Skeletons of Scarwall -> AoW

[TerraNova]

Hi there

After my recent TPK in Spire of Long Shadows, my group is gearing up again for another stab at that dungeon - but i want to make a somewhat different intro adventure, both to give them a little time to forget the details of the Spire, and to give the new group some motivation to go there at all.

My preferred adventure would be Skeletons of Scarwall, but since this is rather strongly tied to CotCT, i would appreciate some comments.

What i have come up so far:

* Scarwall was a fortress for a member of the Order of the Storm when they battled Kyuss

* The magic sword is a permanent Kyussbane weapon

* The curse came to be when the castellain of Scarwall betrayed his liege and sided with the forces of Kyuss during the last attempt to free the Wormgod

Most of the references to Zon-Kuthon work relatively well with Kyuss dropped in, but there are some hitches i have yet to work out:

* I rather like the Harrowing up front, but find it hard to justify without the overarching CotCT storyline.

* The "ally" and "enemy" setup is rather specific to CotCT, and i am considering to either just drop them, or maybe replace them by Ebon Triad cultists out to learn more about their own order's history. That might even play into Prince of Redhand later, when they help the party uncover the Triad being a Charade.

Of course, there are a lot of other rough spots i probably will only hit when actually DMing the adventure. ;) Anyone has ideas on how to work this out, so that i am not quite as caught on the seat of my pants?

[The Black Fox]

Replace the Harrowing with an additional method of providing the PC's some special advantages. The easiest solution would be for clerics of some Good deity to perform a special ceremony. It bestows a Geas/Quest upon the party to complete the adventure, but also provides a special divine blessing that duplicates the game mechanics advantages of the Harrowing. Perhaps the party has a "patron Outsider" that accompanies them that fills the needs of Zellara herself if need be.

I'd abandon the Brotherhood of Bones Ally/Enemy entirely. I don't think their presence is crucial to the adventure. The specific encounters that need them can easily be changed, and you should be able to have many means of imparting any knowledge the PCs need to know by something else.

[TerraNova]

Hmm, sadly a bit too late: :) Thanks anyway.

Here is what i did: I more or less transposed the Harrowing right into my "implied setting". I cut Zeralla completely, replacing her with a storyteller / wise woman / bard from a town on the edge of the Scarlands (my resident orc-infested wasteland). I went a bit for the hedge magician / witch angle with her, which worked surprisingly well.

I took Sial and Laori, made them into Vecna and Hextor worshippers, and had them realize a few flaws in the Ebon Triad doctrine (if the rise of Kyuss is supposed to herald the ascension of the overlord, how could Kyuss attempt to rise before Vecna was even a god?) They went to Scarwall to get first-hand information about the Order of the Storm, and maybe confront their higher ups with this dogma-hitch.