WARNING: This post contains some spoilers for the Age of Worms Adventure Path.
I've got a problem. I'm running the Age of Worms, or, at least, it forms the structural outline of my campaign. Only, I decided this around level 4. After I'd already established who the main big bad was in the game: Dyrrn the Corruptor. So I've been reading through the Age of Worms, trying to rework the backstory of Kyuss and alter the future modules and I'm struggling to make this work. So I'm looking for ideas. I don't need to convert everything or even every module. I just want a good underlying story conversion. You know, the main points. Here's what I've established so far:
The players are in 993YK, before the Day of Mourning. They discovered a Gatekeeper Seal in an old abandoned mine next to the Deep Mine on the Zilargo/Darguun border. They discovered that Dyrrn the Corruptor's influence had been driving inhabitants of this mine to terrible deeds (I altered the Forge of Fury adventure for this). Everyone felt that they needed to improve themselves/their race and that accepting Dyrrn would let them do so. The party came across evidence that Breed Leeches had been used to alter the children of some of the inhabitants, including a young black dragon at the bottom of the mine. They found the journal of a descendant of Vvaraak that indicated that Vvaraak's lineage was tasked with preventing the terrible event that Vvaraak had forseen. Many believed it was the invasion of the Daelkyr, but that was just the start. Vvaraak forsaw the Age of Worms in Eberron's future and so she had her children and their children guard the Gatekeeper seals. Over time, though, most have died out, gave up their tasks, or fallen under the influence of Dyrrn, who will be behind the Age of Worms. The black dragon Ilthane is one of them and the young dragon in the abandoned mine was Ilthane's child.
The party then made their way out to Sharn. On the way, I ran them through Encounter at Blackwall Keep. In it, they had their first encounter with Kyuss Worms and the Spawn of Kyuss. They discovered that the worms were some sort of evolution from the Breed Leeches. They also heard the name Ilthane for the first time (I established Ilthane as male by accident and now I'm stuck with that). Right now, they're down in Khyber's Gate, fighting some aberrations. I have plans for a human scientist to be a major villain. He's constructing a device to create his own plane. What I wanted to establish was that, in doing so, he would accidentally break the Gatekeeper Seals holding the Daelkyr back. So the party would want to stop him. That's meant to be a major part of the next six or seven levels or so. Like I said, I'm not using everything from the Age of Worms AP.
Keith has some awesome conversion notes for running the Age of Worms in Eberron in the online supplements to the Dungeon Magazine issues in which each adventure is found. Unfortunately, given that I decided to throw the Age of Worms in my campaign so late in the game, lots of stuff just doesn't fit at all. So here's some things I'm struggling with:
Who is Kyuss? - He needs to be somehow related to the Daelkyr. Perhaps it's Dyrrn himself? In the original backstory, Kyuss bound himself to a basalt monolith and sacrificed a ton of people to try to acheive godhood. But he failed and was stuck in the monolith. Maybe Dyrrn sought to corrupt more than the mortal realm and wished to experiment with being a deity. I have problems with this, however. First... there's too much planning here. Too much clear, direct, action taken for a single goal. That is not how I view the Daelkyr operating. They should be doing things that just do not seem to make much sense. They have alien minds and Kyuss' plan is too rooted in the way we think.
Maybe Kyuss is a cultist that is trying to free Dyrrn and merge with him. That's a lot easier to fit into the backstory without making heavy alterations. But... how does one merge with a Daelkyr? Or, perhaps Kyuss isn't trying to merge with Dyrrn, but rather steal Dyrrn's power for his own. That sounds like it has potential for some Lovecraftian themes to crop up. Kyuss maybe went insane years ago and thinks that bringing about the Age of Worms is how he'll become a Daelkyr. But man, messing with alien forces beyond your comprehension is never a good thing and certainly won't turn out as you expect (say... being transformed into a massive Worm That Walks?).
Or should I replace Dyrrn with the villainous scientist, Dr. Jones (name shamelessly stolen from Fringe). He's trying to create his own plane and maybe the forces he's tampering with backfire. Insert somewhat cliché supervillain backstory here where his device explodes/malfunctions, causing him to mutate and become a Worm That Walks. I plan for him to be using a Husk of Infinite Worlds in this, so it's not completely out of the question. My problem here is that he's not really meant to be god-like. He's smart, but not super-powerful. I didn't want him to have all that spellcasting. He's meant to be far more human and normal as he represents what the artificer in the group could become if he makes the wrong choices (which he's been doing, growing more and more unconcerned with those he hurts with his actions).
