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Hello all who have run or are currently running Crimson Throne:

I am about to start running the revised AP in a few weeks. I have already ran this adventure before, though in the old 3.5 version, and while I'm fine with most things, there is one aspect that I'm worried about. Namely, the Brotherhood of Bones.

It's a long story, but the short version is that the first time I ran this AP, the party was very "detect evil, kill it if it's evil, ask no questions and ponder no consequences." So, when the party encountered Laori at Salvatore Scream's house, they immediately attacked her. I barely even got the words Zon-Kuthon out of my mouth before they were on her. I never got the chance to introduce her "character" (that she's a bubbly, happy masochist - much fun could have been had!). Any time she so much as came near the party, they went at her like rabid dogs.

So, needless to say, I pretty much backed off on everything related to her, as well as the later Ally/Enemy angle in Scarwall (I later had Sial approach the party by himself; things went more civilly since the main problem player had left, but the party still wanted nothing to do with him. I kinda' just quietly removed him from the scene and handwaved the whole encounter as being a weird non-sequitur.) Clearly, my previous party had no taste for "enemy of my enemy" situations.

Fast forward several years to now. This is an entirely different group, one that has a better handle on roleplaying and being open to alliances with NPCs. However, I predict that at least one of our players will have a problem allying with evil - not so much for the sake of "Kill all evil," but more for the fact that he tends to play very justice-oriented characters and is unlikely to find much value in the Brotherhood's reasoning for an alliance.

SO, I want to make absolutely sure I do my best to give the Brotherhood a good argument for working together. Ultimately if the PCs decide not to work with them, that's fine - but since this was a prior failure for me, I want to give it my best shot this time, so that it's at least the party's decision to not work together, and not me failing to explain myself properly.

From what I understand, the Brotherhood's argument for wanting the Crown of Fangs is because they want to collect the relics of Kazavon for themselves, in order to keep Kazavon from being resurrected because the church of Zon-Kuthon/the country of Nidal considers Kazavon a dangerous zealot who will draw a lot of unwanted attention to the faith. They might even hate Kazavon just as much or more than the PCs do, given the political ramifications to Nidal (and their faith as a whole) should he ever return.

So, my questions are:

1.) Is this interpretation of their desires correct? Is there anything else I can add that might make it more believable for appealing to PCs? (I'm considering having them be okay with the relic's destruction instead of recovery, though I'm not sure if the Brotherhood is actually okay with that?)

2.) How honest are they with sharing that goal? Should I have them make up a lie instead first, and only reveal their true motivation after some prodding?

3.) For those of you who successfully got your parties to work with the Brotherhood, is there anything in particular that you think helped facilitate that?

Thanks for any input you may have. Again, I'm okay with the party not allying with this group if they ultimately don't want to. I just want to make sure I give it my best.