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Since it’s been requested, I’ll catalog my own PF conversion notes in this thread. From the start, I’ll say that my table plays the Adventure Paths in a unified campaign Golarion and they really enjoy all the lore. So, one of my goals was to slip the AoW AP in without stepping on any (or at least much) established Golarion/Pathfinder canon.
Characters/Player’s Guide
- The first choice was where to put Diamond Lake. Someone else on the board made note that having it be a vasal of the (previously) Lawful Evil(ish) city of Korvosa made sense. I went with that idea. I placed Diamond Lake on the southern shore of Lake Syrantula. Adding a small town tucked in on the far side of the Fenwall Mountains isn’t lore breaking or anything.
- I intertwined Diamond Lake’s History with that of Korvosa and the surrounding lands of Varisia. Obviously, the below are our results from “Curse of the Crimson Throne” so anyone that wanted to use this history would just have to add in their own results if you wanted.
History of Diamond Lake (spoiler for length)
The town of Diamond Lake is nestled among the Cairn Hills. These foothills run along the northern edge of the Fenwall Mountains, stretching down to the southern shores of Lake Syrantula. The town lies a hard week’s ride northwest from the city of Korvosa to which it is subject. Iron and silver from Diamond Lake’s mines fuel the city’s markets and support its soldiers and nobles with the raw materials necessary for weapons and finery. This trade draws hundreds of skilled and unskilled laborers and artisans all hoping to strike it rich. In ages past, Diamond Lake boasted an export more valuable than metal in the form of treasure liberated from the numerous tombs and burial cairns crowding the hills around the town. These remnants of a half dozen long dead cultures commanded scandalous prices from the Korvosa elite, whose insatiable covetousness once triggered a boom in the local economy. Those days are long gone, though. The last cairns in the region coughed up its treasures decades ago, and few locals pay much mind to the stories and wild rumors of yet undiscovered tombs and unlaundered burial cairns. These days, only a handful of treasure seekers visit the town, and few return to Korvosa with anything more valuable than a wall rubbing or an old tool fragment.
The town’s origins date back to the turn of the century in 4600 AR. Tombs were discovered in the hills along the southern shores of Lake Syrantula. At first it was just an oddity, but as more and more ruins were found, word spread. Explorers of these sites faced terrible danger but gained fabulous wealth. Due to the prevailing currents of the rivers running down from the mountains that feed the lake as well as the shelter of the Fenwall Mountains, the waters along the southern shore of the lake tend to be very still and calm. This made for excellent fishing and a small fishing town was established to support the growing number of explorer camps appearing. This also gave the town its name: Diamond Lake from its smooth and crystal-clear waters. Originally, the town was founded to support and feed the scattered camps of travelers that would arrive to try their luck at exploring the tombs among the Cairn Hills.
All of this changed with the great earthquake that struck southern Varisia in 4611 AR. The earthquake caused widespread damage, hundreds of injuries, and dozens of deaths in the nearby dwarven sky citadel Janderhoff. Engineers and clerics from Korvosa and all its holdings flocked to the dwarven stronghold to render aid. Silver and iron had recently been discovered in the Cairn Hills and hundreds flocked to the small town to mine resources in order to support and fund the rebuilding efforts in the dwarven city.
By the time the significant repairs were made, Diamond Lake had swelled into a full-fledged mining town. Mines had been sunk deep into the Cairn Hills and iron and silver were pouring from the ground. With the growth of the mining town, bandits began infesting the Cairn Hills and the lower Fenwall Mountains. Korvosa had gotten used to the rich minerals being produced from the mining town and they wanted the flow of ore to continue. By 4617 AR, Korvosa claimed the town as a holding and soon after a garrison was established there to protect their resources from the growing bandit threat.
As the years went by, Diamond Lake grew into a prosperous boom town. Prominent mine owners moved into the town and started running things with a brutal and extremely corrupt fist. The once pristine waters of Diamond Lake were poisoned by smelting runoff and the surrounding farmlands were poisoned from rampant mining operations. Korvosa for their part didn’t care as long as the resources continued to flow. The locals started grumbling and ugly talk of revolt started to be whispered. But in 4658 AR the nearby village of Biston attempted to break from Korvosa and was brutally put under harsh martial law. Any talk of rising up against the capital city was quickly silenced in Diamond Lake.
Things continued with the miners getting poorer and the mine owners getting richer. In 4709 AR Korvosa saw Queen Illeosa’s “Reign of Terror” ended by the hero Blackjack and the group known as the “Peoples’ Heroes.” The royal seneschal, Neolandus was put in power to oversee the rebuilding of Korvosa after months of plague and revolt. His administration was so busy, the small town of Diamond Lake was allowed to continue festering under the corrupt mine owners. The continued supply of silver and iron was too badly needed for rebuilding efforts and to continue to sell to the dwarves of Janderhoff for tax money.
