Elder Evils Zargon and Cynidicea
by HåvardThe default setting of the 3E line is indeed Greyhawk. Elder Evils also contains sections for adapting Zargon to both the Forgotten Realms and Eberron. It should be noted that in the Eberron version, Zargon is a creation of the daelkyrs.
In B4, Zargon is a 12 HD monster. In Elder Evils, he is a 16HD monster.
It is not in Elder Evils, but rather in later editions that Zargon became a patron of Warlocks. Official 4E stats for Zargon and the Elder Evils can be found here.
In any case, the chapter about Zargon does not only feature Zargon himself, but a significant portion of lore about the Lost City of Cynidicea. Now, if people want to use Cynidicea in any campaign world of their preference, that is perfectly fine by me, but the fact remains that there is a Lost City of Cynidicea in Mystara.
My question is then, can the information about the Lost City of Cynidicea and Zargon be used in a Mystara context? If adaptation is required, then how much needs to be changed? I think we are all in agreement that the backstory about Zargon being a former devil needs to be removed or revised. I personally don't find it all that interesting in the first place. I suppose he could have been a fallen entropic Immortal if we wanted to, but personally I prefer having him as a servitor of the Outer Beings.
I make a note of the following:
- Zargon is contained within a Ziggurat below the Lost City of Cynicidea. A Map of the Ziggurat is included in the book.
- Zankar, a barbarian leader, was a champion of the Gods who attempted to destroy Zargon, but failed.
- Darius is the High Priest of Zargon at this time. This character also appears in B4 where he is presented as a Chaotic Cleric of Level 6. In Elder Evils, Darius commands his followers to dig Zargon out of his Ziggurat.
- In Elder Evils, Darius' son Dorn and his lover Neheshru flee Cynidicea, but are captured by slavers only to be rescued by the PCs.
- Dorn then falls in with a cult of Jubilex and is tortured becoming a thrall of Jubilex who commands him to return to the lost city.
- The archaeologist Vanessa finds her way to the Lost City where she learns the dark secrets of Zargon. She seduces Dorn who then kills his own father and takes over the cult.
- The Zigurat map from Elder Evils is based on the map of Level 5 from B4.
There is also a plot about Jubilex and Zuggtmoy that I would just discard in a Mystara campaign.
I do think this adventure outline can work as a sequel to B4. If the PCs already went through B4, Zargon can always regenerate back, as long as they didn't destroy his horn.
I would make Dorn the son of a different High Priest than the one from B4 and separate the events by several decades, depending on the needs of your campaign, but the storylines of Dorn and Vanessa are quite interesting. Also, I can't find any clues to what happened to Neheshru?
Cynidicea was also featured in Dungeon #142 in the adventure Masque of Dreams. A Cynidicean named "Third" appears in Return to the Keep of the Borderlands and in OAR1 Borderlands Reincarnated.