D3: Vault of the Drow was released in 1978, one of the initial offerings of adventures from TSR for the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons game. Written by Gary Gygax, this adventure is the sixth part of the seven-part Giant/Drow/Queen series. The conclusion, Queen of the Demonweb Pits would not be released until 1980.

After following the retreating drow in the first two parts of the adventure, the party finally get to find their homeland: The Vault of the Drow. It is an astonishing place. Unfortunately, I find the execution of the Vault does not live up to the concept.

Before the players reach the vault, there is still some travel to undergo through the lightness tunnels. New random encounter tables provide additional threats. Now both jermlaine and kuo-toa are absent from the tables: most of the encounters are with the drow, which is not surprising so near the vault. It’s worth calling out how much world-building the random encounter tables do. They emphasise the sort of society that exists down here, and the dangers in which those societies live. The module goes into further details about the composition of drow patrols and merchant trains, with a few other notes about some other monsters on the lists.

Three keyed encounter areas lie between the party and the Vault itself.

The first of the small encounter areas is a drow outpost, and it’s a dangerously fortified place; with the drow attacking from behind parapets and gates of beaten bronze, it might be wiser to speak rather than fight. Unfortunately, there is no aid to the DM as to whether the drow would be inclined to negotiate, and it’s certainly written from the point of view of a battle-themed encounter.

The second of the small encounter areas is very dangerous: an illusionary garden, which is actually the lair of a succubus and her drow vampire lover. Again, this is primarily intended as a combat encounter, and a difficult one at that, as the succubus will use charm and suggestion to sow dissension in the party.

The third encounter area is a cave of spiders – which, in itself, isn’t that scary (although it gives the possibility of death by poison), but the highlight is a cursed spider idol which will turn the possessor into a giant spider. Certainly, Gary Gygax had a twisted glee in such items.

The bulk of the adventure module deals with the Vault of the Drow proper. Two pages are devoted to wandering monsters in the vault, once again doing a heap of excellent world-building. Then we come to the great vault itself. The wilds of the fungi forest, the city of Erelhei-Cinlu, and finally, the Fane of Lolth itself: the great temple to the spider goddess.

There’s a lot of inspirational writing here, but all-in-all, the Vault of the Drow falls flat for me. What’s great about it all is the concept: a great underground ‘paradise’ that the drow elves live in. The starry vault (when viewed using ultravision or the strange eye cusps) is beautifully described, the random encounter tables describe a dangerous, decadent society, but its drow inhabitants are reduced to mainly lists without personality, detailing the levels and classes the nobles possess in each Noble estate. The estate of House Eilservs, which contains those responsible for the giant attacks, describes a small part of their history, but apart from “the family is now retrenching”, you gain no idea of what actual specific intrigues are taking place in the city. Yes, you get to learn what rank each house has, and its current allies and enemies, but little more.

It’s a great disappointment, and it highlights a flaw of most of Gygax’s early module writing. He’s great at describing strange tricks, environments, and monsters, but he’s terrible at writing NPCs. It’s most problematic in Vault of the Drow since the setting demands so much from the DM.

One of the other things that also sits poorly is the overall plot. In the Giants modules, the adventurers are asked to find out who is behind the attacks. They do that in G3, where it’s discovered to be rebel drow serving the Elder Elemental God. Now, it’s hardly beyond comprehension that the party end up blaming all drow for the attacks, but this isn’t specifically laid out in the text. The action in D3 is all about fighting the drow serving Lolth. The Elder Elemental God is basically forgotten, save a note in the Eilservs description that there’s a secret temple in their estate which is the same as that in G3. Why are we down here? Drow serving the Elder Elemental God. Who are we fighting? Drow serving Lolth, and eventually Lolth.

A really good DM will make a lot out of Vault of the Drow, but they will do so without all that much help as to how to run it. The previous adventure in the series promoted negotiation over combat; but although such would seem necessary here, there’s little guidance given.

Assuming that the party eventually assault the Fane of the Drow, under the impression that Lolth is really behind everything, they will get an (probably) entertaining dungeon setting. The Fane is the location that gets the most detailed descriptions. And within the Fane lies a chance to go to the home plane of Lolth – and that would be covered in a later adventure, Q1 Queen of the Demonweb Pits. It took two further years for the last adventure to appear, and that one was written by Dave Sutherland and not Gary Gygax – but more on that in its own review.

The final encounter area described in the book is that of a wharf cavern, which has ships that can sail onto the Pitchy Flow, the Svartjet and even the Sunless Sea. A picture of the boat ends the adventure, along with the text:

THIS ENDS THE DESCENT INTO
THE DEPTHS BUT BEGINS MANY
NEW AND EXCITING PROSPECTS

From here, the young Merric (for whom D3 was the first adventure he purchased) assumed we’d get more adventures in the Depths (especially as many encounter areas on the DM’s map were described as “Encounter Area to be Designed by DM or in a Forthcoming Module”), but such was not the case.

I like the concepts behind Vault of the Drow a lot, but the execution puts a disproportionate burden on the DM to make it a success. It works as written as a hack’n’slash module, but it should be so much more.