A true classic which spawned remakes up until our days and even a computer game, this is by far the longest adventure published in one go up until this time. Looking at the code T1-4 you might think that this is a compilation of reprints into one volume (as in the later GDQ1-7 module reprints that compose Queen of the Spiders) but you’d be wrong. 

See, there was indeed a T1, The Village of Hommlet, and that does compose the opening bit of this adventure, but there is no T2, T3 or independent T4, those are all new to this edition and T2 to T4 is just the Temple of Elemental Evil, after a short trip to Nulb. The temple itself is one of the most classic of dungeon crawls, a sprawling place dedicated to cults of the four elements and then another deeper evil, the now infamous Zuggtmoy the Demon Queen of Fungi… remember that next time you have a mushroom pizza.

If you had bought T1 back in 1979 you were left with a starting area with a promising setting and nowhere to go after a short adventure in a moathouse, and then you were left with a six year wait for this massive piece while Gygax got a bit distracted with the growth of TSR and Hollywood, which is only natural. When this finally came out you could throw T1, as it was reprinted here, but also you had a great time in store for you and your player with nearly 140 pages of adventure at your fingertips.