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Message: <blockquote data-quote="KirayaTiDrekan" data-source="post: 6400975" data-attributes="member: 6755061">Holy moly, its been quite a while, hasn't it.  Well, in my defense, I started a new job.  Yay me!  <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin    :D"  data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" />D3: Vault of the DrowOriginally published September, 1978Version being read and reviewed: <a href="http://www.dndclassics.com/product/17043/D3-Vault-of-the-Drow-1e?term=Vault+of&it=1" target="_blank">D3: Vault of the Drow</a> (PDF) (PDF added to <a href="http://www.dndclassics.com" target="_blank">www.dndclassics.com</a> January, 2013) by Gary GygaxFirst things first - SPOILER ALERT!!!!Still here?Ok, here we go.My goodness did this thing take forever to read through.  In addition to life getting in the way, this module is just an impenetrable wall of text for the most part, with few illustrations.  That's great, because it means Gygax crammed a lot into this adventure, but it makes it a pain to read.This adventure assumes from the get-go that you've played through D1 and D2 and there isn't much advice given for those who want to run this module by itself.  There's a note in the introduction stating that this adventure is designed for experienced players.  New players are going to have a rough time of things.There are a lot of wandering monster tables as the adventure includes a fair amount of wandering around underdark passages and the city itself.  The first notable set encounter is a drow checkpoint which is relatively boring but necessary.  The second encounter is far more interesting, involving a vampire and his succubus lover.  Their area is covered in an illusion to make it look like a serene glade under a starry sky - quite inviting for a party that's spent weeks in the skyless depths of the underdark.  If the party doesn't acquire some brooches, identifying themselves as guests or merchants or affiliated with a drow noble house, they are going to fail, most likely.  The guard tower at the entrance to the city is pretty killer all by itself.  Then there's the sororities and fraternities of fighters loosely associated with the noble houses that are full of drow ready to murder anyone without an identifying brooch or cloak.  Erelhei-Cinlu...yeah, I'm not going to try to pronounce that.  There are some overview style descriptions of the city and the wandering encounter tables provide some interesting meat and roleplaying opportunities (especially the rakes...rebel drow and cross-breeds who are fed up with the drow nobility and are thus potential allies) but the DM is left to fill in the blanks quite a bit.The same is true for the noble houses, with each only getting a listing of the ruling members classes and basic stats, important magic items in the house's possession, and the house's rank in the city.  There are also some notes about factions and inter-house alliances that could be of benefit to the party if they can play the politics a bit.  There's also some heavy hinting that not all of the noble houses are Lolth worshippers and instead revere the Elder Elemental Eye.   The Egg of Lolth is the main temple and final dungeon of the adventure.  Inside, the party has the chance to meet Lolth herself if they are (un)lucky.  There is a massive illusion of Lolth as well that acts as a portal to the Abyss (and the final adventure in this seven-module proto-adventure path, Q1: Queen of the Demonweb Pits).The module ends with Monster Manual style entries for Drow (repeated from previous modules), Kuo-Toa (repeat), Lolth, Mezzodaemons, Nycadaemons, and Svirfneblin (repeat).  Overall, much better than D1 and D2, with a lot of potential if the DM wants to take the time to flesh out the city.Next up: B1: In Search of the Unknown</blockquote>

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