The giants of different types have descended in bands upon the human kingdoms, bringing death and destruction to every city and town on their way. The failure to protect the wealth and lives of their subjects becomes a disgrace to ruling class and so the band of accomplished adventurers, player characters, is hired to take the fight back to the giants, invade or infiltrate their strongholds and slay their leaders. However, over the course of this quest, the adventurers discover far more sinister forces have been behind the attacks. They must then venture deep Beneath the Earth into the realm called the Underdark to confront the evil Drow and finally even challenge their cruel goddess - Loth, Queen of the Spiders.
Gary Gygax's "supermodule", often considered his best creation and voted the greatest Dungeons & Dragons adventure of all time by the Dungeon Magazine, Queen of the Spiders is a long campaign consisting of two entire series of linked modules, G - Giants and D - Drow, with standalone Q module, Queen of the Demonweb Pits, as the epic finale of the saga. They bear historical markings on the history of Dungeons & Dragons as the first introduction to the Drow, Kuo-Toa, Svirfneblin, the Underdark as a setting and also first peek into the Abyss - the hell-like dimension of infinite layers ruled by demon lords, out of which Loth was just one of the many. The Giants series is considered extremely deadly, but not in the Tomb of Horrors kind of way that relies on outsmarting the players, but because it takes a realistic approach to the giants. Instead of waiting for the players in their rooms, the giants can be easily alarmed and storm to defend their home, making a careless party quickly overrun by hordes of huge enemies. The Drow series is enjoyed for introducing a new, interesting setting in Underdark and making the Drow a terrifying group of enemies that prove a challenge even to the experienced players.
The order of the adventures is as follow:
- G - Giants series, sometimes called Against the Giants after the collection of all modules in the series.
- Steading of the Hill Giant Chief
- Glacial Rift of the Frost Giant Jarl
- Hall of the Fire Giant King
- D - Drow series, sometimes called Descent Into the Depths of the Earth
- Descent Into the Depths of the Earth
- Shrine of the Kuo-Toa
- Vault of the Drow
- Q1 - Queen of the Demonweb Pits co-written with David Sutherland
The series is often considered a follow-up to The Temple of Elemental Evil and an earlier module series A - Aerie of the Slave Lords has even been re-balanced in a compilation Scourge Of The Slave Lords to fill the level gap between the two. It has then been known as "the Greyhawk Sequence" among the fans to start with the Temple, follow with Scourge and finish on Queen of the Spiders.
The series has received a set of homages and tributes in further editions of the game. While always firmly set in Gygax world of Greyhawk, Second Edition reboot of the G series for D&D 25th Anniversary, Against the Giants: The Liberation of Geoff links it even further, adding series of connected adventures in Grand Duchy Of Geoff to expand the story, serving as a sort of prequel 'and' a sequel. It offered an alternative option for a villain behind Giants' attacks a renegade clan of Cloud Giants, allowing the story to be played as standalone, without the Underdark modules. Underdark meanwhile has been reintroduced in a module the Night Below, set up to carry the player characters from very beginnings to higher levels, homaging the original supermodule by giving the party a surface threat that later turns out to have a source in the Underdark, but its surface part felt closer to Temple of Elemental Evil than Against the Giants. Dungeon Magazine adventure City of the Ghouls was intended for higher levels, introducing a new threat to the Underdark and while it throws nods to the D series, it went on to establish a legacy and series of sequels and homages on its own.
Third Edition paid the tribute to the Drow part of the series with two adventures. City of the Spider Queen, which tied to Forgotten Realms novel series War of the Spider Queen, was a homage to the D-series. Meanwhile, Expedition to the Demonweb Pits, concerning machinations of Demon Prince Graz'zt against Loth involving player characters, was a tribute to the Q-module. Giants did not get direct homage, but the first level of adventure The Forge of Fury and adventure Sons of Grummsh are often seen as Spiritual Successors to Against the Giants in taking the similar approach to the Orcs.
Fourth Edition has released two unconnected adventures set in Nentir Vale setting. The Demon Queen's Enclave focused on navigating a Drow outpost currently besieged by forces of Orcus and Revenge Of The Giants was a direct homage to Against the Giants.
