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Queen of Lies
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<blockquote data-quote="Messageboard Golem" data-source="post: 2009785" data-attributes="member: 18387"><p>The Queen of Lies is a module by Monte Cook, published by Fiery Dragon Productions. This 48 page scenario is intended for characters averaging 11th level, and takes them on a raid against a drow fortress where the new queen of an up-and-coming house is making her bid for power over all the houses.</p><p></p><p>Queen of Lies (QoL) pushes into somewhat new territory by encouraging the players to use their Leadership feats (assuming they have them) and bringing a small army with them on what really amounts to a small-scale wargame. It also provides a slice of life of drow politics, though the players are unlikely to make heads or tails of what is really going behind the scenes of the game. </p><p></p><p>The artwork and graphic design of the module is quite good. As one would expect from Monte Cook, the adversaries are statted up properly. I know this is not usually something to brag about, but when I prepare a module the last thing I want to have to do is go through and edit a ton of poorly-statted encounters. Everything about the module is solid and well-constructed. There are some very cool encounters - the Queen herself bears a dark secret that makes her truly unique as an opponent. The political undercurrent is fun for the DM, and provides some interesting hooks upon which to continue adventures against the dark elves. </p><p></p><p>Unfortunately, all is not perfect. In playtesting, the "small army" intent of the module was ignored - probably to the PCs benefit. In all likelihood, babysitting an army of low-level fighters would only ruin any chance of stealth and result in a lot of dead troops early in the adventure. I may be wrong with this, but it just didn't seem to work out very well.</p><p></p><p>The module itself feels like a very large "Order of Battle" sheet - wave upon wave and room upon room of drow and bugbears. It reads like a phone book. While there are definitely some interesting parts and some very cool encounters, the bulk of the module consists of some pretty bland encounters that feel like "filler". These encounters serve little purpose but to make the module more "believable" and to wear down the party on their way to the more interesting challenges. Even many of the unique drow, fully statted with character levels, don't really have a chance to do anything other than sling a few spells or poisoned bolts before becoming just another source of treasure and XP at the end of a PC's sword. There's just not enough material here to give these characters any kind of life.</p><p></p><p>Fortunately the module was more fun to play than it was to read - the "filler" encounters tended to go quickly. The players managed to avoid setting off any alarms on their initial foray, and were able to do quite a bit of damage before the fortress went on alert and the bad guys started looking for them. In the end, it was still not an extremely satisfying module. The shakey motivations and plotline shaping this adventure are really not exposed to the players. They were left scratching their heads wondering what was going on. When all was said and done, the adventure was certainly not bad, but the players (and this DM) found it to be forgettable. Other than a couple of key encounters (such as the climax, which killed two PCs, and the wizard getting lucky and killing a fire giant fighter with a well-timed phantasmal killer.</p><p></p><p>The Queen of Lies is a solid, entertaining module, but not something I'd jump up and down and recommend to other DMs. It just doesn't have enough of the "spark" that really brings the adventure to life and makes it exciting.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Messageboard Golem, post: 2009785, member: 18387"] The Queen of Lies is a module by Monte Cook, published by Fiery Dragon Productions. This 48 page scenario is intended for characters averaging 11th level, and takes them on a raid against a drow fortress where the new queen of an up-and-coming house is making her bid for power over all the houses. Queen of Lies (QoL) pushes into somewhat new territory by encouraging the players to use their Leadership feats (assuming they have them) and bringing a small army with them on what really amounts to a small-scale wargame. It also provides a slice of life of drow politics, though the players are unlikely to make heads or tails of what is really going behind the scenes of the game. The artwork and graphic design of the module is quite good. As one would expect from Monte Cook, the adversaries are statted up properly. I know this is not usually something to brag about, but when I prepare a module the last thing I want to have to do is go through and edit a ton of poorly-statted encounters. Everything about the module is solid and well-constructed. There are some very cool encounters - the Queen herself bears a dark secret that makes her truly unique as an opponent. The political undercurrent is fun for the DM, and provides some interesting hooks upon which to continue adventures against the dark elves. Unfortunately, all is not perfect. In playtesting, the "small army" intent of the module was ignored - probably to the PCs benefit. In all likelihood, babysitting an army of low-level fighters would only ruin any chance of stealth and result in a lot of dead troops early in the adventure. I may be wrong with this, but it just didn't seem to work out very well. The module itself feels like a very large "Order of Battle" sheet - wave upon wave and room upon room of drow and bugbears. It reads like a phone book. While there are definitely some interesting parts and some very cool encounters, the bulk of the module consists of some pretty bland encounters that feel like "filler". These encounters serve little purpose but to make the module more "believable" and to wear down the party on their way to the more interesting challenges. Even many of the unique drow, fully statted with character levels, don't really have a chance to do anything other than sling a few spells or poisoned bolts before becoming just another source of treasure and XP at the end of a PC's sword. There's just not enough material here to give these characters any kind of life. Fortunately the module was more fun to play than it was to read - the "filler" encounters tended to go quickly. The players managed to avoid setting off any alarms on their initial foray, and were able to do quite a bit of damage before the fortress went on alert and the bad guys started looking for them. In the end, it was still not an extremely satisfying module. The shakey motivations and plotline shaping this adventure are really not exposed to the players. They were left scratching their heads wondering what was going on. When all was said and done, the adventure was certainly not bad, but the players (and this DM) found it to be forgettable. Other than a couple of key encounters (such as the climax, which killed two PCs, and the wizard getting lucky and killing a fire giant fighter with a well-timed phantasmal killer. The Queen of Lies is a solid, entertaining module, but not something I'd jump up and down and recommend to other DMs. It just doesn't have enough of the "spark" that really brings the adventure to life and makes it exciting. [/QUOTE]
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