Fane of the Drow - an ongoing review - Major Spoilers!

MerricB

Eternal Optimist
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Fantastic Locations: Fane of the Drow is a 16-page adventure booklet with four poster-sized miniature-scale maps. As far as I can tell, primarily it is an aid to those who play with miniatures, either in providing a ready battlemap, or an official surface for D&D Miniatures tournaments and skirmish play.

This is probably the product I've most been looking forward to over the past six months, because it represents a new direction for Wizards. D&D has often been played with miniatures over its 30 year history, but the integration of the two has never been more explicit than in the past few months.

As many of you would know, I've run one of the main fan news sites for the D&D Miniatures game, and I also moderate the primary trading boards (maxminis.com). I'm also an active D&D DM, so I am interested in both uses of this product: the RPG and the DDM Skirmish.

The adventure, such as it is, within Fane of the Drow is split into four sections, each corresponding with one of the maps. I'll cover each in the order that it is suggested that they be approached, although there is nothing stopping you using them "out of order" in the RPG.

For the most part, each map represents one big "set piece" battle. There isn't that much of exploring the maps and finding lots of smaller battles, although that isn't entirely absent. I have run two parts of the adventure so far, the Mithral Mines and the Tomb of Queen Peregrine, and I'll describe my experiences below.

Physical Appearance
The cover has small keyed colour reproductions of all four maps on the inside surface. Markings indicate special features and monster starting locations.

The booklet is black & white, stapled together. There's a very nice watermark based on a compass rose on each page. I think it's worth emphasizing how attractive I find the booklet.

The cover art is by Marc Sasso, the interior art is by Chad Sergesketter. I find the artwork competent and quite attractive.

The actual full maps are very well done; the cartographer, Jason Engle, has done a wonderful job of creating them.

The booklet, unlike that of Sons of Gruumsh is not stapled to the cover.

Credits
Design: Gwendolyn F.M. Kestrel
Additional Design: Rob Heinsoo - no doubt for the DDM elements.
Development Team: Jesse Decker, Mike Donais, Stephen Schubert
Cartographer: Jason Engle
Cover Art: Marc Sasso
Interior Art: Chad Sergesketter

As with Sons of Gruumsh, there is no actual editor listed, although Kim Mohan is listed as the Editing Manager. The credits take up the first page of the 16-page booklet.

Introduction
The first page and a bit describes the product and suggests ways of using it in your campaign. A sidebar, "Reusing the Maps", suggests that the PCs could revisit the Fane at a later time against higher-level foes, and that the Mithral Mines map could be used to represent other underground complexes.

This may seem obvious to you and me, but it's well worth remembering that many people who play D&D are just starting out. So, I'm glad to see it here. There's also a note that we should check the Wizards website, RPGA adventures and the pages of Dungeon Magazine for variant encounters using the maps. That's interesting.

The DDM skirmish game uses special markings on the maps, and some of them have relevance in the RPG. This is covered in this section. The terrain types are Difficult, Risky (25% chance of 2d6 damage when entering) and Sacred Circles (+2 attack and magic damage).

The Adventure Background is simple: a dwarven fortress has suffered raids from drow. The dwarves enlist the aid of adventures to rid themselves of the drow, and to regain access to the mithral mines.

Three adventure hooks are listed. The first is the one I just listed. The second involves the PCs stumbling upon the drow enclave when travelling through the underdark (shades of Descent into the Depths of the Earth, here), and the third involves rescuing a friend of the PCs that has been captured by the drow. There are also brief notes on how using each hook will change the adventure.

1. Mithral Mines
The Mithral Mines battlemap a selection of intersecting tunnels, mostly between 10' and 20' wide. Interesting features on the map include a sacred circle, much rubble and discarded mining equipment, and a small office. This section of the adventure runs for 2.5 pages.

When the PCs enter the map (from a tunnel at one corner), they will quickly become aware of a group of twelve goblins inhabiting the mines. The goblins are part of the "Bloodweb" tribe and are servants of the drow. There's no doubt what the adventure expects (and what happened with my players!), there's a fight.

Ten of the goblins are out of the Monster Manual. One is a 3rd level cleric, and the leader is a 3rd level fighter. A long paragraph gives the suggested tactics of the group, and it's interesting to note that there are also suggested names for the goblins - just in case a combat doesn't happen, or to allow the DM to personify the goblins as they chatter to each other in combat. As one might expect, the main tactics of the goblins is to spread out, throw javelins, and keep away from the PCs.

It's worth noting the CR of the leaders have been modified downwards for "low gear and poor physical statistics. This represents an important development on Wizards' part of no longer going by the strict formulas for CRs. I'm glad to see this. The stat blocks are in the new format, and extremely clear.

Once half the goblins are dead, the fight gets more interesting with the arrival of six duergar - they hate the goblins, and they hate the PCs. Yes, they end up fighting both.

