Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Jefuri no Oni 01-31-05, 02:30 PM	Many of you might have heard of a module by WotC called "City of the Spider Queen" written by James Wyatt. I have heard that there are quite a number of horror stories about this module. I have head of TPK's that happen in the first encounter of the first dungeon. How many of you out there have played the module? Please share your experiences. Especially if you were ever involved in one of the TPK's that the module seems to be infamous for. I would still love to hear any of your stories about this module even if they are not horrendous tales of TPK's. I will start with a story I have Warning Possible Spoilers ahead. I am currently GMing the module and it was the first session. Durbo the party's Gnome Rogue failed his search check on one of the early Save or Die Traps. Lucky for him our group doesn't play with save or dies because we think they are boring, anti climactic, and stupid. So in our game, save or dies deal damage it's a variant that has worked out quite well for us. Fortunately for him his Gnome had enough hit points to barely survive that trap. Mine is not exactly a horror story because of our house ruels regarding save or dies but it was definitely a horror story waiting to happen and because the Ghost behind the trapped door almost immediately attacked them it could have been a TPK had the Gnome not lived, especially because the Human Fighter rolled about 3 natural 1's in a row in the fight with the Ghost that followed the trap.
Aluroon 01-31-05, 04:50 PM	Its not a bad modual, its just dangerous, as all underdark moduals should be, especially if they concern the drow. If you play smart you can get through it without to much trouble. (The key is be paranoid). Aluroon
Acererak 01-31-05, 05:20 PM	To save time, (and against my recommendation) my group decided to wind walk from the drow outpost to Maermydra. A few hours and a few Survival and Spot checks later they arrive at the gates to the city, dispel the wind walk and since they're woefully unprepared for them are TPK'd by the fire giant guards. :rolleyes:
warlockco 02-01-05, 08:21 AM	The very first encounter in the Crypts can be a TPK, even if the party does everything correctly. This is a Meat Grinder Module. Hence why it 18th level characters would be challenged by it.
Chosen of Bane 02-01-05, 08:38 AM	I ran this module for my group, we completed it about a year ago. I (and all of my players) thoroughly enjoyed it but I must admit, I was a little burned out with Drow and Undead by the end of the module. The group I ran it for had 7 PC's and the character creation method we use makes for powerful characters (roll 3 sets with the standard 4d6 and pick the best set) so I ended up adding to the module believe it or not. I feel that any 18th level party can make short work of Irae T'Sarran the way she is statted out, so I re-statted her and gave her MANY more magic items. She's a 20th level priestess heading a large cult and didn't have a periapt of wis +6??? SPOILER WARNING................................. ................. The toughtest encounter for my party was.... When the party encountered the Beholder and MindFlayer that work together it was VERY close to a TPK. I gave the MindFlayer 7 levels of Psion and he charmed two party members. Then in Castle Maerimydra, the Keening spirit of Cabrath Nelindara (sp) used her keening and wiped out both party casters. One of my parties favorite parts of the module was actually something I added which I highly recommend if you are early enough to do so. In order to pull this off your party can't be paranoid yet... I had a "good" drow priestess with a ring of undetectable alignment. Little did they know but she was the ex-lover of one of the Drider Sorcerers. She fought along side the party luring them into a trap for the Driders. When the party encountered the Driders, the "good" drow started Flamestriking the party. It worked out perfect because she was with them for a couple of sessions, they TOTALLY didn't see it coming. She had no problem killing worshippers of Kiaransalee after what was done to her lover and they assumed she was just another good drow inspired by Drizzt. If you can find a way to work in a trader like this I recommend it. My party had a paladin and he detected evil like he always does but the ring came in handy and they had no reason not to trust her. After that and one other (Drow Barbarian shackled in Szith Morcane) the party came to the agreement that NO Drow was to be trusted, period. At that point even if I wanted to introduce a good drow ally they would have promptly killed it.
Jefuri no Oni 02-01-05, 06:24 PM	Unfortunately not only am I too far ahead in the module but the traitor Drow pretending to be a D'rizzit clone would never work on my group. They are ALWAYS paranoid about absolutely everything. They were paranoid before the module even started, always have been. When I play I'm paranoid too. But if you can get it to work it's pretty cool.
