Fleshing out the journey to Jorgenfist

[Vertra]

The AP gives several ideas on things the players can find and encounter along the wayto Jorgenfist but I want to add some other things to make the towns themselves seem different. What did other DMs do besides "you arrive in Galduria, its a small town, yada yada. Okay now you are in Wolf's Ear" Etc.. I don't like to gloss over things too much and would like to have some content, even small stuff, to make it feel real.

Spoiler:

In my campaign Nualia has been on the loose for a while and I am thinking about leaving some clues along the way that hint at her return (probably going to place her in the Scribbler's lair as a full fledged succubus instead of the glabrezu. Going to say the Scribbler prayed to lamashtu, and she gave Nualia a vision of where to go). Other than this I was thinking of perhaps having a man and his lycanthrope wife wishing to be escorted to Wolf's Ear to escape the people who have been hunting them.

How else did you spice up this portion of your adventure?

[Thronhel the Outcast]

My players teleported to Wolf's Ear to outrun the giants that carried off Titus Scarnetti and several other sandpoint citizens (their identities were unknown as the town's leaders hadn't finished a head count after the fires and attack). While in Wolf's Ear, they found the local mayor to be a man referred to only as "Papa", running local government out of the first floor of his own residence. He was a filthy, lean man with bestial habits and a litter of seven children playing and fighting in the straw and dirt floor when the PCs met him.
Based off of the fact that Wolf's Ear used to be a lycanthrope haven, I made him a worshipper of Jezelda (the Demon patron of lycanthropes, The Hungry Moon) and a wolf-blood skinwalker (see Blood of the Moon for more info) with an associated cult. While they spoke with Papa, they were warned not to walk the streets alone, as Wolf's Ear still wasn't partial to Magnimar's Slaves (several of them were wearing Cloaks of Magnimar, a magic item I made that combined a Cloak of Elvenkind and Cloak of Resistance +2).
I ran the place as filthy and a little shabby, given the quietly hostile nature of the natives. The friendliest people they met were foreign merchants who were left untouched due to their straddling a major crossing and trade route. Represented were several branches of the Hawk Quah [the Shel'hara'hinowe (Dampfeet), Kala'himbroham (People of the Hill Winds) and the Farfam'winto Haya (Nation of the Old Oath)]. There were also a few dwarven merchants from Janderhoff (that might come in handy for the crown they identify at the Storval Stairs) who were dealing in gold wares, specifically mural-style pectoral pieces, rune-worked pauldrons and rings, with a few clan pennants from major trade clans they intended to sell to far-flung tradesmen to display their familial pride.
The major trade items in Wolf's Ear itself came from trapping (beaver, muskrat and raccoon), smoked game meat and wool.
The cult itself consisted of twenty or so members of the town, all skinwalkers. They maintained an eye on the party during their entire stay in the town, being one of the two reasons they decided they didn't plan on staying long.
Hope that helps, sorry for getting to this a little late.

[William Sinclair]

I'm running "King of the Storval Stairs" as an interim. Basically Mokmorian is attempting to convince the "king" to join the stone giants (thus the reason he is gone when the PC's arrive). Hoping the party waits for the king to return. This'll give a chance for Terkatinus to catch up with the PCs (they teleported WELL ahead of him).

Should be interesting....