Help adapting an adventure to Fifth Edition

[Pefgis]

Hello everyone,
I recently found an amazing resource of adventures and one page dungeons available for use by Michael Prescott. They are very imaginative and unique, and I am looking to fit a particular adventure into my campaign soon.

http://www.trilemma.com/blog/adventures/15%20Care%20of%20Bones.pdf

I think there are a lot of cool scenarios here, but unfortunately , they are not specifically made for fifth edition, and I am a new enough dm that balance of item power and enemy strength is still an issue for me. How would you adapt or reskin some of the monsters to be more in keeping with monster manual entries, and how would you adapt or substitute some of the reward items to more in tune with fifth edition? My group is a party of level 3 adventurers, a tabaxi rogue, a dwarf nature cleric, and a fey themed aasimar ancients paladin.

I was thinking of making the giant hawk reskinned as a Quetzalcoatl or Peryton, the specter of the high priest a wight probably, the carp a giant seahorse or shark, and the spiders can still be started as giant jumping spiders, probably with higher intelligence, but I need some ideas on how to adapt their spider wish ability, although a concentration based ability to give creatures disadvantage within sight sounds like a good starting point.

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated, and thanks and credit to Michael Prescott and collaborators for the cool adventure.

[mgshamster]

I'll likely be able to do this later today if someone else doesn't get to it first.

I've converted quite a few adventures to 5e.

[Pefgis]

Any help is appreciated, and I have about two weeks before the next session, so I'm not under a significant time crunch. Thanks.

[mgshamster]

Ok, it looks to be an adventure where you fight a lot of spiders that have been enhanced by the temple.

For most spiders, I'd just use the giant spider or giant wolf spider (mix it up) in the MM. Giant Elk is also in the MM.

The giant carp should be a giant shark with a few modifications: reduce damage by one die, and reduce size to large.

Cenops needs to be a bigger, upgraded giant spider. Huge size. Add two dice to damage and HP. +2 DC. Give it a leap ability; 20' long or high jump, standing or running.

I did this on my lunch break, so I likely missed stuff. If there's anything else you want specifically, please let me know.

[JackPhoenix]

Ok, it looks to be an adventure where you fight a lot of spiders that have been enhanced by the temple.

For most spiders, I'd just use the giant spider or giant wolf spider (mix it up) in the MM. Giant Elk is also in the MM.

The giant carp should be a giant shark with a few modifications: reduce damage by one die, and reduce size to large.

Cenops needs to be a bigger, upgraded giant spider. Huge size. Add two dice to damage and HP. +2 DC. Give it a leap ability; 20' long or high jump, standing or running.

I did this on my lunch break, so I likely missed stuff. If there's anything else you want specifically, please let me know.

Cenops is a giant harrier (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harrier_(bird)), not a spider. Depending on the intended level, giant eagle or giant vulture may be appropriate. And though there's a lot of spiders, you don't have to fight them, they are friendly, except one. Overall, it looks like nice adventure for level 1-2 characters.

The relics are pretty cool, but not really something that could be easily covered by 5e magic items.

[mgshamster]

Cenops is a giant harrier (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harrier_(bird)), not a spider. Depending on the intended level, giant eagle or giant vulture may be appropriate. And though there's a lot of spiders, you don't have to fight them, they are friendly, except one. Overall, it looks like nice adventure for level 1-2 characters.

The relics are pretty cool, but not really something that could be easily covered by 5e magic items.

Oh, cool! I didn't know that!

I tried googling harrier and all I saw were planes and dogs.

[Pefgis]

Awesome! This solidifies sort of what I thinking for most of the monsters. I was intending a party of three level three run through this, so a little tougher fights here or there won't be out of line. How should I handle the undead high priest? Should I give him minions of a couple shadows? If all three swim to him at the same time it shouldn't be too bad, but I'm worried that being isolated down an underwater tunnel might encourage the party to split up or arrive in staggered waves.
Thanks.

[Unoriginal]

I would make the priest a solo encounter with Legendary actions and maybe Lair actions too.

Or maybe just a couple CR above the PCs' weight class.

Maybe an Allip would work? Or an Allip with a few less features?

[Pefgis]

I think the Allip could work quite well, maybe with a sword attack instead of some of its madness features, yeah. I may just save it though, I have a mad wizard's tower coming up where it would fit super well, but theres nothing stopping me from using it twice, especially if the first one is modified and re-skinned. I'll see what I can do, there are a lot of undead I can work with.

My only remaining questions are adapting the spider luck abilities into some concrete mechanic, and coming up with fifth edition appropriate versions of the relics and items. The sword I'm not too worried about, but the condenser room is pretty cool, so I want to provide something unique and thematic. Poison that deals psychic damage as well as the poisoned condition if drank? A modified legend lore type effect if the instructions from the scroll are followed?

Thanks for all the help so far.

[Unoriginal]

I haven't read about the relics yet, but for the spider's luck you could just give it the equivalent of the Lucky feat.

[Pefgis]

You know, I considered Lucky first, because it's so obvious, but I dismissed it because I thought it was too simple, and didn't capture the flavor presented....but honestly, it's simplicity works much better than I thought, and its very versatile. I'm adding it as written to a giant jumping spider and upping their intelligence.Thanks!