Fifth Edition took a similar approach to Second and Fourth, with two separated modules set in the Forgotten Realms - Storm King's Thunder focusing on giants attempts to impress their gods by destroying "smallfolk" cities and Out of the Abyss dealing with an escape from the Underdark while it is being invaded by who's who of the Demon Princes. It has also reprinted original Against the Giants as one of the "seven deadliest dungeons" in sourcebook Tales From The Yawning Portal, with guidelines how to adapt the adventure to Greyhawk, Forgotten Realms, Dragonlance and Eberron.
Queen of the Spiders Provides Examples Of:
- Big Bad: Eclavdra Eilservs, the drow priestess and head of the most powerful house in the drow vault, is the one who organized the giant raids in preparation for a larger invasion of the human lowlands.
- Body Horror: In Demonweb Pits some spells and abilities are corrupted. Regeneration has a chance of regrowing a body part as that of an insect, for example turning your leg into a spider's leg.
- Dark Action Girl: Eclavdra Eilservs is just as good at physical combat as she is at clerical magic. She's also as evil as Lolth herself.
- Dumb Muscle: King Snurre Iron Belly, ruler of the fire giants, is very strong and very stupid.
- Eldritch Abomination: The Elder Elemental God is a nightmarish thing that manifests in the physical world as eyes that drive anyone who seems them mad and tentacles that completely and utterly consume their targets. In Gary Gygax's original plan, Eclavdra was trying to free the Elder Elemental God.
- Enemy Mine: In Against the Giants the party can free various groups of humans and Orcs enslaved by the giants and convince them to join forces against their oppressors. In Vault Of the Drow it is possible to end with Loth loyalist helping the party against the Drow aligning themselves with the Elder Elemental God. Gygax's original plan for the finale of the module was to let players decide whenever they side with Loth or Elder Elemental God. If they were especially skilled, they could thwart both villains at once.
- Evil Versus Evil: All over the place — the heroes can convince Orcs to aid them against the Giants, every other faction in the Underdark hates the Drow while still attacking the good guys on sight (except for the Gnomes whom you can talk with), the Drow themselves are divided between those who serve Loth and Elder Elemental God and Gygax's original plan for the finale was to have the heroes be caught between Loth and said Elder Elemental God.
- While that last bit never got to materialize, it was still homaged by throwbacks to the module in future editions, be it a Drow outpost attacked by forces of Orcus in Demon Queen's Enclave or have other Demon Princes wreck the Underdark and figt one another as well as the Drow or the Player Characters in Out of the Abyss.
- Flaming Sword: Snurre Iron Belly, the fire giant king, wields one of these in combat. In the original 1st Edition module, wielding the sword put his attack strength on par with that of a storm giant, the most powerful giant species in the game.
- Guest-Star Party Member: All of the giants have various prisoners. The hill giants have a dwarven fighter and an elven fighter-mage, the frost giants have a storm giant and the fire giants have a titan. If the party rescues them, they can help the party fight the giants.
- Healing Boss: In Queen of the Demonweb Pits, the Final Boss Lolth had the innate ability to cast the Heal spell (which healed almost all damage) on herself three times per day, which made it very difficult for the player party to kill her.
- Hidden Agenda Villain: Eclavdra's motivations for organizing the giant raids are not fully explained until D3, and even then they're easy to miss. Eclavdra was ruler of the most powerful noble house in the drow city of Erelhei-Cinlu. She resented the rulership of Lolth's priests, wanting to be queen of the vault. The church of Lolth obviously rejected her desires, so she organized the giant raids. Her eventual goal was to establish a puppet kingdom on the surface, and use the wealth and power she'd gain from it to challenge Lolth's priests for control of the city.
- How Did We Get Back Home?: Happens if the PCs succeed in killing Lolth in the adventure Q1.After a short, dizzying, gut-twisting spin, they will black out, regaining consciousness somewhere in their own world...If characters delve into these events, they might learn that they were rescued by their gods as a reward for their services.
- I Have You Now, My Pretty: The frost giant jarl Grugnur keeps a female storm giant prisoner in a Gilded Cage in an effort to coerce her into sex. Needless to say, she absolutely hates Grugnur and the rest of the frost giants and is more than happy to help any rescuers fight them.
