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Queen of Lies is a module for 11th level characters from Monte Cook and Fiery Dragon Publishing. It outlines a raid on a drow fortress in the "Netherdeep" after a raid by these self-same drow on the surface.

Spoilers

The following review contains a detailed discussion of this module, including secrets not immediately known to players. Read at your own risk.

Overview and What You Get

The PCs hear about an attack on a good-aligned temple where many priests were killed and some kidnapped. They trace the attackers to dark elves beneath the city and go after them. They face other inhabitants of the "Netherdeep", an ambush by the dark elves, and a dark elf way post before reaching the dark elf fortress. There they must recover the stolen relics and damage the dark elves as much as possible before getting away.

The module features a lengthy introduction to get the players involved. They have the option of taking along a sizable force of henchmen (up to 5 per PC) to aid them, and simple suggestions are provided for running the large-scale combats that come up. There is a short discussion of dark elf houses and cultural aspects. (I haven't read the reams of Realms information of drow, so I don't know if this new.) A couple of short encounters are provided as the characters journey to the fortress, including a very dangerous ambush and a small drow fortress suspended in the web-ropes of a bebelith. The drow fortress is in a large central cavern with side caves for slaves and a stables. The three towers of the drow fortress are completely detailed. There are also three new magical items: pot of curses (curses anyone who approaches within 10 feet), staff of power ( 2 staff with powers of death and undeath), and web armor (armor made from spider's webs with no spell failure). Finally, there is a new monster, the arachnemass (a collective intelligence of millions of tiny spiders). Several antagonists have interesting takes (conjoined twin evil drow queen, etc.) and the rules usage seems solid.

Style and Appearance

This module appears fairly amateurish and even somewhat ugly. The cover art is by Brian LeBlanc and has his usual use of blocky figures and thicker lines. The drow cleric on the front of the module has a bad case of scoliosis, and really needs to find less ill-fitting clothing, but the other characters are credible. The scene pictured is of the drow fortress, and doesn't give anything away except that dark elves are involved and they ride dinosaurs. The back cover art is by Claudio Pozas and was better, but web chain-mail bikinis seem completely implausible for dark elves, and the technique used to make the spider appear out of the wall doesn't match at all the other drawings and detracts from the picture as a whole.

The interior art is mostly by Claudio Pozas and largely involves small line drawings of the various assailants. Unfortunately, all the dark elves end up looking a lot alike, mainly because their faces aren't very detailed and it is difficult to make distinctions. The only picture I liked was the drawing of the flesh golem disgorging the arachnemass, where drawing a realistic face wasn't required. The top border of each page is a set of spiderwebs repeated across the page, but the webs don't connect realistically and are cartoonish. The picture at the bottom is fairly strange, showing as it does a human kneeling before a drider.

Finally, the font used is hard to read and looks awful in bolded text. Compared to the fonts used by WOTC and other publishers, this one made reading the book harder for no good reason.

My complimentary copy had printer problems: three pages were stuck together and some pages were also shifted down so that serrations appeared on the top of the module. All of these factors pulled the Style figure down considerably for me.

A Commando Raid

This module is set up by Alevolenz, who has seized the helm of the drow house of Vrama. She wants to raise the house to its old heights, so she stages a raid on an aboveground temple calculated to draw a violent response. The resultant raid, after it is repulsed, will allow her to rally the other houses together and cement her house as the undisputed leader of the dark elves in the area.

I see a problem with this plan. If a house is going to be invaded, why not frame another house and let them take the inevitable beating? House Yurganth seems like an obvious choice. This way, her enemy takes a beating and she gets to take control to deal with the surface-worlder threat. The module is written with the understanding that the PCs will do as much damage as possible to House Vrama, up to and including putting everyone there to the sword and destroying it as a house. It seems like a strong risk just to try to take control. Of course, this would be easy to fix. Just change the dark elves to house Yurganth and keep Alevolenz in the shadows as a later villain.

Otherwise, a lot of possibilities are covered for this commando raid. It is assumed the characters have the divination power to find out the drow are behind the attack. The module focuses on what information they can find and the possible recruitment of additional forces to help them on the raid. A few tips are provided for playing these additional forces in various ways. The path to the drow fortress is not sketched in precisely, but there are a series of encounters on the way.

These encounters are a mix of combat and roleplaying, and reward parties who do not slay everything they encounter. The ambush by drow looks fairly difficult, and a number of notes are made to improve the effectiveness of drow attackers. Efforts are made to provide drow response to the PCs incursion, like the aforementioned ambush and poisoned water in the PCs path.

