A few weeks ago, I got a free copy of Tim Kask’s new adventure module, Curse of the Weaver Queen, published by Eldritch Entertainment and available through RPGNow.com (and elsewhere) for $7.50 in pdf format. It’s 48 pages, b&w interior, two-column format.
I think this is a nifty adventure. The premise is a simple one; hordes of giant spiders and other arachnid-type creatures are despoiling the area, and the adventurers are sent to investigate and stop them. Despite the cover image (which has thematic similarities to AD&D’s driders and Lolth), there’s not a drow to be seen, but there is a lot of interesting background, motives and history for the PCs to unravel, and an interesting buried temple complex for them to explore in the process.
The module uses a generic system for creature and NPC statistics, so anyone using D&D or its many mostly-compatible systems will find it pretty easy to use off the shelf. Most of the interior art is or utilizes clipart, but there’s some very nice original cartography in there as well. The module is site-specific, but does rely on some campaign background that might need some adjustment or retconning to bring the adventure into a home campaign.
I won’t give spoilers as to what the adventure itself entails, which is a nicely done dungeon crawl with a good balance of combat and problem-solving. The only flaw I see is that most of the rich backstory seems to be intended to be blurted out by one of the creatures; I would much rather have seen the PCs required to piece it together rather than having it handed to them. But on the whole that’s a minor quibble in an otherwise solid adventure module.
Overall, is it worth buying? Yes. This is a solid location-based adventure, with new monsters and magic, and no glaring flaws.