But perhaps Kyuss should be something completely different.
Do I Want to Keep Dragotha? - I feel like elevating Ilthane to Dragotha's status. Why? Well, honestly, I want to cut back on the "villains within villains" aspect. I'm already using some manipulative villains in my campaign. Dr. Jones is using others to do a lot of his dirty work. I don't want to necessarily have more villain breadcrumbs. I think it would be better to give my players a few straightforward answers. Who is Kyuss' lieutenant? Yeah, it's that black dragon, Ilthane you've been hearing about. Not Ilthane's boss. But the problem here is that the players are meant to encounter Ilthane shortly (should I choose to follow that part of the AP). And if Ilthane is Dragotha, then he's a dracolich and there's no way my players survive that. But if he's NOT a dracolich, then the latter parts of the AP become less important. No tracking down the phylactery or anything. I could say that Ilthane is transforming into something aberrant and the "phylactery" is actually a minor artifact that he is drawing his power from. Sure, that works. Then they could beat him early on, but he escapes and comes back more powerful later. But is that the best way to do it?
Dr. Jones - Under the assumption that he's NOT the stand-in for Kyuss... how does he fit in? He's meant as the mid-level big bad. His plot arc should be wrapped up around level 15, just in time to start the final AoW arc with Dragotha and Kyuss' apotheosis. I'm not a fan of arcs that are unconnected to the overall story. Jones should factor into things, but his exploration into planar magic isn't that relevant, I feel.
I think that those are my biggest concerns so far. Any thoughts?
I don't remember the AoW well enough to make much more than general comments. I would think you would want to keep Kyuss more or less as Kyuss, just so you don't feel a need to replace all of the undead themed monsters in the adventures leading up to the climax. That means Kyuss is not Dyrrn, because we already know what Dyrrn created (dolgaunts and dolgrim), and you want an undead-themed daelkyr, who likely created the dolghasts (or the 4e deathgaunts, which I quite enjoy as monsters).
Beoric wrote:
Your storyline is interesting, so I've been skimming the AoW in my spare time this week to see if I could come up with anything to help.
With respect to Kyuss, I think you are stuck with the story of him originally being mortal unless you want to skip or completely rewrite the adventure that spends a bunch of time detailing his history. I am thinking that he was a hobgoblin general who betrayed the dhakaani to the daelkyr, and indulged in experiments with the breed leeches to try to turn himself into a daelkyr. With that in mind, I would probably reflavour all of the spawn of Kyuss as aberrations rather than undead. The whole AoW has more of an aberrant flavour than an undead flavour, to my mind.
Kyuss could still be Dyrrn, its just not widely known that Dyrrn is a corrupted human rather than a full daelkyr.
I notice a lot of dragon themes. You have several important dragons, you have dragons fighting dragons, dragons fighting giants, major dragons scheming against each other, and a healthy dose of prophesy. I have trouble imagining any dragon voluntarily following a non-dragon. So I am thinking that the Age of Worms is a prophecy about ascention; that none of the dragons actually worship Kyuss, but are actually trying to steal his ascention for themselves; and that Dragotha and Lashonna are competing to do so. The Prophesy connects Kyuss' return with an ascention, but is non-specific as to who ascends. When Lashonna dies and her ritual to steal Kyuss' place fails, the last of the bindings holding Kyuss fail and he is freed. His ascention is different from the ascention that the dragons sought, and he becomes a daelkyr.
If you want to use the undead theme regardless, you might exchange Vol for Lashonna.
Jones' work could be connected to developing the ritual for the ascention. He has been manipulated into doing the research by dragon agents who want to use it for another purpose.
Alhaster seems to me to be Thaliost, and Zeer is Archbishop Solgar Dariznu. The Order of the Storm are a faction of Gatekeepers, and Kongen-Thulnir (the giant city in Kings of the Rift) is in Xen'drik, where it is in the beginning stages of the periodic collapse that affects all civiliations there. I assume Sharn is the Free City.
I like Beoric's suggestions a lot, though it inspired me to add this little bit:
Dyrrn the Corruptor is known as one of the most powerful daelkyr, right? Beoric suggests that Dyrrn isn't actually a Daelkyr, but a corrupted mortal. But what if it was both? What if Dyrrn is both The Corruptor and The Corrupted? Kyuss started off as a hobgoblin (in Beoric's suggestion), but he didn't just become Dyrrn. He invited Dyrrn into his being.
