Coming out a few months after the G1-3 (aka “Against the Giants”) series, Gygax came out with another trilogy that connects directly to the G series with D1-3. They all came out at the same time, so this and the next two posts will cover this series. D1 is exactly what the title says, a Descent deep into the earth as our party discovered a tunnel at the end of G3 that led down and through which a bunch of Drow escaped.

This module is not the most interesting of them but it does serve as an introduction to the underdark, not only as an environment that is hard to travel, with a labyrinth of passages and a bunch of monster around every corner, but also as a place with its own personality and power struggles going on. In this module, as they descend, players can figure out that the Drow are divided into different factions and that they really don’t like Ilithid (Mindflayers). 

The adventure has only three set pieces, with the rest of them supposed to be improvised by the DM. We get two encounters, one at a drow checkpoint right at the start and then a mindflayer lair/torture chamber which can lead players to realise the power dynamics of the underdark as well as, in case they defeat the mindflayer, fall into the good graces of the Drow. Finally there is a large cave area where the players get to meet all kinds of underground monsters, from troglodytes to bugbears and ghouls and even a purple work or a lich. This last zone is actually pretty dangerous. And there the adventure ends, basically a bridge from the world above to the underdark civilization in the next two modules, it’s still pretty fun and moody.