City Of the Spider Queen first impressions (SPOILER WARNING!)

[Swack-Iron]

Re: Re

The module is set up to start off in the Dalelands? Dang, I was hoping it would start in the Silver Marches.

The module officially starts in Daggerdale. However there are suggestions to start it pretty much anywhere in the Realms, then portal the PC's into the Underdark beneath Daggerdale. Given the prevelance of portals in the 3rd edition Realms, this seems like a reasonable solution.

 

[Swack-Iron]

Unfortunately, my group is level 14-15. How difficult do you think it would be to adjust this module to make it fun for my players? They can have some easy sections, as long as they have some difficult sections as well. I would like to scale it so when they come out they're level 20.

There's another option. The module includes a timeline of events so you can keep track of what the bad guys are doing when. About midway into that timeline (perhaps about when players would be around 14th lvl) there's a big cataclysmic disaster, where events in the Underdark start having a big effect on the surface world of the Dalelands. You could skip the first part of the adventure entirely and have your players start the module in the middle, responding to the big disaster.

I'd like to know what the module suggests as plot-hooks so I could start dropping subtle hints over the next few weeks.

The official lead-in is a bit weak. It amounts to Lord Randal Morn essentially gathering a group of adventurers to go look into some seemingly-pointless drow raids from the Underdark his people have been having recently. They are especially noteworthy because they don't seem to be coming from the Cormanthor drow. "I'm really busy and can't go do this myself. Would you folks go check this out for me? I can pay..."

This works fine if the PCs a) already are in Lord Randal's service, b) are general do-gooders prone to adventure-for-hire, c) have some particular loyalty to Daggerdale or the Dalelands in general, or d) really hate drow.

There's another, rather startling option presented in the module -- a party of all-drow. This is a perfect adventure for an drow party of any allignment to get heavily involved in the events and politics of the Underdark. In fact, I bet an all-drow party would have more roleplaying opportunities than a party of surface dwellers -- the drow bad-guys would be less likely to shoot a party of drow on sight.

 

[Orco42]

especially considering the characters that were provided.

Man that sucked.... a whole party of midgets.

 

[VorpalBunny]

SPOILERS!


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Don't worry about upgrading the challenge; that'll be a snap.

Basically, the clerics of Lloth have stopped receiving spells. As a Goddess of chaos, is Lloth dead or just yanking their chains? It's unclear, but the clerics of Kiaransalee are doing their best to make sure that the Lolth worshippers don't recover....

MORE SPOILERS
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Interesting. In my current FR campaign, Lolth has been trying to kill my players since I ran them through Menzoberranzan... I'm about to run them through Monte Cook's The Harrowing (Lolth's daughter Laveth tries to steal mommy's power/portfolios). There's a good chance my guys would let her do it to get rid of Lolth once and for all.

Since in CotSQ, priestesses of Lolth have stopped recieving spells and Lolth is feared dead, how hard would it be to use the module as an epilogue to The Harrowing (assuming my guys allow Laveth to steal Lolth's portfolio...) where Lolth is really dead or powerless?

 

[HeavyG]

Hong, who still remembers the huge ancient red at the bottom of G3, who was too big to get out of his cave

lol

Yeah, and did you see how they dealt with that in the 2E remake ?

 

[Psion]

Basically, the clerics of Lloth have stopped receiving spells. As a Goddess of chaos, is Lloth dead or just yanking their chains? It's unclear, but the clerics of Kiaransalee are doing their best to make sure that the Lolth worshippers don't recover....

Gah!

I don't ever know whether to be annoyed or delighted when publishers tow the same line that I do. On one hand, it's awful convenient having printed products support my storylines. OTOH, it makes my campaign's take on things less unique.

IMC, Lolth followers have been on the decline for many years, and Kiaransalee has become the major deity of choice among the plurality of Drow.

 

[Swack-Iron]

Agreed. From the piece I ran, it was a solid adventure with WAY too much combat for my taste. By too much combat, I mean all combat. Everywhere. Everyone. With no one helpful, and everything you meet trying to kill kill kill you!

It might have made a fun home game, but it was a little iffy for a four hour con game.

Roleplaying can be added without too much trouble, though, so I think it has great potential.

I've finished my initial read of the book now, so I think I can address this one better. This adventure is certainly in the "action-adventure" category; it doesn't focus on complex political maneuvering or an epic love story. Just about every encounter is presented with a stat block -- including a nifty "powered-up" stat block for enemy casters who have time to prepare for combat. There is certainly the *potential* for a lot of combat.

However, you have to realize that there are also several opposed factions involved in the goings-on in the events depicted in this module. Sure, you could hack-n-slash your way through it, but there's a good chance that eventually one of the very high CR enemies in one of the factions would consider your party too much of an annoyance and flatten you. Wise PCs will explore situations more cautiously, and play one faction off the other, either through misdirection or out-and-out allying themselves with one side or another.

(Potential Rule 1 violation) Imagine, Piratecat, if your players decended into the Underdark to face the White Kingdom, and discovered a powerful group of mind-flayers opposed to the ghouls. What should they do? Kill 'em all? Side with the (supposedly) lesser evil of the Illithids to defeat the Ghoulish Kingdom and fulfill prophecy? Tough choice, right? That's the kind of potential roleplaying you can find in CotSQ. The characters have to scope out the situation and interact with NPCs they meet if they want to survive.

(And for anyone who doesn't get the White Kingdom referrence, go over to the Story Hour forum right now and read Piratecat's Story Hour! And to any of PC's players whom I just screwed by giving him a new idea, sorry!)

 

[Plane Sailing]

(Potential Rule 1 violation) Imagine, Piratecat, if your players decended into the Underdark to face the White Kingdom, and discovered a powerful group of mind-flayers opposed to the ghouls. What should they do? Kill 'em all? Side with the (supposedly) lesser evil of the Illithids to defeat the Ghoulish Kingdom and fulfill prophecy? Tough choice, right? That's the kind of potential roleplaying you can find in CotSQ. The characters have to scope out the situation and interact with NPCs they meet if they want to survive.

By curious chance, if I recall correctly, the White Kingdom actually *was* being held up by a powerful mind-flayer city... but the Defenders provided Githyanki forces with a means to attack and wipe out the mind flayers (not knowing about the White Kingdom issue at the time)

So they've *already* burnt that bridge

Cheers

 

[Scott814thmpco]

Hi-
I too thought the Horrowing was an excellent adventure, infact Loveth survived the adventure and has become a major protaginist in my campaign.
Saw the movie the time machine, the Morlocks I think, would be good encounter materiel in the underdark. Perhaps the Drow are an offshoot of the Morlocks with the rest of the underdark races being former slaves, the idea's are endless.
As for "the city of the spider queen" I dont think it can ever measure up to The Queen of the Demon Web Pits which had plenty of role-playing bits over hacking your way through an encounter bits. of course YMMV.
So how much did this module cost?


Scott

 

[Swack-Iron]

So how much did this module cost?

Its price is in-line with FR books of similar length and quality: $29.95US.