Dyrrn then, in this interpretation, is a disembodied force, an anti-ideal, a living meme of abdomination. He is constantly waiting and plotting for his self to birth himself. Dyrrn is the potential to become Dyrrn.
Nice. Suddently I think my next campaign is going to be the Age of Worms.
Sorry it took me so long to respond, guys. I like the idea, too, particularly Avon's tweak. It's actually really fitting given what I established earlier in my campaign. I ran a modified Forge of Fury in which I discussed the hobgoblin traitor Aal'drash. In my campaign's history, he betrayed the Dhakaani because Dyrrn had gotten in his head and made him think he could create a master race by using Breed Leeches, which I've also already established as the predecessors to the Kyuss Worms. So... that's pretty much perfect!
Here's something I didn't think of until one or two sessions ago: one of my players, named Ixen, is a Binder and I've been including this sub-plot of Taratai being a vestige (that will eventually be returned to this plane and inhabit the reincarnation of one of her former Kalashtar descendants [another PC, named Vashyron]). Point is, to give Ixen some villains he could know specifics about, I created The Gentlemen as a recurring villain. One of them was a Shadowcaster that is now dead, one is an Archivist, and the last is a Binder (specifically a Tenebrous Apostate). They recently encountered the Tenebrous Apostate along with a horde of Spawns of Kyuss. I did this using your vestige adaptations, AvonRekaes, where Tenebrous represented the divine being of Katashka-Kyuss. So... what if Tenebrous represents Dyrrn? Perhaps Dyrrn, down in Khyber, can still be contacted via Binders. Kyuss can still be Aal'drash, the hobgoblin lieutenant that betrayed the Goblins during the war and went crazy. Perhaps his last act was to try and invite Dyrrn into him, but the Gatekeepers cornered him and stopped him mid-process, which resulted in Dyrrn being stuck as a vestige. This is very rough draft at the moment, but what are your thoughts?
Or maybe he actually did succeed. I have Bellashyrra as a vestige, despite being a living and active daelkyr, because I like the idea that daelkyr just break all the cosmic rules. But if we're already going with Dyrrn being some weird paradox of a creature, existing to become extant, perhaps he is, was, and always will be a vestige, no matter whether he has a physical manifestation at the time or not.
My only issue is that Tenebrous's granted abilities just don't really work for Dyrrn. Darkness and Undeath aren't really his thing. I think it might be interesting to create a brand new vestige for Dyrrn, though, and a prestige class based on Tenebrous Apostate (perhaps "Dyrrn Aspirant"). Abilities would be transmutation based.
I'm a bit lost in the 3e-speak, so take this with a grain of salt if I'm reading your post wrong, but I feel like you might be gilding the lily. Not everything needs to connect, and this doesn't seem to have the elegance of the main pieces of your adaptation; I am afraid it will detract from it rather than add.
Also, and this is just a preference, I feel like Taratai needs his own plot, even if it is a "B" plot, and that it should be a quori story rather than a daelkyr story. I am not sure where you fit it in amongst the crushing weight that is the AoW AP, but on the other hand, it could be a nice mid-level diversion from that plot. There must be some adventures in that series that are less important and can be trimmed/replaced/retooled to make room for that. You probably want it wrapped up by "A Gathering of Winds". You could probably lose most of "Hall of Harsh Reflections" and "The Champion's Belt" without having much of an impact on the overall AP.
Dyrrn, The Corrupter and Corrupted
Vestige Level: 4th
Binding DC: 21
Special Requirement: No
Another of the imprisoned Daelkyr lords from the Age of Monsters, Dyrrn grants those who make pacts with him the same artistic passion that drives him to find the pure and corrupt them.
Legend: Dyrrn the Corrupter is known as one of the most powerful daelky of the Age of Monsters. However, several historic accounts conflict with this assessment, citing that Dyrrn was the name taken by a traitorous hobgoblin that betrayed the Dhakanni Empire to debase himself before the invading daelkyr. Still other texts indicate that a human mage named Dyrrn succeeded in transforming himself into an entity identical to the daelkyr lords, several thousand years after the daelkyr were sealed beneath the surface.
