Could this (modified) AP work in this setting?

[Unien]

Ok, here I am looking for some advices and wondering if this could work or it's total madness.

I've taken a little hiatus from my L5R campaign and, given that nostalgy made me get a copy of Runequest 6 (RQ was my first game) I've decided to go back to it.
What started as "let's just play some sword and sorcery sessions" went to "hey, let's do it in Hyboria", then things went crazy.

I had in mind to start with a shipwreck and make the PCs survive till they reached the series of adventures from the Book of Quests, so I started researching for some tips as how to handle the shipwreck.
Then I found info on this AP and gears started to work.

Shipwreck - check
Survival in an island - check
An evil serpent cult... in Conan world? - check
Trying to revive a serpent god? - holy yes! check (Conan the adventurer's intro music starts playing in head)

So, for the ones who know this full AP... would this actually work?
I know that it will require half a ton of work or more just to match names and regions, but really, given that I know nothing about encounters and plots in the AP would this work? I'm overexcited right now.

[Kalindlara]

I know Serpent's Skull back to front, but I know little of Hyboria. That said, if it's the world of Conan the Barbarian, the serpentfolk are literally taken from that source - I want to say "serpent-men of Valusia"? (I know that one from a Lovecraftian crossover-reference.)

Does Hyboria have jungles? Do you have anyone specific in mind to stand in for the Azlanti, or is "generic Atlanteans" good enough? :)

You'll also need replacements for the five factions - the Pathfinder Society, the Aspis Consortium, the Shackles pirates, the Red Mantis Assassins, and the colonial Sargavan government.

Tell me what you have in mind, and I'll help you along as best I can. :)

[Unien]

Well, in all honesty I still have nothing really serious in mind as the AP appeared as a revelation yesterday while researching some info and I know barely nothing about it.

Things I know

There's a serpent woman cultist in disguise that causes the shipwreck to reach the island where some people other than the PCs survive.
There's some sort of temple, and cannibals, and ugly water scorpions.
In the end, the cult wants to revive their god (let's call it Set for simplicity)

Aaaand that's all my knowledge of it.

An island is easy to drop anywhere in a map. Reasons for the ship to pass by aren't hard to manage (it was going to be a slaver's ship with the PCs being slaves, but I can accomodate some passengers if needed)
From that point I assume they'll return to mainland at some point, but I won't have issues accomodating it either.
There are some jungles in Stygia as far as I remember, and deserts (who doesn't love deserts?)

No divine magic though (low magic setting), but spirits and animism exist, an so does some sorcery (mostly evil) son that's a non issue since they can reproduce most Pathfinder magic but with more subtle ways.

And I guess I could adapt encounters if they are too weird. (no goblins, orcs, and such)

You give me hopes. I'll have to read the full AP :)

[Kalindlara]

Full plot outline/needs/issues incoming. :)

What do you know about those five factions I mentioned? In terms of Golarion lore, I mean.

[Unien]

Kalindlara wrote:

Full plot outline/needs/issues incoming. :)

What do you know about those five factions I mentioned? In terms of Golarion lore, I mean.

I know about the Society (not in depth) and I think I've read something about the pirates in some backstory.

My only experience with Pathfinder and Golarion is the RotRL AP I've recently started to play (we are still in book 1), so it's mostly about Varisia.

[Kalindlara]

Book 1: Easy, just as you say. The serpent-woman wrecks the PCs' ship on an accursed island, and they have to camp, survive, and find a way off. In the process, they should find the temple the serpent was looking for - a temple to Zura, ancient demon-queen of vampires. The serpent wants the lore there to lead her to a lost city in the jungle. The PCs should want to find it too, because treasure or something. :)

There's also five other castaways, included both for RP opportunities and to set up the five factions. If you remove the factions, you can go ahead and reassess their roles as well.

Book 2: The PCs have the treasure map. Now, they need to set up an expedition to retrieve the wealth of the lost city. To do that, they have to ally with a faction (as written). Each faction grants specific boons and causes another faction to become "rivals". Once they've done that, they have to blaze a trail across hill, plain, and jungle.

The setting here is extremely African-inspired, which might not fit into Hyboria. Spirits and animism are huge here, though, so that'll be great. :)

Instead of goblins or orcs, there are jungle fey and charau-ka... little demon-worshiping ape-men.

Book 3: The PCs have reached the city, built by ancient and magically-advanced Atlanteans (essentially). They now have to make peace with/subjugate the natives, while dealing with the other factions. This book and Book 4 run together, so...

