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- The players are all assumed to be relatively new members of the Taldan faction. Emphasis is put on this rather than them being Pathfinders. In hindsight, I could have even opted to have them be called the Sovereign Court from the very beginning, since the faction change from PFS doesn’t really play into this story.

- The mission statement of “stop Lady Deckland” was altered to more aggressively emphasise capturing her alive (the Taldan faction objective) so that the players would have to utilise diplomacy to talk down a hostile target. This allowed me to test my streamlined social combat rules in a hostile negotiation scenario (my version of social combat is adjusted so that Discovery checks are move actions and Influence checks are standard, meaning they can be used in combat situations).

- Following her capture, Celeena Deckland goes on to becoming a spy for Taldor within the Chelaxian courts. She is however found out in 4010 AR and hunted by Asmodaean Inquisitors, and “rescued” by Nenareen Adella (who informed them in the first place). The Duchess of Blood tricks Celeena into believing that it was the Society that betrayed her. She is given an opportunity to join the Immaculate Circle and gain vengeance against the Sovereign Court. Lady Morilla loses all contact with her at this point, and believes that she was caught and killed.

- The “Taldan dagger” that the Taldor faction is supposed to retrieve for bonus prestige was altered to be the Scion's Dagger relic. It would later be stolen from the Pathfinders (either by Lady Deckland or by Chalfon Dalsine, who takes it from Baron Jacquo) and given to the Immaculate Circle, which is how it comes to appear in The Twilight Child.

- Players started this at level 2. No reason for this besides my and the party's general distaste for level 1 fragility.

- The canonical date of events is moved to 4708 AR to be 10 years before the events of Songbird, Scion, Saboteur. The reasons for this will be clearer with the rest of the changes.

- Both the encounters with the militia and the guards at the Dalsine manor were organised to play along with the social combat structure I used with Lady Deckland. All in all it played fairly similarly to skill challenges, which worked fairly well at keeping the pace.

- The leader of the surviving Cult of the Dawnflower members is Zenaida Tandleos, leader of Oppara’s Sarenite church from Temples of the Inner Sea. I did this to have her be an eventual asset in Book 6 of the prologue (the life debt she owes them ended up getting used to have her cast resurrection on Kalbio).

- I added a slightly more detailed Opparan sewer sequence that included encounters with a slithering pit and an onyvolan. I did this mostly to replace the spider encounter (one of my players is an arachnophobe) and to use these interesting creatures since I don’t use random encounters (one of the PCs is also known for their large hat, which happened to be a very fortunate coincidence for me). One of my players inspected the hat the onyvolan was wearing, so I quickly fluffed that is had the name “Adella” embroidered inside as a little bit of extra foreshadowing.

- Charito (the Sarenite who reveals that she may have leaked into to Chalfon) was reflavoured to be a servant of a lesser branch of the Vernisant family. I did this specifically because one of my players is a noble scion of Vernisant and also a Sarenite. Charito was his nurse as a child, which is where he learned about Sarenrae. She also alludes to her lady and Chalfon having an affair, which will come into play in how the Vernisant PC ends up “inheriting” a certain Dalsine estate.

- The influence that convinced Chalfon to orchestrate his cousin’s death is changed to be “The Immortal Duke” (ie Duke Lotheed). Chalfon’s diary and ring reveal that he was an aspiring member of the Immaculate Circle and was acting on their behalf (though the reason is left unclear to the PCs, who can find nothing about the Circle or the Immortal Duke beyond them being some secret organisation, which are a dime a dozen in Taldor).

- The Dalsines at the time of this adventure are the keepers of Songbird Hall in Meratt, and Baron Jacquo is the owner of the Betony Estate (naturally renamed the Dalsine estate). Baron Jacquo is detailed to be the only son of Count Theollo Dalsine. The reason Duke Panivar arranged for Chalfon’s actions was to ensure that Count Dalsine would have no heirs, so that upon his death stewardship of Songbird Hall would shift to the Lotheeds. Martella’s father would discover Panivar’s immortality by investigating the circumstances of his family’s sudden good fortune.

- After Chalfon is defeated, the PCs are invited by Lady Morilla to go to Meratt with her for the funeral and to pay their respects to Count Dalsine, where they encounter the nobles from book 2 of the AP. This was a mostly open-ended sequence where the players could get various bits of foreshadowing and more knowledge about the various families (including the Lotheeds).

- In addition to the Meratt nobility, Count Orlundo Zespire (who is a friend to Count Dalsine) is present, and the PCs appearance at this funeral is what impresses him to consider their aid some years later.