Green Elven Vampire 02-01-05, 09:49 PM	It would be very wise to bring a NPC drow Sword Dancer of Eileistraee as a guide for your PC's.
robertliguori 02-01-05, 11:54 PM	Heh heh heh... I'm playing a 3.5 version, and as such need to update my tactics. For instance, since summoned monsters can't use teleport SLAs, Irae can't summon demons and send them to teleport to the players. She can, however, Greater-Planar-Ally a marilith, and have her pop in around the next bend, summon demons, and leave. Also, the players killed, destroyed, or captured for conversion to good a la BoED every drow above 5th level in Szith Morcaine. They will be returning to the city shortly, with dreams of installing a newly-converted Solom and having a CG drow leading the city. They really should have thought would happen when there's no clear authority, and many many ******-off slaves. I'm going to run a bit of mass-combat to see if the common drow or the ex-slaves are ruling over the ruin. Also, we're running a high-power gestalt campaign. I've been having fun going through and re-statting the NPCs. For instance, the save DC for the Claw's death attack is now in the mid-twenties. The party will soon learn a valuable lesson: the DM reads the Character Optimisation Boards, too.
Cromm10k 02-02-05, 03:29 AM	My 0,02 cent: Yes, CothSQ is a meat grinder. My party of 4 players (average lvl 12) never realy made it to Sith Morcane. They did a lot of stupid things and always backed of when they should have kept on pressing the drow. The first time they ran away from the spider. When they returned they were ambushed by the hunter killer team. This fight ended in a tie, both sides badly injured and retreating. Then they tried a frontal assault on the cliff and were stopped by the archmage and his pet outsider who got some support from the hunter killers after a couple of rounds. Party retreated again. They decided to use magic to get into the city and collect some information about the enemy. The party's rogue-wizard used his magical armor (etherealness once per day) to scout and he mapped out the whole city (minus the temple complex). On his trip he saw the head student and the yugoloth in the tower. So the party decided to take out the most dangerous student. Well...our rogue-wizard noticed that the yugoloth smiled at him and that some guards rushed out of the garission. But the party went in for the kill anyway. To make it short: they went to the mage tower in an ethereal form but thy found no wizard. Then they paniced and left the Sith Morcane after they detected some scrying. They moved to a nearby wood and get scryed again. They prepared themself for the inevitable: the attack by the hunter killers, supported by the archmage. The fight was short but brutal. The party lost their newest member, a dwarfen barbarian-battlerage. The "old" members ran away, leaving their new "friend" on the battlefield, dieing. Now the drow have a new toy... :devil: Bodycount: the cleric of Ilmater was killed 2x by the blackguard's displacer beast. 1x the fighter-rogue (elf), replaced by the dwarf barb. 1x the human monk (killed on a sidequest to get the cleric back the 2nd time). This is adventure is a meat grinder, but - IMHO - it must be one. It takes place in the underdark and the main enemy are THE DROW! So it takes place at one of the most dangerous places in Farun und the group is fighting one of the most dark, evil and vicious power groups down there. What do you expect? Millions of lvl1 drow warriors? Most of the drow are far more intelligent then the PCs, they spent a lot of time collecting informations about the group and the used the knowledge...
Gauze Fireforge 02-04-05, 12:51 AM	SPOILERS CONTAINED HEREIN I have been Dming for between 2 to 3 years and started out already having the module. So for the first couple of levels (we started the campaign when they were ECL 7) they ran around the dalelands, getting into the plot and seeing all sorts of stuff such as the raiding by the drow on the dales. Anyways with a party of 6 10th level PC's they entered the Dordrien Crypts and so the module began. They did quite well but since the party is a holier than though group with which the fate of the world hangs on their frail shoulder, they didn't want to desecrate any tombs. As such, several encounters were missed such as the summoned celestial dire lions and the ghost with the death spell on the door. They had a run in with Chahir, the vampire outside but never knew he was a vampire or even got to see him. They never checked the tombs outside of the crypts. THey travelled well into the crypts and the frist stumblind block was the the 2 Bebiliths. Now that encounter is hideous! In hindsight I would have changed it to one but thankfully they survived with a little outside help though. After that, the flesh eating Maurezi demon caused huge problems with his paralyzing touch. Nearly a TPK there but thankfully survived. The trip through SZIth Morcane was hard but never where they in a position where it was leading to TPK. I honestly cant remember how many people died (there have been a few) in SZith Moracane. However, the TPK eventually came when the party, after resting and having a full completement of spells and health faced of the stone giants but just barely avoided a fight. They then went into the Kuo-Toan fortress in the lake of shadows, flushed them out and nearly lost two members to the fiendish Kraken by grappling them and drawing them deep under the lake. With that they then windwalked into the infernal raiders random encounter (The paladin in the party cant let any demons to roam around loose) and then another random encounter