- Lovecraft Lite: The Elder Elemental God, Blibdoolpoolp, the kuo-toa and the illithids all tie into this. The Elder Elemental God and Blibdoolpoolp only attack those that provoke them. The kuo-toa and illithids are malevolent and dangerous, but they can be killed like any other mortal monster.
- Puppet King: Snurre Iron Belly, the ruler of the fire giants, is a mighty warrior with all the intellect of a particularly dense brick. It's implied that Eclavdra plans to use him as her catspaw in rallying the giants.
- The Man Behind the Man: Drow are behind the giants while themselves being pawns of the Elder Elemental God. A fact so well known now that the future editions' homages to this adventure also has someone manipulating the giants, be it ancient dragon in Storm King's Thunder or a Primordial, effectively recreating the plot of the original but skipping the middle man in Revenge of the Giants. The Liberation of Geoff had an only exception, offering that, instead of the Drow, giant attacks from the original module have been led by a clan of Cloud Giants that subjugated all other giants to its orders.
- Our Elves Are Different: The series marks the first appearance of the Drow in the D&D franchise.
- Our Giants Are Bigger: It is noted to be unusual that giants of different types are working together.
- Our Gnomes Are Weirder: Descend marks the first appearance of the Svirfneblin, the Deep Gnomes who live in the Underdark. They are few people the party may ally themselves with.
- Outside-Context Villain:
- As written, the Elder Elemental God cannot be fought or even interacted with except in a very limited (and likely very bad for the players) way. He mainly serves as a source of power for Eclavdra to replace what she lost when she betrayed Lolth. Gary Gygax originally planned to have him play more of a role in the final module, though.
- Blibdoolpoolp, the goddess of the kuo-toa, has a shrine the players need to pass through on their way to Erelhei-Cinlu. She doesn't really have much of an agenda, but any player foolish enough to be transported to her court on the Elemental Plane of Water will end up in her debt when she saves them from drowning. She will then geas the player to either bring back 60,000 gold pieces worth of treasure, or the equivalent of 60 levels in drow elves, in sacrifice to her.
- Plot Hole: The D series indicates that Eclavdra, the drow priestess who originally organized the giant raids, serves the Elder Elemental God. Unfortunately, D3 details the Fane of Lolth without fully explaining why the party should want to attack it, implying that Lolth is the True Final Boss. Worse, Q1 blatantly contradicts the Gary Gygax-written modules by depicting Lolth as trying to conquer several different worlds, implying that she was the one who organized the giants in the first place.
- Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil: The frost giant jarl Grugnur keeps a female storm giant as a prisoner in a Gilded Cage, to try and coerce her into becoming his lover. The only way she'd willingly touch him would be to chop his head off.
- Sealed Evil in a Can: The Elder Elemental God is trapped in an otherworldly prison. One of Eclavdra's long-term goals is to free him.
- Series Continuity Error: The first six modules are premised on the fact that Lolth is not the mastermind behind the giant raids. Q1 completely ignores this and retcons it so that Lolth is the Big Bad, even though she actually isn't.
- Slavery Is a Special Kind of Evil: The hill giants have a group of dwarves enslaved to help them repair the giants' equipment, and a human engineer to help them expand the dungeon level of their base. The drow also keep many slaves of just about every race in Erelhei-Cinlu.
- The Starscream: This is Eclavdra's main motivation for organizing the giant raids, namely to gain enough power to take control of the drow city from Lolth's priests.
- True Final Boss: The rogue drow priestess Eclavdra is the one who organized the giant raids, but Lolth becomes this in D3 and Q1. Destroying her on her home plane thwarts her efforts at trying to conquer various worlds, and allows the players to triumph.
- Wretched Hive: The drow city of Erelhei-Cinlu is every bit as depraved and horrific as you'd expect. Along with the drow residents, other residents include various illithids, kuo-toa, orcs, trolls, illithids, humans, vampires, demons and more. Drug dens, torture parlors and brothels are common sights, as are wretched, starving beggars and slaves being forced to do all kinds of brutal and degrading "work."
