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Preparing book2, I think there are a couple of elements there that won't work well with my group. Some parts of it, including the feeling, are great, but some others feel a bit disperse, or just fill up encounters to cover XP budgets.
I find the Missing Magistrate a loss oportunity for a bit of investigation. My group loved the small scene of doppleganger infiltration in the Chapel, and they are craving for more mysteries like that. As presented, the Mising Magistrate is not a detective/investigation story, it's a dungeon delve. You know that they killed him as soon as the first Zombie Juju attacks you. Same goes with the kidnappings, there's little to investigate. To change that, the Fortress defenders need to be more human, so it's possible to socially interact with some city guards and whatnot to learn about what happened. It also need some misdirection, an extra suspect or two, and an atmosphere of mystery. I might drop some hints about the Halfling Alchemist, or other NPCs, so they go and talk with them, interacting more with the townsfolks, and also making the solution less straightforward.
I also think that the Skum (or Deep One?) angle should be played more, including the fact that at least a few Thrushmoor citizens are hybrids or have skum (or deep one?) taint. Many players, including mine, have read Shadows over Innsmouth, or played Chaosium's adventure Escape from Innsmouth. Even for those that don't, this is an interesting thing to explore. Are all those who are tainted evil? Could you eradicate them just because what they are, not what they do? What if they are not evil yet but will end being transformed anyways? It's an interesting dilemma, in particular with a Paladin and a no-non-sense Inquisitor of harsh reputation in the group.
As a pet peeve, I want to include the book cover into the book (so, a Hag)
With all if that in mind,which caters more to my group, this is my own Thrushmoor Terror backstory:
Haserton Lowlz III marries Nemira Zandalus. She is a student of the occult, and sister of Ulver Zandalus. One of her suppliers for occult books, Clymes Prett, falls in love with her. Feeling that she doesn’t love him, he searches for and finds an old woman called Daridela (a Green Hag druid) who sells him an Elixir of Love, that he uses to charm her. After discovering it, Haserton III orders the execution of Clymes, and becomes harsh and brutal with his beatiful wife.
Wanting revenge, the ghost of Clymes manage to contact Nemira, and tells her of Daridela. Nemira gets convinced that her only path to peace, is to kill his brutal husband. With the Hag’s help, she prepares a ritual to infect her husband with a mortal disease, that the Hag’s calls Xamen Dor’s Phage. But something goes wrong during the ritual,and although she manages to infect her husband, she becomes an eldritch abomination in the process.
Her son, Count Lowlz becomes increasingly interested with occultism and esoteric books to find a cure for his mother, burning his money trying to get the most valuable tomes and travelling to distant places to learn from strange masters. He discovers the existence of Xamen Dor, and the Elder Myths, because of Daridela, who is trying to follow the steps of an old Hag legend, the Briarstone Witch. Daridela herself is devout to Xamen Dor. Because of the Hag's influence, after learning of Xamen Dor, Haserton Lowlz becomes mad, and he ultimate goal becomes to free the elder god. He learns about the Star Stelae, and Neruzavin, and tries to learn more travelling to the Dreamlands, thanks to a ritual he learns in his mother’s occultism book collection. This journeys would later lead to sacrificing the PCs to the Mad Poet.
Daridela is, in fact, member of a coven of Great Old Ones whorshipping hags. The two other members are a Storm Hag and a Sea Hag.
Using the Coven contacts, Lowlz makes deals with otherworldly and supernatural allies, including the Denizen of Leng Weiralai, who gives him slaves and occult books, and the Skum (reskinned to Deep ones), courtesy of the Coven's Sea Hag. Thanks to his own esoteric network, he gets help from his alchemist buddy, Miacknian Mun, who gives hime regents and information about the Necronomicon, and he also meets some Cultists of Hastur, (Melisann, Asa and Daelene Spence) who start infiltrating Thrushmoor with lower level cultists and initiates, and start empowering the Star Stelae with kidnapped sacrifices. The Magistrate is suspicious of this kidnappings not being just random crimes, but he has no proof whatsoever. The Coven and the Cult promote deep ones hybrids and tainted humans to places where they can learn about the city secrets, as well as Hastur cultists. They infiltrate the city guard, and they also recruit a few decadent members of Thrushmoor high society.
