Queen of the Spiders

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Template:Greyhawk source Queen of the Spiders is an adventure module for the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game. It was published by TSR, Inc. in 1986 and is a compilation of seven previous related modules, often referred to as a "supermodule." Together, the seven adventures form an integrated campaign that begins in the World of Greyhawk, continues underground into the Underdark, and concludes in the Demonweb Pits, the abyssal lair of the demonic goddess Lolth. The campaign was originally intended for use with the first edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons rules.

Queen of the Spiders was ranked as the single greatest Dungeons & Dragons adventure of all time by Dungeon magazine in 2004, on the 30th anniversary of the Dungeons & Dragons game.

Component modules

There are seven total adventures compiled in the GDQ1-7 supermodule. These include:

  • The three modules in the Against the Giants series: G1 - Steading of the Hill Giant Chief, G2 - Glacial Rift of the Frost Giant Jarl, and G3 - Hall of the Fire Giant King.

All of the component modules were originally written by Gary Gygax, except for Queen of the Demonweb Pits, which was written by David C. Sutherland III and Gygax. GDQ1-7 is credited to Gygax. Artist Keith Parkinson provided the cover art for the supermodule.

Additional material was added to the component modules by Jeff Grubb and David Cook (see below). The original tournament characters given statistics in Steading of the Hill Giant Chief (Gleep Wurp, Cloyer Bulse, Roaky Swerked, Frush O'Suggill, Fonkin Hoddypeak, Flerd Trantle, Redmod Dumple, Faffle Dwe'o-mercraeft, and Beek Gwenders) do not appear in the supermodule.

Connections to other adventures

Page three of the supermodule says, "Characters of less than 8th level will quickly find themselves overwhelmed by the creatures they must face, and it is recommended that those of much lower levels begin play with Temple of Elemental Evil or Scourge of the Slave Lords, which provide the groundwork for this adventure." A prologue section entitled "Revenge of the Slave Lords!" was added for the supermodule to bridge the Slave Lords series with GDQ1-7, taking up pages 5-9 of the book. The plot involves the player characters being plagued with bad luck which turns out to be orchestrated by a surviving Slave Lord seeking vengeance for their earlier defeat at the player characters' hands. Eventually they find a clue that reveals the Slave Lord in question was working at the behest of Eclavdra. This plot had evidently been added to the original modules by Jeff Grubb and David Cook, who are credited with writing "additional material."

Scourge of the Slave Lords, in turn, had been rewritten with an introduction that bridged that adventure with The Temple of Elemental Evil, turning all three series of modules into an enormous super-campaign.

Expedition to the Demonweb Pits is a later book, written for the "3.5" edition of the D&D game. It has no direct connections to Queen of the Spiders, but revisits the setting of the Demonweb Pits with an entirely new plot.

Novelizations

The Eyes Have It by Rose Estes (1989) took place in the Yeomanry and Sterich after the events of GDQ1-7 and assumed that the first, worst-case scenario depicted on page 121 of the supermodule had occured. The original adventurers died in the Demonweb Pits and Sterich was desolated by Lolth's incursion, prey to a petty tyrant. It credits the defeat of Lolth to Estes' characters Kathryn Fern-Clyffe and Fea-Glenna.

Paul Kidd's novels Descent into the Depths of the Earth (2000) and Queen of the Demonweb Pits (2001) were a new, humorous take on the GDQ1-7 series, starring Kidd's characters the Justicar, Escalla, and others.

Bibliography

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