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In a fit of goofy GM insanity, I decided to combine AoW with CC. AoW is the main focus (considering it surpasses CC in level/content) with the CC content adding additional fun, experience, and loot.
I figure the extra experience will make the players a bit higher level, but I really don't mind them thrashing a few weaker monsters here and there. Makes them feel heroic. Then again, there are 6 players in my game, so they will likely be more powerful than I am expecting, but that's fine.
With the CC content, I'm changing the Whispering Way to the Ebon Triad and pretty much re-writing the areas and encounters to reflect this. In AoW, the Ebon Triad was just a front for the Cult of Kyuss to gain power and hide their activity. I'm using the CC modules to flesh out the Ebon Triad and give them more depth. I imagine that, after their part in helping further Kyuss' release, they still continue on their agenda--the big players in AoW don't care about the Ebon Triad continuing their attempts to merge their three gods since it isn't affecting them. The end of CC is changed to mirror the Ebon Triad's desire to raise their Overgod.
Here is a very, very brief synopsis of the changes I've made to incorporate these two:
The Whispering Cairn/Haunting of Harrowstone:
Ravengro and Diamond Lake have been combined and remain in Ustalav, east of Celiphas (which replaces the Free City). I kept the name Diamond Lake since I liked it better than Ravengro. The Restlands is much larger due to the high mortality rate of the miners and high influx of new miners. The cemetery spills out into the surrounding hill(s), making the idea of spontaneous rising undead even scarier with so many dead. The church of Pharasma is tasked with the upkeep of the Restlands. To tie in Harrowstone, the prison was used by many of Ustalav's cities to dump their prisoners; the mine managers purchased the majority of the prisoners' sentences as cheap labor and left the more heinous prisoners to rot in the prisons.
I got rid of Trust points completely. Now that the town is larger and more tolerant of outsiders, Diplomacy checks are the main way to get info you need. Plus, if the players don't immediately head to Harrowstone, they might lose a lot of trust points. Also, I found them unnecessary. You could keep them and just offer several ways to increase them (especially now that the town is much larger and could have many more opportunities to gain more), but I don't think trust points are a good idea in a place basically run by corrupt mine managers and such.
Allustan and Lorrimer are now a duo of sages in town. Allustan has advanced parkisons (an idea I got from another post on these forums) so Lorrimer helps take care of Allustan (even though Lorrimer is older). Allustan attends Lorrimer's funeral and Kendra offers to look after Allustan--she lives out of town (likely in Carrion Hill or Caliphas) and feels bad that she hadn't spent much time with Lorrimer before his death and hopes to hear stories about him from Allustan. Also, as a burgeoning spellcaster herself, the mages' library allow her some time to study away from her duties at home.
I added an entry to Lorrimer's journal the mentions him finding the Whispering Cairn and exploring it briefly, and I hint at him finding some familiar reliefs on the walls (he finds the bas reliefs of the PCs fighting the war agains the Spawn of Kyuss as noted in the module A Gathering of Winds through the portal to Icosial's tomb). He also left directions to it, noting that it was interesting but altogether unhelpful to his research on the Ebon Triad. Since the characters in the bas relief are the PCs, this adds another reason for them to be in his will (albeit a very loose connection they likely won't figure out for a long time). The unholy books he has in his trunk are replaced with holy texts sacred to Lamashtu (The Skull of Mashaag, a treaty on the skull that speaks Lamashtu's will), Norgorbor (The Man Behind the Mask), and Zon-Kuthon (left the same).
Lorrimer's will included the mining lodge from the wormfood article in Dungeon #333. I rewrote it as Lorrimer's old manor house he left to the elements after he took up care of Allustan several years ago. This gives the players a place to stay instead of in Diamond Lake, and is also a great place for Lorrimer's zombie to visit while the PCs are resting. And if your players include several ladies in the group like mine does, you might find they like the D&D aspect here (Design & Decoration). They spent a couple of game hours buying supplies and fixing the place up (as best as they could without any Craft skills).
