Dungeon Magazine Adventures in Golarion


Lost Omens Campaign Setting General Discussion


Has anybody adapted any of these to fit into Golarion (besides the Dungeon Adventure Paths)? If not, what are some favorite adventures, and where would they fit into Golarion?

Shadow Lodge

I've always been a fan of Mad God's Key - which is a 1st level adventure based in Greyhawk from Dungeon #114.

I've used it a few times to kick off campaigns for 1st level PCs since it's not yet another "go deal with goblins/kobolds" adventure. It doesn't feel like it's a 1st level romp, which makes it a great one to run.

Adapting it to Golarion is straightforward - you can swap Greyhawk for Absalom and the Cairn Hills for the Cairnlands. You could technically swap it for any major city (Korvosa comes to mind).

Then there's just some swapping of the deities involved.

Most Dungeon adventures are meant to be extremely adaptable - many have no ties to any setting at all, and even the ones that do were easily exchangeable between Eberron, Greyhawk, the Forgotten Realms or home-brew worlds.


HAH! I have uncovered my chat log from November 1, 2007, which talks about placing Shacked City, Age of Worms, and Savage Tide in Golarion. Enjoy!

Paizo Employee Creative Director

1 person marked this as a favorite.

I just started running Maure Castle for one of my office games, placing the castle on the outskirts of an underground lost city below the sands of Osirion.


I'm thinking of adapting the porphyry house horror to my Curse of the Crimson Throne campaign and have it based either in Old Korvosa or Kaer Maga.

James Jacobs, if you are still reading this thread, any CR appropriate golarion equivalent race you suggest to substitute for the Yuan-ti?

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Laric wrote:

I'm thinking of adapting the porphyry house horror to my Curse of the Crimson Throne campaign and have it based either in Old Korvosa or Kaer Maga.

James Jacobs, if you are still reading this thread, any CR appropriate golarion equivalent race you suggest to substitute for the Yuan-ti?

Serpentfolk are the best replacement for yuan-ti. Just give them more class levels.


Pathfinder Adventure Path, Rulebook Subscriber

oooh ... doting for further interest and reading.

~Dean


James Jacobs wrote:
Laric wrote:

I'm thinking of adapting the porphyry house horror to my Curse of the Crimson Throne campaign and have it based either in Old Korvosa or Kaer Maga.

James Jacobs, if you are still reading this thread, any CR appropriate golarion equivalent race you suggest to substitute for the Yuan-ti?

Serpentfolk are the best replacement for yuan-ti. Just give them more class levels.

Thanks James!

Any suggestion for a golarion-related demon lord that would be worshiped by serpentfolk? (as a replacement for Demogorgon)

Also any suggestions for Bestiary replacements of the gulguthydra and orlath demon?


To the OP:

Apart from the ones that have already been mentioned, some other great adventures that come to mind include:

"The Styes" (dungeon 121) and "The Weavers" (dungeon 138) are two very evocative adventures by Richard Pett that were extremely popular when dungeon was still being published. They could easily be set in Riddleport with some slight modifications.

"Tammeraut's Fate" (dungeon 106) was, I believe, Greg Vaughan's first adventure to be published in Dungeon. It has the PCs investigating the mystery of an abandoned island hermitage and features some very cool horror elements. It could pretty much be set near any coastal settlement.

Finally, "The Mud Sorcerer's Tomb" (dungeon 37 and also dungeon 138) by Mike Shel is an excellent dungeon crawl adventure that was considered to be the best adventure to be published in Dungeon Magazine by Paizo panelists in dungeon 116.

Sovereign Court Contributor

Actually The Styes, and The Weavers non-canonically take place in Carrion Hill, in Ustalav. Take a look at how the maps match up.


Jeff Erwin wrote:
Actually The Styes, and The Weavers non-canonically take place in Carrion Hill, in Ustalav. Take a look at how the maps match up.

I realize that, but

The Styes Spoiler:
Since Carrion Hill is not on the coast, you'd have to change the aboleth and young Kraken, which are not freshwater creatures, for some other monsters.

Given that both the aboleth and kraken are so integral to the plot of the Styes, I suggested Riddleport instead.


There's a great list of nautical adventures for the Shackles (or Riddleport):

HERE!

I've already used Salvage Job and Tammeraut's Fate in the Shackles. I placed Box of Flumph in Plumetown, Shackles.

Yeah, Styes makes no sense in Ustalav.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

1 person marked this as a favorite.
Laric wrote:
James Jacobs wrote:
Laric wrote:

I'm thinking of adapting the porphyry house horror to my Curse of the Crimson Throne campaign and have it based either in Old Korvosa or Kaer Maga.