Eventually Neolandus brought stability to the city. In 4714 AR, after five years of rule he stepped down and Queen Cressida Kroft was pronounced queen of Korvosa. Those aware of the change of power in Diamond Lake thought that maybe someone would step in to curtail the brutality of the mine owners. They were disappointed as the small mining town on the edge of Korvosa territory continued to be largely forgotten.
So things continued as they always did. In the hills surrounding the town, hundreds of laborers continue to spend weeks at a time underground, breathing recycled air pumped in via systems worth ten times their combined annual salary. The miners are seen as little more than the disposable labor of Diamond Lake. They are also Diamond Lake’s foundation, their weekly pay cycling back into the community via a gaggle of cheap gambling dens, bordellos, ale halls and temples. Because work in the mines is so demanding and dangerous, most folk come to Diamond Lake because they have nowhere else to turn, seeking an honest trade of hard labor for subsistence level pay simply because the system has allowed them no other option. Many are foreigners displaced from native lands by war or famine. Work in Diamond Lake mine is the last honest step before utter destitution or crimes of desperation. For some, it is the first step in the opposite direction: a careful work assignment to ease the burden on debtor filled prisons, one last chance to make it in civil society.
Korvosa’s current representative in the region is Governor-Mayor Lanod Neff, a petty bureaucrat who exerts his will via the brutal Sheriff Cubbin. Cubbin is so renowned for corruption, that many citizens assumed the announcement of his commission was a joke until he started arresting people.
Diamond Lake Geography
Diamond Lake crouches in the lowland between three hills and Lake Syrantula. The town is little more than a splotch of mud, smoke and blood smeared across uneven terrain marked by countless irregular mounds and massive rocks. The oldest buildings pack the lakeshore where fishing vessels once docked and stored their catches long ago. That commerce has abandoned the town entirely, for the shining waters that once gave Diamond Lake its name are now so polluted it makes fishing impossible. The same currents and wind shelter that once left the waters smooth and pristine, now caused a buildup of mine run-off and sludge along the southern shore. Many of the old warehouses have been converted into cheap housing for miners and laborers and no one is safe outdoors after dark. As one walks south along the streets of Diamond Lake, the buildings become sturdier and the spirits of their inhabitants likewise improve. A great earthen road called the Vein bisects the town. With few exceptions, those living south of the Vein enjoy a much better life than the wretches living below it.
All the town’s social classes congregate in the Vein’s central square. Roughly every two weeks, someone in the town upsets someone else so greatly that the only recourse is a duel to the death at the center of a ring of cheering miners. The bookmakers of the Emporium and the Feral Dog do brisk business on such occasions, which tend to draw huge crowds. On less violent nights, the square is still home to a thousand pleasures and poisons; if Diamond Lake was a creature, the Vein’s central square is its excitable, irregular heart.
As far as Campaign Traits went, I know some folks have designed their own. I just let my players pick an extra trait and connect it in some way to why they’re stuck in Diamond Lake.
Then I included a player’s map of Diamond Lake and a slightly sterilized player’s version of the town information from the Backdrop article. I had to make a couple changes…
- Obviously I had to realign the town. The water was now to the north of the town, so I flipped the compass rose.
- Several folks on the boards have done great conversions from Greyhawk gods to Golarion gods. I went with the cult of St Cuthbert now being a crazed cult of Abadar. I had them going around town giving penance to Abadar by whipping themselves in repetitive acts of self-mortification. Since man is incapable of adhering to Abadar’s holy Law, only through self-flagellation can they purify themselves. It seemed strange and cult-y enough to give the impression that Diamond Lake is far from civilization.
- Similar, I kept the Cult of the Green Lady and just changed it from Wee Jaz (the Ruby Lady) to Pharasma (the Gray Lady). Easy switch. And these cultists worship Pharasma from an obscure devotional referring to her appearing to mortals as a green-eyed woman, thus this group worships Pharasma as the Green Lady.
- Obviously Heironeous was an easy switch to Iomedae at the Garrison chapel. Done.
Those were about the only changes I remember from the town itself.
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Book 1: The Whispering Cairn
- So the kick off to this one is kind of weak. It’s really the only bad part of this adventure. You may need to just give the PCs a “cut scene” where Auric’s band is in town looking for riches, the PCs remember the Whispering Cairn and pick up outside the entrance.
Some changes I made…
- Swarms at level 1 are brutal. I put some empty broken bottles of alchemist fire near the wolf den at the entrance as a “hint hint” for my PCs. They picked up on it and bought some more alchemist fire… “just in case”.
- I had the whole tomb be of Azlanti design that they could identify with good Knowledge rolls.
- The Vaati were an ancient (now extinct) air elemental race. The Wind Dukes were their elite warriors. I had this info available at Allustan’s library after some research.
- Nadroc from the Architect wing was an Azlanti architect of some renown. He built the cairns dedicated to the Wind Dukes.
- I changed the grick (a WotC monster) to a thoqqua that had burrowed into the piles of iron spheres.
