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This review is in two parts. I played in this adventure for 10 weeks until Dermot the Fat, my wizard, decided enough was enough and reported to Randall Morn before heading off to somewhere where he was less likely to be killed. The first part is the account of the campaign. The second part is a capsule review, since I read the adventure after leaving the campaign. These parts are intertwined, as I'll be mixing the campaign account with what's written in the adventure. Needless to say, this review contains spoilers.

The plot as presented to the players is pretty straightforward - drow raiders are attacking Daggerdale from crypts. Elminster's busy, so it's up to the Messenger-on-Horseback to find Brave Heroes to find out what's going on. Sounds reasonable to us, so off we go, with a Demigod in tow (Don't ask. He's not in the adventure, he's something to do with our DM's metaplot, and he went off on his own somewhere else).

Within half an hour, our rogue is dead. Not a good start. To quote from the adventure:

"The door to this vault is still plastered shut because the trap it bears has killed every robber who has attempted to open it."

Well that's okay then, isn't it? Killer traps with no warning are fun, aren't they? One resurrection (and vampire ambush) later, we're back in action, and a tad more cautious. Unfortunately, things don't get much easier. Armour destroying spider demons, a flesh eating demon with better stealth skills (and better combat abilities) than our poor rogue, and the drow in a number of well fortified positions. All these are EL 9 to 12 - nothing lower. Since in nearly all cases the opposition start with a strategic advantage, every encounter uses up a substantial amount of resources. There're five of us at 9th-10th level, so we should able to take 4 EL 10s before having to recuperate. We're doing 2 if we're lucky. Eventually we find a drow outpost, but have to retreat.

One drow ambush later, and one friendly (DM supplied) drow NPC addition to our party, and we're back in action (part 2)! We penetrate the outpost, and, what do you know, another killer trap! Another quote here:

"The thought that well-meaning would-be rescuers could be caught in a deadly trap does amuse the drow, however, so they have trapped one of the doors."

Drow amused maybe. DM embarassed, players annoyed, two characters dead. Still, the cleric's alive (so far him and my wizard are the only ones who have stayed above negative hit points), so a couple of raise deads, and we're back in action (part 3)!

The drow outpost is an interesting place. A huge spider web connects a bunch of caves in a subterranean chasm. We clear out a mages' school (and miss an important NPC - see below) and find a Plot Element. This element is meant to tell us, the players, that something drastic has happened in drow society. Thing is, I already know (because Wizard's gave the plot away in their Underdark supplement, and I'd worked out what was happening in the first drow encounter), and the rest of the players couldn't care, because they didn't know what drow society was meant to be like. Our characters had never fought drow before this adventure, so even in-game we really didn't care!

Shortly after we meet a drow swat team (amazing how well organised a bunch of chaotic creatures can be when a bunch of surface dwellers turns up, isn't it?). They kill two of us and I teleport out with the survivors. Back to Daggerdale with our report and our resignations. We'd got to page 36 out of 116 pages of adventure text.

So what went wrong? I discussed this with the inhabitants of my local game shop, and they'd heard similar tales of woe. City of the Spider Queen is pitched at mini-maxers. You could play it like this - after all, once Randall Morn's received our report, he'll be screening the next bunch of adventurers for relevant skills in underground exploration and anti-drow type abilities. Players seem to be expected to approach the adventure like a computer game. Even the few scopes for roleplaying are railroaded. As I said above, we missed an important NPC. Had we met him, we'd've found him only two willing to betray the rest of the drow to his own ends. Even the Plot Element mentioned above serves no real purpose - the drow may be split, but both sides attack intruders with impunity.

One suggestion was to start the adventure with 14th level characters. This would let the characters take over the drow outpost with relative ease, and also let the players force open negotiations with the drow to find out what was going on. The plot, remember, was "Find what why the drow are attacking", not "Fight the drow". The adventure, now I've read it, has a really good plot. The interactions and relationships between all the major NPCs are well detailed. Shame the player's aren't likely the find them out. There's a big box on page 42 saying "Don't miss this clue", regarding continuing the adventure, because there is a very real chance that players will clear out the drow outpost and not go any further. With a higher level party, the outpost becomes just a taster rather than a chore.

What else is in here? Several new monsters (most reprinted in Fiend Folio) and some magic items. The web enhancement was nice, though the comment that it contains encounters considered too weak for the main adventure just reinforces the mini-maxer tone I described above. Give it some work or plunder for plot hooks and encounters, and you'll get a lot out of it. Just don't take the level recommendations seriously.