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The opening pages begins in a like fashion to other modules in this series, in a style which is uniquely florid and turgid, leading on to random encounters, and various treasures carried by the same. Following this is three keyed encounters before reaching the Vault proper. The first is a Drow guard outpost which can provide a slight challenge at best and with any contribution to roleplaying being entirely the result of DM input. The second encounter is - and I'm really not giving too much away here - a illusionary terrain that is far too nice to be real where the PCs will almost certainly come into conflict with a delightfully wicked, beautiful and erotic (yes, they are described as being into such art) succubus and vampire couple, who should prove quite dangerous indeed in the hands of a competent DM. As can be expected of such powerful evil, they are well endowed in terms of wealth and magic, although I was a little surprised to read their supplementary furnishings "are of a high quality, their value is not sufficient to give them a gold piece worth as treasure". The third encounter further develops the evil theme and spider motif with an encounter of such creatures and an extremely powerful magic item which also gradually, like a sickness, transforms its owner into an arachnid; nice!
The Vault of the Drow itself consists of four main areas in addition to the city of Erelhei-Cinlu. Each of these receives its own 'wandering monster' table; Open Terrain, Fungi/Crystal Forest, Vault Walls and River/Lake regions. Along with some two pages describing these random groups there is also some detail for a complex of Bugbears and Troglodytes. Perhaps more impressive however is the description of the Vault itself, fully available to those with infravision or similar magics. The Vault is "a strange anomaly, a hemispherical cyst in the crust of the earth, an incredibly huge domed fault over 6 miles long and nearly as broad... small 'star' nodes glow in radiant hues of mauve, lake, violet, puce, lilac, and deep blue. The large 'moon' of tumkeoite casts beams of shimmering amesthyst which touch the crystalline formations with colors unknown to any other visual experience". This is a place of strange, alien and uniquely Drow beauty and one is quite impressed by the author's skill in describing it in such an evocative manner.
One can likewise be fairly impressed with matters of substance as well. In this vast complex only brief descriptions of the various locations are possible, but nevertheless a primary tower, a collection of warehouses, a merchant villa, two fighter's societies and the gatehouse to the city are described. Significant difficulties are abound in this region; a visit to the Tower may aid the party in passing as legitimate visitors, but bluff and deception are required. An assault is always an option, but here to win may eventually mean an inevitable loss. Although it less than clear in the text (read: absent), a DM should try to steer the party between a difficult path of subtle interaction and careful avoidance with the inhabitants of the Vault, otherwise ingress to the Drow city and what lies beyond will remain out of reach.
The city of some 30,000 itself is described in just over a page and a half. This may seem slight, but it is sufficient to generate the feeling of a place where "Illithids and Kuo-Toa rub shoulders with Dark Elves", where "Ghasts and ghouls roam freely, and an occasional shadow and vampire will be seen... None are disturbed to pass a lesser demon or succubus, a night hag or mezzodaemon" a place of "absolute depravity". As you can imagine, my Paladin had a hard time keeping his hand away from his sword in such a place, but the requirements of the greater good demanded both caution and stealth. The key objective, fortunately, is not within the city itself but across the Flying Bridge by which passage is offered only to those with stated and legitimate business with the Noble Families.
The Noble families, naturally, live on a plateau of several manors on the other side of the river of the city. There's a total of eight such locations, each with a palace, various outbuildings, lands, soldiers, servants and slaves. The actual houses are described very briefly in terms of their name and device, factional allegiance, members of the noble families and, surprisingly, the major magic items to be found. It is here - finally!!! - that the cause of the giant's war on the surface can be discovered. In addition, it is a moment where the entire plot hits a very bizarre circuit-breaker.
In a nutshell, the most powerful family among the Drow has thought it due course that there should be a single Queen of the Drow, derived from their number of course. The Priestesses of the spider goddess, Lolth, whom the Drow worship do not consider this to a great idea and have been fermenting discontent with the chief house. In response the chief house has turned from worshiping Lolth in favour of an unspecified "Elder Elemental God" (the temple makes an appearance in G3) and has been causing disruptions on surface world to hopefully enhance their overall power. So here's the problem; what's to stop the PCs, having defeated the cause of their problems back home simply saying "well, we're done here" and leaving back to the surface world leaving the underground dwellers to their own devices? The fact is that the scenario lacks a necessary plot hook to entice the PCs to the Egg and Fane of Lolth where the storyline itself is supposed to progress to.
Assuming however the DM does make some intervention, the rest of the module largely deals with the Great Fane of the Demoness Lolth. This is a five-level pagoda-like structure full of the spidery motif. Most of the encounters will only provide a modicum of difficulty in themselves to defeat and with substantial rewards resulting, with one significant exception - Lolth, the Demon Queen of Spiders herself - although it must be stated it is entirely probable that the party will avoid her keyed location and find themselves taking a funnel-webbed tunnel into the Abyss instead; and that is the most likely direction leading to the final module of the series, the Queen of the Demonweb Pits. At this point, the adventure part of the module ends, although there is several pages describing Lolth, Kuo-Toa, Mezzodaemons, Nycadaemons, Svirfneblin etc.
Whilst the production qualities of this module are quite low, especially by contemporary standards, the 'coolness' value of the Vault of the Drow boosts the overall style rating, even if the organisation of the text could have been improved significantly; overall consider the style rating a low 3. In terms of substance, this was a valiant effort to describe an enormous area and a great number of locations in a minimum page count. It largely succeeds and quite well, although a less obsessive approach to wandering monsters in favour of plot development, setting detail, and major NPC characterisation would have assisted greatly - this are skills which the industry has since learned. The challenges presented are interesting in their variation at times requiring high degrees of stealth and subtlety and at other times the most blatant expressions of power - all of this and the opportunity for political maneuverings as well. Consider the substance rating to be a low 4.
