I decided to spice things up a little bit with a bit more dramatic start to Zenith Trajectory. After the Umber Hulk attack, the party gets invited to the Cusp as written, but soon after arriving, the entire Cusp party moves on to the Malachite Fortress, PC's included. The PC's are questioned thoroughly (in a good-natured way) by the nobles at the Cusp, who are enjoying the stories about the party's exploits.
Upon arriving at Zenith's statue, the whole group is served a light picnic style dinner by fashionably dressed waiters. Davked Splintershield is already waiting for the group and starts engaging the PC's in a conversation about his son, Zenith. He says that the "Stormblades" went off to look for Zenith (through the passage to the Underdark from the Malachite Fortress) and he hopes they find signs of him.
Soon after the dinner begins, complete with chamber music, a deep rumble is heard and felt through the cavern. The panicked nobles begin to pack up and leave when the Stormblades emerge from the Underdark, covered in a layer of dust and grime.
"The Underdark shall threaten Cauldron no more!" Annah Taskerhill declares, swiping a glass of wine from a stunned waiter.
"But what of my son?" Davked cries.
"Don't know, old man....he's been gone a decade you know," Todd Vanderboren will reply.
Davked will break down and start sobbing. Celeste will pull the PC's aside and say:
"If you help him...there is another way.....I have heard of a place called the Pit of Seven Jaws many miles north from here."
(I just want to get the players involved with and into the flavor of the City a bit more and I thought I'd try this alternate starting scenario)
What alternate twists to the SCAP have you used to get your players into the adventure a bit more?
I've played up the brutality of the Merc guards. They're real dark. I've also given a slight spoiler to the PC's during the Demonskar Legacy. After the tax announcement, one of the PC's seeks an audience with the lord mayor. The Lord Mayor refuses (believing in assassins). The PC proceeds to break into the Lord Mayor's house, and catch him talking to an elven noble. The PC only heard "I'm the real reason you're still in power..." That was enough for the PC to break his invisibility, get knocked unconscious via spell, and wake up in a dark ally without any gear, but a note about where to get his gear (minus the fines for illegally having lockpicks). That side trek led to the guard barracks, and other bad things. This really made the PC's want to find Alek, taking out a part of the power base of the lord mayor's special advisor.
So, a slightly longer way of getting the PC's to do what is required of the module. They want to take down the lord mayor, but they have to do it legally.
I've also added guilds that I haven't seen in the modules:
Mages of the Arcane Order, Wakers of the Beast Spirit (anti-Gruumsh barbarians & spirit shamans, mainly 1/2 orcs), the Nightsong Guild, and the White Paladin's of Myrlund. I've also included a more worldly view of the Striders of Fharlangn, via a PC ranger 1/2 a continent away in Keoland, but that's another story.
They want to take down the lord mayor, but they have to do it legally.
Interesting twist....I could imagine how my players would react if they had to get a magistrate to sign a search warrant before they could enter the Mayor's house....