- The True Tomb was where I had to come up with my first big story change. I decided that after the Azlanti defeated the serpentfolk at Saventh-Yhi, the Azlanti established a small outpost up here in the north to keep watch on the serpentfolk that had fled to establish their stronghold of Viperwall. Deep under Viperwall, the serpentfolk made an alliance with an ancient Qlippoth Lord named Mishka the Wolf Spider. Her countless qlippoth followers allied with the serpentfolk that summoned them and they made preparations to again carve an empire on the surface world in Varisia. The Azlanti here made contact with an ancient elemental race the Vaati. They sent a force to aid the Azlanti under the command of the Wind Duke General Icosiel. The two forces clashed in a mighty battle near the north shores of Lake Syrantula, an area once called the Fields of Pesh. The serpentfolk and their qlippoth allies were defeated and the serpentfolk fled back into Viperwall to slumber. In gratitude, the Azlanti built a series of hidden cairns under Varisia dedicated to their Vaati allies. One of the greatest Wind Duke heroes who fought in the battle was Zosiel, who died in the fighting and whose tomb they were in now. All of this the PCs found out in the smoke images around the chamber.
- I also had them find out that the staff that General Icosiel was holding was an ancient Azlanti artifact knowns as the “Staff of Seven Virtues of Rule”. It was originally the “Staff of Law” when the vaati gave it to their Azlanti allies up here, but it was divided into seven parts.
STATS
- For the mad slasher, I just used the 3.5 stats. At this low level I wasn’t super worried. He had whirlwind attack and that’s about it, so I just went with that.
- Same with the acid beetle swarm. I just used 3.5 stats.
- At the observatory, I think I continued to use 3.5 stats out of the adventure. The tomb mote was tricky being a bit tough to hit.
- I had a 5-man table, so they were a little behind in xp. I added more skeletal crossbowmen in the front room and had the zombie “dinner party” attack as well.
- In the operating room upstairs, I added SRD troglodyte zombies that I “reskinned” as lizardman zombies (as a preview of things to come in Book 3 with the lizardmen)
- Also make sure to give Filge a couple more HP since wizards are d6s now, instead of d4s.
- The wind warriors in the True Tomb I also just used the 3.5 versions. They were plenty tough enough as is.
- As far as research into the strange green worm they find, later on (I think book 2 or 3) I had research books arrive from Korvosa. They were able to determine the worm was from a very rare form of undead, the spawn of Kyuss. Kyuss himself was a very old and nearly unknown demon lord from long ago. I changed Kyuss from god to demon lord since in PF killing a god is a BIG deal. Defeating a demon lord is much less so and this still fits just fine in the AP.
Uh… think that’s in for book 1. On to book 2!
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Book 2: Three Faces of Evil
- This one obviously still takes place under Dourstone’s mine in town. No big changes there.
- I used someone’s suggestion to kick this adventure off by using Smenk. Keep him in the forefront of town politics. He arranged for the PCs to be arrested for breaking into his property at the Observatory at the end of last book. If they’ll go investigate the cult under Dourstone’s mines, he’s willing to forget about the charges… and nothing horrible will happen to any of their family of course. I loved keeping Smenk as an untouchable jerk. Made the revenge against him in book 6 oh so much better.
- The only big decision here was WHO are the gods of the Ebon Triad? I went with the suggestion made by someone on the boards that…
Hextor = Asmodeus
Erythnul = Rovagug
And Vecra = Norgorber
The reasoning they posed went: Rovagug is locked away. Asmodeus sealed him away. And Norgorber knows the secrets of how he did it. Also Asmodeus replacing Hextor in Book 8 as being worshipped by Prince Zeech’s works great.
STATS
- I continued to use mostly the 3.5 stats given in this adventure. Unless of course I had the PF stats from the PFSRD such as dire boar, allip, etc. Feel free to give Theldrick his channel negative ability if you want to give him a nice AoE blast.
- In the caves of Rovagug (Erythnul), grimlocks are out (not a PF thing) and I switched them with morlocks. Be careful here. Morlocks pack quite a punch for their CR with their climb speed, leap attack and swarming. I used the numbers from the book, but my PCs needed an extra rest to get through the caves.
- In the labyrinth of Norgorber (Vecna), obviously the kenku become tengu. Bump the rogue HP a bit, give em a couple rogue talents and I called it a day. Used their 3.5 stats for equipment.
- Also in the labyrinth, remember the dire weasels are now large in PF. They were medium in 3.5. They have compression so it’s not really an issue for moving and fighting, but something to remember.
- I used the 3.5 stats for Faceless One and his acolytes. Kept it simple.
- The fallout from Book 2 can be a lot of fun if your PCs are invested in the town. I had Dourstone flee town for Magnimar to get outside of Korvosa jurisdiction. He was tried as a traitor in absentia by the Garrison. Everyone KNEW Smenk was involved, but he had all the witnesses to say he was being threatened. So, he managed to get off without so much as a slap on the wrist.