When I ran this battle, the PCs spent quite a bit of time moving around the tunnels, chasing goblins and manuevering to best effect. The arrival of the duergar was a big surprise and caught the wizard and psion in the party out of position - and thus vulnerable. The net result was a combat that was a lot more fluid than many I run, where the PCs tend to bunch together and just engage the foes in melee.

Four more areas of interest are marked on the map, and can be explored by the PCs once the battle is dealt with. Two of these areas are of special interest: a broken teleportation circle, and the overseer's office, which has some hidden notes from the drow who built the circle, explaining its purpose. This is a hook for the DM if he or she wants to create further adventures, and welcome it is as well!

So, those are the Mithral Mines. There's a note that if you want to expand the adventure, you can have another encounter in the Underdark, perhaps with kobold miners, dire bats, a dark creeper, or a burrowing ankheg. (And, yes, all those figures are in the upcoming DDM expansion, Underdark).

It took about 90 minutes for my players to finish the combats and fully explore the mines. The overseer's notes and the teleportation circle definitely intrigued them. This section is marked as "EL 6", and that seems pretty accurate.
 
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2. Drow Enclave

The Drow Enclave and the Fane of Lolth (the next part) are part of the same complex; they are the two main encounter areas for the enclave of Til'Asperna. The adventure suggests that you can expand the enclave around the locations given here, and I think that may be a wise decision - these sections of adventure are mainly large set-piece combats, and as DM I want some sort of breather between them.

An additional purpose is related for the enclave in the text: "In addition to the imediate benefit of providing a short adventure centered around a series of interesting combat encounters, the drow enclave of Til'Asperna provides an intriguing link to the mystories and machinations of the Underdark."

In a very nice touch, the text mentions Erelhei-Cinlu, a name with deep resonances in D&D lore.

The details of getting into the enclave are explained in a sidebar: Guile, Stealth and a Frontal Attack being the mentioned methods. The drow guards are described as being complacent - I guess the Underdark isn't that tough!

Obviously, once the door is breached (by whatever manner), the 6 drow guards must be dealt with. Tactical notes in the text explain what course the drow follow - alerting the leader of the enclave (the wizard Amandrucul), engaging in a fighting withdrawal, and so forth.

Two errors in the text bear mentioning: there's a page xx reference, and it states that a guard heads to area 13 to alert the wizard - who is actually in area 12.

There are full stat blocks for Amandrucul (drow Wizard 4), the four Spiders of Lolth, and the Draegloth that also lives in this area. The drow guards and the 2 giant spiders have a Monster Manual reference. As with all the opponents in this adventure, a DDM miniature is suggested to represent each one.

I'm not quite sure if the combat will become one extended melee, or if the Draegloth and the wizard will be encountered separately. To a large extent, this depends on the tactics of the party. The map is more traditional for rpgs, with more doors and enclosed areas than present on the other three maps.

The dominant feature of the map is the summoning circle that is placed in a large area in the centre of the map. It is to here that the drow guards will withdraw and face the intruders. In a lovely "trick", the summoning circle causes any summon monster spells to instead summon Spiders of Lolth that then aid the drow. It's little features like this that add interest to the game, and I like seeing this here.

After the opponents have been defeated - whether in one long melee or in several independent fights - the first part of the enclave can be explored further. The interesting areas include the wizard's laboratory, which has various notes that have value, a spider pen, an egg chamber for the giant spiders (icky!), and a torture chamber. The descriptions of these areas are fairly evocative, although only the wizard's laboratory provides for real interest: the notes do allow the opportunity for further expansion of the scenario.

I will note that although the entire "Mithral Mines" section is noted as EL 6, the individual rooms have EL descriptions here. (EL 6; EL 6; EL 4; EL 4; EL 5). The adventure is written for four 4th level PCs... this may be rather tricky, and they may need to withdraw when facing the challenges.
 

3. Fane of Lolth
Well, based on my descriptions of the previous two parts of this adventure, you should have a pretty good idea of what is in this part: namely, a big combat, a few areas with items of interest to explore, and a couple of hooks to expand. That's pretty much it.

What's really good about it include some of the tricks (blood rock and a spider trap), and some of the items of interest. The two drow clerics here don't like each other, and one will surrender to the PCs, thus giving a chance for her manipulations to continue. Well, assuming she wasn't obliterated on sight. The lead cleric has also stolen the seal of House Aleval (and that name also dates back to D3: Vault of the Drow), and so this provides more hooks.

Once again, the CR of one of the priestesses is reduced from its default value - this is due to her having devoted a couple of her highest level spells to non-combat uses, and the tactics of the drow include a lot of falling back and leading the PCs into an area where the drow can fight from a position of strength.

Areas of note are the sacrificial altar, the main temple, and the prison - where there are two NPCs the PCs can rescue.

This ends the main part of the adventure, such as it is. There are hints that there are powers in the fane that these relatively weak priestesses have not discovered, and so this begs for expansion in a later adventure when a really powerful drow priestess might reclaim the enclave. This is noted in a "Further Adventures" section.