There is even a role-playing angle for the PCs. House Yurganth has a traitor in House Vrama who aids the PCs as they get closer to the city. His efforts on their behalf through mysterious means really enhance the flow of the module and should keep the PCs on their toes.

Ultimately, the module is about raiding a drow fortress and killing as many drow as possible, while recovering some sacred artifacts. These artifacts are placed such that recovering them all virtually requires that the PCs destroy the outpost. This means that the PCs almost certainly must destroy Vrama to really succeed.

How possible is this? In general, it is, but the PCs will need places to rest. Also, if they don't think to sneak in by posing as dark elves or something similar, they won't survive a frontal assault. All the encounters in the tower seem to make sense and play according to plan. One notable lack seems to be a clear plan of what will change according to the alert status of the fortress. There isn't a table explaining where people will be or how they will react to the PCs incursion. In some sense one can deduce this from the placement of elements and people, but a clear description of who does what under what circumstances is lacking. Its inclusion would have been very helpful to running the later conflict.

The other major element I find missing is any clear denouement for the module. Essentially the fortress is a set piece, and the adventure ends when the players decide it ends. Presumably they will remember bitter battles and such, but there is no external clue available to when the adventure is over except finding the last stolen relic, and that as an ending is pretty poor.

Conclusion

Like all of Monte Cook's modules, the rules usage is good and the foes are imaginative. The image of a conjoined twin casting spells will surely frighten the PCs in the battle with Alevolenz. On the other hand, ultimately I really can't get that excited about this module. Most of the adventure will involve the characters moving from room to room in the towers, destroying their enemies. There aren't really any twists once the characters get to the fortress, and there isn't really any kind of planned conclusion. It seems like the assault on the fortress will degenerate into a lot of repetitive combats. If that is what your players are looking for, then by all means pick it up. Otherwise, only get this if you really need a drow fortress.