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Book 3: Blackwall Keep
- I placed Blackwall Keep west of Lake Syrantula down the Yondabakari River. It was on the south bank of the river (a bit further down than the town of Whistledown) to keep trade open up and down the river to Magnimar and make sure any tribes of lizardfolk from the Mushfens didn’t attack shipping coming into the Lake.
- I kicked this book off with an animal messenger sent from Marzeena. In my game, I had Marzeena as the previous apprentice to Allustan. Allustan took in the new arcane caster (one of the PCs) and Marzeena graduated. She left for Korvosa to join the Korvosan Guard as a battle wizard. From there she was assigned to Blackwall Keep.
- Couple of options here. You can have the PCs hop on a ship and sail down the Lake, down the River to Blackwall if you want. Mention that the Blackwall Keep’s boats have been sunk pier side during the lizardfolk attack if you want.
- OR, I like journeys. I added a small pass through the Fenwall Mountains just southwest of Diamond Lake. This pass is actually what the Bronzewood Lodge guards. So, I had Dourstone take Moonmeadow’s ship and disappear to Magnimar and the Green Lady cult’s ship (the Harkness) was off getting supplies. This left nothing but an overland trip for the party. So through the mountains, along the edge of the foothills above the Mushfens and finally through the swamps along the river to arrive at the Keep. Lots of fun outdoors encounters and time for any outdoors characters to shine.
- The rest of this book is fairly straightforward. Book 3 is where Sc8rpi8n_mjd starts his fantastic stat document.
Link! .
- If they’re willing to negotiate with Hishka, have her tell them how the farmers from Magnimar are starting to expand into traditional lizardfolk hunting grounds along the Yondabakari River and Mushfens. They can help her by taking out the tribe chief and negotiating a peace for the lizardfolk tribes.
- Make sure to describe the alchemically modified lizard king and kobolds as having black scales. You want to foreshadow Ilthane’s involvement for sure.
- Finish up with a rest at the Keep while the garrison fixes one of their boats and they can sail back to Diamond Lake along the southern shore of Lake Syrantula. If you have a group that likes to negotiate, you’ll probably already have your next lead in Magnimar. My PCs liked Marzeena so I had her take some leave from the Korvosa Guard and come back to aid in Allustan’s research.
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Book 4: Halls of Harsh Reflections
- I had the Free City stand in be Magnimar. This was mostly because I knew I wanted the arena in Book 5 to be the Serpent’s Run Arena. Plus, I own the Magnimar City of Monuments sourcebook and there’s PLENTY of side adventures if folks were interested.
- The PCs had their own lead here with the peace negotiations. Allustan also asked them to speak with an old classmate of his in Magnimar, Eligos. It finally came out that Allustan had been a top student at the Acadamae in Korvosa before deciding to come to Diamond Lake to try and help the miners living in squalor. One of his good friends and classmates was Eligos who traveled to Magnimar.
- I had Eligos’ manor up in the Alabaster district, not too far from Sheila Heidmarch’s place. He had contacts at the Crooked House which I put down in the Dockway District, not far from the Bazaar of Sails.
- The group also had another side quest. Moonmeadow really wanted his ship back that Dourstone had taken off in. The group found out about a squibbing location in the Underbridge District, coincidently not far from Sodden Hold, the hideout where some dopplegangers were dwelling.
- So! Let’s address the aberration in the room. Obviously mindflayers aren’t a PF thing. So, when Zyrzog makes his appearance upon exiting Sodden Hold you have a couple options.
a. Replace him with something else (probably an aboleth) or
b. Use him as is.
I went with B. I had a high Knowledge (dungeoneering) remember that aboleths experimented with a number of bioengineered creatures. This creature was obviously a unique result of such an experiment (I think my players ended up calling it a “brain ripper” for fun, since we couldn’t say mind flayer). Then I grabbed a couple drow fighters from the PFSRD to cover Zyrzog’s dramatic withdrawal.
- For the second part of the adventure, I had the Cold Forge weapon shop in the Lowcleft District, not far from the Seacleft cliffs. I had the old sewers run underneath the Seacleft towards the far side of the city. Then they dropped down into the series of caves that made up Zyrzog’s hideout.
- from the PFSRD I grabbed stats for Drow House Guard to include as well as Drow Noble Cleric. I also added in a couple giant black widows for melee blockers in the caves.
- Having the octopins in the lab be created by Zyrzog just backed up the bioengineered origin of the “brain ripper” as well. This detail was appreciated by my players. They all traced their origins back to the aboleth.
- In Zyrzog’s notes I included how he’d been searching underwater through the old Azlanti ruins off the coast looking for the Apostolic Scrolls to sell to a buyer (of course leading into Book 5). In return, he would get several teams of miners for some excavation job.