4. Tomb of Queen Peregrine
This section (3.5 pages) is not part of the main adventure, although the notes of the drow wizard in the second part may lead the PCs here. As such, it can be used independently of the rest of the adventure, or integrated into the whole.

I ran it for my players as the continuation of the Mithral Mines, as the drow enclave wasn't in the proper tone for the session. It took about 90 minutes to go through the Tomb, so I expect the entire adventure to take 6 hours, if not slightly more.

The map for this area is actually marked as "Epic" for the DDM skirmish game, meaning that it's sized so that huge figures can move about it freely - no 10' gaps, they're all at least 15'. The map has a lot of tombs scattered around a great vault. The adventure notes that the vault has been robbed in the past, but the actual tomb of Queen Peregrine has been left untouched.

This part of the adventure mainly revolves about killing undead and looting tombs; wonderful occupations for adventurers! There's a couple of traps, and a really nasty surprise for the players when they open the tomb of the Queen - well, as their DM, I found it really fun. There's a lovely touch where there is also a memorial for all the familiars that served a particular house.

When I ran it, there were two big fights and one smaller fight. The PCs and their opponents didn't move that much around the map - the undead here aren't that smart, and rely mainly on melee in any case.

The Queen, apart from her treasure, also was buried with her journals. A section on "Further Adventures" provides ideas for using them to spark more adventures.

D&D Miniatures Notes
The final page of the booklet is devoted to explaining how to use the maps in DDM skirmishes. They also have three new skirmish scenarios based on the maps. All good here.

Merric's Conclusions
Although Fane of the Drow can be played as it is, I think that such may become tedious for the PCs and DM if that is done. Without a doubt, the big combats dominate the other elements of the adventure. From my experiences, the maps and suggested tactics really add to the game, but you need more variety.

This is not to say that the designers haven't included this variety in the encounters, for that's certainly there. However, the limitations of only 14 pages for the adventure, as well as the map space, means that they're not as prominent as I think is needed. There are certainly good suggestions for expanding the adventure; I strongly suggest that they are used.

Of course, if you have a group that delights in combat, few modifications are needed!

Fane uses enough references to the old D3 adventure to make placing it in the World of Greyhawk extremely easy. I doubt that there would be much problem with adapting it to the Forgotten Realms either. Eberron is another matter; the drow serve a different purpose there, and so you might need to do some modifications here of who the enemy actually is.

I would have liked it more if the adventure had spent some time detailing other areas not related to the battlemaps, and had a regular scale map as well; however, it works well enough as it is.

For role-players, I'm going to rate this a solid 3.5/5. The rating would significantly increase if you also play the DDM skirmish game, as the maps add greatly to that game.
 

I heard when the DnD minis comes out with a new starter set, they will have full color maps. I picked up Fane of the Drow, and according to whats in that, the player that wins initiative choose what map to play on. I assume this will be in the new rules. If it is, can I choose to play on the blank grid that came with earlier starter sets? ;)
 

KenM said:
I heard when the DnD minis comes out with a new starter set, they will have full color maps. I picked up Fane of the Drow, and according to whats in that, the player that wins initiative choose what map to play on. I assume this will be in the new rules. If it is, can I choose to play on the blank grid that came with earlier starter sets? ;)

Heh. Nice try. :)

Yes, the new rules will be:
1) Roll for initiative. The winner chooses which map the contest will be on.
2) Roll for initiative. The winner chooses which side of the map he sets up on.
3) Start the game.

There will be another DDM-skirmish legal map in Dragon #337. The Wardrums starter will have 4 maps in it, like this product.

Only 3 of the maps in Hellspike Prison will be skirmish-legal, which makes me hope that the other will be more RPG-orientated.

Cheers!
 

Merric, you mentioned that you don't recall minis being so integrated with D&D before.

Did you ever get a chance to check out the basic D&D Thunder Rift stuff? They were short little modules with full color maps on the inside of the covers that were in 1 inch scale. Good stuff.

Not quite up to this level based on your review but if you like maps, they're fun to add to a game.
 

JoeGKushner said:
Merric, you mentioned that you don't recall minis being so integrated with D&D before.

Did you ever get a chance to check out the basic D&D Thunder Rift stuff? They were short little modules with full color maps on the inside of the covers that were in 1 inch scale. Good stuff.

No, I never did. Thanks for telling me; I'll keep an eye out for descriptions of them.

Cheers!
 


We can't be far from Hellspike Prison - I'll definitely have a review for that, as well as any other adventures Wizards produce. (I really like reviewing adventures, though Wizards are the only ones I can easily acquire).

Cheers!
 

Merric, have you heard if the maps from Fane of the Drow and Hellspike Prision (the 3 that are skirmish legal) will be legal in DDM matches with the new rules coming out?
 

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