James Jacobs, if you are still reading this thread, any CR appropriate golarion equivalent race you suggest to substitute for the Yuan-ti?

Serpentfolk are the best replacement for yuan-ti. Just give them more class levels.

Thanks James!

Any suggestion for a golarion-related demon lord that would be worshiped by serpentfolk? (as a replacement for Demogorgon)

Also any suggestions for Bestiary replacements of the gulguthydra and orlath demon?

Best bet to replace Demogorgon in Porphyry House Horror is probably Socothbenoth.

And if you don't want to simply use the gulguthydra and orlath as is, or to convert them (that's my suggestion), the orlath can be replaced by any demon of equal CR. The key with the gulguthydra is to find a monster that, when polymorphed, has a relatively high Charisma but a low intelligence.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Jeff Erwin wrote:
Actually The Styes, and The Weavers non-canonically take place in Carrion Hill, in Ustalav. Take a look at how the maps match up.

That's pretty much because the author of The Styes/The Weavers and Carrion Hill is the same person, and because Carrion Hill was intentionally designed to be a "replacement" Styes since once we lost the magazine license, we lost the Styes as well.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Laric wrote:
Jeff Erwin wrote:
Actually The Styes, and The Weavers non-canonically take place in Carrion Hill, in Ustalav. Take a look at how the maps match up.

I realize that, but

** spoiler omitted **

Aboleths do just fine in fresh water.


James Jacobs wrote:
Laric wrote:
Jeff Erwin wrote:
Actually The Styes, and The Weavers non-canonically take place in Carrion Hill, in Ustalav. Take a look at how the maps match up.

I realize that, but

** spoiler omitted **

Aboleths do just fine in fresh water.

I stand corrected.

And thanks for your previous answers.

Socothbenoth seems like an excellent fit and I think I'll follow your advice and convert the Orlath demon and Gulguthydra to PF rules.


James Jacobs wrote:
Laric wrote:
Jeff Erwin wrote:
Actually The Styes, and The Weavers non-canonically take place in Carrion Hill, in Ustalav. Take a look at how the maps match up.

I realize that, but

** spoiler omitted **

Aboleths do just fine in fresh water.

Though they might feel a bit cramped in smaller bodies of water, right?


Eric L Boyd wrote a three-part PCs against vampires and werewolves in Waterdeep series of adventures (starting in #126) that could probably work well in any larger city on Golarion - though I guess Caliphas would make the best fit.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Kajehase wrote:
James Jacobs wrote:
Laric wrote:
Jeff Erwin wrote:
Actually The Styes, and The Weavers non-canonically take place in Carrion Hill, in Ustalav. Take a look at how the maps match up.

I realize that, but

** spoiler omitted **

Aboleths do just fine in fresh water.
Though they might feel a bit cramped in smaller bodies of water, right?

Not at all. Aboleths first showed up in the old D&D adventure "Dwellers of the Forbidden City," where the very first aboleth in an adventure is in a freshwater underground cave. And they've always been Underdark/Darkland denizens, where narrow caverns are the norm. They do just fine in small bodies of water as well.


And in Dungeon #144, there's an adventure called Diplomacy which struck me as so easy to modify the details of (power-level, setting, pretty much everything), that it can be set anywhere you want.


Pathfinder Adventure Path, Lost Omens Subscriber

I concur with wakedown on Mad God's Key. It is very adaptable for introducing new players especially to Golarion. Absalom replacing Greyhawk is fine, since the city is large and open.

Used Nethys and Norgorber for the two noted gods.

Also, found it useful as way to open up the players to the Pathfinder society by making the main contact (Thaedra, I think) a retired Pathfinder who can give them a recommendation to get into the organization more easily.

Scarab Sages

Pathfinder Maps Subscriber

Dotted

Scarab Sages

This is a really cool thread. Thanks for starting it!!

Scarab Sages

Bearing in mind that my old group played some of the earlier Dungeon adventures and stopped around 1999, here are some of our favorites:

Into the Fire/From the Ashes - probably mountains in Varisia or between Brevoy and Iobaria.

Mud Sorcerer's tomb - probably best in Garundi somewhere, but also maybe the Mushfens. May have to repurpose Jezulain as Thassilonians.

Sleepless - somewhere in Cheliax maybe?

Tallow's Deep - Varisia- or up near Belkzen and Lastwall.

The Glass House - anywhere snowy and cold, Linnorm kings, etc.

Standing Stones of Sundown - preferably somewhere ancient Kellids use to dwell. River Kingdoms, Numeria, etc.

Siege of Kratys Freehold - Lastwall-Belkzen border or along the rural frontier lines in Varisia.