- Why the excavation? Well my PCs had fallen behind again even with a few goblin encounters in the Magnimar sewers. I added a level below Zyrzog’s chambers at M14. It went into the aboleth tower in the PF module “From Shore to Sea” and down to the dungeon where an aboleth was trapped in an observation post from long ago when the aboleth had been hiding below Magnimar and keeping an eye on the Runelords of Thassilon. This one got trapped during Earthfall and was hibernating. Zyrzog found the aboleth and was trying to dig him an escape route to sea.
All of that part you can ignore if you want. Unless you want to strengthen the mindflayer/aboleth connection some more.
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Book 5: Champion’s Games
- So here we have the Champion’s Games, the main setting for this book. For me the obvious choice was the Serpent’s Run Arena at Magnimar. So how to fit it in? Well there are monthly gladiator fights put on as shows by the city guard (from the Magnimar City of Monuments sourcebook). But once a year (for the past ten years) anyone can enter an event called the “Champion’s Games”, a chance for anyone to win big prizes. It’s put on by an ex-gladiator/city guard Loris Raknian. Magnimar’s arena has a pretty strict no-bloodsports policy, so Raknian got around that by having priests standing around the playing field with “stabilize” spells ready to go. Anyone that goes down automatically gets a stabilize tossed on them. Plus, Raknian argued that folks could surrender and give up at any time. His games were NOT supposed to be a fight to the death, but accidents could (and did) happen. This was still considered acceptable for the amount of money the games brought in.
- With the Apostolic Scrolls in the possession of Raknian, the group was set to infiltrate the Champions Games.
- At the dinner they were excited to meet up with Tirra again. They’d grown to like her and I made sure to extend the invitation to the Night Blades (the biggest Magnimar thieves guild) if things worked out.
- For the early fight, I just used the 3.5 stats. I added an extra archer to the elves and an extra gnoll to the druid’s team. This wasn’t supposed to be a super tough fight after all. I had some fun fleshing out the other teams in the cenoby but had pre-determined who was going to win anyway of course. Just the same, the PCs enjoyed interacting with them down in the cenoby below Serpent’s Run Arena. I’m not sure if that’s actually in Magnimar lore, but it seemed an easy insertion.
- For the temple of Kyuss below the Coenoby, I used the 3.5 stats for the tiefling cleric and the alkilith demon as well. Careful of the demon too. At CR 14 he was tough at this level. Stinking cloud at will and cloudkill form meant a lot of saves each round. Consider making the chambers a little bit bigger to account for this.
- Also, I wasn’t going to let the PCs handle the trapped ulgurstasta prior to the big finale. They recognized the artifact nature of the Apostolic Scrolls and that it had something sealed in very dangerous but there was little they could do at the moment.
- For the Pitch Blade fight, I grabbed a level 10 dwarf barbarian from the PFSRD. I also added a third brother to Pitch Blade. This made for a fairly challenging fight.
- For the finale, I had Dourstone up on the main balcony overseeing the action where he’d been sitting with Raknian during the competition. He seemed nervous with no Raknian present.
- I did a mini-rebuild to Auric’s Warband, adding the extra feats to Auric and adding HP to Khallek. Added an extra flesh golem to them too.
- I let my PCs fight them for a few rounds (taking out a few golems) before the ulgurstasta burst up. Then it was a crazy free for all. Raknian ran up yelling about sacrificing the champions while holding his rod of cancellation. Dourstone and Raknian joined in, their personal guards joined in. Tirra joined in from the sidelines. Good times had by all.
- The only one who didn’t join in the fun was Okral. He was busy killing Eligos and then fleeing up to his true boss, Zeech in Redhand who had sent him to spy on Ilthane and the Ebon Triad and then he followed Dourstone to Magnmar. Make sure that Okral carves out and takes Eligos’ heart to stop Raise Dead and Speak with Dead. Resurrection is probably more than the PCs are willing to pay at this moment.
- They ended up killing Dourstone and Raknian. Raknian’s holdings were seized by Magnimar and sold to pay off ALL bets since there was no clear winner then it was declared that Magnimar’s annual Champion’s Games were shut down.
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Book 6: A Gathering of Winds
- I already covered how I started this book off with the Battle for Diamond Lake. Here it is if you want to look at it again. Link!
- Then they headed up to the Whispering Cairn where they fought Ilthane, who I had bumped up to an old black dragon. Sorry, I like my dragon’s huge at this level. Horse sized dragons just seem a bit small for boss encounters.
- Continuing with the theme from Whispering Cairn, I changed Icosiel’s tomb to being of Azlanti architecture. The Azlanti up here in Varisia watching the serpentfolk at Viperwall built the cairns in gratitude to the Vaati that helped them.
- Most of the rest of the adventure was pretty straight forward with the PF conversions available.
- I changed the “true ghoul” Moretto to being from Nemret Noktoria, the civilized ghoul city in the Darklands under Osirion. Yeah he was a LONG way from home up in Varisia, but my PCs didn’t question it.
