In 2007, Wizards of the Coast decided to revisit one of the most iconic locations in Blackmoor. Return to the Temple of the Frog was published and released as a free PDF on the Wizards of the Coast Website. This was quite surprising since Dave Arneson's company Zeitgeist Games were publishing Blackmoor at the time as well. Dave Arneson is surprisingly not credited for the adventure even though it is clearly based on his original designs and concepts. The PDF does credit Dave Arneson as one of the creators of D&D however. The Temple of the Frog has gone through many iterations and I detailed a history of the adventure over at my website.
Return to the Temple of the Frog takes place more than twenty years after the original adventure and the defeat of the Temple. Known to his followers only as Saint Stephen, D&D's first arch villain has somehow managed to rebuilt the temple with newly gained abilities. New adventurer's are needed and will be put up against mutated apes, cyborgs and an enormous mutated frog before they finally can confront Saint Stephen and his nefarious allies.
The adventure provides updated maps of the original Temple of the Frog and presents players with 3E rules for sci fi weaponry and equipment as well as stats for some of the classic opponents found in the Temple. In many ways this adventure is a replay of the 1987 version (DA2) of the adventure, although with much of the surrounding framework removed or changed.
The introduction provided on the website at the time was as follows:
"The Order of the Frog was led by a man of resource and ambition. High Priest Saint Stephen and four companions appeared out of nowhere and took over the order twenty five years ago. Though Stephen and his companions seemed normal enough (except for the slight greenish cast of their skin), they were quite literally not of this world. They were aliens, members of a scientific expedition that crash landed on this planet some years ago. Temple of the Frog was first published in the 1975 D&D Supplement II Blackmoor. It was later republished in 1986 as module DA2, Temple of the Frog. In the original adventure, the PCs were hired to find a missing person (Rissa Aleford, Baroness of the Lakes) and investigate a strange cult based on the worship of frogs. Return to the Temple of the Frog picks up the adventure decades later. During an adventuring party's assault on the temple over twenty years ago, Saint Stephen escaped the conflict and hid in the swamp until the adventurers departed. Having completed their raid, rescued the prisoner they had come for, and hurriedly looted the temple, the heroes left the area and never looked back. Saint Stephen entered the temple hoping to salvage anything that he could. The Order of the Frog was done for, all his fellow aliens were slain, and his frog cultists had fled or were put to the sword. He only wanted enough to allow him to flee the swamp and find a new hiding place. He found more than he had counted on...."
Title: Return to the Temple of the Frog
Year Published (2007, Wizards of the Coast)
Format: PDF
Pages: 36
Author: Ted Albert
Have you played Return to the Temple of the Frog? What did you think about it? What is your favorite version of this adventure location?
- More discussion of this adventure at The Comeback Inn.
-Havard
