them cross a large river for a fee. A party of Svirfneblin (or deep gnomes) approaches the player characters on the other side, and the party has a chance to convince them to help them fight against the drow. As the party travels, signs of the drow are all around; the drow are allowed to pass through these subterranean areas, even though they are hated and feared by the other local intelligent races. The party then moves through kuo-toa territory, ruled by the Priest-Prince Va-Guulgh. If the PCs appease the kuo-toa and respect their customs, the evil kuo-toa are not openly hostile to the party, but will attack if the party gives them a reason. The party learns that the drow and kuo-toa trade with each other openly, but the kuo-toa hate and fear the drow, resulting in frequent skirmishes between the two peoples. D3 Vault of the Drow is set in Erelhei-Cinlu, an underground stronghold of the drow, and the Fane of Lolth, their evil spider-goddess. After traveling for league after league into the Underdark, the adventurers come upon Erelhei-Cinlu, the vast subterranean city of the drow. The adventure is written in a very open-ended fashion, giving the Dungeon Master (DM) free rein to script any number of mini-campaigns or adventures taking place inside the drow capital. An extensive overview of the drow power structure is given for just this purpose. Eventually, the players may discover an astral gate leading to the plane of the Abyss, leading into the Q1 module. Publication history The original modules Descent Into the Depths of the Earth and Shrine of the Kuo-Toa were both written by Gary Gygax and published by TSR, Inc. in 1978. Gygax had recently finished the Player's Handbook (1978), and according to Gygax, he authored the D series "as sort of a relaxation to get away from writing rules". Descent Into the Depths of the Earth, the first module of the D-series, was printed as a sixteen-page booklet, and Shrine of the Kuo-Toa, second of the three-part D-series was twenty pages; both featured an outer folder. Both modules were released before the Dungeon Masters Guide and Players Handbook. Both modules were reprinted in the omnibus collection D1-2 Descent Into the Depths in 1981, as a 32-page booklet with an outer folder. The original versions of the D1 and D2 modules both featured monochrome cover artwork by David C. Sutherland