- Baron Araig Telus is present at the funeral. He was a close friend (and possibly lover) of Jacquo’s, and takes his loss poorly. Soon after the funeral, he secludes himself in his estate. Around this time, he has an encounter with the Sisters of Indulgent Dreams, and is cursed. His lack of social appearances is blamed on his mourning over Jacquo’s death, though in reality the curse is more to blame.

- The Sisters of Indulgent Dreams arrived at the Lotheed estate soon after the funeral on Duke Panivar’s orders to arrange for Count Theollo’s discrete assassination in 4709 AR.

- Duke Panivar and Duchess Veleto Lotheed (at least, her facsimile) are present at the funeral. This is the most direct interaction with a member of the Circle the players will have before the final book of the AP. I did use it as an opportunity to impress upon them his power (he used time shift at one point during the scene to prevent a minor inconvenience; the level of magic was beyond what the players could readily identify).

- Baron Nicolaus Okerra and his wife Baroness Nirvenna Okerra are present at the funeral. Nirvenna recently gave birth to their daughter Selli, and Baron Nicolaus is considering retirement in order to spend time with their newborn daughter. Nirvenna would die in 4716 AR.

- Dame Parthenna Crabbe is present at the funeral, and is giving advice to Nirvenna about being a mother, having had her own daughter a few years back.

- I did also have the scene of a young Bartelby taunting Martella here (I specifically used the mud slinging image from the front matter of book 2 as a reference), though I realise now that they would have been too old for that scene to occur at this stage. Perhaps I could have introduced them as relatively young adults here instead.

- I intend to have Lord Chalfon Dalsine appear as a petitioner or outsider of some sort in Duskfathom.

- More of an emphasis is placed on getting the information for Princess Eutropia than on the Shining Crusade details.
- Marquess Charlotte Deschamps makes an appearance as a member of the Pathfinder Society’s more covert branch (and as another liaison to Princess Eutropia), and offers the PCs suggestions about how they can better sneak into the library undetected. At this stage, she is the wife of a Taldan Senator.
- The attendant to the library that checks up on them is Kathann Zalar, still a young inexperienced clerk and not yet a full-fledged Lion Blade. She comes to realise that the visitors were up to something after their departure, and her investigation leads her to discovering the Princess Eutropia was the one responsible for the infiltration of the vault. This is what sparked her forming her eventual alliance with the Princess.
- There is a book outlining a great deal of information about the infamous lich Tar-Baphon (this is normally part of the Cheliax faction’s mission). The book appears to have recently been copied. This was done by Celeena Deckland, who recently infiltrated the Library in order to retrieve her own means of immortality to join the Immaculate Circle.
- The Band of the Crusader’s Alliance was once held in the Library of the Lion, but has been stolen by the time the PCs have come here.
- Glorymane has a recollection of many historical figures, including some of the members of the Immaculate Circle. In my game, the players didn’t dig into this.

- I did keep the Worldwound aspect of the goal in here, but mostly because my group has also been playing Wrath of the Righteous, so it was relevant to the grander lore of our Golarion. I like to make easter egg mentions of other APs we’ve done throughout my games, since we’ve established that they’re all part of the same canon and I’m a sucker for continuity nods.

- Count Orlundo Zespire is present during the briefing, having remembered the PCs and Lady Morilla from the Dalsine funeral. He is the one that calls upon the Sovereign Court to help him in the first place.
- Calbio of Breezy Creek is present in the museum, having been contracted to create a tapestry for the museum. (I actually forgot to implement this one at the time, which is kind of a shame.)
- If Rasvelg Coalbraid is befriended by the PCs, he offers up the line “Rasvelg Coalbraid attests this one’s sail is sturdy”. This line, if spoken to another Coalbraid in the next book, provides a bonus towards influencing them.
- Several of the items Calhadion has taken from the museum were for the purpose of bribing his way into the Immaculate Circle.
- The pirates mention that while they didn’t know who their benefactor was, on at least one occasion they noticed a man with antlers watching them from the treeline. They suspect fey nonsense or some sort of weird helmet, but this is in fact Count Ghoom keeping an eye on things.

- While I didn’t do it in my game, I think there was a definite opportunity to slide in another Taldan relic link in here. The museum is a perfect spot to place one that either is lost later or is appropriated by Calhadion prior to the PCs arrival.

- I didn’t really change much of anything here, aside from include the link to Rasvelg from the previous book.

- I included an original character during the visit to Torsig’s lodge. This was an ally NPC during my run of Hell’s Rebels who eventually became the Venture Captain for Kintargo. Just another continuity nod.