Binder scholars through the ages have posited an alternate theory about this infamous terror. What if Dyrrn was not one of these individuals, but all of them? What if Dyrrn is both The Corruptor and The Corrupted? Dyrrn is a disembodied force, an anti-ideal, a living meme of abdomination. He is constantly waiting and plotting for his self to birth himself. Dyrrn is the potential to become Dyrrn. And whether he currently has a physical manifestation or not, binders are able to deal with him as a vestige.
Manifestation: When the summoning ritual is complete, a specimen of the local fauna, whether a dirty sewer rat if summoned in an urban center, or a lithe fawn in a woodland setting, appears from your surroundings and meanders into Dyrrn's seal. Upon reaching the middle of the symbol, the creature is suddenly wracked with terrible spasms. Its body contorts and splits, organs and sinew and muscle ratcheting out and reforming into a mockery of humanoid form. With a disgusting mouth created from adhoc organic material, the horrible thing speaks with a beatific and angelic voice.
Sign: Your features grow sharper and smoother, becoming a more attractive version of your normal self.
Influence: While under the influence of Dyrrn, you see the world around you as desperately needing your touch to make it beautiful. You consider normally beautiful things to be disgusting and vice versa. You must resist being touched by creatures you can perceive with your Sense the Blank Canvas ability (see below), unless you are making an attack. If your allies register to you on this ability and attempt to target you with a beneficial touch spell (such as a cure spell), they must succeed on a melee touch attack to touch you. (You are not required to roll a saving throw against a harmless spell.)
You also only answer to and respond to being called Dyrrn.
Granted Abilities: Dyrrn grants you several mutations and the ability to seek out those that require your touch.
Sense the Blank Canvas:
You notice and locate uncorrupted mortal creatures within 60 feet as if you possess the blindsense ability. This includes giants, humanoids, monstrous humanoids, animals, and magical beasts. Any creatures altered or under the influence or thrall of daelkyr or aberrations (such as skum created by aboleths, or other binders bound to Belashyrra or Dyrrn) do not appear to you with this ability.
Sculptor's Touch:
As a standard action, you can make a melee touch attack against a target you can perceive with your Sense the Blank Canvas ability. If your attack hits, the target must succeed on a Fortitude save (DC 10 + half your binder level + your Charisma modifier). On a failed save, you deal 1d6 points of ability damage to one of the target's ability scores of your choice. This damage manifests physically as some sort of aberrant deformity of your choice. The target cannot be changed back to normal while this ability damage remains. Once a creature has taken this damage, it ceases to register on your Sense the Blank Canvas ability while the damage remains.
Work in Progress:
You can invite greater influence from Dyrrn into your physical body, taking on one of several corruptions. Once every 5 rounds, you can select one of the following corruptions to inflict on yourself. Corruptions last indefinitely or until a new corruption is chosen.
- Eruptive Pustules: Your skin erupts in swollen, pus-filled bumps that burst open if you are struck. Any creature that strikes you with its body or a handheld weapon deals normal damage, but at the same time the attacker takes 1d6 points of acid damage and must make a Fortitude save (DC 10 + ½ your effective binder level + Charisma bonus) or be sickened for 1 round. If the attack against you is a critical hit, the attacker must save or be nauseated instead of sickened. This damage can harm a swarm.
- Monstrous Extremities: You change one of your extremities—arms or legs only—into another shape of approximately the same size and mass. You can choose a tentacle, a hoof, or a wing. These new forms do not allow you to fly, run faster, or swim better; however, they do act as natural weapons of the appropriate type, and you can use them to make secondary attacks while making attacks with weapons as a full-attack action. The secondary attacks are made using your base attack bonus –5 and adding only 1/2 your Strength bonus on damage rolls. You cannot hold a weapon or use any item that would ordinarily fit into the slot of the changed extremity.
- Resinous Secretions: Your pores suddenly overflow with a thick, adhesive substance, protecting you from attacks and binding weapons that strike you. You gain DR 5/piercing, as well as a +4 circumstance bonus to resist disarm attempts and on saving throws against effects that cause you to drop something you are holding. Additionally, you gain a +4 circumstance bonus on grapple checks to initiate a grapple, maintain a grapple, and pin a foe. Any enemy you grapple takes a –4 penalty on attempts to break the grapple and to escape the grapple using Escape Artist. Any weapon, that strikes you becomes stuck unless its wielder succeeds at a Reflex saving throw (DC 10 + ½ your effective binder level + Charisma bonus). Such a weapon can be pulled free of you only with a successful Strength check (same DC as your Reflex save). This spell has no effect on unarmed strikes or natural weapons.
