The Aranea Queen Campaign is designed for a party of 4-6 1st-level PCs. It takes place in the Nether Mountains in the Silver Marches in the Forgotten Realms. The heroes should be at 10th level when the campaign ends.
When I wrote the Aranea Queen Campaign, my son and his friends were just starting out, trying their hand at being the Game Master. I wanted to write something that was fun, not all too complicated, but still a bit challenging to run. The campaign is what I handed my son.
The Aranea Queen Campaign is not a dungeon crawl stitched together with plot hooks. It is a slow-burning campaign about loss, secrecy, moral compromise, and the quiet consequences of ancient decisions. If it works at the table, it is because the group feels the weight of what they uncover, not because every fight is perfectly balanced. It starts slow and easy enough, but as the narrative progresses, it becomes more complicated and requires more thought from the players.
This guide is written for Dungeon Masters preparing to run the Aranea Queen Campaign, with a focus on tone, pacing, and the moments where the campaign can either come alive or quietly fall apart.
What the Aranea Queen Campaign Is Really About
On the surface, the campaign begins like a familiar investigation. A dwarf is found dead, a mine has gone silent, and something strange has been uncovered beneath the Nether Mountains. Very quickly, however, the story reveals its true heart. The player characters need to be heroic, but also cunning and intelligent.
This is a campaign about people who chose death over slavery, and about what remains when survival comes at the cost of truth. The Aranea are not monsters to be defeated. They are survivors, liars, victims, and conspirators in their own tragedy. The Queen Egg is not simply a powerful artifact. It is memory, legacy, and divine consequence bound together.
If the players treat this as a straightforward rescue mission, the campaign will feel flat. If they begin to question who deserves salvation, who is lying, and whether returning the Egg is the right thing to do, the campaign finds its voice. The plan was always to create something that would challenge the players and the group, but also ensure that everyone get amble opportunities to shine and roleplay their characters.
Before the First Session
Before running the campaign, I suggest you read the following sections carefully:
The Introduction, Adventure Overview, and the sections on Laz’Shadamar, Doomspire, and the Queen Egg are the elements that form the spine of the campaign, and understanding their emotional and thematic weight will help you improvise later without breaking the story. It is important to have a good grasp of these parts and understand how they work best together.
Decide early how you want to handle the truth about Leira. The campaign is built on lies and half-truths, and the goddess’s connection to the Egg should feel unsettling rather than triumphant. The players do not need to know the truth immediately, but you should.
Finally, consider pacing. This is a long campaign. Do not rush from chapter to chapter. Let the mystery breathe, especially in Deadsnows and during the early investigations. Give the players a chance to become familiar with the locals, and the people in Deadsnows should quickly learn their names. The group might even return to the small village several times to restock and get some well-earned rest.
I also suggest that the player characters have some link to Deadsnows. Did they once live there? Do they know any locals, etc.? The town might serve as a base for the adventurers, and it will offer many great roleplaying opportunities.
Key Chapters and Where Things Often Go Wrong
Deadsnows and Ironboot Mine
This is where tone is established. The danger here is making the opening feel like a routine quest, nothing extraordinary, or one that seems likely to lead to an ever greater adventure. When they reach the mine, emphasize the absence. Empty halls. Sealed tunnels. The sense that something has already gone terribly wrong.
Let the players feel uneasy before they ever understand why.
This is also where the player characters start to become the heroes they need to be to complete the campaign. Let them enjoy the victory in the dwarven mine, and when they rescue the dwarves from the kobolds. However, be advised that most adventurer groups are no match for a young red dragon at level 3, and that the group learns that not every encounter in this narrative is there for them to defeat.
The Aranea Egg
Many groups immediately treat the Egg as a powerful magic item to be exploited. This is a mistake. The Egg should feel wrong. It should provoke emotional reactions, dreams, or discomfort. It is not meant to be convenient. This needs to be returned to the Aranea homeland. It should feel almost like a burden, but an important one, a responsibility the heroes must shoulder.
If the Egg feels like loot, the campaign loses much of its power.
Laz’Shadamar
This is, in my humble opinion, one of the strongest locations in the campaign, but only if you slow down. The Royal Palace and the mass death of the Aranea should not be rushed through narration. Let the players explore. Let them ask questions. Let silence do some of the work. Don’t hand out information too fast; let them do a little digging.
This is not a victory location. It is a mausoleum and should feel like one.
Doomspire
The most common mistake here is treating Doomspire as a standard enemy stronghold that the adventurers can raid. It is not. It is a place of oppression, fear, and moral compromise. The Aranea slaves should feel tired, divided, and afraid to hope. Make sure you introduce moments where the heroes’ plans work. After all, this is where all their plotting really matters, and being cunning is paramount.
Encourage stealth, manipulation, and social disruption. A frontal assault undermines the themes of survival and consequence. This is where the player characters can bring out all their utilities, alchemist fires, self-altering spells, shape-shifting, and so on. It is important that the players understand this, but they also have free rein to choose their own way to free the aranea slaves.
Tone at the Table
The Aranea Queen Campaign works best when the table’s tone is restrained and a little serious. Humor will happen, as it always does, but do not undercut the campaign’s emotional beats.
The Aranea lie. Often. Not because they are evil, but because lying kept them alive. This should make the players uncomfortable, not triumphant, when they uncover the truth.
When Leira’s influence becomes clearer, avoid framing it as a divine reward. The return of a goddess of illusions and lies, built on deception and sacrifice, should raise questions, not answers.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
One common mistake is overemphasizing combat. Many encounters are dangerous by design, and not all problems are meant to be solved with violence. Make sure your players understand this. There are many ways to solve the problems posed by the narrative; combat is one, but it’s often not the best, as in Doomspire.
Another is revealing too much too early. The campaign relies on gradual understanding. If the truth about the Egg, the goddess, or the Aranea’s choices is laid bare too soon, later revelations lose their impact.
Finally, avoid turning the Aranea into passive victims. They have agency. They make choices. Some of those choices are deeply uncomfortable.
Optional Tweaks and Adjustments
For shorter campaigns, focus on Deadsnows, Ironboot Mine, Laz’Shadamar, and Doomspire, and reduce the number of side locations.
For experienced groups, lean harder into the moral ambiguity. Make the consequences of returning the Egg more visible. Let divine politics bleed into mortal lives.
For newer players, provide clearer guidance through NPCs, but resist simplifying the core dilemma.
Closing Thoughts
The Aranea Queen Campaign rewards patience and trust. It asks the Dungeon Master to hold back, to let players sit with uncertainty, and to resist tidy resolutions. When it works, it leaves groups talking about why they made certain choices long after the final session ends.