Book 4: The ancient city was undone by a priest of fate, who fell victim to paranoia. The alien mold he cultivated got vented in an earthquake, and the city tore itself apart. Now, the PCs have to explore seven mold-infested vaults, deal with the Gorilla King of the jungle, and cure a feebleminded explorer who escaped the serpent's city deep underground. With gems from the seven vaults, they can reactivate the portal to the serpents' city.

Book 5: The PCs now have a second ruined city to explore... except instead of ape-men and vegepygmies, it's drow, fiendish deep-dwellers, and morlocks. Their goal here is to rescue the head of a previous expedition, Eando Kline, who came here to stop the serpents' plot to resurrect their god. He is in the serpents' most highly guarded fortress. So... bad luck there. :)

Book 6: Eando Kline fills the PCs in on the serpent-priest's plan to resurrect a living god. The PCs must gather up armies, use the city's last vestiges of magic to create a path to the serpents' stronghold, and use the war as cover to strike down the serpent priest and a resurrected god. They also have to find an ancient cyclops general (do you have those?) and deal with serpent-assassins reincarnated as humans.

So, yeah. It's actually very Conan, now that I think about it. About half Conan, and half Indiana Jones. :)

So... any questions? :)

[Kalindlara]

Unien wrote:

Kalindlara wrote:

Full plot outline/needs/issues incoming. :)

What do you know about those five factions I mentioned? In terms of Golarion lore, I mean.

I know about the Society (not in depth) and I think I've read something about the pirates in some backstory.

My only experience with Pathfinder and Golarion is the RotRL AP I've recently started to play (we are still in book 1), so it's mostly about Varisia.

The Society is Indiana Jones. "It belongs in a museum", etc.

The Aspis Consortium is Belloq. They think of nothing but money, and will do anything to get it.

The pirates... are really just one pirate. She wants the city's loot to start her own pirate fleet. Pretty world-neutral, really.

The Sargavan government is a colonial government, in deep debt from having to pay protection. To the pirates. They're basically rich white people enslaving the natives. Imagine the hunter from Jumanji, maybe.

The Red Mantis are an assassin cult who worship the gods' assassin, a giant mantis-monster. They're not especially divine, so they should be fine.

As for the ancient civilization that built the city, they're related to certain ancient business in RotRL. There might be mild spoilers, but only general ones - it won't spoil specific plot points from Rise of the Runelords.

[Unien]

Sounds really interesting and caters to the interests of all my players (some prefer combat, some prefer social relatios, some are in the middle ground).

The Black Kingdoms are based off the mid-southern area of africa, so all's good.

For ancient civilizations the Black Ones are supposed to be really ancient and alien-esque, so they can be used as well. (I know about the Thassilonians ;) )

This AP looks great if only for reading it.
As for the other factions, I think they can easily be done.

I'll be back when I've read it.
Thanks!

[Kalindlara]

Awesome! Good luck, and if you need help with details or planning, feel free to post here or PM me. :)

[Unien]

Kalindlara wrote:

The Society is Indiana Jones. "It belongs in a museum", etc.

The Aspis Consortium is Belloq. They think of nothing but money, and will do anything to get it.

The pirates... are really just one pirate. She wants the city's loot to start her own pirate fleet. Pretty world-neutral, really.

The Sargavan government is a colonial government, in deep debt from having to pay protection. To the pirates. They're basically rich white people enslaving the natives. Imagine the hunter from Jumanji, maybe.

The Red Mantis are an assassin cult who worship the gods' assassin, a giant mantis-monster. They're not especially divine, so they should be fine.

As for the ancient civilization that built the city, they're related to certain ancient business in RotRL. There might be mild spoilers, but only general ones - it won't spoil specific plot points from Rise of the Runelords.

OK, PF Society is going to be some random group of people searching for atlantean artifacts and such based off Turan.

Consortium - Since Shem is where most of the trade routes are, it's a good place to set them. I might even leave the name.

The pirate. Well, she's a pirate and let's leave it just there.

Sargava. This one is more tricky. Still undecided.

Red Mantis. Assassin's cult but from Zamora. And no mantis but a spider.

Back to work :)

[Kalindlara]

Note that the Path actually passes through Sargava, in the first portion of Book 2. It's the city where the PCs start their expedition from.

[Lord Fyre]

D
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How far have you gotten with this?

(late to the party)

Try these
Kush = Sargavia
The Black Kingdoms = The Mwangi Expanse

Apis Consortium = use an Argosian merchant consortium
The Red Mantis = Agents of Thoth-Amon*
The Pathfinder Society = Ignore this faction (There are very few non-evil groups in Hyboria)
The Shackles Pirates = Agents of Thutothmes*
The Sargavian Government = The Kushite/Stygian government(s)

(* - a proxy for their struggle for control of the Black Ring cabal)