City Of The Spider Queen.pdf

D ESIGNER

J AMES W YATT

C YNTHIA F LIEGE

D EE B ARNETT

T ODD L OCKWOOD

G RAPHIC D ESIGNERS

D EVELOPER

R ICHARD B AKER

E DITORS

M ICHELE C ARTER

G WENDOLYN F.M. K ESTREL

C OVER A RTIST

R EBECCA G UAY

V INCE L OCKE

R AVEN M IMURA

P UDDNHEAD

C HRISTOPHER S HY

B EN T EMPLESMITH

S AM W OOD

I NTERIOR A RTISTS

M ANAGING E DITOR

P ENNY W ILLIAMS

C REATIVE D IRECTOR R ICHARD B AKER

V ICE -P RESIDENT OF RPG R&D B ILL S LAVICSEK

V ICE -P RESIDENT OF P UBLISHING M ARY K IRCHOFF

RPG C ATEGORY M ANAGER A NTHONY V ALTERRA

P ROJECT M ANAGER

M ARTIN D URHAM

D ENNIS K AUTH

C ARTOGRAPHERS

R OB L AZZARETTI

P RODUCTION M ANAGER

C HAS D E L ONG

C ARMEN C HEUNG

G RAPHIC P RODUCTION

A RT D IRECTOR

R OBERT R APER

S ONYA P ERCIVAL

A RTISTS

PLAYTESTERS: Christopher Adomaitis, Dave Anderson, Rich Baker, Jeffrey Ball, Robert Ball, Marty Bartoy, Derek Belanger, Paul Bender, James Black, John Black, Gwendolyn Black, Carl Bobo,

William Braun, Craig Bucheli, Barbara Chandler, Scott Chandler, Steve Cook, Dan Cooper, Cameron Curtis, Donald Dodge, Jocelyn Eisenhour, Sarah Faigh, Matthew Farr, Kelmar Firesun, David

Fulkerson, Carlos Garcia, Chris Garcia, Corey Garrett, Chris Garrison, Omar Ghannoum, Matt Glavich, Catherine Good, Andrew Gristina, August Hahn, Cynthia Hahn, Arthur Harris, Cory

Herndon, Nick Hidalgo, Quentin Hidalgo, William Holder, Kurt Johnson, George Kalauokalani, Charles Keene, Brian Klement, Robert Krempa, Gary Labrecque, Rocky Lange, Toby Latin, Kevin

Leistico, Eric Lopez, Anthony Ludlam, Jon Lundeen, Jeremy Lutz, Ralph Mack, Greg Marone, Thomas Martin, Frank Mathenia, Joseph Meeks, Kevin Meyer, Todd Meyer, Scott Morgan, Nicholas

Morgan, David Noonan, David Nowell, Kevin Odom, Brock Ormond, Damian Osisek, Jon Otaeuro, Scott Parks, Goon Pattanumotana, Gavin Pattanumotana, Tom Pearce, Brian Perry, Tim Rhoades,

Russell Richardson, Dan Robbins, Andrew Rothstein, Richard Sakoda, Steve Schubert, Monica Shellman, Jeff Showiak, Ray Stakenas, Ed Stark, Maryrita Steinhour, Curtis Steinhour, Jeff Stolt, John

Sussenberger, Lisa Sussenberger, Zachary Tom, Robert Trottier, Thomas Vail, Maggie Vining, Michael S. Webster, Jason White, Penny Williams, Matthew Woodard, Warren Wyman.

Resources: The foundational game material about drow in Faerûn includes Drow of the Underdark by Ed Greenwood and Menzoberranzan by Ed Greenwood, Douglas Niles,

and R.A. Salvatore. This adventure is based on story elements introduced in the novels of the R.A. Salvatore’s War of the Spider Queen series, including Dissolution by

Richard Lee Byers and Insurrection by Thomas Reid. The material describing the features and properties of the Ethereal Plane is derived from Manual of the Planes , by

Bruce R. Cordell, Jeff Grubb, and David Noonan. Several drow-related magic items in Appendix 1 originally appeared in Lords of Darkness by Jason Carl and Sean K Reynolds.

The revenant template in Appendix 1 originally appeared in Monster Compendium: Monsters of Faerûn by Rob Heinsoo and James Wyatt.