I cant recall at this point and then arrived at the Gougoth's chasm, the shadow dragon with the kirlanens. They were down to half resources at this point, fought the kirlaneasn, where on about 1/4 resources and then the shadow dragon came into play. For the first 3 rounds, a party member died each round, it finished off the others except for the rogue who as the last man standing decided to get outta there. They passed through 3 or 4 major encounters with just 1 day's resources and hence when the dragon made his appearance, they really didn't have a chance. At this point the campign ended, I ran some other adventures but with the turn out of 3.5 and the fact they got half way through the module, I gave them the chance after about 6 months to pick up where they left off with their old characters converted to 3.5 After coming back, beefed up and ready for the dragon, they won the day. From there they have travelled steadily however they once again came across the folly of windwalking. Deciding to quicken their pace and believeing them close to the Maerimydra I decided that (since that Irae couldn't send demons out planar allied due to fazress) Irae leaked info to Kurgoth that a reinforcement of drow where coming through the gate the PC's were going to come across. Hence when the party showed up at the gate, 6 elite Firgiants were there, waiting for them. 2 PC's died and thankfully to divine intervention called upon by the Paladin, they managed to survive. After that, it has been a series of using a stone tell within an item they have to learn the password to the forbidance (note that in 3.5, forbiddance doesn't hedge out creatures, it only deals damage to those who dont say the password before entering). From there it was a series of hit and run tactics, entering the castle at the start of the day and staying for about 5 minutes, using about half there resources where upon they bugged out and set up camp and managed to survive the hunting parties sent out after them by Irae. However of late, they have down enough hit and runs to thin the ranks considerably so that now they have gained a stronf foothold within the castle (with the castle being now mostly devoid of creatures and are soon about to come across the undying temple). The moral of this story is as others have said is that death is to be expected otherwise it wouldn't be a module based on the underdark, demons, undead and most importantly, drow. I think there has been in total about 5 to 10 PC deaths whilst running this campaign. However the introduction of Libris Mortis has given the PC's some great spells that they are maximising to the fullest. They are on the prepice of toppling Irae but havn't hardle touched Kurgoth's army. They have been back in the underdark for about 6 months real time and cant wait to get this module over and done with. Dont get me wrong, they love it but they have so much lewt they want to get back into civilsation which I can understand. Anyways, thats a brief gist of my campisn arc with the COSQ module :D
Green Elven Vampire 02-04-05, 02:09 AM	I really want to play this module!!
Draco Strang 02-04-05, 02:45 AM	I really want to play this module!! God....it was brutal. I DM'd it, and actually felt bad for my players. The only things in the whole module they didn't have to kill were the giant clan and the band of refugees in the city. Geez on man, it was rough. I can't emphasize enough the importance of a cleric. (My party was convinced they wouldn't need one. I laughed in their faces. Literally, and then I flat out told them I wouldn't even consider DMing it unless they had one. Minor railroading? Damn straight.) It was a 4 player party, with a Cleric of Moradin, monk, rogue, and wizard. The monk's player chose him over the core fighter because of all the nifty abilities that enable you to both run away and get in and out of enemy threat ranges quickly. He and the rogue double teamed a lot, enabling them to bring down enemies quickly. Well, except for those blasted revenants and their undead traits. No sneak attacks there....... Luckily, they one died in the very beginning, thus impressing upon the whole party the importance of resurrection scrolls. Woohoo....long dungeon.
Imruphel 02-04-05, 10:45 AM	I really want to play this module!! I'm not sure why you would want to play it. It's pretty ordinary. Really, it's a giant hackfest with very little to recommend it. IMO, it's the sort of module that, if you play it right through, you could easily be turned off D&D for life as it is such a draining adventure for the players as well as the characters (and, in my case, the DM!).
Chosen of Bane 02-04-05, 01:00 PM	I'm not sure why you would want to play it. It's pretty ordinary. Really, it's a giant hackfest with very little to recommend it. IMO, it's the sort of module that, if you play it right through, you could easily be turned off D&D for life as it is such a draining adventure for the players as well as the characters (and, in my case, the DM!). I have to whole-heartedly disagree with this statement! Obviously you have the right to your own opinion but the group I game with still regularly shares stories from this module and we ran it a year ago. It is quite long and you get burned out towards the end but I think it is a phenomenal adventure. Like most (or all) published adventures the DM needs to do some work to adapt it to his group/campaign setting. My group still constantly asks me when we are going to unretire the PC's and run an epic level campaign extension, unfortunatly I'm not ready to do that right now. I highly recommend City of the Spider Queen to anybody who enjoys playing in the Realms.
