Tomb of Annihilation in Mystara
by Giampaolo AgostaOk, additional warning for my players to keep out of this thread -- I'm going to discuss/brainstorm some choices I'm making for the adaptation of 5e's ToA to Mystara.
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If you haven't seen/read it, Tomb of Annihilation is basically a retelling of Dwellers of the Forbidden City, expanded with an Isle of Dread-style wilderness adventure, and the final eponymous tomb. It is set in the Forgotten Realms' jungle region of Chult. The adventure does a token attempt to provide an option for resetting it in other campaign settings, offering Specularum as a replacement for Baldur's Gate, the Savage Coast for Chult, and Slagovich for Port Nyanzaru, the city in Chult where the initial phase of the adventure takes place.
Obviously, the idea doesn't really function well -- the Savage Coast doesn't have many jungle areas, and particularly the environs of Slagovich don't match at all with the "lost world" part of the adventure. Luckily, there is no lack of jungles in Mystara, so it is easy to provide a better setting:
| Location | Pros | Cons |
| Arm of the Immortal | Krolli can be used as Pterafolk, Jakar and Jakarundi as Tabaxi, some Tanagoro presence is reasonable | Enduks and E'ear probably need to replace the Aaracokra, very far from any dwarf settlement, a lot of Mystaran background not so easy to adapt; map needs to be inverted along north-south axis |
| Serpent Peninsula/Thanegia | Large Tanagoro presence, large jungle | Map doesn't match that well |
| Thyatian Hinterlands | Map matches quite well | Hinterlanders are celtic in canon |
| Cestia | Already a Tanagoro land, map matches reasonably well | Cestia is a relatively unified kingdom with no relations with the Known World |
| Other areas in Davania | Far from the Known World, mostly | |
| Tangor Bay | Tanagoro land, many Rakasta types | Map requires rotation |
In the end, I'm going for replacing the Jackal Lands in the Thyatian Hinterlands with Chult. This requires the Jackal Hinterlander tribe to be squeezed nearer to the Raven tribe, but IMO this is not a big problem, since the Hinterlanders occupy a very large space already.
An alternative is to fully replace the Chultans with the Jackal Hinterlanders. This version is more faithful to Mystara, but requires some tedious work that I'd rather avoid (renaming NPCs and changing their sheets and tokens on Roll20, mostly -- if I was playing in presence, I'd probably do it).
Regarding the map, I've simply removed Lantan, and added Emerond along the southwestern coast of Chult (effectively transforming it into a large river system with several lakes.
Another choice is whether to have Port Nyanzaru as an independent city state, or not. In the end, I'm going for having it as part of the Thyatian Empire -- but only lightly controlled by the Legions, who are hard pressed with containing the undead on this front, as well as other, more important war fronts.
The opposite could be done, of course, but it makes more difficult to explain the presence in the area of the various factions.
Now, in my campaign the Chultans are therefore going to be Tanagoro from Yavdlom -- possibly having left the land during the Yav migration in 500 BC. The religion of the Seers of Yav is present (Yav replaces Savras), but not dominant. The Thyatian presence is relatively recent, but militarily and culturally important. So, in this version, the "gods of Chult" are actually:
| Waukeen | Church of Thyatis (Asterius primarily) |
| Gond | Augrism (from Minrothad) |
| Savras | Seers of Yav (from Thanegia) |
| Sune | Church of Thyatis (Valerias) |
| Tymora | Korotiku |
| Ubtao | Ka (but still called Ubtao by Chultans, mostly to avoid changing the maps |
The next major issue is to adapt/convert the factions, as they play a major role in the adventure. Of course, it is simply possible to make minimal adaptations, like replacing the gods followed by the Order of the Gauntlet or reassigning the home base of the Flaming Fist. However, I don't particularly like the idea of worldwide factions, particularly ones that are not attached to state actors, like the Harpers or the Zhentarim.
Currently, I'm considering the following changes:
| Emerald Enclave | This is just the local Druidic Circle |
| Flaming Fist | The Thyatian Legion in charge of the area. Reports to Leila bint Nadir in Raven Scarp |
| Order of the Gauntlet | The Sisterhood of the Grey Lady |
| Lords' Alliance | The Thyatian government in Raven Scarp, headed by Leila bint Nadir |
| Harpers | The Darokin Diplomatic Corps (probably; it could be another entity, since they are mostly involved in just one subquest, which I still need to study more) |
| Zhentarim | Minrothad Guilds (particularly the Mercenary Guild, the Thieves' Guild, and the Blue Eels) |
| The Red Wizards of Thay | The Alphatians |
| Ytepka Society | This is a local society, so no need to associate it with something else |
This is more or less all. I do have also some changes already in place to the main plot (particularly, Acererak is going to be replaced with a campaign-specific enemy), and I'm working on changing the (IMO rather silly) premise that, having failed with more experienced adventurers, Syndra is betting all on a group of total novices. On one hand, I'm going to start at a higher level (5-6), which is an option given in ToA anyway. On the other hand, I'll allow the PCs to hire 1st-level henchmen to perform tasks within Port Nyanzaru and its vicinity that could help prepare for the expedition, while they are working on more important activities. Also, I'm leveraging the past dealings of the Acererak-replacement to give the PCs a special connection with it, which makes them more likely to succeed than other adventurers.
Have any of you done a similar (or different) adaptation?
The base changes/adaptations I'm doing are:
- Replacing Acererak with a Thothian lich prince that the PCs have unwittingly released from a pyramid-prison in the Isle of Dawn (and where it was reduced to a fraction of its real power).
- Replacing the Atropal with a Burrower. The Thothian prince wants to use its power to recreate a nightmare version of Nithia.
- Replacing the PCs' patron with a Glantrian noble. The idea is that Glantrians don't have access to clerical magic, so in theory they are not resurrected. Thus, Glantri officially doesn't care about the curse, which actually weakens clerical powers and thus their enemies. However, some Glantrian nobles have been resurrected -- maybe while adventuring abroad or by illegal clerics -- and now face loss of status as well as death. Thus, they need to quietly hire adventurers to stop the curse before it's too late.
Some adjustments to races is needed. There are no Dragonborn or Tieflings in my version of Mystara, for instance.
So, I've implemented the following quick adaptations:
| 5e Race | Mystaran equivalent |
| Dragonborn | Krolli; Krolli are a race created by the Herathians; they are descended from Wallara, thus kin to dragons to some extent. They normally fly, but this is compatible with 5e, more or less. |
| Tiefling | Flaem -- as an alternative to Fire Genasi; they look fully human, though |
| Goliath | Stalwart (they are basically the same anyway) |
| Half-Orc | These cover a variety of goblinoid/human hybrids |
| Aarakocra | Faenare |
Also, some adaptations I'm using for character classes and archetypes:
| Paladin (Oath of Vengeance) | Associated with Vanya, primarily, and Yagrai to a certain extent |
| Paladin (Oath of Conquest) | Associated with Vanya, Kaarash, Wogar |
| Paladin (Oath of the Ancients) | Druidic Knight (normally from Robrenn and similar lands) |
| Warlock (The Fiend) | The Fiend is either one of the actual Fiends (Alphaks, Orcus, Demogorgon, Leptar), or the Immortal locked into the Carven Oak (Oleyan); I'm using this to turn Minrothad Wood Elf keepers into Warlocks, as one of the players has designed such a character |
| Warlock (The Archfey) | Choice of Oberon, Titania, Gwynn ap Nudd, or Iubadan; possibly also Chuarbhidhe |
| Warlock (Great Old One) | Choice of Arik, Zargon, the Outer Beings, or the Burrowers |