Dyrrn Aspirant
Hit Die: d8
Requirements:
To qualify to become a Dyrrn aspirant, a character must fulfill all the following criteria.
Alignment: Any nongood.
Skills: Knowledge (dungeoneering) 5 ranks, Knowledge (the planes) 8 ranks
Special: Ability to bind Dyrrn
Special: Ability to cast arcane transmutation spells
Class Features
All of the following are class features of the warshaper prestige class. The class features function only when the warshaper is in a form other than her own (which for doppelganger and phasm warshapers is most of the time).
Spellcasting: At each level beyond 1st, you gain new spells per day and an increase in caster level (and spells known, if applicable) as if you had also gained a level in an arcane spellcasting class to which you belonged before adding the prestige class level. You do not, however, gain any other benefit a character of that class would have gained. If you had more than one arcane spellcasting class before becoming a Dyrrn aspirant, you must decide to which class to add each level for the purpose of determining spells per day, caster level, and spells known.
Soul Binding: At each Dyrrn aspirant level beyond 1st, your soul binding ability improves as if you had also gained a level in the binder class. Your Dyrrn aspirant levels and binder levels stack for the purpose of determining your bonus on binding checks, the effectiveness of your vestige granted abilities, your ability to bind higher-level vestiges, and the number of vestiges you can bind. You do not, however, gain any other benefit a binder would have gained.
Morphic Immunities (Ex): Dyrnn's influence has begun to drastically change your internal anatomy. Dyrrn aspirants are immune to stunning and critical hits.
Permanent Invitation (Ex): You no longer need to summon Dyrrn every day; you are bound to him constantly. You cannot choose to bind a different vestige in his place, and you are unable to resist his influence with a binding check.
Beneficent Visage (Su): When you attain 2nd level, your body begins to resemble the angelic countenance of Dyrrn himself. You gain +4 to Charisma.
Symbiont Mastery (Ex): At 3rd level, you gain complete control over any symbionts attached to your body. You maintain full control over the use of each symbiont's special abilities and can attach or detach a symbiont as a full-round action. Additionally, you can power the abilities of a symbiont by substituting 5 hit points for 1 point of ability damage.
Nigh-Perfection (Su): Beginning at 4th level, you can transform yourself into a near perfect copy of the daelkyr lord you aspire to be. You gain darkvision 60 feet; DR 10/good; fast healing 5; spell resistance equal to 10+ your arcane caster level; and aura of madness and truespeech as supernatural abilities.
Aura of madness allows you, as a free action, to trigger a 20-foot-radius burst of mental chaos centered on you. Any other creature in the area must succeed on a Will save (DC 10 + twice your Dyrrn aspirant class level + your Charisma modifier) or be affected as though by a confusion spell (caster level equal to your arcane caster level). A creature that successfully saves cannot be affected again by your aura of madness for 24 hours. This ability is a mind-affecting compulsion effect.
Truespeech allows you to speak with any creature that has a language, as though using the tongues spell.
You can remain in this form for a number of rounds per day equal to twice your Dyrrn aspirant level or return to your normal form early as a swift action. Once you return to your mundane form, you cannot use this ability again for 5 rounds.
Dyrrn Apotheosis: At 5th level, you become a physical ideal of madness and corruption incarnate. You are forevermore treated as an outsider, and you permanently gain damage reduction 10/good (this does not stack with the damage reduction gained through nigh-perfection). You are also immune to disease, poison, ability damage, mind-affecting spells and abilities, and any transmutation effect you do not desire.
Beoric wrote:
So I'm not sure how I feel about making Dyrrn a vestige. As a concept by itself, I like it. Another thing I didn't mention was that the group stumbled across a Gatekeeper Seal and... well, they proceeded to blow it up. So I decided to inject a bit of insanity for that session as they slowly became more and more deluded. In short, I established that the Gatekeeper seals are still holding Dyrrn down in Khyber and they had weakened one. So... if Dyrrn is only a vestige, then it has a small conflict with what's already happened. I have no real problem with Dyrrn being down in Khyber and also being a vestige. That said, I'm not sure how I feel about the vestige and prestige class you've created. The abilities feel a tad too powerful for a 4th level vestige. Mind if I take a stab at it? In addition, I'm unsure if I want to add another vestige into the mix, since one of The Gentlemen is/was a Tenebrous Apostate. There's a thing, too. Is it just me, or does the Age of Worms seem way more suited to aberration-related events than undead?