Klyden 02-04-05, 02:13 PM	I ran this awhile back and though I had to struggle to update it to 3.5 I eventually made it and then my 6 PC's (listed below along with a NPC run by me) played it: Ianten Silverblade (LG male aasimar Ftr 3/Pal 9/Chm 2 of Ilmater) Rena Firehair (LG female human Ftr 9/Clr 6 of Tyr) Thorik Foehammer (NG male shield dwarf Ftr 15) Shayla Goldmoon (CG female human Clr 7/Silverstar 8 of Selune) Melburna Sunmantle (CG female sun elf Wiz 14/Arm 1) Bryan Blackarrow (LN male human Rog 11/Gld 4) Lastielia (CG female drow Clr 7/Brd 3/Sword Dancer of Eilistraee 6) [NPC] Now of course your probably wondering why I allowed my 6 PC's to have 15 Level Adventurers at the beginning but I can explain. I simply powered up most if not all of the game's villains (as exampled below): Chahir: Male Human Vampire Sor 12; CR 15 Tierak Morcane: Female Drow Ftr 6/Clr 7 of Lolth; CR 13 Tooman Thendrick: Male Drow Clr 7/Slime Lord 6 of Ghaunadaur; CR 14 Nobruzzal: Male Drow Wiz 13/Dev 2 of Vhaeraun; CR 16 Susztam: Male Drow Ill 10/Sha 6; CR 17 Solom Ned'razak: Male Drow Wiz 14/Archmage 2; CR 18 Zedarr T'sarran: Male drow Rog 6/Ftr 8/Blk 5; CR 19 Dorina T'sarran: Female Drow Vampire Clr of Kiaransalee Clr 6/Wizard 5/Yathrinshee 7 of Kiaransalee; CR 21 It only got harder from there on. When my party finally reached Maerimydra they were all 21stth Level. What they didn't expect was 4 Muar Barbarians to come out of Maerimydra's city walls and attack them while 2 Fire Giant Fighter brought reinforcements in the form of four Fomorian Barbarians. Of course, I gave them 7 rounds to deal with the Maur's before a the Fire Giant and the two Fomorians came out of the ruined castle gates. Still, I think I suprised them. ;) :D
Klyden 02-04-05, 03:09 PM	The fight with Irae was tremendous though. I think my PC's were impressed with how I played her. I basically made her the following: Irae T'sarran: Female Drow (Chosen of Kiaransalee) Cleric 9/Wizard 7/Yathrinshee 10 of Kiaransalee; CR 31 My party was at the following Levels when they faced her: Ianten Silverblade (LG male aasimar Ftr 6/Pal 18/Chm 5 of Ilmater) Rena Firehair (LG female human Ftr 18/Clr 10 of Tyr) Thorik Foehammer (NG male shield dwarf Ftr 28) Shayla Goldmoon (CG female human Clr 18/Silverstar 10 of Selune) Melburna Sunmantle (CG female sun elf Wiz 18/Dev 5/Arm 5 of Corellon Larethian) Bryan Blackarrow (LN male human Rog 23/Gld 5) Lastielia (CG female drow Clr 10/Brd 8/Sword Dancer of Eilistraee 10) [NPC] Basically what Irae did to even the odds against her was call an avatar of Kiaransalee to fight with her. Needless to say, my PC’s barely won. Thorik was down to 3 hp or something like that (mostly because the avatar of Kiaransalee kept on trying to behead him with her dagger or blast him with spells or divine salient abilities). Irae lasted quite a bit and nearly killed Melbruna (mostly because of her Rod of the Twisted Weave). The ending was also fairly spectacular if I do say so myself. The combined arcane, divine, and negative energies plus the death of Kiaransalee's avatar opened a gigantic rift in space/time and pulled Irae's corpse, the remains of the Undying Temple (where the fight took place) and all the PC's into it and knocked them unconscious. Let's just say that my PC's all woke up in a strange place in the middle of a gigantic room with a huge humanoid like being wearing a overly bladed mask looking down at them with puzzled curiosity. ;) :D
Jefuri no Oni 02-04-05, 06:41 PM	The fight with Irae was tremendous though. I think my PC's were impressed with how I played her. I basically made her the following: Irae T'sarran: Female Drow (Chosen of Kiaransalee) Cleric 9/Wizard 7/Yathrinshee 10 of Kiaransalee; CR 31 Basically what Irae did to even the odds against her was call an avatar of Kiaransalee to fight with her. Needless to say, my PC’s barely won. Thorik was down to 3 hp or something like that (mostly because the avatar of Kiaransalee kept on trying to behead him with her dagger or blast him with spells or divine salient abilities). :D Could you post the avatar of Kiaransalee you used, or tell me where you pulled it's stats from, or send it to me in a private message? I just might consider doing that myself. I already beefed up the 2 Shattered Tower guards with her a little bit but I think the avatar of Kiaransalee would be cool.
