O.W.'s page

Seeing this thread pop up anew, I figured I could as well throw my own hat in the ring.
My group being relatively new to Pathfinder, and all brand new to 2nd edition, I decided to merely apply the normal lethality rules, to use the dying/wounded conditions for NPCs, and to add to the Pacifying weapon property rune the abiliy to deal nonlethal damage without any penalty to the roll.
Simplicity & cool factor went first, I most wanted to add as little complexity as possible for the players.

I don't know if Norgorber has an intent. The Twilight Four all share a lust for power, a devotion to their god, a fierce individualism, and the will to take over Absalom. Norgorber, both rewarding and amplifying their devoted's ambitions, seem to be content to make a masterful, grand plot happen, and rewards Olansa accordingly, with the knowledge that she won't change her ways, and divine power is only going to enable her further.
I can't say for sure, but I feel like Norgorber's aim in all this -- in general, really -- is simply to have people follow their sacred ways.

However, I do concur with what you said, OmegaZ, that it feels like nobody in the Twilight Four (besides Reginald, arguably) thought of what they'd do once they'd have won (and I really like your solution to make Olansa's magnum opus to steal Absalom itself and I will probably be stealing it for my own run). But, to be fair, between their backstabbing each other and a certain group of tenacious watchmen's constant disruption, they have had to change their plans several times. And I wouldn't put it past Olansa to prioritize eliminating the only people who can still threaten her before anything else in her reign as primarch. And if one's players are fortunate, they'll never know what she wanted.

accessibility items to enable adventures for anyone

I like the idea. I am fond of disabled characters, and having an official option for playing them is neat.

My modification to the whole kobold thing:

- Im gonna have a leshy in the Tipsy Tengu chatting it up with the party about poor wages. He will describe how they get pay deductions for materials used in labor and how at the end they may only end up with a pittance for a week of work. He won't work at the Pagoda but will say that cheap non-human labor is a widespread thing in Absalom. This guy won't be a kobold, so it won't telegraph it too much.

- None of the kobolds outright killed any other workers. Instead, Rekarek rigged some of building to collapse. It was supposed to happen once the non-kobold workers in the area were off shift (and the area was clear) but the manager forced them to work overtime. Now Rek's desperate and, fearing being brought up on murder charges, she's threatening to bring the whole place down unless she's given a pardon (partial bluff, she can only take down some of the construction).

- Rek will let the party pass uninjured if they agree to see her and her compatriots safely out of the city unharmed with enough money to sail to another port of call. The manager will agree to pay for this if the party keeps it all hush-hush. This will come back to bite them later when the Ollo hears of it and they end up getting a lower stipend (or maybe lose some of their discount at the quartermaster). He cannot fire them since he has no hard evidence but he puts the party on notice. The choice won't be murder the kobolds or no. It will be follow the law and bring in this person whose recklessness led to death of coworkers or free this person who was mistreated by their employers and acted out of desperation.

- Rek will be initially hostile as she is scared. Her and her people will fight but can be reasoned with. However, odds are these kobolds will fall if the party does not approach with stealth and do things like listen to kobold conversations, try to knock out/question guards, etc.

- Rek may agree to be taken in but only if those kobolds she has enlisted in her cause go free. Taking this middle way does not come with any blow back and gains the party some kobold contacts. However, it may comprimise their ideals if they are hardcore pro-law.

- Skerix cautioned Rekarek against sabotage. The humans "held" there are sympathetic to the kobold cause but Rek won't let them leave (leverage she can't let go of). So Skerix took them in. Skerix is more than willing to talk. However, she too is scared of the police and will fight back if attacked. In essence, Skerix has broken no laws and is much the same situation as the humans with her.

- The manager doesn't reveal the poor pay or overwork. She just states that these kobolds killed some non-kobold workers and destroyed a part of the pagoda. She paints them a ravenous and she laments hiring them.

I applied a similar method (not playing Rekarek as a maniacal, power-hungry battle-leader, but as someone who was trying to play tough and fly by the seat of her pants after her protest bombing ended up killing four of her human colleagues and impressing her fellow kobolds), and wanted to relate my group's experience with it so that may help any GM who hasn't gotten to this part yet.

