Hi! Im a long time DM (for DnD) but my groups typically consisted of powergaming murder hobos so making a story was usually something that was.....secondary. Needless to say my skills have greatly atrophied in the intervening years and I FINALLY have some real role players in my new group.
As such I need to make a REAL campaign with plot and story. I've started on the beginner box since I'm new to Pathfinder and I have Troubles in Otari to help me branch out. I've plopped Otari into Tian Xia, specifically Shokuro. My players are all native Tian characters but have no real loyalty to Shokuro outside of it being a sort of home for outcasts (they all are refugees of some sort). The plan so far is to play through the beginner box and sprinkle in Troubles in Otari depending on how they react to the different kinds of adventuring (they are all new to table top RPGs) and I want to seed in references to a shadow organization that will be scheming to undermine Shokuro. The problem is I haven't quite decided where to go from there or who will be doing it! Ideally it would have the party heading to the capital looking to uncover the mystery and help save the kingdom.
I was wondering if you had any suggestions on things you might have done, or what sounds the most interesting. Currently some ideas are...
The Aspis Consortium wants to regain their foothold in Tian Xia and are bypassing Goka and heading to Amanandar. Their actions are intended cause the colony to invade Shokuro and come to them to be exclusive suppliers.
The spider people, ghosts, and other outer god creepiness of Shenmen is wanting to gain a foothold in Shokuro by slowly infiltrating the area. Kind of a dracula meets spiders meets invasion of the body snatchers creepiness campaign
The golden league wants revenge for losing out on their previously secret control of the country prior to it being freed. This would likely be full of ninjas.
The family of the corrupt lord that Shouro Toriaka killed and was banished for wants revenge after finding out that the samurai has been doing well for himself. Probably more ninjas, maybe even a combined Oni plot involving the same group that established the Jade Regent.
More straightforward, Lingshen, who didn't seem too mad about losing the country really wants it back so they can feed their armies of conquest. This would be a lot less of a shadowly plot because nothing about Lingshen strikes me as "subtle".
What do you think? And I have never done an intrigue style campaign before, what premade adventures or sources would you suggest for helping me flesh this out?