Jacob's well - pretty much anywhere

Some of my favorite roleplay or entertaining moments came from events in these:

The Cauldron of Plenty - irish clan theme, so probably hill tribe locations and Kellids.

The Whale - Coastline near Linnorm Kings

Back to the Beach (probably my all time favorite light hearted adventure) - Varisian Coastline


2 people marked this as a favorite.

We need a Mud Bloodline for sorcerers. ^.^


Thanks so much everybody! This has been really great to see and read. I'm newish to the gaming world, and so Dungeon magazine was well before my time. I'm still learning Golarion, and so getting this type of feedback is both interesting and informative.

Glad everyone is enjoying the thread!


redcelt32 wrote:
Sleepless - somewhere in Cheliax maybe?

Well, they say Magnimar is supposed to be at the same latitude and have the same climate as Seattle... ;)

Sczarni

I ran Salvage Operation inside Skull & Shackles #1, using the revisions in the awesome list voodoo chili linked to. My brother told me it was the most fun he'd ever had in an RPG.

So...positive review for that one. :)


When I was running a PFRPG campaign in Golarion and the party was trekking through the edge of the Mwangi Expanse, I ran "Euphoria Horrors" from Dungeon issue #34.

Euphoria Horrors:
WotC posted 3.5 stats for the Tasloi here so it was easy to adapt that to PFRPG. I made the boy Garundi and changed his name from "Michael" to "Melaku". And although I don't have the Bestiary 3, the Faerie Dragon is not only in the PRD, it's in the Bonus Bestiary too.

Later in the campaign, when the party was in a desert village in Katapesh, I ran "Centaur of Attention" from issue #60. Of course, that side trek wasn't designed with a desert setting in mind, but...

Centaur of Attention:
...I needed to give the PCs a chance to become local heroes there, and this seemed a good way to do it. I made Khielgarn a Keleshite, and changed his name to Khair.

Later still in the same campaign, when the party was in Nex, I adapted "The Lurkers in the Library" from issue #9. It was funny...

The Lurkers in the Library:
...how easy it was. I might have spent hours writing NPC stat blocks, but thanks to my trusty NPC Codex book, the adaptation took me only minutes! All I had to write was...

Quote:

Page 6: For Portia and Nardo d’Ferranta, use the stats for the Wise Sage, from the NPC Codex page 263.

Replace “Continual Light” with “Continual Flame”.
For Doctor Waldus Thorngreen, use the stats for the Cautious Mage, from the NPC Codex page 178.

Page 7: Replace “monster summoning I” with “Summon Monster I”.

Page 8: For Pulcut, use the stats for the Axe Warrior, from the NPC Codex page 11. Replace Power Attack feat with Exotic Weapon Proficiency (whip). Add to equipment: whip.

...and write a few notes about the orc mooks and their treasure, and that was it! (I didn't bother statting out the halfling, because his stats weren't important to the adventure.)


This thread is great.

Grand Lodge

"Vampires of Waterdeep" seems like it should be in Absalom. Maybe one of the other huge cities where an "Undermountain-like" megadungeon would fit (Korvosa, Kaer Maga, for example). But Absolom gets my vote.

"Headless" (by Jacobs) I've actually ran in the Fenwall mountains in Varisia. Not sure if that's the "best" place but it seems to fit reasonably well. (And now I'm curious what Jacobs would think about it.)

"The Glass House" in the Lands of the Linnorm Kings sounds like a good idea just remember that it's closer to Neverwinter than a truly cold place. Maybe north of Brinewall Keep there's some hot springs that could make a Neverwinter there.

"Into the Fire" I see as more in the eastern and southeastern Menadodor mountains of Cheliax. There are lots of Gnomes around (see Brastlework) and Gnomes are the big outside-Flame's-Lair aspect of the adventure. But any remote mountains close to gnomes will work. The Fenwall Mountains of Varisia are very close to Whistledown, for example.

"Night Swarm" is PERFECT for Wartle or one of the other villages like that in Varisia.

"Against the Cult of the Reptile God" (though not from Dungeon) is also PERFECT for one of those little Varisian villages.

"Kingdom of the Ghouls" I put in the River Kingdoms but that's only because I wanted to run it somewhere and since it's an Underdark adventure that's not Drow-Drow-Drow I didn't want to use the Mierani Forest.

"The Styes" (and "The Weavers") I kinda see as being the Styes. In other words, in my mind it shouldn't be a part of a published city in Golarion -- it should be invented and added to Golarion (I like it on the Taldor coast, personally -- decadent, crumbling Taldor.) However, I acknowledge that Pett (and Jacobs) put it in Ustalov and when Pett wrote volume two of Carrion Crown he just regurgitated (and updated) "The Styes." So I can see why everyone else would have it there.