Oh go right ahead. I basically just got a bug in my DM-butt that couldn't be removed until I had the idea typed up. The idea I had is the Daelkyr break all the rules. Vestiges aren't supposed to exist, but somehow daelkyr can be contacted and summoned as vestiges. From my vestige thread you linked, here's an excerpt from Belashyrra:
There is something wrong with the vestige known as Belashyrra: he should not be a vestige at all. The Lord of Eyes most definitely exists beneath the surface of Eberron in the twisting passages of Khyber, free to roam that dark realm as he pleases. [...] Why, therefore, is it possible to call upon this living entity as if he were a vestige? None can say. Perhaps the ancient druidic magic of the Gatekeeper seals is weakening, allowing a portion of his influence to seep past the wards in a manner functionally equivalent to a vestige. Or maybe the ancient Lords of Madness do not adhere to the same laws of reality as the rest of the cosmos.
AvonRekaes wrote:
That's fair. I used to feel the same way, but after coming back to 3.5/Pathfinder from DMing 4th Edition, I did take some aspects of it Iiked. NPCs not necessarily having to be the same as PC was one of them. In my games when I want an NPC to be a paticularly badass boss, I make him/her/it a gestalt character using the Unearthed Arcana rules, even though the game isn't a gestalt campaign. (For example, I have the Lord of Blades as a 12th level artificer/7th level fighter-5th level warforged juggernaught gestalt).
If you wanted to make the Dyrrn vestige less broken, I'd find three interesting 2nd-level sor/wiz transmutation spells and make those the Work in Progress corruptions, to replace the 3rd level ones in the in the current version.
If you wanted to, I suppose you could also make the Sculptor's Touch only usable once per 5 rounds. But here's why I didn't: First, it requires a touch attack. Then a saving throw. Then a target already affected by it cannot be hit with it again (because you can only target people you can sense with Blank Canvas, but dealing the ability damage removes them from that sense). I felt like that was enough mitigating factors to make it balanced.
This is related, but off the beaten track a bit: have you ever considered making a vestige in multiple parts? That is, one that has different versions at different levels. Say, if Dyrrn had a 4th level vestige, an 8th level vestige, and a 12th level vestige. Perhaps the higher level ones could only be bound once you attain the ability to bind multiple vestiges and you bind the lower one(s) first. This is all a random thought that popped into my head. What do you think about this concept in general and how it could be utilized here?
It's interesting. It'd probably wouldn't be mechanically difficult. Essentially it's just multiple vestiges with a Special Requirement to already be bound to a lower level one (maybe with a caveat that the one feat that allows you to ignore special requirements doesn't work for it). The flavor of it can go in a few different directions, like a being so unimaginiably vast that pact-magic users can only bind to it in stages, or one that grows over time.
My only sticking point would be how you split up the vestiges abilities. Is each vestige an aspect of a greater whole? Like if you split up Tenebrous into it's Shadow and Undeath aspects, and have one level of Tenebrous be all about shadow abilities and the higher level one all about undeath abilities. Or would it be like reveling deeper and deeper into the same theme, like if Dyrrn was three different vestiges and each higher stage was all about corruption, so binding all stages just gives you a CRAP-TON of corruption-themed abilities?
AvonRekaes wrote:
I dunno, I kind of like what you had around post #7.
I'm not sure you need to worry too much about the undead theme. From what I remember of AoW, most of the undead are Kyuss-related, and are easily reflavoured as aberrations.
You may also be able to replace/reflavour other undead as dolgasts. The vampiric dragon could either be replaced with a regular dragon, or if you like having a life-sucking aspect, replace vampire's fangs with a dolgaunt's cillia.
Well... another thing I went and established was that Spawn of Kyuss are indeed undead, though the Kyuss Worms are aberrations. The players already know that the Kyuss Worms transform living things into undead rather rapidly, then multiply rapidly within the undead body. In their last session, they also discovered that one of the Gentlemen is a binder who was using his bound vestige to help heal and control the Spawns of Kyuss they were fighting at the time. So I can't completely reflavor everything as aberrations. That said, looking at everything in the AoW, a lot of the monsters are straight up aberrations that create undead, so it's not like I'm deviating from it much at all. I'm not certain if Lashonna (the vampiric dragon) will be in my campaign at all. Dragotha is a dracolich and I don't see a huge problem with that.