Sasserine nee Alhaster (AoW and STAP spoilers)

[Fletch]

Here's an idea that popped into my head that I wanted to toss out there.

What if The Prince of Redhand and Dawn of a New Age were set in Sasserine instead of Alhaster?

As written, I thought it might be disappointing for the PCs to become rulers of a domain at the end of AoW and never be seen again, so I thought that their legacies could continue if that city were the starting point for the next Adventure Path.

Then a lot of other ideas fell into place.

Sasserine is just emerging from the yoke of a despotic ruler. The written history is that the Scarlet Brotherhood freed the city, but it only takes a change in text to make it the AoW PCs who ended the tyrany by defeating the Prince.

By putting these two AoW chapters in the Amedio region, it adds to the growing history of the developing area. If you're really sold on the idea of making the Paths more Amedio-centric, you could even have Redgorge take the place of Diamond Lake and let the new Path start directly in the shadow of their former stomping grounds, although I’m not sure how you’d work in the “Free City”.

It's right next door to the Spire of Long Shadows, so there's little justification needed to explain why L* is involved with Kyuss or why Bucknarde came to Sasserine (Alhaster) looking for more information after exploring the Spire. The only weakness is that it loses a lot of the impact of seeing the Spire in Alhaster at the end. ("You mean they moved it 300 yards to the city? AMAZING!")

If your AoW party becomes the nobles of Sasserine (ie the new Dawn Council), and one of them was a total scoundrel, HIS daughter could be Rowyn. Hahahahahaha!

Any flaws? How would you add to this idea?

With this idea, I’m really tempted to also replace Diamond Lake with Redgorge and let this Path start off where the last one ended (just as I want the STAP to start where AoW ended), but I’m not sure how best to change that out. Blackwall Keep could fit in the area with little adjustments (swamp…jungle…what’s the difference?), but how would the “Free City” fit in? Sasserine seems like the most convenient stand in for that, but I wouldn’t want to introduce it before its time and lose the shock value of this dark, dismal city. Cauldron might work, but I’d need to add an arena. Maybe after ‘Blackwall Keep’, the party just travels to Greyhawk as written to see Allustan’s former mentor. I’d be sort of incredulous that the Kyuss cult just happens to have plans there too, though.

Time for more thought, I reckon.