Klyden 02-04-05, 08:32 PM	Well, her she is for you. I beefed her up by making her a Lesser Deity with a Divine Rank of 8 (mostly because I believe the ranks of her worshipers are swelling due to Lolth's silence and the events in City of the Spider Queen). Thus I gave her as a Deity the Avatar divine salient ability. I do not know however if I gave her the right AC, Atk, and the DC's for her Divine Salient Abilities and Spell-Like Ability. There is a part of WotC's site that offers a web enchantment with Kiaransalee's stats as a Deity. I'll give it to you. If anyone can fix any errors I made then please feel free to do so. Here is the link to Kiaransalee's stats as a Deity (please note that these stats don't list her as Divine Rank 8 but instead list her as Divine Rank 6 http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/we/20020907a[/url] Avatar of Kiaransalee: SZ Large; AC 42 (touch 26, flat-footed 26); Atk +22 melee (1d4+12 plus poison/19-20, [I]+5 dagger of venom), +17 melee touch (1d8+5 plus paralysis, paralyzing touch ); Face/Reach: 5 ft. by 5 ft./5 ft.; All skill modifers reduced by 5. Salient Divine Abilities: Alter Size, Arcane Mastery, Control Creatures (undead, 6 creatures at once and per day, Will DC 20), Divine Spellcasting, Hand of Death (Fort save DC 29). Spell-Like Abilities: Caster level 15th level or caster level 16 for chaos and evil spells; DCs are 19 + spell level. Without the Extra Domain salient ability, Kiaransalee's avatar loses access to the Drow and Retribution domains, as well as the coresponding domain powers and the spell-like abilities banishment, bear's endurance, clairaudience/clairvoyance, cloak of dark power, discern lies, discern location, fire shield, gate, greater dispelling, greater planar ally, mark of justice, shield of faith, spell turning, spiderform, suggestion, speak with dead, storm of vengence.
Klyden 02-04-05, 08:37 PM	Also, a word of advice. DO NOT USE AN AVATAR OF KIARANSALEE UNLESS YOUR PLAYERS ARE AT LEAST 28TH LEVEL TOTAL! I MEAN IT! MY PLAYERS BARELY SURVIVED THEIR ENCOUNTER WITH THIS UNDEAD PIECE OF DEIFIC POWER! THEY WERE DOWN TO SINGLE DIGIT HP TOTALS DUDE! DO NOT USE UNLESS YOUR PLAYERS ARE EPIC! My name is Klyden and I approve this warning.
Jefuri no Oni 02-10-05, 01:56 AM	Also, a word of advice. DO NOT USE AN AVATAR OF KIARANSALEE UNLESS YOUR PLAYERS ARE AT LEAST 28TH LEVEL TOTAL! Thanks for the warning and the stats. Don't worry I won't, I doubt my players will be level 28 when they get to Irae and I think my level 24 True Necromancer Irae T'sarran with her 3 Shattered Tower Revenant Guards (possibly placing her 4 Sanctum Guards with her as well) and the Undying Temple on her side will do just fine against them. I just wanted to see the stats because I like to have as many options open to me as possible. Incidently my party just kicked down the door of Castle Maerimydra last week and we ended the session in the middle of the Fight with the 2 Cult Necromancers, 2 Revenant Slave Overseers, horde of zombies, and the Demon Silverwraith.
Dargoth 02-10-05, 06:22 PM	As of Lost empires of Faerun, the City of the Spider Queen module has been officially resolved
warlockco 02-10-05, 11:27 PM	As of Lost empires of Faerun, the City of the Spider Queen module has been officially resolved Can't wait to see what the official line for that is.
Draco Strang 02-11-05, 08:31 AM	As of Lost empires of Faerun, the City of the Spider Queen module has been officially resolved Say what?
