Appendix C: Adapting to Other Worlds - Princes of the Apocalypse

Appendix C: Adapting to Other Worlds. Old as creation itself, Elemental Evil has arisen in a thousand different worlds across the ages of the multiverse. Princes of the Apocalypse describes the rise of Elemental Evil in the world of the Forgotten Realms setting. However, there is no reason you couldn't adjust this adventure to fit in almost any world that is part of the Dungeons & Dragons multiverse. In this appendix, we take a look at how you can adapt this adventure to some of the well-known settings for the D&D game, or to your own campaign world. Dark Sun The dying planet of Athas is a world that is already deeply scarred by elemental power. Long ago the gods of Athas fought a terrible war against the mighty primordial powers of the elemental planes-and they lost. The gods were slain or driven into exile, leaving Athas under the dominion of elemental beings who took little interest in the affairs of mortals. In the grim age that followed the defeat of the gods, mighty sorcerer-kings came to power and nearly destroyed the world with their reckless use of defiling magic. They made Athas into a desert where terrible monsters roam and only the strongest survive. One of the hallmarks of the Dark Sun setting is that the heroes don't need to seek out forgotten dungeons to find adventure-mere survival is adventure enough. But there is no reason you can't successfully adapt Princes of the Apocalypse to your Dark Sun campaign. Setting A fertile agricultural region like the Dessarin Valley does not exist in Athas, but there are several frontier areas containing small, out-of-the-way villages separated by several days' travel through the wilderness. One good example is the Great Alluvial Sand Wastes. The long-lost dwarven citadel of Tyar-Besil lies beneath the rocky badlands about 30 to 40 miles northwest of the village of Kled. The buried city does not have to change much at all; a 5,000-year old dwarven stronghold forgotten beneath the desert sands might easily date ba...