Based on the original D UNGEONS & D RAGONS ® rules created by E. Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson and the new

D UNGEONS & D RAGONS game designed by Jonathan Tweet, Monte Cook, Skip Williams, Richard Baker, and Peter Adkison.

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S COTT F ISCHER

Table of Contents

Contents

Introduction 3

Preparation 3

Adventure Background 3

Adventure Outline 4

Character Hooks 4

Running the Adventure 4

Faerzress and the Underdark 5

Sidebar: Kiaransalee

Magical Transport

Conclusion

114

Trekking Through the

Deep Wastes 46

Deep Wastes Features 46

Random Encounters 46

Starting Out 49

Naga Crawls 49

Lake of Shadows 50

Lower Caverns 50

Upper Caverns 52

On the Lake 53

Shrine of the Claw 54

Across the Lake of Shadows 56

Wailing Cliff 57

Sidebar: Fighting in the Air 57

The Middle Stretch

Further Adventures

114

Appendix 1: Monsters and Magic 115

Abyssal Ghoul 115

Demon, Blood Fiend 116

Demon, Maurezhi (Tanar’ri) 117

Drider Vampire 118

Sidebar: Spiderkind 119

Golem, Spiderstone 120

Jade Spider 121

Orb Wraith 122

Quth-Maren 123

Wraith Spider 123

Arachnoid Creature (Template) 124

Half-Dragon, Faerûnian

(Template) 126

Keening Spirit (Template) 126

Revenant (Template)

Keeping Track of Time

Resting and Re-equipping

Playing the Villains Smart

Triggers

Irae’s Responses

Cast of Characters

Part 1: Spinning the Web 10

Adventure Start 10

Dordrien Crypts 11

Dordrien Crypts Features 11

Sidebar: The Lords of

Dordrien 11

Surface Level 12

Crypt Level 15

Underdark Level 18

Szith Morcane 20

Szith Morcane Features 20

Retaliation 20

Sidebar: Intruder Alert! 20

Szith Morcane Description 21

Barracks Level

Yrthak Cavern

Vournoth’s Mire

Last Leg

127

Silveraith (Template)

127

Part 3: Maerimydra

New Special Items

128

The Burning City

New Magic Items

129

Sidebar: Maerimydra and the

Drow of Cormanthor 65

Sidebar: Weave Disruptions 68

Sites in Maerimydra

Appendix 2: Creature Statistics 131

Part 1: Spinning the Web 131

Dordrien Crypts 131

Sidebar: Drow Traits 132

Szith Morcane Sentries 133

Sidebar: Vampires 134

Szith Morcane 135

Part 2: The Deep Wastes 140

Random Encounters 140

The Lake of Shadows 141

Sidebar: Kuo-Toa Traits 142

The Wailing Cliff 143

Sidebar: Kir-Lanan Abilities144

Vournoth’s Mire 145

Part 3: Maerimydra 146

The Burning City 146

Castle Maerimydra 149

Part 4: The Undying Temple 156

Sidebar: Politics in

Maerimydra

Sidebar: How can the

Hidden Help? 71

Castle Maerimydra 77

The Castle Design 78

Castle Maerimydra Features 78

Key to Castle Maerimydra 81

Sidebar: Alert on Level One 83

Sidebar: Alert on Level Two 87

Sidebar: Alert on Upper Levels 93

Bazaar Level

Commoners’ Level

Sidebar: A Common

Drow Household

Inverted Tower Level

House Morcane Level

Sidebar: The Trouble with

Forbiddance

Sidebar: What the

Drow Know

Part 4: The Undying Temple 102

Undying Temple Features 102

Destroying the Undying

Temple

Sidebar: Don’t Miss

This Clue

103

Fane of Lolth

Encounters in the Undying

Temple 104

Key to the Undying Temple 104

Sidebar: Ethereal Plane

Features

Part 2: The Deep Wastes

The Way to Maerimydra

From the Surface

110

R EALMS ® adventure presenting a substantial

quest into the deep Underdark of Faerûn.

Against the background of civil war among the drow, the char-

acters must halt the onslaught of an army of undead created

to exact a terrible vengeance upon the surface world.

Encounter Levels: City of the Spider Queen is designed for

a party of four characters who begin the adventure at 10th

level. The characters’ long quest should offer enough experi-

ence to bring them as high as 18th level by the conclusion of

the adventure.