Sguss 02-11-05, 12:55 PM	I'm currently playing it x2. Group #1: We're Drow from another city and the DM is using Pool of Radiance as an intro to it... Tonight will be the third session - still in Pool of Radiance. This one has already been fun and is getting us ready for adventuring into CotSQ since we're dealing with a lot of traps, puzzles, parlay encounters and very deadly and tactical battles. It's also developing our party - which is actually 3 mini-groups, each of us with (as far as we know) the same objectives. PARANOIA to the extreme - am absolutely loving it LOL. Right now my character is a Hexblade 1, Rogue 1, male highborn Drow, LE. His older sister (Cleric of course) and one of the house slaves (another player who was willing), a half-drow peon (don't ask why he chose to play this - he takes jabs from all of us at the table) and a member of our house guard (yet another willing player) make up the largest sub-group. The second group is a 3 party Orog contigent who operate primaryly as our front-line defence and last but not least a couple of (as far as we can tell so far) Drow Sorcs led by yet another female drow cleric. The interplay amongst the players have really been interesting, almost like the party in War of the Spider Queen - everyone with their own objectives, not trusting one another, but still getting the job done LOL. One last member is paladin like drow with a spider - I think he is some evil justicar, but haven't figured out which faction he is really with - I suspect but don't know - the other drow household. The toughest part of this game so far has been role-playing it without it getting to the point of implosion between the sub-groups, though we each recognize the other's role (and of course think we have the best one LOL) and still keeping alive on the surface right now. Most of this group are between 3-5 ECL. Group #2: Has 12 players like the 12 above and is a little more chaotic if that's possible, but just as much fun. Group #1 usually only has 1 or at most 2 people missing at any session so far, while group 2 has gotten together 3 times also (tomorrow being the 4th) and is usually missing 3-4 characters. How we have gotten around this is by having a base-camp outside an entrance to the Underdark where non-playing charcters are considered guarding, healing or studying before the next session. This group is made up of entirely surface dwealers, most I believe are of good alignment. One of our biggest hurdles happened the second session when we woke the fiendlishly humongeous spider. Somehow, someway.... we survived and killed that monster. In this group I am an 8th level Air Genesai Wizard with a kewl small air elemental as my familiar. Most of this group is between 9-12 ECL. In this campaign all I can say is that we have been lucky and have literally stumped the DM as we have survived stumbling into traps and ambushes time and time again or done something foolish - like discuss plans for combat within earshot of the enemy and have them fail their listen checks LOL (that was an interesting one - only 6 of us and NONE of us a melee fighter and only one of our two wiazrads - yes, me. Somehow though we kicked butt). So to answer the question about horror stories to share? None here - both campaigns have been challenging to the extreme but very fun. Do I expect to live through either of them? *hoping I am wrong* Nope, our luck or party stucture will eventually fails us. But I am sure that it will remain fun LOL. Sam
Jefuri no Oni 04-01-07, 11:14 PM	I'm not sure why you would want to play it. It's pretty ordinary. Really, it's a giant hackfest with very little to recommend it. IMO, it's the sort of module that, if you play it right through, you could easily be turned off D&D for life as it is such a draining adventure for the players as well as the characters (and, in my case, the DM!). I'm going to have to disagree with you. Yes it's a bit hard for the DM to run, but my players loved it and I enjoyed running it.
Dr_Tough 04-02-07, 10:34 AM	After the charnel house that was The Night Below (something like 12 or so PC deaths) I swore never to run a meat grinder module again. However... this one has piqued my interest.
Bonzai 04-02-07, 11:32 AM	I have recently joined a campaign, and I am pretty sure it is the City of the Spider Queen. Evidently it was pretty nasty, as none of the original characters remain. I joined in with a lvl 13 Dwarf Soulborn while the characters were building a stone golem in a deep gnome villiage. The party consists of a lvl 13 Bard, Lvl 13 Fighter, and a lvl 13 psion. Thus far it has been pretty easy, though a fight with a beholder could have gotten nasty. The bard basicly has diplomacy out the wazoo and was able to talk down the beholder. Pretty much the Bard tries to bluff through any non-demons or drow. Last night he managed to talk his way through the fire giants army, and get them to leave us alone as we made our way to the castle. I asume that things are about to get tougher as we enter the castle. Which is a good thing, as up to now it's been fairly easy (though we are sorta power gaming, and are all fairly experienced players).
festerday 04-02-07, 04:02 PM	I played this module as a character, and I can say that I liked it, but it should be better if I was the DM because I really love drow stories. Anyway I recommend to play Cotsq with a high level drow party to really enjoy the plot and not simply kill everyone.