The players now have an option to go to Harrowstone or to the Whispering Cairn. The news in town is that a group of adventurers (Allustan and his crew) is seeking cairns to plunder, so they may go there first out of greed to keep the others from gathering their precious XP and loot. All the while, the effects of Harrowstone's hauntings are affecting the town, so Allustan and crew may go to Harowstone and stir up some trouble there (or the GM can just let the players fight all the monsters and get the loot in both places).
The course of the adventures remains the same for the first modules--just depends on what order the players want to finish them. If they go after the Whispering Cairn first, it is nice to give the PCs some extra time (perhaps making Gibs take longer in-between possessions). Also, Kullen makes a great NPC to replace Gibs with, since they will have a run-in with him later, and the group of townsfolk that harass the PCs at Lorrimer's burial can be replaced with Kullen and his gang. That makes this encounter a lot tougher, so consider having Father Grimburrow present at the burial from the beginning (although having Allustan at the burial adds a lot of firepower in case the encounter turns violent). Alastor Land and/or Filge can give the PCs plenty of info on Harrowstone if they are having issues with that area.
So with Lorrimer's will, the PCs have a whole month to explore both Harrowstone and the Whispering Cairn. They may even have time to explore the Dourstone Mine and complete the Three Faces of Evil module (I encourage doing that first). After that, they will head to Lepidstadt (which basically is the same distance away as before) and hit the next modue, Trial of the Beast.
I will type up the rest of the AoW/CC combo and post it up later! Suffice to say there are a lot of big changes to Wake of the Watcher in particular. I have more changes to the town and I might post a more in-depth list later.
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Ok what are you reading my mind? This is exactly what I am doing.
I ran the group through Revengro last year, then we switched GMs, but now we're back to my campaign and rebooting it at lvl 1 with a new player. I originally changed Ebon Triad and Whispering Way to the Night Heralds, and was going to go all Great Old Ones on them instead of Tar Baphon. (I added Legendary Games "gothic plugin" module The Murmuring Fountain which is really good, and allowed me to introduce the neh-thalggu which tie in to Night Heralds)
The players are new to Golarion (we've been stuck in Forgotten Realms and I've only now convinced them to try a campaign in Golarion) so I want to make it tie in and stick to better known NPCs and gods.
I'm starting over with Whispering Cairn.
I am replacing Kyuss with Yhidothrus using Troglodytes who want to raise Yhidothrus.
Diamond Lake is going to be Ardagh in northern Ustalav for me. I'm using the same map and just adding a few walls on the hill to simulate the old sets of walls there. But it seemed like Ardagh has lots of hills and old cairns around it to make it feel right.
And instead of Allustan or Lorrimor's Palatine Eye friends I'm going to use the Pathfinders and use Varian Jeggare as the contact who at first just is interested in learning information. And the woman they meet later in AoW will instead be a Lamia running a vampiric brothel out of Karcau who has her own reasons to want to stop the rise of Yhidothrus.
The Whispering Cairn bas-reliefs will depict Amodeus and Saranae vs Rovagug, instead of the Queen of Chaos.
But not sure about the rest of the Ebon Triad, or if I'll keep the name. It might be a group of Old Cultists, Groetus worshippers and the aforementioned Troglodytes working together.
I am skipping the 3rd AoW adventure, and going to add some side adventures before they pick up the trail again. Maybe Midnight Marauder (Ardis) and The Darkest Vengeance (Karcau). Then maybe take on the Hall of Harsh Reflections which I might put under Karcau.
On their way to Thrushmore I want to run them through the Carrion Hill module, then Feasting at Lanterngeist (another Legendary Games tie-in) just before Wake of the Watcher.
I've also just tried to collect some of the more bizarre horror modules to see how to piece it all together. I want to see if I can fit in Feast of Ravenmoore, and From Shore to Sea (I'd put those around Thrusmoore instead of just outside Cheliax). Since those are suitably creepy and water themed and I can work them in with the Lovecraftian feel of Wake of the Watcher. But I need to stop trying to add cool stuff and actually make it work together.
I found your post by googling "combine age of worms and carrion crown" and lo and behold someone else is trying this too. :)