I'm probably going to have to modify Wells of Darkness pretty extensively to keep things PC-centric. Am I alone in thinking so?
I've really liked everything I've seen in STAP so far - which is why this seemed to jump out at me. This "adventure" looked an awful lot like "go here, talk to this succubus, go there, talk to this succubus-queen (or possibly two if you get mislead), get a hint about some evil wizardess you're going to have to talk to..."
If a Player Character reaches 19th level, he or she should be entitled to something a little more satisfying than playing second fiddle to a parade of NPCs. I just don't see my players hanging around swapping war stories about all those negotiations they made with various NPCs who seem to hold the upper hand. And with Iggwilv - who, it has apparently been made clear on other threads, will be much too powerful for the PCs to defeat when they meet her - Orcus, and others on the way, it looks like we're about to get more PC-limelight stolen by chatty bad guys. Oh boy.
And this from a guy who has been waiting for Orcus vs. Demogorgon since third grade.
Finally, this doesn't seem much like the Abyss as I understand it. I know "defeat" doesn't always mean "Kill," but when did we cheapen "defeat" to the point where "interact" is now good enough? An ECL 20 reward for talking to Red-Shroud is a real interesting way to learn your next fighter bonus feat. I understand that not every demon should be trying to kill the PCs immediately, but all this chit-chat seems tedious and strangely out of character. Save some negotiation for the nine hells, will ya?
Caveats:
(1) We haven't run it yet. We're not even close.
(2) The mounted demons attacking during a Styx flood looks neat.
(3)I really liked "Diplomacy." It isn't the amount of non-combat solutions that bothers me (altough, as mentioned, it seems out of character in the abyss), it's that this feels like those "final chapters" (Warhammer: Storm of Chaos, Deadlands: Wasted West, Torg, etc.) where we see how much face time we can give all these big, important NON-players. Yawn.