Dargoth 04-02-07, 10:06 PM	Say what? The Volo article in Dragon magazine 354 has further details
Empirate 04-03-07, 10:32 AM	Reading the module through, I can't imagine the amount of work I'd have to put into this piece of bore in order to make a decent adventure of the blasted thing. Fight. Rest. Fight. Rest. Fight. Rest. Oh, and find and disarm save-or-die traps every damn five minutes, of course. Whoever builds an adventure that has a save-or-die trap in the first 100 metres of campaign grounds must be insane. No NPC interaction to speak of, no riddles, no mysteries, no embeddedness in a larger picture, no atmosphere you don't provide on your own. Every single monster type and subtype somewhere in there, so much for theme. Hack it, slash it, hack it, slash it. You want your players to use finesse and brains once in a while? Make a wide berth around the City of the Spider Queen! This might as well be my official review...
QuenthelsChampion 04-04-07, 10:29 PM	Well i played this with my main party. Which is a deep imaskari sorcerer, a draegloth cleric of Selvetarm, my lolthite priestess without her powers at that time, a paladin of selvetarm, and a drow wizard. It was fun to see some of the drow welcome them with open arms and the others flat out try to kill them. They way it worked out by the time i was almost done Lolth had returned and her powers restored. We almost died in the Underdark when the draegloth was mind controled and almost killed the party while we were trying to subdue him. That and the problems we had with some members of the Hidden to get the forbidence spell. We had to kill Kurgoth to get there trust. it was interesting ordeal. At the end Irae had defeated a lot of the party members and my priestess killed her narrowly with the help of her brother (the pally). Now i brought Irae back from the dead for revenge and im waiting for a good time to let the cult strike back. QC
Azar_of_Faerun 04-05-07, 04:26 AM	paladin of selvetarm :uh-huh:
QuenthelsChampion 04-05-07, 11:58 AM	Unearthed Arcana gives a class of paladin of slaughter and paladin of tyranny. Which are evil paladins. You use the paladin class but tweak it to be evil as the book states. And for some reason it's always the people with Sememmon as their avatar that always ask that question. Wonder why. QC
Azar_of_Faerun 04-06-07, 04:18 AM	A Paladin that isn't good? That's like a Monk that's not lawful. I've seen Chaos Monks once...wierd.
Critalondel 04-07-07, 01:53 AM	It's not "weird" so much as it's an optional/house rule. They basically make "Paladin" not specifically mean LG holy warrior, but just "holy warrior." So you then go on to pick LG, LE, CG, or CE to be your over the top holy warrior's flavor of choice.
Azar_of_Faerun 04-07-07, 02:00 AM	So it's like Divine Champion if stretched out a full 20 levels with a few unique evil abilities?
QuenthelsChampion 04-07-07, 03:41 PM	it's literally the paladin class but instead of detect evil, and the nice happy aura. It's detect good and aura of despair. with some other things attached to it. QC
Critalondel 04-09-07, 02:31 AM	So it's like Divine Champion if stretched out a full 20 levels with a few unique evil abilities? More like what Quenthel said. They're actually called "Paladins," still, it's just "Paladins of Freedom," or "of Slaughter," or "of Tyranny." Then take all the Paladins stuff, and just shift it so you smite Good (for instance), or have an aura of fear (instead of an aura that boosts morale), etc, etc. They're not bad classes, but I could see most of them (Slaughter, Tyranny) being a little tough to fit into a game. I'm pretty sure the fanatically CG Paladins of Freedom might actually be a bit more fun to hang out with than the stereotyical LG stick-in-the-mud Pally, though.
Loestalx 04-10-07, 05:24 PM	Reading the module through, I can't imagine the amount of work I'd have to put into this piece of bore in order to make a decent adventure of the blasted thing. Fight. Rest. Fight. Rest. Fight. Rest. Oh, and find and disarm save-or-die traps every damn five minutes, of course. Whoever builds an adventure that has a save-or-die trap in the first 100 metres of campaign grounds must be insane. No NPC interaction to speak of, no riddles, no mysteries, no embeddedness in a larger picture, no atmosphere you don't provide on your own. Every single monster type and subtype somewhere in there, so much for theme. Hack it, slash it, hack it, slash it. You want your players to use finesse and brains once in a while? Make a wide berth around the City of the Spider Queen! This might as well be my official review... Uhh..it's a large dungeon crawl...what dungeon crawls have alot of NPC interaction and role playing encounters. It is what it is, and it did what it set out to do very well...it's not the writer's fault or mods fault that you want it to be something different.
