We now begin the D series of modules, sequels to the G series. Having discovered that the Drow were behind the giants' attacks on civilization in Hall of the Fire Giant King, the party is now following the passage from Snurre's hall that leads into, well, the depths of the earth in order to discover more about the long-forgotten Drow menace.
- An amusing tidbit on the cover reveals that TSR clearly didn't have publication down to a rigorous science just yet. I have a copy of the first printing of D1, and on the cover it talks about using this module in conjunction with the rest of the D series, the G series, and module Q1, which it calls "soon to be released". Q1 was, in fact, not released for two more years. Keep in mind that at this point in the timeline we're still also waiting for the Dungeon Master's Guide, which will not be released for another year. Of course this is all just a symptom of Gary trying to write everything himself.
- This module takes a slightly different tack than the G series in its presentation. All three G modules were simply keyed locations the party systematically cleared. Here, though, the DM is presented with a hex map covering several dozen miles in both directions with vague drawings of underground connections between locations. Only three encounter areas are detailed, the final of which is a large keyed area much in the vein of the G series, but the rest of the action is left to exploration by the party and the random encounters it would naturally generate. It feels like Gary was trying to experiment with a different module type, which is nice, as the keyed location concept was already wearing thin after just three modules. I will say though, the presentation is incredibly confusing. Maybe I'm missing something, but I have no idea where the final detailed encounter is supposed to be located on the area hex map.
- Mind flayers make their first module appearance and are given the name "illithid" for the first time, this apparently being their Drow name. Jermlaine are also introduced in this module for the first time.
- An oddity I noticed is that in the various encounters players can recover items from the Drow inscribed with their house names, but Gary doesn't bother to explain (even to the DM) that that's what they are or their significance. I don't know if this is an oversight on his part, or just an attempt to maintain an air of mystery for the other two modules.
- This module pulls no punches in difficulty. In exploring the final encounter location the party can run into both a purple worm and a 20th level lich, because why not? The use of the lich is to me another indication of the primitive state of the game. Personally I feel that liches are so powerful and the possibilities for them so great that they shouldn't just be thrown around like other monsters. If you need a simple, high level encounter for a high level party, sure, give them a purple worm - it's basically just a very large and dangerous animal. But a lich should be a unique creature with a unique story and a unique place in the game world. Just having them be another entry in a keyed location that the party stumbles into and has to deal with demeans what they can be. Tomb of Horrors was much better in this regard. True, we didn't learn a ton about Acererak, but the fact that he had surrounded himself with a lair of devious and deadly traps was much more in the spirit of how liches should be handled - unlike here, where a lich is also a possibility for a random encounter if the players get off into the side passages. A lich should never be a random encounter, period.
That's about all there is to say for this module. It feels a bit purposeless, as by the end of the module the players haven't really accomplished anything besides exploring the underworld and dealing with a few encounters. Granted, it is meant to set up the remaining two D modules, which is were we will pick up next time.
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