I roleplayed the NPCs in a maybe slightly too "happy to talk" way, and although Rekarek (the only one with Skerix that spoke common), immediately shouted her demands and threatened to harm the hostages if they were not met, the players talked her into revealing a bit more than she intended about the situation, and persuaded her to let the mute cleric of the Reaper of Reputation (I know, I know, I might write about it around this forum later) come into the pagoda unarmed to see if the hostages were really there in the first place, and alive and well.
Thus, she (the cleric) was able to meet with Skerix, who looked much more like a strike leader, and who Rekarek didn't dare outright attacking.
Thus, the players understood that the hostages weren't really in danger, and that the claims of both Ama Uomi and Rekarek were supposed to paint them in a more "serious" light (Ama din't talk about the increasingly poor working conditions as the Pagoda's construction was going late, and Rekarek pretended that her killing her human colleagues was intentional).
The players didn't dare enter the Pagoda after they realised it had been rigged with traps, but they didn't even wanted to do it: they were entirely focused on negociating a peaceful solution and establishing clearly what had happened.

In the end, they handcuffed and took to the station both Rekarek and Ama Uomi, fairly confident that the battle leader was the only kobold guilty of anything criminal, and that the chief architect had been too far.
Some of them talked afterwards with Sekrix and the remaining workers, and learned then of Jeremin Hoff's involvement and about the House of Planes.

So, in the end, my players resolved the whole Dragonfly Pagoda by talking it out in the first room, and I gave them full XP for all the kobold encounters.

I fully concur with Benchak the Nightstalker.

The AP deals you all the cards you need to make this about your agents of Edgewatch - sorry, Starwatch, and about them getting to redeem and save the city, no matter the cost.
Although you are right to be careful with these events, you are absolutely able to frame the situation in a way that will entrance your player's character.

Unless they are roleplaying a "lawful stupid" PC and have a misplaced obstinacy about roleplaying their character without any flexibility, they should be able to see the good in what they are doing, and to see that you, as the GM, are giving them an opportunity to show how far this Paladin's dedication to the greater good really is.
It can - and arguably should - be harsh for such a character to debase themselves and to compromise their ideals this way (I'm eager to see the anguish of one of my players' character who's a Iomedae devout), even if it is temporary. Play up the tragic side of the situation, its powerlessness. This Paladin should accept to dirty his hands, but he souldn't be happy about it. and it should be another reason for him to want the Twighlight Four stopped once and for all. It should not be easy for him, and that is precisely the point: half the fun in playing a Champion, to me, lies in the moments where you are lead to compromise your ideals, or even betray them. This Paladin (not his player, mind you) is going to hate every second it; and it's going to fuel his eventual retributive strike.

Last post about it just to confirm this theory to anyone still wondering: as an online GM, I rely (too much) on illustrations, and went to Lie Setiawan's portfolio (they're the cover artist for the AP) to find illustrations for who I am now sure are Olansa Terimor & Blune Bandersworth (on Book 6's cover, as you folks had guessed) since their names are in their files'.

If you're a sucker for sketches like me you might be interested in what they have posted over there, but what amuses me the most is that the version of Olansa on their portfolio has her hair braided and on Book 5's cover she doesn't have any fancy hairdo. One can only imagine the conversations during the creative process...

I also set up an alternative reward system so that my players would not be forced to loot everything, to fine people as if they were shaking them down and to accept what would otherwise be considered bribes in order to stay relevant, and instead only be taking what their character would have.

I did not want to shower them under money, though, nor did I want to drop the plot point that the Edgewatch is underfunded.
So I told them their salaries were just enough to cover the cost of life and would not be taken into account in the game (as written).
Then, I set up a budget system, which determines a ceiling to how much money the Edgewatch would be ready to spend - for each PC - on equipment, consumables and other stuff. This budget rises as they gain recognition & influence, which are mechanically represented by the PCs' level.

I based myself on the Table 10-9: Party Treasure by Level on page 509 of the Core Rulebook, and divided the advised "Total Value" between each of them and tweaked the individual sums a bit.

The main draws of this system for me is that it feels quite plausible in the context of the AP, gives them a lot of liberty in their choice of gear (I told them that anything that wasn't uncommon or rarer was automatically available), gives some more life to the Edgewatch (I decided Corporal Batiste would be the one to manage this part, so it should drive them to interact with her), doesn't turn the PCs into gold hoarders since money is not - and never will be, nor should it - their objective in any way, and eliminates the incentive to power abuse.