Adapting Iomandra: The Isle of the Abbey

One of the obvious 5e sourcebooks that I’ve leaned on for my Iomandra campaign is Ghosts of Saltmarsh, as it provides tons of nautical themed content I can, eh…plunder like a pirate for my campaign. The adventures in particular are pretty easy to convert and use, and I’m adapting them to my version of Iomandra. I already ran Salvage Operation as a way for the PCs to meet their main patron, and now I am preparing to run Isle of the Abbey. 

Isle of the Abbey originally appeared in Dungeon Magazine Issue 34 back in 1992, and it deals with the PCs exploring and securing a ruined abbey in the middle of an island infested with undead. Here’s how I’m adapting it for my campaign:

Alric Dunmere represents a local trade guild (affiliated with Sea King Valkroi). He seeks to secure Kythra’s Isle (the dragon overlord is an insecure green wyrmling named Kythra who is currently fighting injuries suffered at the hand of a larger dragon) a small but strategically significant island near a heavily traveled sea route. The guild plans to establish a lighthouse to aid navigation and bolster their control over the trade network, but all efforts to land on the isle have been thwarted. Each attempt has been met by a relentless horde of undead near the ruins of a burned-out abbey.

The guild has posted a lucrative contract in nearby coastal towns, offering 2,000 gp to adventurers willing to secure the island and eliminate all threats. The mission has attracted little interest due to the island’s reputation, making it an opportunity for a bold or desperate party to distinguish themselves. Alric also offers the PCs something more valuable than money… information on the Shan Qabal, and why they may be chasing the PCs (this is a huge plot point in my game right now. One of the players is being hunted by the Shan Qabal.)

Kythra’s Isle was once the site of an abbey dedicated to Vecna, the evil god of secrets. A few weeks ago, the abbey became embroiled in a vicious conflict with pirates allied with Sea King Zekh’r, who sought to pillage the abbey’s rumored treasure troves in search of an arcane artifact named Io’s Tear (an artifact tied to my campaign’s meta-plot). The pirates succeeded in burning the abbey, but their forces were decimated in turn by the guild’s forces.

The guild believed the island was left uninhabited after driving off the pirates and left the site abandoned. However, unknown to them, a small sect of the abbey’s clerics survived by taking refuge in the catacombs beneath the ruins. These Vecna-worshipping clerics and their undead minions now zealously protect the island, seeing any intruders as threats to their dominion.

The PCs must:

• Land safely on the isle.
• Explore the ruins and catacombs beneath the abbey.
• Eliminate all hostile threats.

With this one adventure, I can drop lore about the background events dealing with the Emperor (the Tear of Io mention), and the PCs will learn important lore regarding their ties to the Shan Qabal.

What I like about this is that it’s not just “find an adventure and drop it in”, but rather “find an adventure and make it part of your world building”.

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