"Mud Sorcerer's Tomb": Can it really be separated from "Tomb of the Iron Medusa" in the Taldoran mountains? It just seems more Taldor to me than Garund.

"Mad God's Key" in Absalom -- yes. Very "Yes."

"Maure Castle" in Thuvia or Rahadoum seem perfect. Or Osirion.

"Elephant's Graveyard," "Leopard Men" & "Land of Men with Tails" seems obvious for Mwangi.


Are there any desert or arabian themed adventures that would work well in Katapesh or Osirion?

Scarab Sages

Pathfinder Maps, Pathfinder Accessories, PF Special Edition Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Charter Superscriber; Starfinder Superscriber
Jeremy757 wrote:
Are there any desert or arabian themed adventures that would work well in Katapesh or Osirion?

Most of the Arabian themed stuff was relatively short Al'Qadim stuff. I think one of the relatively longer ones was called The Rose of Jumlat.

Scarab Sages

Pathfinder Maps, Pathfinder Accessories, PF Special Edition Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Charter Superscriber; Starfinder Superscriber

Memorable adventures I haven't seen mentioned from the pre-WotC era:
Legerdemain would fit in Taldor or possibly as a replacement to The Six Trials of Larazod.

A Hot Day in L'Trel is a potentially good one for starting a campaign of your own design, since it's all about rebuilding from a disaster. I'd suggest any decent sized town that doesn't have any support in Cheliax, Andoran, Taldor, or the civilized and human-ruled parts of coastal Tian Xia.

A Rose for Talakara could fit into Ustalav, Irrisen borderlands, or possibly Isger or Nidal.

The Curse and the Quest is generic enough to go anywhere and could deliver a useful lesson on exponential growth to any overconfident party, but a book of infinite spells has already been in a recent Paizo module.

From the Paizo era, I don't have all their pdfs, but they do have their Isle of Dread conversion (#114) available, in case you've got a piratical campaign looking to sail off the edge of the map. Also works for sandbox style play. I think they may also have had a support article in a Dragon that's still for sale as pdf.

The Obsidian Eye looks like it would work in Osirion/Katapesh OK. So might Lost Temple Of Demogorgon, also in #120.

Raiders of Black Ice (#115) and The Clockwork Fortress (#126) could be in Numeria, or maybe worked into Magnimar, Kaer Maga, and/or Janderhoff.

The Siege of the Spider-Eaters, #137 goes well with any forested, self-reliant community, such as much of Andoran or Nirmathas.

I seem to remember The Palace of Plenty (#130) by Tito Leati and The Coming Storm (#136) by Greg Vaughn as ones that could be set in Tian Xia.


Jeremy757 wrote:
Are there any desert or arabian themed adventures that would work well in Katapesh or Osirion?

Not alot of Arabian stuff. The complete Dungeon Index in Dungeon #150 lists four early adventures for the Al-Qadim setting in issues 47, 51, 57, 63, and 68. I've got the Rose of Jumlat in #57 and it's ok.

I've adapted or plan on adapting several adventures for Katapesh though as that's my favorite nation including:

Dungeon #88- Thirds of Purloined Vellum

Spoiler:
An unusual urban adventure about double dealing merchants and for The Wafts, which fit perfectly into Katapesh City.

Dungeon #127- The Hive

Spoiler:
Perfect drop-in for the Beehive in the mountains west of Solku mentioned in Dark Markets of Katapesh.

Dungeon #116- Palace of the Twisted King

Spoiler:
Trapped in ruins by a sandstorm and stalked by meenlocks. very nice.

Dungeon #120- The Obsidian Eye

Spoiler:
Jackalweres and a hunt for a mysterious artifact.

Dungeon #142- Masque of Dreams

Spoiler:
Ties to OD&D city buried beneath desert sands and inhabited by crazy people.


Thanks for that.

Now my next inquiry, do any of you know of an adventure that takes place in an abandoned and/or cursed dwarven mine. I'm looking for a stand in for the Halls of Hammerfall in Katapesh.


For Masque of Dreams (and the associated Basic module), I'd figure some degenerate underground remnant of Jistka found under Rahadoum.


Jeremy757 wrote:
Now my next inquiry, do any of you know of an adventure that takes place in an abandoned and/or cursed dwarven mine. I'm looking for a stand in for the Halls of Hammerfall in Katapesh.

"The Forge of Fury" was fun to run.

Scarab Sages

I know there is one in early dungeon magazines that had rappers in it, dwarven haunts. Let me look it up when I get home.

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