Queen of Lies
Queen of Lies Capsule Review by James Landry on 14/07/02 Style: 2 (Needs Work) Substance: 3 (Average) A "fight the evil drow in their underground fortress" module, it looks ugly but the content is decent. Product: Queen of Lies Author: Monte Cook Category: RPG Company/Publisher: Fiery Dragon Productions Line: Cost: $10.95 Page count: 48 Year published: 2002 ISBN: 1-58846-191-2 SKU: WW16005 Comp copy?: yes Capsule Review by James Landry on 14/07/02 Genre tags: Fantasy	Queen of Lies is a module for 11th level characters from Monte Cook and Fiery Dragon Publishing. It outlines a raid on a drow fortress in the "Netherdeep" after a raid by these self-same drow on the surface. Spoilers The following review contains a detailed discussion of this module, including secrets not immediately known to players. Read at your own risk. Overview and What You Get The PCs hear about an attack on a good-aligned temple where many priests were killed and some kidnapped. They trace the attackers to dark elves beneath the city and go after them. They face other inhabitants of the "Netherdeep", an ambush by the dark elves, and a dark elf way post before reaching the dark elf fortress. There they must recover the stolen relics and damage the dark elves as much as possible before getting away. The module features a lengthy introduction to get the players involved. They have the option of taking along a sizable force of henchmen (up to 5 per PC) to aid them, and simple suggestions are provided for running the large-scale combats that come up. There is a short discussion of dark elf houses and cultural aspects. (I haven't read the reams of Realms information of drow, so I don't know if this new.) A couple of short encounters are provided as the characters journey to the fortress, including a very dangerous ambush and a small drow fortress suspended in the web-ropes of a bebelith. The drow fortress is in a large central cavern with side caves for slaves and a stables. The three towers of the drow fortress are completely detailed. There are also three new magical items: pot of curses (curses anyone who approaches within 10 feet), staff of power ( 2 staff with powers of death and undeath), and web armor (armor made from spider's webs with no spell failure). Finally, there is a new monster, the arachnemass (a collective intelligence of millions of tiny spiders). Several antagonists have interesting takes (conjoined twin evil drow queen, etc.) and the rules usage seems solid. Style and Appearance This module appears fairly amateurish and even somewhat ugly. The cover art is by Brian LeBlanc and has his usual use of blocky figures and thicker lines. The drow cleric on the front of the module has a bad case of scoliosis, and really needs to find less ill-fitting clothing, but the other characters are credible. The scene pictured is of the drow fortress, and doesn't give anything away except that dark elves are involved and they ride dinosaurs. The back cover art is by Claudio Pozas and was better, but web chain-mail bikinis seem completely implausible for dark elves, and the technique used to make the spider appear out of the wall doesn't match at all the other drawings and detracts from the picture as a whole. The interior art is mostly by Claudio Pozas and largely involves small line drawings of the various assailants. Unfortunately, all the dark elves end up looking a lot alike, mainly because their faces aren't very detailed and it is difficult to make distinctions. The only picture I liked was the drawing of the flesh golem disgorging the arachnemass, where drawing a realistic face wasn't required. The top border of each page is a set of spiderwebs repeated across the page, but the webs don't connect realistically and are cartoonish. The picture at the bottom is fairly strange, showing as it does a human kneeling before a drider. Finally, the font used is hard to read and looks awful in bolded text. Compared to the fonts used by WOTC and other publishers, this one made reading the book harder for no good reason. My complimentary copy had printer problems: three pages were stuck together and some pages were also shifted down so that serrations appeared on the top of the module. All of these factors pulled the Style figure down considerably for me. A Commando Raid This module is set up by Alevolenz, who has seized the helm of the drow house of Vrama. She wants to raise the house to its old heights, so she stages a raid on an aboveground temple calculated to draw a violent response. The resultant raid, after it is repulsed, will allow her to rally the other houses together and cement her house as the undisputed leader of the dark elves in the area. I see a problem with this plan. If a house is going to be invaded, why not frame another house and let them take the inevitable beating? House Yurganth seems like an obvious choice. This way, her enemy takes a beating and she gets to take control to deal with the surface-worlder threat. The module is written with the understanding that the PCs will do as much damage as possible to House Vrama, up to and including putting everyone there to the sword and destroying it as a house. It seems like a strong risk just to try to take control. Of course, this would be easy to fix. Just change the dark elves to house Yurganth and keep Alevolenz in the shadows as a later villain. Otherwise, a lot of possibilities are covered for this commando raid. It is assumed the characters have the divination power to find out the drow are behind the attack. The module focuses on what information they can find and the possible recruitment of additional forces to help them on the raid. A few tips are provided for playing these additional forces in various ways. The path to the drow fortress is not sketched in precisely, but there are a series of encounters on the way. These encounters are a mix of combat and roleplaying, and reward parties who do not slay everything they encounter. The ambush by drow looks fairly difficult, and a number of notes are made to improve the effectiveness of drow attackers. Efforts are made to provide drow response to the PCs incursion, like the aforementioned ambush and poisoned water in the PCs path. There is even a role-playing angle for the PCs. House Yurganth has a traitor in House Vrama who aids the PCs as they get closer to the city. His efforts on their behalf through mysterious means really enhance the flow of the module and should keep the PCs on their toes. Ultimately, the module is about raiding a drow fortress and killing as many drow as possible, while recovering some sacred artifacts. These artifacts are placed such that recovering them all virtually requires that the PCs destroy the outpost. This means that the PCs almost certainly must destroy Vrama to really succeed. How possible is this? In general, it is, but the PCs will need places to rest. Also, if they don't think to sneak in by posing as dark elves or something similar, they won't survive a frontal assault. All the encounters in the tower seem to make sense and play according to plan. One notable lack seems to be a clear plan of what will change according to the alert status of the fortress. There isn't a table explaining where people will be or how they will react to the PCs incursion. In some sense one can deduce this from the placement of elements and people, but a clear description of who does what under what circumstances is lacking. Its inclusion would have been very helpful to running the later conflict. The other major element I find missing is any clear denouement for the module. Essentially the fortress is a set piece, and the adventure ends when the players decide it ends. Presumably they will remember bitter battles and such, but there is no external clue available to when the adventure is over except finding the last stolen relic, and that as an ending is pretty poor. Conclusion Like all of Monte Cook's modules, the rules usage is good and the foes are imaginative. The image of a conjoined twin casting spells will surely frighten the PCs in the battle with Alevolenz. On the other hand, ultimately I really can't get that excited about this module. Most of the adventure will involve the characters moving from room to room in the towers, destroying their enemies. There aren't really any twists once the characters get to the fortress, and there isn't really any kind of planned conclusion. It seems like the assault on the fortress will degenerate into a lot of repetitive combats. If that is what your players are looking for, then by all means pick it up. Otherwise, only get this if you really need a drow fortress.