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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Messageboard Golem" data-source="post: 2010501" data-attributes="member: 18387">By Glenn Dean, Staff Reviewer*** Warning – Possible Spoilers ***Sizing Up the TargetCity of the Spider Queen is a FORGOTTEN REALMS ® mega-adventure designed by James Wyatt and published by Wizards of the Coast. The adventure is a full-color, 160-page trade paperback that includes a separate 16-page full-color map booklet. The cover depicts the adventure’s principal villain leading a horde of undead drow. The product retails for $29.95.First BloodCity of the Spider Queen is an epic adventure for the FORGOTTEN REALMS ® setting designed to take a party of 10th level characters as high as 18th level by the conclusion of the adventure. It is based in part on the story line in the War of the Spider Queen series of novels, though the adventure itself takes place in a different location and parallels the action of the novels, rather than replicating it. A tie-in box of miniatures is also available specifically for this adventure, as is an on-line web enhancement.The entire adventure takes place in the Underdark below the Dalelands of Faerun and provides opportunities for both traditional dungeon-crawling, exploration in the wilderness of Underdark Caverns, stealthy infiltration of drow outposts, and even some political infighting in an underground city.The adventure begins when the player characters are drawn to investigate drow raids on settlements in Daggerdale. They begin with the investigation of a series of crypts, which eventually lead to a passage to the Underdark near a small Drow settlement that has undergone an internal upheaval. Clever investigation by players can reveal an opportunity to exploit an internal division in the drow, and strike at the heart of their forces far beneath the Dalelands. This first series of fairly traditional site-based encounters has a number of potentially tough battles, and some in unique locations, including one on a giant web in a massive underground chasm.While the heroes are investigating, the drow plans for conquest of the surface continue. A timeline for the enemy is provided that runs parallel to the PC’s investigations – careful action by the PCs can disrupt the timeline but may awaken the drow to the threat the PCs pose. The adventure provides a number of strategies to play the villains intelligently – this is not a simple room-by-room, kick-in-the-door style dungeon romp.Provided the PCs decide to strike against the drow threat, they will travel across the wastes of the deep Underdark, potentially encountering as many as five separate major encounter areas, before reaching the drow city of Maerimydra deep in the earth. The city is in the midst of a civil war between various factions of drow, which provides the opportunity for clever PCs to exploit politics within the city to aid in their infiltration. Eventually, the PCs will infiltrate or assault the main stronghold of the drow faction in control of the city, and after a series of climactic encounters in a structure that bridges the planes of existence, they will either succeed heroically or be destroyed, and the Dales will fall with them.The adventure material itself is well put together – highlighted read-aloud text is provided for each encounter area, with abbreviated statistics tied to full stat blocks in the appendix. Sidebars provide both background information and hints on running the adventure; full color art is present throughout. Though the adventure requires the Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting to run as written, statistics for the necessary monsters from Monster of Faerun are provided in the appendix along with new monsters and templates (a total of 13 in all, including new demons, spiders, undead, and the very useful revenant template). There are also 13 new magic items, including two minor artifacts.Critical HitsDrow: you either love them or you hate them. If you’re in the latter category, go ahead and give this adventure a pass – the large scope of the adventure makes it difficult to replace the drow as the primary adversaries without an almost complete rewrite. If you’re in the former category, though, this is a great adventure of epic proportion guaranteed to provide a number of sessions of very challenging gaming – while the enemy are drow, they aren’t your usual spider-loving drow. Played well, this is an adventure both for players who love challenging combats as well as those who like political maneuvering.The book is absolutely beautiful. While the cost may seem high for an adventure, once you’ve seen the quality of the maps, artwork, and even the individual text pages you’ll see you’re certainly getting what you’re paying for in terms of presentation. It’s almost a shame to have put this much effort into an adventure – the book is so pretty you don’t want to crack the binding.Critical MissesThe adventure is a FORGOTTEN REALMS ® product, which will certainly be an issue for some. The setup of the adventure assumes a number of significant events in the drow population that make it a little more difficult than your average adventure to port over into another setting. You at least need a stereotypical drow-infested Underdark to pull this one off, as well as some appropriate deities to make the story line work. The adventure is also fairly linear, at least up to the point that the party reaches the drow city, after which the opportunities for a party to wander about under their own agenda increase. If you need a different hook to get your players interested, as well, you’ll have to make up your own, as only the single one is provided.A group that likes to tackle all their encounters head-on with cold steel is in for a bit of a rough time, particularly in some of the early sections of the adventure if the party is at the lower end of the recommended level range. The GM may wish to provide some additional opportunities for negotiation early on, especially if players lose patience in dungeon-type environments – though some careful preparation can generate a whole range of schemes once the city is reached.Coup de GraceAs a FORGOTTEN REALMS ® product, City of the Spider Queen is completely closed content. Though it complies well with the established rules set, particularly for its setting, it is a general theme and enemy that may be familiar. As an adventure it is primarily a GM product – but it is an absolutely beautifully assembled work that can provide a number of gaming sessions of fun if this sort of Underdark adventuring is what your group likes.To see the graded evaluation of this product and to leave comments that the reviewer will respond to, go to The Critic's Corner at <a href="http://www.d20zines.com/html/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=462&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0" target="_blank">www.d20zines.com.</a></blockquote>

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