Pathfinder Adventure Paths in Mystara: Council of Thieves
by David KeyserThis post inspired me to review the first four adventures of the Council of Thieves AP and I really like the Landfall location as a substitute for Westcrown. In 1019 AC, Landfall is the site of a major siege in the Heldannic Civil War that results in much of the city being destroyed as detailed in the storyline of the fan-made Mystaran almanacs. Cheliax and Westcrown suffered a civil war 70 years prior to the AP. So setting the AP 50-70 years after the Mystaran almanacs is an excellent match for the background, giving plenty of time to set up the rebuilt city to more closely mirror those elements of Westcrown:
1) The mayor of Westcrown becomes the governor of the province of Landfall, who serves at the pleasure of the Heldannic Empire.
2) The thieves guild is believed to be destroyed during the civil war but actually survived and transformed to become the council. They survived by abandoning the obvious gambling and corruption and building wealth slowly through more subtle illegal means.
3) The hellknight orders are just various Heldannic Knightly orders that have special authority in Landfall.
4) A sizable diaboli community has migrated to Landfall and has second-class status.
5) Soon after the city was rebuilt the shadow curse fell on the city with shadow creatures appearing at night and the nightly curfew goes into effect.
6) The city has managed to build up an arts and entertainment culture with many of the populace visiting the theater. But they also still like their gladiatorial combats as many Thyatians live in the city.
7) There is no Pathfinder organization but an adventuring guild of some sort thrived in the city until the civil war. After the civil war, the adventurers were dead or fled, and the Heldannic Knights spent some time trying to loot their complex before closing and locking up the site.
8) The evil Heldannic faction during the civil war built the Infernal Engine with the help of a powerful and evil diaboli wizard. When Landfall was rebuilt the few who knew about the Infernal Engine decided to leave it alone and assign the governor the responsibility of maintaining it, building the governor's complex over it.
I would replace the tieflings with diaboli in most circumstances, with a couple of exceptions. One of those exceptions would be the final villain who really is a tiefling due to his devil father. I would keep devils in the AP to avoid unnecessary change, and explain them as the counterpart fiends that plague diaboli like demons plague humans and demi-humans.