- There are three detailed minor encounters: a Drow checkpoint, a nest of giant spiders, and most interestingly, a cave in which dwells a succubus and her vampire Drow lover. A pretty interesting concept roleplaying-wise, but again, the only thing to do here is just kick down the door and kill them. The giant spider nest has a pretty cool idol of Lolth that gives its possessor the powers of a spider, but makes them completely possessive of the item and gradually turns them into a giant spider. This is why you never touch the obvious item of evil.
- I haven't touched on it yet in previous modules, but the D series introduced not only the Drow, but also the concept of their adamantite weapons and armor. This gives all such items a bonus of +1 to +5, even though the items are not actually magical. The module gives plenty of rules to make sure the party can't benefit from them though (at least outside of these modules). Adamantite items decay if exposed to sunlight, and they lose their bonus in any case if removed from the Drow homeland for more than a month, as they get their powers from the special "radiation" in the underworld. It's purely a gimmick by Gary to up the difficulty factor of the modules, since they're designed for characters level 9 and up. I'm a software developer, and in software there's a concept called "code smell". If you're looking at some code that works but still doesn't seem right, it is called a code smell and sometimes indicates a deeper problem in the architecture of the system. Having to artificially create a gimmick like this to increase the difficulty of a module without also giving away the bank and letting characters walk out with an entire armory's worth of magical weapons and armor from defeated enemies is an RPG smell, and indicates a deeper fundamental problem in the rules - namely a flaw in the design of the hit and armor class system progression.
- And so we come to the titular vault, and there's an explanation of how minerals in the roof give a dim illumination to everything. It's a vaguely scientific explanation, where a mineral called tumkeoite radioactively decays into lacofcite, giving off a ghostly purple glow in doing so. "Tumkeoite" is actually a play on the name of Tom Keogh (whom you may recognize from the eponymous Keogh's Ointment), while "lacofcite" is a play on Len Lakofka.
- This module takes a similar tack to D2 that I just find a bit puzzling. If the players have collected the medallions they've found on defeated Drow in previous encounters, then they can present them when they enter the vault and basically have free run of the place. Just like the shrine, even though this is a place full of villains, they can just wander around. The modules have made clear that the Drow (and the Kuo-Toa of the previous module, too) hate surface dwellers, but when surface dwellers show up to their respective areas, as long as they have the right tchotchkes, everything's just cool apparently. I realize that the logical alternative - a city full of Drow who kill surface dwellers on sight - would be untenable, but I still just feel there was a better way.
- At last we arrive at the Drow city of Erelhei-Cinlu. Gary created the name by using the first syllable of each of his kids' names (Ernie, Elise, Heidi, Cindy, and Luke). It's a tremendously intriguing place - a dangerous, decadent, and depraved hive of evil, full of every sin and vice imaginable. Demons, vampires, and more wander the streets (as if the Drow weren't dangerous enough), and the party is warned that they wander the back streets at their peril. But all that appears in the module is just a few paragraphs slightly more expansive than what I just gave you. There are no particular locations detailed, no NPCs, just a vague description, and if the party wants to do more than wander the streets aimlessly for random encounters, it's up to the DM to create something to do. It's just so head-scratching to me, and completely counter to what you would expect to find in a modern adventure.
- FINALLY, six modules into this series (including the three G modules) we actually are told in full what the story is! Can you believe this? I mean, I understand that from the players' point of view it's supposed to be an unfolding mystery, but usually you don't want to keep the DM in the dark as well. So here in full is the story behind these modules: Drow society is made up of multiple noble houses that vie with one another for power. The most powerful house, Eilservs, has contended that Drow society needs a queen to unify it (which naturally should come from them, being the most powerful). A coalition of less powerful houses, backed by the priestesses of Lolth, has opposed Eilservs and its own allies. As a result, Eilservs has forsaken the worship of Lolth and pledged themselves to an Elder Elemental God (whose shrine appeared in G3), and Drow society is now in a sort of cold war over the issue. Eilservs, led by the priestess Eclavdra, has attempted to gain power by moving to the surface, creating a coalition of giants and other evil creatures, and spreading the worship of their deity. She had hoped to gain enough power through this plan to install herself as Queen. This is what was behind the coordinated giant raids on civilized lands, and what the party has been thwarting. The thing is, this little detail of the story is only given to the DM, almost as a side note in numbered location description of the Eilservs compound. In no place is the party given any hooks or means of finding this out on their own. It's like the players have to go hunting for the story, which again is so counter to how adventures should be written. I try not to get too frustrated over this - I mean, to be fair, Gary is literally inventing the art of writing adventures as he goes, so obviously it will take some time to get the kinks out.
- This module introduces daemons (the *-loth creatures of 2nd edition), specifically the mezzodaemon and nycadaemon. One thing I'll say about D&D is that I do like it's demonology, from the pact making devils, to the mercenary daemons, to the plain monstrous demons. There are still some things I would change, but overall it's one of the things I feel D&D did really well monster-wise.
- The party can fight Lolth in this module if desired. The whole presentation of her is very confusing to me. It makes it clear that she is a demon lord and resides on a plane in the Abyss, but at the same time it makes it sound like she lives full time in the Drow temple to her. I guess it's her avatar or something, but considering that 99% of the content of all the G and D series modules consists of just detailing the combat abilities or treasure of things the party can fight, I'm not surprised it's not well explained.
And with that we wrap up both this module and the D series. I'll leave you with what is without doubt the most awesome part of this module - a drawing of a hypothetical battle with Lolth. Now in this drawing the wizard is actually supposed to be flying, but the artwork does a poor job of making that clear, so instead he appears to be doing a flying karate kick at Lolth. He's the man!
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