- After the Battle of Diamond Lake, Mayor Neff is left dead and Smenk is either dead or arrested (and likely to be sent back to Korvosa to be hung as a traitor). The garrison takes over temporarily but soon places “the smartest man in diamond lake” in charge, Allustan as the new mayor. This is a good way to keep Allustan busy and out of the rest of the adventure. Plus the PCs have out leveled him anyway.
- Allustan recommends they go speak with his old mentor, the headmaster of the Acadamae, Magemaster Toff Ornelos. I used Toff as the stand in for Manzorian/Tenser. I wasn’t 100% happy with that stand it, but there’s a shortage of high-level wizards in Golarion, and even less that are good aligned and would be adequate patrons of the PCs. So Toff works.
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Book 7: Spire of Long Shadows
- So, here’s where I really had to decide on the overarching timeline and Kyuss’ background. Specifically, why had no one heard of him or any of these events before in Golarion history?
Golarion History of Kyuss
- I decided that about -6500 AR, when Xin and all his followers left Azlanti to go north and founded Thassilon, another Azlanti was exiled, though this event was VASTLY overshadowed in the history books by the other. A very charismatic priest was kicked out of Azlant for unnatural experimentation with undead. He was a devout follower of Urgathoa and was sent into the wilds of the Mwangi.
- The young priest Kyuss made contact with the locals and the very charismatic man was able to trick them into worshipping him and enslaved them to his will. He had them build Kuluth-Mar in the Jungle of Hungry Trees just south of the Korir River. Why the Jungle of Hungry Trees? Well it’s a jungle and nothing else was going on way down there that I knew about. Easy to slip into Golarion.
- Alternately, you could have Kyuss be a cannibal follower of Zura I suppose. Either way works. He just has to be a very charismatic priest.
- From there he met with the undead spellweaver, who I changed to a dimensional traveler in PF. Kyuss learned how to ascend to become a powerful demon lord using the lifeforce off all his enthralled followers and got trapped in the monolith. From there, the ordeal of the ascension caused him to slumber for nearly 2000 years (through Earthfall, the Age of Darkness and into the Age of Anguish.)
- In approx. -4000 AR, Kyuss started to stir. Slowly his undead followers began to wake and wander into the surrounding jungles.
- At the end of the Age of Anguish, Old Mage Jatembe and his Ten Warriors bring magic back. One of the groups that were trained by them was a group of druids who worshipped Gozreh on the shores of what at the time would become Lirgen. This of course was to become the Order of the Storm.
- At about -3400 AR (ish), the Order of the Storm working with the native Eku’Jae elves are threatened by the undead spreading out from Kuluth-Mar. Working together, they push the undead back and create the obsidian ring around the city.
- The next step was figuring out where the Rift Canyon was going to be. I liked the idea of the Wormcrawl Fissure still being off of this so I decided to place it far in the east at the northern edge of the Windswept Wastes.
- So! During the Age of Destiny, I went with -2900 AR ish, the red dragon Dragotha has fled from Tiamat’s service, heard Kyuss’s whispering and took the monolith over the walls of Kuluth-Mar. He flew far to the east and made his lair in the western fringes of the (newly added) Rift Canyon. I’m glad there’s no detailed maps of the Windswept Wastes yet because there’s now a 200-mile-long canyon there I added at the northern end along the mountains there. I know somewhere further south/southeast there’s the dreaded Pit of Gormuz, but to the north there’s the Rift Canyon now.
- Anyway, Dragotha manages to free a small portion of the demon lord Kyuss, enough to make an avatar. Kyuss begins to teach Dragotha the strange techniques he’s learned in the dimension beyond the monolith where he’s been trapped. He teaches Dragotha how to become a true dragon lich – a dracolich if you will- instead of just a ravager (the PF equivalent). Tiamat’s followers catch up to Dragotha and kill him. With the prep work they’d begun, Kyuss raises Dragotha as the one and only true dracolich on Golarion and makes him his Herald. This covers the rarity of the dracolich and also keeps me from having to make him a ravager instead.
- So then Dragotha and Kyuss build up an army of undead and about -2800 AR they come storming out of the Rift Canyon in the Windswept Wastes in what I dubbed the Worm War because I love alliteration. They drive the nomadic tribesmen before them and begin destroying the small villages to the north in the Whispering Plains. The plains tribesmen and their stone giant allies in the nearby World’s Edge Mountains call their druid allies far to the west. The Order of the Storm arrives, steals the phylactery and works with the tribesmen and stone giants to hold off the attack (with a band of heroes that arrives next book). They then drive Kyuss’ avatar back into the monolith since it’s not the Age of Worms yet.
- So by moving the last fight against Kyuss to the Windswept Wastes and Whistling Plains, it explains why no one in the Inner Sea region is very aware of it. Also the ritual that hid the phylactery could also have affected the Worm War as well.
Anyway, back to Book 7!
- The PCs go the Acadame where they meet up with Celeste again and are pleasantly surprised to find Eligos alive and well. Obviously after Book 5, Toff has his old student Resurrected to assist him in the coming research. I left Agath out. He’s a Greyhawk character and I didn’t see any reason to include him with Celeste and Eligos already.
