Table Of ContentR. A. Salvatore's
War of the Spider Queen
Volume II
Table of Contents
Introduction
Author's Note
Extinction
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Annihilation
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Resurrection
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Other Works
Introduction
Welcome to Faerûn, a land of magic and intrigue, brutal violence and divine
compassion, where gods have ascended and died, and mighty heroes have risen
to fight terrifying monsters. Here, millennia of warfare and conquest have
shaped dozens of unique cultures, raised and leveled shining kingdoms and
tyrannical empires alike, and left long forgotten, horror-infested ruins in their
wake.
A LAND OF MAGIC
When the goddess of magic was murdered, a magical plague of blue fire—
the Spellplague—swept across the face of Faerûn, killing some, mutilating
many, and imbuing a rare few with amazing supernatural abilities. The
Spellplague forever changed the nature of magic itself, and seeded the land with
hidden wonders and bloodcurdling monstrosities.
A LAND OF DARKNESS
The threats Faerûn faces are legion. Armies of undead mass in Thay under
the brilliant but mad lich king Szass Tam. Treacherous dark elves plot in the
Underdark in the service of their cruel and fickle goddess, Lolth. The Abolethic
Sovereignty, a terrifying hive of inhuman slave masters, floats above the Sea of
Fallen Stars, spreading chaos and destruction. And the Empire of Netheril,
armed with magic of unimaginable power, prowls Faerûn in flying fortresses,
sowing discord to their own incalculable ends.
A LAND OF HEROES
But Faerûn is not without hope. Heroes have emerged to fight the growing
tide of darkness. Battle-scarred rangers bring their notched blades to bear against
marauding hordes of orcs. Lowly street rats match wits with demons for the fate
of cities. Inscrutable tiefling warlocks unite with fierce elf warriors to rain fire
and steel upon monstrous enemies. And valiant servants of merciful gods forever
struggle against the darkness.
A Land of Untold Adventure
Has it really been ten years? Sometimes it feels as though I’m still working
on this Forgotten Realms mega-event, other times it seems centuries have gone
by.
It started with an off-hand conversation between myself and my boss’s boss
at the time, Mary Kirchoff. She was joking about how our distributor at the time
had told her that what we needed were “more R.A. Salvatores.” You know,
authors who sell as many books as Bob Salvatore does, as though any of us
could just snap our fingers and have that author materialize out of thin air. If that
were possible, every week there’d be a 300-way tie for #1 on The New York
Times best-seller list.
But it did start us thinking.
Around that time there was a series of military thrillers running up and down
the best-sellers lists called Tom Clancy’s Op Center—books written by various
authors under the Tom Clancy brand name. Either Mary or I (let’s say it was me
because it turned out to be such a great idea) suggested we do something similar,
attaching some of our newer authors to “the R.A. Salvatore brand” in the hope of
getting a little extra attention for everybody. We started calling it R.A. Salvatore
Presents.
That’s the business decision behind it, but no way would Bob Salvatore lend
his name and time to any series unless there was a story worth telling. And that
was quite a question. Obviously, no other author but Bob was going to write
Drizzt . . . so what else was there?
As so often happens, a bit of creative synchronicity presented itself. We were
working on a line of Greyhawk novels that were updated novelizations of the
classic AD&D adventure modules. They started by pitting adventurers against
some giants, then descending into the depths of the earth, and ended with a
confrontation with the Queen of the Demonweb Pits, a.k.a. Lolth.
The original adventure module ended with the assumption that your party
would kill Lolth, so the Greyhawk novel (spoiler alert) would end the same way.
The logical question became If we kill Lolth in a Greyhawk novel does that
mean she is dead everywhere? If Lolth dies, what happens to the theocratic
matriarchy of our favorite dark elf ’s home town?
Now that sounded like a story with R.A. Salvatore Presents written all over
it.
We started talking about it inside Wizards of the Coast and the team that was
even then developing Dungeons & Dragons Third Edition told us that in the new
worlds order there was no connection between the various campaign settings, so
if Lolth dies in the world of Greyhawk, she goes on entirely unfazed in the
Forgotten Realms setting.
Okay, but still, it was a cool idea, and worth doing anyway.
What followed was a pitch, which went something like this: R.A. Salvatore
Presents will tell the story of what happens to drow society when their principal
goddess, Lolth, suddenly stops answering prayers and at least appears to be
dead. The drow of Menzoberranzan send an expedition to the Demonweb Pits in
search of answers.
People, including Bob Salvatore, liked that idea, and we were off to the
races.
And it seemed like a race, too—a long, grueling Iron Man Triathlon.
We started with only that seed of an idea and once Bob was signed on, we
set up a “summit” meeting at the offices of Wizards of the Coast. We had the
first three authors in mind at that point: Richard Lee Byers, Thomas M. Reid,
and Richard Baker. Both Thomas and Rich Baker worked for WotC at the time,
so they were easy to rustle up, but we had to fly Bob and Richard Byers in from
Massachusetts and Florida, respectively. The meeting was the most fun I’ve had
in my adult life. Somewhere in a file cabinet at WotC are the printouts of the
original whiteboard notes, with characters roughed in as “Traitor Priest,”
“Scout,” etc. and plot points outlined in order to structure the six-book series.
What was amazing to me, when I looked at those notes again years later, was
how closely the finished books actually followed that initial outline.
Richard Byers started writing first even as I got to work on the series bible, a
document that Bob and I passed back and forth via email I don’t know how
many times as it started to take shape. The series bible ended up at more than
ninety pages including detailed D&D character sheets for all the major
characters (courtesy of Mr. Baker), word lists and glossaries, even notes on
protocol, like who you call “Mistress,” and so on.
That was the key to keeping six authors and two editors on track for almost
three years: Write everything down, and share those notes with everybody.
When it came time to seat the final three authors, of course I started with
Lisa Smedman, who’d blown me away with her work on the Sembia series.
Mary and then managing editor Peter Archer surprised me (and Bob, too, I
think) with the opportunity to write the fifth book—an offer I didn’t have to hear
twice. Finally, Mel Odom agreed to write the last book, but had to pull out
because of other commitments, leaving a space right at the very end that Paul S.
Kemp filled brilliantly.
R.A. Salvatore’s War of the Spider Queen was the hardest I ever worked—
and it was worth every second of it.
I used to joke that if I ever suggested doing anything like it again, my
coworkers were free to strike me on the head as hard as they could. But you
know what? I would do it again in a heartbeat, especially if I get to do it again
with those same nine people: Richard Lee Byers, Thomas M. Reid, Richard
Baker, Lisa Smedman, Paul S. Kemp, managing editor Peter Archer, art director
and designer extraordinaire Matt Adelsperger, legendary fantasy illustrator
Brom, and of course R.A. Salvatore.
Come on guys . . . what do you say?
Philip Athans March 2011