P re p aration

You need a copy of the Player’s Handbook , the D UNGEON

M ASTER ’s Guide , the Monster Manual , and the F ORGOTTEN

R EALMS Campaign Setting to use this adventure. Some mon-

sters from Monster Compendium: Monsters of Faerûn also

appear in this book, but their complete statistics are given in

Appendix 2. If you prefer to use monsters from the Monster

Manual, appropriate monster substitutions are suggested in

Appendix 2 as well. Several NPCs in this adventure have pres-

tige classes that are detailed in other books . These books are

not required to run this adventure, since all pertinent statistics

and abilities for these NPCs are included in Appendix 2.

Text that appears in shaded boxes is player information,

which you may read aloud or paraphrase as appropriate. Text

in sidebars contains important notes for the Dungeon Master

(DM) and background campaign information. Monster and

nonplayer character (NPC) statistics are provided with each

encounter in abbreviated form. Full monster statistics for

standard monsters are in the Monster Manual or the F OR -

GOTTEN R EALMS Campaign Setting, while statistics for new

or unique monsters are provided in Appendix 1 and Appen-

dix 2 at the end of this book. You should review all these sta-

tistics before the game starts to refresh your memory of the

creatures’ abilities.

Adventure

Back g round

Lolth has fallen silent.

Each midnight, the priestesses in their darkened chambers

send their pleas to the Demonweb Pits, but they receive no

answer. They gain no spells. They hear no reassurance that

Lolth has not abandoned them, still watches over them, or

even remains alive.

Many priestesses remain firm in their faith. In their minds,

it is perfectly logical that Lolth would test them this way,

withdrawing her presence and observing whether her followers

remain faithful. In most cities of the drow, life goes on as

normal. Not so in all cities, however.

In the Underdark city of Maerimydra, Lolth’s slackened grip

on the drow has brought about utter annihilation. Initially, insur-

rection, unrest, and the unbridled ambition of the city’s archmage,

Duneth Wharreil, weakened Maerimydra and led to its fall at the

hands of an invading force of goblins, ogres, giants, and demons.

Led by the fearsome half-fiend fire giant Kurgoth Hellspawn, the

invaders sacked the city and slaughtered most of its population,

drow and slaves alike. From his Shattered Tower, Duneth greatly

aided Hellspawn’s onslaught and brought about the fall of many

drow strongholds and redoubts.

Duneth and his barbaric allies were not alone in their

hatred for House Chûmavh, the ruling house of Maerimydra.

Worshipers of Kiaransalee, the drow deity of death and

vengeance, took advantage of the chaos to seize control of

Castle Maerimydra, home of House Chûmavh. Under the lead-

ership of Irae T’sarran, an albino drow priestess, the

Kiaransaleen overthrew the last bastion of Lolth-worshiping

drow. While Kurgoth’s troops burned and plundered the city,

C ity of the Spider Queen is a F ORGOTTEN

Introduction

Irae T’sarran struck against Duneth, killing the archmage and

casting down his tower. Then, at the direction of her evil deity,

the priestess gathered her living and undead servants in Castle

Maerimydra and summoned Kiaransalee’s Undying Temple to

the Material Plane.

Although most of Maerimydra’s drow were killed or en-

slaved, small bands of refugees escaped into the Underdark.

One such group fled toward Maerimydra’s former outpost at

Szith Morcane, located some 100 miles to the southwest. Irae

T’sarran’s agents (including her son and daughter) pursued the

fleeing refugees to Szith Morcane with instructions to discover

whether the Lolth-priestesses in the colony had been similarly

robbed of their spells, and—if possible—to seize control of

Szith Morcane. These agents quickly accomplished both mis-

sions, flaying the priestesses of Lolth and transforming them

into quth-marens, hideous undead servitors. Inspired by their

new leaders, the drow of Szith Morcane have begun making

raids on the surface, primarily on the lands of Daggerdale,

almost directly above the drow outpost.