- Did I mention I like epic journeys? I didn’t like the idea of the picture of Kuluth-Mar, teleport and POOF you’re at the next dungeon. I had Balakarde’s notes mention a large stone arch justeast of the Korir River delta region where the waterways merge into the main river. This marked the road that once led south to the city, back in Kuluth-Mar’s height. So the PCs sailed from Korvosa down along the coast, through the Shackles to Port Freedom. From there, they hire River Guild guides who wouldn’t wait at a camp for the PCs without Ivory Cross mercs. Then they barge up through the Korir River delta region to the main Korir River. They find the overgrown arch and follow the ruined road 10 miles due south into the (now) trackless wilderness to the valley with Kuluth-Mar in it.
Or just teleport through the painting. It’s up to you.
- All of the creatures here have rebuild stats so that’s great.
- In Kuluth-Mar I didn’t change much except some of the visions as I’ve spelled out above.
- Human priest Kyuss had a holy symbol of Urgathoa in the vision.
- I spread out the dungeon levels to make the whole thing less crammed together. Added some longer passages between the chambers and added more than one door into each room. I also didn’t like the three other Kyuss knights sitting on their asses in their room while the place was getting attacked. They moved out and rallied the defenders to a counterattack, using the (now connecting) corridors to hit the party from multiple directions… like genius tacticians should.
- As others have said, also maybe move the Harbringer out into the main overworm chamber to have room to fly around. At least give him a MUCH bigger chamber.
- Consider at the end of the book giving a full hero point for each vision experienced instead of just a reroll. The “avoid death” of a couple hero points is huge in this AP with some pretty deadly encounters.
Anyway, on to Book 8!
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Book 8: Prince of Redhand
- So back to Toff at the Acadamae who’s research with Celeste and Eligos has revealed the involvement of Balakarde and Lashonna. So it’s off to the Kingdom of Redhand. I placed Redhand on the north shores of Kallas Lake, between the Sellen River and the East Sellen River. Alhaster itself, the one and only large settlement of Redhand, overlooks Kallas Lake.
- All of the stats in this book have been rebuilt. So nothing to worry about there.
- In the city, the chapel of St. Cuthbert again becomes a chapel of Abadar. The Ruby Spire to Wee Jaz becomes the Gray Spire to Pharasma. Hextor becomes Asmodeous.
- I also changed the “Free Lords Embassy” (area 19) to the “Outlaw Embassy”. Zeech kept it for visiting members of the Outlaw Council but it was usually empty… a source of much embarrassment for Zeech who didn’t like to be ignored by the other River Kingdoms.
- I also had to remove any “slave” references because Redhand was in the River Kingdoms and the River Freedoms. So they just became indentured servants that were essentially slaves. This worked out just fine for the workers stuck out in the glories and the quarries supplying the stones for the Great Project.
- What I did for the banquet was print out every guests’ picture and break things up into “turns”. The PCs could influence one guest as they move between events or at each event (if they weren’t involved in the actual event). That way I could move their mini onto the guest’s picture as a reminder of who they were interacting with. When they’d maxed the guest out as helpful, I’d put an H on the picture. Just so the PCs could keep track.
As for each guest, I made a lotta changes there.
- Prince Zeech- I changed him to a prior paladin of Iomedae who fought in the Worldwound from Mendev. He grew tired of mismanaged and badly planned battle plans and wanted to be in charge. He abandoned the war effort 20 years ago and conquered Alhaster using his military genius and using Quemps’s barbarians.
- I had Kilraven be the Redhand Captain of the Guard. Kept things a little simpler.
- Miszen I had be a spy from Daggermark. Alhaster was a small kingdom, but at a critical junction on Kallas Lake. The Outlaw Council, that have frequently ignored Zeech, didn’t like what they were hearing about this Great Project that he’d become obsessed with.
- Shag got changed because there’s no quaggoth in PF. So he became a very shaggy mongrelman from the Emporium. Otherwise no change.
- Toris was a nobleman merchant from Daggermark that was the lowest ranking member of a family who was told they had to send SOMEONE to Zeech’s celebration. I had him saying “I’m not even supposed to BE HERE today!” a whole lot.
- Bkruss, Vjuss and the Redhand Knights I had be mercs that worked for Zeech. They clashed frequently with the elf forces north in the Cordelon forests.
- Vulras I had be the Redhand Warden. He was in charge of all the wardens and security in the countryside around Alhaster and the Glories villages.
- I added in Okral as well as Tirra as guests at the banquet. Okral because they never got a proper show down with him and Tirra my PCs were friendly with her. She was sent because the Night Blades were angry that Okral performed an assassination in “their” city. Tirra was sent to get revenge.
