Thank you so much for this write up! I'm prepping to hop into book 1 with my group in the next week or so and I've been trying to glean what I can about the future books to know if there's anything I should make sure I set up properly.
I think working to make sure Koride comes off as more redeemable is a great idea, I don't really like the Harry Potter-esque trope of "the teacher seems kinda mean and standoffish, so they must be bad", so making changes to that seems great. All your changes to the Vesicant Egg are probably going straight into my game, lol
I'm currently torn on how I want to have the characters' interactions with Mzali to go. My players tend to towards being the "freedom fighters" and will definitely go into the diplomacy with a lot of skepticism. Not to mention one of my players got *really* into the lore surrounding Chohar and Walkena and he'll specifically want to take Walkena down or remove his influence entirely.
So, in terms of the siege, my players might see the diplomacy falling apart as a good thing, an excuse to take down a state that is explicitly doing evil. I'll have to play it by ear, maybe the character will take the Magaambyan message of diplomacy to heart and seek reform. Worknesh going rogue could be a useful bridge between the party's goals of liberation and diplomacy.