Trying to find an early D&D module that had a drider lair

Question

I played this module about 25 years back and don't remember much of it, but it did have these features:

There was a 'trap' consisting of a long chain that descended into a pool leading to an underwater tunnel, and eventually dead-ended stapled to a blank rock face, drowning the character who thought they could use the chain to pull themselves to air on the far side.

There was an empty drider lair above the main corridor than you had to climb up into. It was dusty and empty except for one 50gp gem.

There was a very long, steep, narrow, winding corridor going down at some point.

It was likely a module for player levels 1-4, and may have been for beginning DMs as well.

Given the drider and the corridor going down, I thought perhaps it was Descent into the Depths of the Earth, but that's for too high a character level.

Anyone remember this?

Answer 1

Beneath the Twisted Tower (1993)

The AD&D 2e Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting boxed set (1993) included the sourcebook Shadowdale, which contained an adventure module named Beneath the Twisted Tower, for players of between 1st and 3rd levels.

A dead-end underwater trap, p.62:

The clear pool is a false exit and deathtrap ... the rope by which the PCs can supposedly pull themselves to another aired chamber is, in fact, a rope to nowhere, installed simply to lure the PCs to their deaths.

A steep narrow winding corridor, p.75:

The passage narrows somewhat so that no more than one can pass through it at a time. In addition, it begins a steady and fairly steep slope upward as it curves in at least two full circles clockwise at an increasingly sharp angle.

A mostly empty drider lair containing a relatively inexpensive gem, p.75:

Most of the openings along the upper reaches of the irregular wall in this cavern are nothing but alcoves formed by swirling water in the dim past of the cavern's formation, but one, above a large rock slab on the west side of the cavern, has been expanded and worked to become the lair of a lone drider. [...]

Hidden in the drider's lair, in a hole under a webbed lid covered with camouflaging dirt and rock are 9 platinum pieces and 2 rubies (30-gp value each). A secret door in the back left of the drider lair leads to the darkened corridor described in 8C3, above.

Also, the read-aloud text box describing the character's inevitable doom in the water trap, p.63:

The rope angles sharply upward and you can tell from the decreased water pressure that you are finally nearing the surface. But as you go to surface, you realize, with a shudder of panic and dismay that the surface is merely the underside of a large rock slab, with no opening or air pocket in sight. It suddenly comes to you in terror that you have literally come to the end of your rope; it is securely attached to the underside of the underwater rock slab. A frantic search of the surrounding area indicates no place to surface and nowhere to go for air.

Answer 2

May have been from Dungeon Magazine

According to this article, Driders appeared in two AD&D 2E published adventures in the mid 1990s. The first was in an Issue #48 (July/August 1994) adventure called "Honor Lost, Honor Regained," in which a level 4-6 party must escort a fallen paladin to a drider lair. The second was an Issue #60 (July/August 1996) adventure called "Shards of the Day" described in this review as a monster zoo fetch-quest in the Underdark where the party is seeking a magic item and faces draw, driders, mind flayers, etc.

The adventure probably is not AD&D 1E, and definitely not Descent into the Depths of the Earth, since driders were not introduced until Queen of the Demonweb Pits, and the encounter you describe is not from that adventure.