- Most of the rest of the book I ran as is. I changed the Lively Baiting event a bit. I have players who work with a rescue for feral cats, so these obviously became dire rats instead. I also didn’t want the other players to get bored, so there were 6 cockatrice rings that would be used, not just Zeech and one other.
- At the party, if need be, among the servants have a number of low level priests casting undetectable alignment on guests and such. That way if you need Lashonna to have a mind blank running, it won’t tip anyone off as being out of the ordinary. You might have her with a permanent Appearance of Life spell running as well if you want to keep up the game or if you happen to have a soul seer tiefling with death watch running constantly.
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Book 9: Library of Last Resort
- So Lashonna gets to tell them about the Order of the Storm and that they had their headquarters on a small island off the coast of what was once Lirgen. 25 miles off the coast to be exact, which of course in the Eye of Abendego. I figured an unassuming rocky island here wouldn’t attract too much attention… especially just inside the hurricane.
- While scrying on Darl they of course see the Hand of Vecna. Since there is no god Vecna in PF, I kept this related to Norgorber. Darl is a priest of Norgorber and Vecna was a powerful lich that served Norgorber. When the lich died, his hand was turned into a powerful artifact of the god of secrets. My Greyhawk players chuckled but were cool with the change.
- The good news is, since my group already sailed down here to get to Kuluth-Mar, they could do a teleport run to Drenchport. Then it was a tense sailing voyage along the edge of the hurricane. I had them able to get within eyesight of the island with some good piloting rolls so a teleport jump to the beach was then an option.
- I really liked how Sc8rpi8n_mjd stat blocks focused far more on a First World approach. Once they arrived at the demiplane of Last Resort, I had the PCs make a decent Knowledge (planes) check to note that this demiplane was very close to the First World along with the no access to the Astral Plane. This gave a great excuse for the vibrant explosions of life, the large animals and fey Tanes that make up the tests.
- The stats files include other creatures you can include on the island if you want. I didn’t.
- I had to tone down the fight with the Wild Watcher a bit. The cloak’s disarm attempt and catch projectiles once per character per round was a bit much. I changed it to once per round… period.
- Entering the fountain of dreams of course takes the PCs to the past where they experience the final fight of the Worm War. It’s on a hill on the southern edge of the Whistling Plains overlooking the Windswept Wastes beyond. I let them know from the start that they had a sense of déjà vu… that these events had all already happened. That way they wouldn’t spend their precious hero points nor be too upset when that horrifying boneyard shows up to kill them all.
- That pretty much wraps book 9 after finding out that the phylactery was hidden in Kongen-Thulnir.
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Book 10: King of the Rifts
- So it was a return to the Acadamae in Korvosa and a quick bit of research through books that Toff swore didn’t have details in them before. I needed a nice mountain location for the giant city, not too far from the location of the Worm War on the Whistling Plains. I didn’t know of TOO much going on in the World’s Edge Mountains, so that was the lucky location. - I had a canyon cut in from the eastern side of the mountain range, running west before turning south into a large box canyon. About 300 feet deep between several large peaks, this let me have the giant city about 200 feet up above the canyon and keep the orientation of the map the same. This was also a fairly tucked away area that wouldn’t be discovered except by the giant tribes of the mountain range.
- This was a pretty straightforward one to run. All the conversion stats are present.
- I added that the giants had set up big barrels of oil burning along the edge of the upper city. These produced big clouds of black smoke. Added with setting fire to several wagons and the fires set by dragon breath it semi-concealed much of the city in smoke. I did this so the PCs couldn’t immediately just teleport to the Citadel at the end and so the first flight of dragons the PCs fought didn’t trigger a chain pull of every dragon fighting near the city. That would have been way too much for my group. Instead, I told them it was very difficult to make out details beyond 60-80 feet due to the smoke. That also just so happened to be about the distance between encounter areas that I played fast and loose with.
- I’d say try to give a sense of urgency by repeatedly destroying locations. By the end of the first night, have the gate tower at A be destroyed. Then have the tower at K destroyed the next day. Then the big one, when the dragons finally crack through J. Make it really seem like all of Dragotha’s dragons that flew in from the Rift Canyon are making real progress.
- As for the phylactery, I said that it was so powerful that it had its own soul. Thus they made a plan to run in, grab it and teleport away that I told them wouldn’t work because it was more like a creature that would resist them than an object. Bad news: I also ruled that the paladin could smite it as an undead so that ended the phylactery fairly quickly. LOL.
- I will say, I skipped the whole return of Alastor Land’s ghost and the vaati bloodline angle. That just seemed a bit too much “Chosen One” (drink!) to me. Instead, I had them find the information needed from pg 82 in the many books that Vercinabex Tor had collected. These were first hand books left by the stone giant druids, so I figured they’d have almost any adventure details remaining in there.
On to book 11
This is going to be at the northern end of the Windswept Wastes of course, where I put the Rift Canyon. At the far western end is the Wormcrawl Fissure.
And then from there, on to book 12 which of course will take place back in Alhaster where the spire will have been suddenly completed.