I've been thinking of connecting RotRL 1 & 2 with Curse of the Crimson Throne by having the clues from Aldern's house lead to Korvosa. This poses a few questions for me:
1. How well do you think this will work?
2. Do you foresee any trouble areas?
3. Since I'm running a 1 PC (Bard 5/rogue 1) campaign, should I anticipate particular problems with scaling these adventures to mid-level?
Are you thinking that the party would do Burnt Offerings, then the Skinsaw Murders, then Edge of Anarchy, then Edge of Anarchy straight through to Crown of Fangs, skipping the Hook Mountain Massacre through Spires of Xin-Shalast completely?
1. This could definitely work, at least with a normal adventuring party. They'd be about level five or so after the Misgivings, so they'd be a little tough for Gaedren Lamm. This is easily solved by having some of his tougher underlings (who are away when the first-level PCs take him out as scripted) hanging out, possibly accompanied by some faceless stalkers among the children, or maybe even a totenmaske.
2. They'll need different motivations to help Zellara, but by that point a GM should know what pushes PCs' buttons. A lot of encounters in EoA are socially-based, so the higher levels shouldn't make too much difference. Your big problem might be at the end of volume seven when there's a cut scene that should be narrated by your relatively high-level characters might want to affect. After that the path should progress fairly smoothly.
3. I have no clue. What do you usually do to convert a scenario intended for four PCs to be run with only one?
With the 1 PC, I use an encounter calculator, 'cause I can't always tell who she's going to use. She's got a crew of Paizo goblins held loosely under control. She's got two (slightly reduced in level) cohorts from taking the Leadership feat (a fighter 4 and a sorcerer 3/expert 1). She's got a heal-bot cleric 3. She's got a Pseudodragon. It virtually always depends on how many red shirts she takes with her. (I anticipate some scaling, but I also don't want the 1 PC to die, so I always add a level to the recommended levels guideline of Paizo modules for her.)
Basically, anticipate the Bard 5/Rogue 1 with her two cohorts.
There's no way I'd abstract the journey of goblins from Sandpoint to Korvosa, but that might just be my GMing style.
I think you'll be fine. You have some work ahead of you, but that doesn't seem to be a problem for you. :)
Speaking from experience, a lot of the CotCT material is easy to uplevel, or can even be run without upleveling it at all.
I think my main problem with the hybrid AP you propose is that RotRL #1 and #2 may convince your PC to bond with Sandpoint. Moving her to Korvosa, and then prying her out of Korvosa again for CotCT #4, might lead to player frustration and disconnect--I know it would for us. But you'll know your own player best.
I'd suggest immediately introducing some allied NPCs in Korvosa, to avoid a PC reaction of "This city is a hellhole, time to leave." Running a small side adventure with the Korvosan pseudodragons could be helpful in that regard--rooting out a nest of imps or something like that.
Mary
Speaking from experience, a lot of the CotCT material is easy to uplevel, or can even be run without upleveling it at all.
I think my main problem with the hybrid AP you propose is that RotRL #1 and #2 may convince your PC to bond with Sandpoint. Moving her to Korvosa, and then prying her out of Korvosa again for CotCT #4, might lead to player frustration and disconnect--I know it would for us. But you'll know your own player best.
I'd suggest immediately introducing some allied NPCs in Korvosa, to avoid a PC reaction of "This city is a hellhole, time to leave." Running a small side adventure with the Korvosan pseudodragons could be helpful in that regard--rooting out a nest of imps or something like that.
Mary
I get that, but she's been pretty nomadic thus far: Dundraville (of DCC 0), Saltmarsh, Falcon's Hollow, Freeport, and a few others have been visited. Her bard grandmother will be living in Sandpoint once she gets there. Her home seems to be her ship.