Back in Maerimydra, Irae T’sarran is now engaged in inten-

sive research on a great revenance spell. Guided by Kiaransalee’s

divine whispers, the priestess prepares to use the potent nega-

tive energy of the temple in conjunction with the new spell to

simultaneously animate the thousands of fallen drow, goblins,

ogres, and giants in and around Maerimydra into a single horde

under her command. The magic Irae studies would raise a

vengeful legion of revenants in full possession of their facul-

ties, but slaved to her will. Irae has already savored the first

sweet taste of the vengeance demanded by her deity by destroy-

ing the Lolthites of Maerimydra—now she dreams of fulfilling

the age-old dream of all drow and exacting revenge against the

peoples of the surface world.

Adventure Outline

The adventure begins as the player characters investigate a

number of recent drow raids on the surface in Part 1. Their ex-

plorations lead them through some ancient crypts in the

Dagger Hills to the caverns of Szith Morcane, a small drow

outpost originally founded by colonists from nearby Maerimy-

dra. In Szith Morcane, the characters discover a thriving cult

of Kiaransalee. The cult has taken control of the outpost,

flayed the priestesses of Lolth, and spurred the natives of

Szith Morcane and the refugees from Maerimydra alike into

renewed activity against the surface world.

At the heart of Szith Morcane, the characters find a

tunnel leading off to the northeast, toward Maerimydra. In

Part 2 of the adventure, they must travel through roughly

100 miles of Underdark tunnels, past numerous dangerous

regions, including the Lake of Shadows, the Wailing Cliff,

and Vournoth’s Mire. Battling past the evil denizens of these

tunnels, the characters eventually make their way to the

ruins of Maerimydra.

In Maerimydra, in Part 3, the party finds the drow city in

ruins. The remnants of the army of Kurgoth Hellspawn have

overrun the cavern. The cult of Kiaransalee still defends the

last redoubt of the drow city, bolstered by large numbers of

undead. Irae T’sarran’s summoning of the Undying Temple

created serious local corruptions in the Weave of magic. The

bulk of the adventure takes place in the ruins of Maerimydra

(the City of the Spider Queen) while the PCs fight the living

and undead servants of Irae T’sarran, as well as the remaining

invaders of the city.

Part 4, the climax of the adventure, occurs in the Undying

Temple, Irae T’sarran’s sinister fane at the top of Castle Maer-

imydra. Built partially in the Material Plane and partially in

the Ethereal Plane, the temple sits at the center of a large and

expanding area of disruption in the Weave. Within this strong-

hold, the PCs battle Irae’s fiendish and undead minions and

finally the priestess herself.

Character Hooks

The default hook for this adventure has the characters becom-

ing involved because of the recent rash of drow raids in the

Daggerdale region. The PCs may be asked to stop the raids by

some higher authority (such as Randal Morn or some Harper

higher-up), or they may be lured to investigate for more per-

sonal reasons. If any of them have family or holdings in Dag-

gerdale, those could be the targets of drow raids.

If your campaign’s activity centers somewhere other than

the Dalelands, you can move Szith Morcane to that location,

draw the characters in through drow raids in that area, and

connect Szith Morcane to the Deep Wastes and Maerimydra

through a portal. The adventure assumes you are making use

of the Daggerdale setting.

Another option entails a rather different campaign style.

The novel Dissolution by Richard Lee Byers and the remaining

novels in the War of the Spider Queen series follow the actions

of a group of Lolth-worshiping drow from Menzoberranzan

in the wake of Lolth’s sudden silence. This adventure works as

well for evil drow characters as it does for heroes from the sur-

face, though their motivations are completely different. If this

kind of campaign appeals to you, the characters could be drow

from Menzoberranzan or members of House Jaelre in Cor-

manthor sent to Szith Morcane to learn what they can about

the rumored destruction of Maerimydra. Finding the clerics of

Lolth slaughtered and transformed into undead, the player

characters (assuming they remain loyal to Lolth) might feel

compelled to destroy the Kiaransaleen drow and track down

their leader in Maerimydra.

Running the

Adventure

Descending deep into the Underdark to confront powerful

drow villains in their own demesne makes for an extraordi-

nary adventure. You will want to address several unique com-

plications inherent in this adventure in order to make the best

use of the plotline, the villains’ capabilities, and the features

of its unusual setting. Faerzress, the magical emanation

common throughout the Underdark, scrambles teleportation

magic. The villains have powerful spells they may employ

against the heroes once they become aware of the threat the

player characters pose. Finally, the heroes will have to balance

the use of time to rest and re-equip against the advance of the

villains’ plots.

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