The Spire of Long Shadows (#130) – Modifications
Apart from replacing Mage Point by Longsaddle (Forgotten Realms setting), as suggested in the conversion notes, I made some small changes to this adventure.
The wood elves, who built the Obsidian Wall 1,500 years ago, still live here (at least, their descendants do). When the PCs arrive at the ruins, they are met by the wood elven guardians of the site and their chief. I based this character on Cutter, Blood-of-Ten-Chiefs, from the comic Elfquest. He is the leader of the tribe of ‘Gaians’ who protect this unholy place. The Gaians are the descendants of the druids of the Order of the Storm. One of the PCs (the druid) is a Gaian from the north, who didn’t realize there were other Gaian tribes left in the world.
These ‘short-lived’ woodelves are the tenth generation since the Obsidian Wall was built. They have forgotten much of the knowledge of their forefathers, but still hold true to their duty as guardians.
Chief Cutter says that his forefather Lorn Hopeseeker was the one who managed to drive the enemies of Kyuss into the pyramid and who built the wall with the help of heavenly Eladrin. Lorn paid a high price for his victory though. In order to push back the enemy, Lorn made a deal with a dark force of nature in the Forbidden Zone. Cutter does not know what this deal entailed, but the price is still apparent: Lorn has been absorbed by the father tree of the Gaians (much like William Turner in ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ is part of the wall of the ship).
Cutter can point the PCs to the Forbidden Zone, but refuses to accompany them there. The dark force of nature in the Forbidden Zone is Amarantha the dryad from ‘The Amarantha Agenda in Dungeon # 123. She is a corrupted dryad who possesses a powerful artefact: the Greenbound Harp.
When played by a bard (at least 13 ranks in perform or UMD DC 33), the Greenbound Harp changes the recipient(s) into woodland creatures, magically bestowing certain powers on them (the most important of which is natural armor +7, which makes the skin immune to green worms!). The effects of the harp last for 24 hours.
A creature can enjoy the effects of the Harp more than once, but a second use calls for a Fort save DC 20 to be able to change back. Each subsequent use of the Harp increases the DC by 2. When the save is failed, the recipient loses 2 dex and needs to make a new save (cumulative DC +2) after 24 hours or lose another 2 points of dexterity. When his dex reaches 0, the recipient permanently and irrevocably changes into a tree.
So far my PCs have chosen not to go to the Forbidden Zone, since their druid has spells to give everyone natural armor +5 anyway.
Inside the Spire of Long Shadows, the PCs find an old torn backpack with Balakarde’s family crest. Inside they find a note referring to Alahaster and Lashonna (cf. Dungeon # 131; p. 51, the note Manzorian gives the PCs at the beginning of ‘The Prince of Redhand’). I never liked the idea that Manzorian made so little effort to find his lost pupil. After sixteen years, he should have found this note a zillion times already. So I placed the note inside the ziggurat, so the PCs could find it themselves.
I also made some changes to Spire of Long Shadows. I really had fun using my materials to personalize this module. I posted the following last November, and we ran through all of this during the holidays:
FR campaign. Chult! Never played or DMed there before. Anyway...
I combined "The Spire of Long Shadows" with issue #145's Taboo Island from the Savage Tide module "City of Broken Idols." I dropped the obsidian ring, dropped the rather lack-luster encounters in Kuluth-Mar's ruins, and made the Harbinger the "avatar" of Jergal. I placed Taboo Island in the middle of Chult's Lake Luo. PCs will have to make their way from Mezro to Lake Luo, then traverse the lake out to Taboo Island, fight through Taboo Temple into the interior jungle, and from there locate Kuluth-Mar.
I thought it was lame for Malchor (Manzorian) to just teleport the PCs to Kuluth-Mar, so I added another module. ;-)
The skinwalkers from #145 (and their many slaves) worship the Harbinger from issue #130 as the actual deity Jergal, as he is able to use fell magic to "enlighten" certain chosen, merging their bodies with the bodies of fierce jungle creatures. I have skinwalkers that have been bonded with dire boars, insectoids, winged creatures, tauric creatures (making heavy use of Savage Species). Those who are unworthy are either fed to the flesh ooze in Taboo Temple or are made into spawn of Kyuss in the bowels of Kuluth-Mar. Either way, the "primitive" humans of Chult are nothing more than pawns for the ancient Harbinger.
How is the Harbinger able to transform worthy humans into various types of skinwalkers? Well... Over two thousand years ago, before Kyuss was even born, the Harbinger arrived in Chult, and one of his first actions was to overpower a dormant Sarrukh (Serpent Kingdoms) ultra-lich found in some crumbling ruin. The dormant Sarrukh was not prepared to have his phylactery dominated by this alien spellweaver, and for over two thousand years, the Harbinger used the magic of the Sarrukh to enslave and subjugate an entire tribe of Chultan humans (the Eshowe people, specifically). This Sarrukh's immense magical knowledge and power also helped fuel the rise of Kyuss and the inevitable Age of Worms, worms that were in truth first created by epic Sarrukh necromancers.
When (or if) the PCs destroy the Harbinger, the imprisoned Sarrukh will burst from its magical bonds and confront the party, offering the party lizardfolk druid a reward, using its ancient magic to augment the PC in a pure way, the way the Sarrukh did tens of thousands of years before to their scalykind slaves. I'm thinking of offering the draconic template, suggesting that the lizardfolk PC's genetic lineage is touched with green dragon blood, though diluted over the centuries. It'll make for an interesting twist, as the PCs just dealt with an entire tribe of black draconic lizardfolk having been bred and subjugated by Ilthane the Black. Connections connections... ;-)
Once the group passes out of Taboo Temple (which is only the one level... I dropped the lower levels leading to the kopru and Khala), PCs will find fanatical slaves and skinwalkers desperately protecting the ruins of Kuluth-Mar, leaping madly to the attack and corralling a couple huge triceratops to attack the group. Only when the PCs enter Kuluth-Mar itself will the Kyuss Knights attack. I dropped the corrupted eladrin and archons (thought they were silly), and replaced those areas with more pens and torture chambers meant to test tribesmen in order to learn who is worthy and who dies. Reptilian skinwalkers tend to the slaves in Kuluth-Mar, as their higher natural armor renders them immune to the ubiquitous Kyuss worms found within.