Queen of Lies
Queen of Lies is an adventure written by DMG author Monte Cook. The adventure is a foray into the underground realms occupied by the wicked dark elves.
As simple as that description sounds, it is one that I find quite exciting, for multiple reasons. First off, it is a campaign against the dark elves. Necromancer Games boasts adventures with a "first edition feel," but authors Clark Peterson and Bill Webb have proclaimed that their favorite modules of those days were the likes of White Plume Mountain and Tomb of Horrors. As for me, I preferred the series of modules with the moniker D1-3: Descent into the Depths of the Earth, Shrine of the Kuo-Toa, and Vault of the Drow, an epic quest in which players take the fight to the dark elves in the mysterious Underdark. The idea of another such campaign under third edition rules is quite intriguing.
Further, I can't think of a better person to do it than Monte Cook. Aside from knowing the d20 system inside out, he has shown that he can spin an adventure. In fact, he is the author of what I consider to be two of the best RPG adventures ever written: the epic plane-spanning Dead Gods (which, incidentally, included a visit to the Vault of the Drow), and the flexible and beautifully orchestrated Tales of the Infinite Staircase.
So perhaps my expectations are a little high. Let's see if the adventure can live up to these expectations.
Queen of Lies is an adventure for a party of 11th-level characters.
A First Look
Queen of Lies is a 48-page, staple-bound softcover book priced at $10.95. This is fairly typical for d20 products of this size, though not as good as Fiery Dragon's own Beyond All Reason.
The cover of the adventure is color. The front cover is by Brian LeBlanc, who does many recent FDP covers. Though I have expressed my disdain for his other covers, this one isn't too bad. It depicts some dark elf characters in the foreground; behind them is a backdrop of a dark elf city. This is a very nice depiction of a place in the book.
The back cover has a smaller (but very good) picture by Claudio Pozas, depicting a dark elf priestess in front of a statue and a rather scary looking giant spider.
The interior is black and white. Claudio does most of the interior artwork. I must say that I am not as fond of his work here as in prior Fiery Dragon adventures. Though the artwork is nice, the dark elves seem entirely too human to me. Perhaps I am a bit particular on the subject, but I prefer dark elves to have more of an alien fey look.
The cartography is generally decent. There is one map that is rather abstract, depicting the PCs' path through the Underdark (or as this adventure calls it, the Netherdeep). Perhaps my recollections of D1-3 are setting some expectations here, and considering the fairly linear nature of the module compared to D1-3, maybe the adventure would be ill served by a more detailed map, but I had hoped for a more detailed underground map.
The typeface on the interior is decently compact with little wasted space. Given the price per page for the adventure, Queen of Lies delivers a decent value based on quantity of content.
A Deeper Look
(Warning: The following contains spoilers to secrets in the adventure.)
Queen of Lies is based around the machinations of Alevolenz, a dark elf noble priestess with some unusual characteristics. Due to her unusual nature, she was cast out of her house. She ran into the mind flayers, and they started conditioning her as a pawn. Owing to her unusual nature, however, the mind flayers never truly dominated her.
And just what is this unusual nature you ask? Alevolenz is, in truth, not one dark elf but two. Alevolenz is a bizarre conjoined set of twin sisters. Though her "normal" half is a cleric like many dark elf nobles, the "hidden" twin has a talent for magic and is a high level sorcerer. She has returned to her house and taken power, with aspirations to one day restore her house to power and rule as queen.
Alevolenz thinks that she can solidify the dark elves under her rule if she can convince them that the surface dwellers mean to make war with them. To this end, she seeks to start such a war by attacking a well loved temple on the surface and leaving a trail of crumbs back to her lair in the Netherdeep.
The players get involved when they are asked to investigate an assault on a prominent temple, in which several clerics where assassinated and many others where taken captive. The GM is advised to make the incident as personal as possible by using a church and NPCs that are important to the PCs. The adventure also provides a patron to spurn the party along and an all too convenient lead in the form of an escaped prisoner with a good deal of information on the city of the dark elves from which the attack was launched.
After some investigation, the party should be ready to lead an attack to the Netherdeep. As the PCs are not the only ones outraged by this act, they may find that they can recruit a force to go with them.
Once PCs get underway with their mission of vengeance, the adventure is broken into four basic parts. The first part describes the journey to the dark elf city responsible for the assault. This consists of three potential encounters. The first encounter is with kuo-toa; if the PCs decide to parley instead of attack, they could get some valuable information about Alevolenz. The second encounter is an ambush set up by the dark elves and their bugbear lackeys that could take a toll on any troops the PCs decided to bring along. Finally, the dark elves have poisoned some water in the PCs' path.
The second part details a watchtower suspended in webs in the ceiling of a cavern along the PCs' path. For the most part, this is a fairly straightforward struggle with some dark elves and some monstrous spiders, but there is a surprise or two.
The third part describes the Cavern of Ul-Drakkan, the city where Alevolenz's house, House Vrama, resides. The cavern contains three huge towers that form the fortress of House Vrama. This section only describes the entry gate, stables, and slave pens.
The fourth part is the meat of the adventure, the three towers. Most of the encounters are with dark elves and their lackeys, including bugbears, deinonychuses, and monstrous spiders. There are a few encounters of a political nature, such as a mind flayer spy and a traitorous dark elf loremaster who passes the PCs information. The later parts of the tower contain demons and other creatures.
As is typical for FDP adventures, there are stat blocks included for the creatures and characters encountered throughout the book. The appendices contain new magic items: the pot of curses (a small black cauldron that curses anyone who approaches the pot), the staff of dread power (a powerful staff with divine magic), and web armor.
There is also one new monster, the arachnemass. The arachnemass is an ooze that is formed from the conglomeration of thousands of small spiders.
Conclusion
As with most Monte Cook adventures, the statistics of the creatures were well done, and the rules were well leveraged. The adventure does a good job of presenting a challenge against dark elves, filled with opportunities for treachery and betrayal.
That said, I really wasn't drawn into the module the way that I expected. First off, I was not really captured by the supposed treachery of the premise. So Alevolenz lures the PCs into kicking the dark elves in the teeth. What does it really change once they find out? Not much. Now, if she had lured the PCs into decimating another dark elf household before luring them into her own home where she sets a treacherous trap, then I could see the players fuming over the treachery.
Second, despite the little political tidbits and the oddness of encounters such as the arachnemass and Alevolenz herself, the adventure seems to me like a fairly plain (if challenging) dust-up with the dark elves. Perhaps I have expectations carried on winds of nostalgia, but somehow I expected something more.
Don't let that dissuade you too much, though. If any of the above seemed like an interesting scenario to you, by all means get it. On technical merit, the module is pretty strong.
-Alan D. Kohler
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