- I ran this in tandem with the part 1 of Crownfall. Once The Jarlsblood Witch Saga was complete, I started Crownfall, then continued until they were about to watch the Grand Prince’s speech. The next session was with the Sovereign Court, and continued until they departed for the Senate, at which point I suddently switched back to the AP PCs witnessing the massacre, and giving them a few rounds to try and fight/escape, only to be taken out one by one (making each character disappear one by one like that turned out great by the way; my players had no idea what was going on and it played into the panicked mood of the scene perfectly). That session ended with the AP PCs having vanished, leaving things uncertain. Then the next session was the Sovereign Court arriving at the Senate, and defeating the foes. Once Calhadion was beaten, it was back to the AP PCs and shall remain as such for the rest of the game.

- Kathann Zalar is present at the Library of the Lion when they visit, and explains that since their intrusion, her investigations allowed her to build a connection with Princess Eutropia. She commends them on their skills all those years ago, and then departs to the Senate to take her role in ushering the AP PCs into the building.

- Glorymane recognises the PCs and happily speaks to them if they chose to interact.

- Laurisa Tromaine, Glorymane, and the Library of the Lion will get re-used along with Kathann for City in the Lion’s Eye, and may make mention of the events of this and the Library of the Lion scenario.

- I called out the fact that Calhadion’s home in Oppara is the same map as the one for the Arnisant historical residence as being a deliberate choice: Calhadion made his residence to be a replica to further emphasise his association with the hero.

- Because the party had some trouble with the fight against the Brotherhood of Silence agents, I had the poisoned Ionnia drag herself to Calhadion’s office and procure a neutralise poison potion for herself as well as a “control rod” with which to override the golem’s order of not attacking the Brotherhood agents. It took her several rounds to get there though, so it was mostly in the event that the PCs weren’t able to turn things around.

- The documents in Vernisant’s safe included a letter from Duchess Adella (which I did write out) giving him instructions for the Exaltation Massacre. It mentions that Al-Jakri’s insurgents will be present (and later killed so as to use them as a patsy for the massacre, helping further push the war with Qadira position Pythareus is going for). She also specifically calls out Lady Deckland and her grudge against Lady Morilla and the Sovereign Court. She concludes her message with a warning that he not fail like he did in Ridonport, should he wish to join the Circle’s ranks.

- During the gala itself, the AP PCs didn’t have much of a chance to speak with Calhadion (he dismisses them out of hand as having something more important to attend to). Instead, they had an opportunity to see him having changed from parade armour to full plate not long before the Grand Prince’s speech.

- Karina Deckland was replaced with Celeena. By this point Celeena is fully under the Duchess of Blood’s influence and has apparently taken on some qualities that suggest she attempted to attain lichdom. I left the lichdom part vague, particularly since these PCs in my game were not particularly knowledgeable. I also used this to justify how she would know the player’s tactics and respond in kind.

- I replaced Celeena’s devil minions with troops (specifically the dottari troops from Song of Silver). There were two assassin troops (one of which could be dispersed through social combat if the players chose to do so) and one Lion Blades troop to assist the players in the event that things got too rough (the Lion Blades used the inquisitor troop statblock so that they could provide healing).

- Calhadion kills Lord Kastner as the PCs arrived in the Arcade of Triumphs after defeating Celeena. I did this because I killed off all the NPCs that the AP PCs failed to influence during the gala (plus it made for good dramatic effect).

- Following the end of part 2 of Crownfall, I had the AP PCs stay with the Sovereign Court, and participate in the discussion of what to do with Kalbio (more accurately, the one player with a strong investment in Kalbio was able to overhear the Sovereign Court talk about it). This was so that the players could have their characters from the AP push their choice of whether to revive him or not to the Sovereign Court characters, who had the means to do it but hadn’t met him and so would have no significant reason to get involved. It helped that the player in question had made her AP character be the former servant of her prologue character, so the rapport was already there.

- Zenaida Tandleos remembers her debt to the PCs from The Dalsine Affair, and will gladly revive any of the PCs or another character (namely Kalbio) if asked.

- The help Lady Morilla provides with the Dignified Repository takes the form of her sending one of the Sovereign Court characters to scout. The effects are otherwise the same. Conveniently in my game the only Sovereign Court PC who was mostly unharmed after the fight was a Ninja, so their role in being a scout and discretely thinning the herd made perfect sense.

- I added an extra sequence where after the AP PCs got through the entire Dignified Repository fighting only Mr. Smiles and Wyssilka (they were extremely effective in their disguise/stealth approach), the now healed up Sovereign Court group came back and swept through the remaining grunts throughout the building. It was a way to take care of all the remaining enemies quickly while also giving the players a bit of catharsis in the form of being way over-levelled. I may have also played “X Gon’ Give It To Ya” as the combat music.