Renvale999 04-11-07, 01:09 PM	I've played through the module six or seven times (usually twice with a new group). It's not that bad, really. The hardest part is when the PC's get to Maerymydra(can't spell). The first group I had were all drow(evil) and they just bypassed most of the monsters in the city and only took on the most important stuff, but when they reached the end they were not high enough level to take on Irae. TPK and game over at that point. The second time that same group went through, they attacked EVERY SINGLE BUYVOAC(can't spell again). I had to have the rest of the army retreat so they couldn't kill them all...and yes I used the patrols and everything else like I was supposed too, just a really good group. Needless to say they were like 25th level when they took on Irae and they stomped her into the ground. My lessons, don't let them be too low level for too high level for the final battle.
Exploit 04-11-07, 04:20 PM	I'm about to run this module for the first time as well. I've gone through it in detail and the only major problem I have with it is the Great Revenance spell that is being researched. There is no way this spell should be 9th level. By the guidelines, it should be an extremely powerful epic spell that is well beyond Irae's ability to research, with or without divine assistance. The spell is also completely unnecessary. Undead are extremely prolific and after the Cult of Kiransalee defeats the hordes of giants and humanoids the number of undead available for Irae is more than sufficient to bring about the death and destruction mentioned in the timeline. My suggestion is to do away with the spell research background story and have Irae concentrate on mass producing a variety of undead that can spawn other undead instead. One lesser planar ally Vargouille, infecting hundreds of humanoid slaves followed by a Blood Fiend turning the new vargouille into Blood Fiends equals a non-epic spell method of achieving Dalelands destruction. A few hundred Blood Fiends teleporting and dominating at will, should have even Elminster struggling to thwart the subsequent devastation.
QuenthelsChampion 04-13-07, 12:29 AM	The spell is a mass revenency spell. Blood Fiends cannot be controlled nor can vampires or liches. Revenents can and with her rezing the whole city not only are they under her complete control but they still have their wits and battle prowess as if they were alive. They arent mindless zombies or coniving wraiths. Reading the timeline shows that not only does the Dalelands combine but the Harpers come along to help and stop Irae and her horde. You don't want to go against Elminister and Storm with anything other then mass numbers and sufficient warriors. Some of those warriors are more powerful then Blood Fiends. Elminister himself killed many Pit Fiends single handedly without a bat of an eye he could do the same with Blood Fiends and Storm is no pushover either. If you do not feel that the spell could be used by Irae then make the spell an incantation which is defined in Unearthed Arcana as a spell that anyone can use with or without arcane or divine power. You could say it is a rare incantation only known by the clergy of Kiaransalee if you have a problem with her using the spell. Estimate she has around 20 Revenents 40 live guards with her lieutanents and such but she has an army that she has to deal with plus think about it every person your group kills will be rezzed as a slave to a very mad drow priestess. That and the weave corruption will make any positive casting more difficult and necromancy more powerful. QC
Exploit 04-13-07, 09:27 PM	Revenance brings a dead ally back to life for 1 minute per level. The Great Revenance spell can "simultaneously animate the thousand of fallen drow, goblins, ogres, and giants in and around Maerimydra into a single horde under her command." CotSQ pg 4. Therefore the Great Revenance spell is nothing like a Mass Revenance spell. At best it could be considered a Mass Create Undead spell however even that is being overly generous to the point of game unbalancing. First, the revenants are under her command which is significantly more powerful then the Create Undead spell in which the new undead are uncontrolled. Second, revenants are a templated creature which is infinitely better than creating a standard undead monster. Irae should be digging up the corpses of every archmage and epic level character and turning them into her revenant minions. (Hmm, that actually could be a valid method for Irae to research the necessary Epic spell. If one of the Lolth clerics killed was epic and then turned into a revenant then she could order it to research an Epic Great Revenance spell for her.) Third, the area of effect on Great Revenance is listed as being "in and around Maerimydra" so its city wide or larger! (Although you could say that she gathers all those dead and piles them up into a very large heap which would reduce the area). Finally, even under the best case limitations above the spell is far better than even the base Epic Seed: Animate Dead so the spell would have to be high level Epic.
ClobberinTime 04-16-07, 01:34 PM	I think its not such an impossible task as an epic level spell, If I were Irae, I would make it around a DC-53 or so epic spell, that will make her 40 hd of undead per casting, then order them to the surface, and re-cast, ordering them to the surface. They won't be under her control but they will cause a whole lot of trouble.