and at the city of Verbonce. There it will be warm and filled with life.

But for now, you must find a place to rest. Ahead you spot the ruins of a village. And you can take shelter in the corner of the remains of a basement of a once grand building. Now all that remains are two earthen walls that slope away to nothing. But, at least it blocks most of the wind.

The night passes slow, and cold grey mists seep up from the bare earth and shroud all the land in a damp chill. You find yourself feeling isolated, as if you were the only person in all of existence. That perhaps you are not a person and never were. That all you are is just the flickers of some impossibly vast entities imagination. Eventually exhaustion grips you and you fall into a nightmare filled sleep.