When the Cult network of spies discover that Magistrate Pallit has asked for help to Royal Accuser Omari, the Count decides to leave the town and start his journey to Neruzavin. Then he leaves the PC in Briarstone Asylum, and In Search of Sanity begins.
Meanwhile, the Thrushmoor Coven and the Cult of Hastur replace the constable with a Soulsliver, and kidnap the magistrate, sacrificing him to the King in Yellow. Strange lights are seen in the Star Stelae that’s farther from the town, as the Hags and the cultists do their rites.
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Things I'll change, encounterwise:
Daridella is not going to be a human druid, but a Green Hag Druid. Still fungus-themed, and living in the Grotto of the Witch. The Grotto will not be found as soon as the book suggests. The Sleepless detectives won't have any clue about it, and the PC will have to find it later, once they follow the tracks of some kidnapped guys or discover some other clues. Still will have X-D altar and such. Probably better clues about what is happening in Iris Hall.
Will add some rumors about chantings and lights in the Star Stelae, so the PC can follow those clues and find the cultists by themselves, hanging around with one of the Hags. After that, it's when they'll be ambushed by cultists and, later, Risi.
In Fort Hailcourse, the things will be less extreme. There are normal guards there, instead of the Juju Zombies, just that the Constable is now Tilsitari and gives them misleading orders. In the cellars, there are some Skum and a Sea Hag, but they enter there through the well in D21. Tilsitari keeps the normal guards out of the cellar.
In Iris Manor, I'll replace the Kuru with the Juju Zombies. But I'm going to find a way to move Asa and Daelene out of the Manor, maybe moving them to the Silver Wagon (there are two cultists there in the best room). I want them to interact sooner with them, and try to avoid combat in the first time they talk to them. They'll work well as suspects of the murder of Magistrate Padgett, but I'll give them a strong and undeniable alibi. Will give some false clues about New Chapel's priest (gonna have another one, besides the priestess), maybe about some detective in the Sleepless Agency, also about Sentilar Ruoy, Prewyn Noddar, Lenk Warris and Lewis Hasok.
I'll probably move the Manananggal out of the Manor, as a roaming monster, a random victim of Rumatra (probably the Pharasmin Priestess). The Byakee, the Star Vampire and the Hound of Tindalos will probably be moved to the final fight, with one of them entering combat every few rounds.
That's basically it. I'll remove about half the dungeon delving (Fort Hailcourse, essentially) and add a couple of murders and more social interaction. Will add also a Hag Coven, because I like the cover, and want to use that picture, and will tie Haserton Lowlz to Zandalus (it's his uncle, unknown to many).
Also will give Haserton a bit more depth, as he has now a good reason to dive into forbidden knowledge, to heal her mother. He's beyond salvation anyways, he has been touched by the Elder Mythos and lost his sanity, but the PC don't know that, yet.
Are you looking for feedback?
Having three factions (cult, coven, and Skum) may dilute the story quite a bit. I like a lot of these changes, but try to keep the story focused on a single "horror," in this case the cult and their machinations, as much as you can. The scary thing about a conspiracy is that you never know who could be one of them; it's fun to play that up.
Yes, feedback is always welcome. :)
In fact, one of the goals was to "coordinate" the conspiracy a little bit and give it more consistency. As presented in the book, to me it looks like a bit of random monsters put together. Like, the original druid in the Grotto is randomly there, doing her own things. She has nothing to do with anyone else or the main thread.
Then she sells fungal stuff to Melisenn, who is also there doing her own things, without telling much to Haserton Lowlz.
We have a ghost (Clymes), and an eldritch abomination (Lowlz's mother), but their story is totally unrelated to the conspiracy, or Haserton's quest, which is a big missed oportunity in my opinion. It's a cool story, but it's a sidequest at best. Has nothing to do with the PC, or with the main story.
There are also skum, and kuru, and juju zombies, and Id Oozes, and living topiaries, and some mythos creatures, but all of them seem to be randomly hired from the "hire an evil henchmen" magazine.
My intention is to use the Coven as the driving force of everything that happens in Thrushmoor.
Nemira and Clymes love affair? That's the Coven's work
The weather surrounding Thrushmoor? The Coven, casting Control Weather
The skum/deep ones? The Coven, using their Sea Hag to influence them
Weirelai? The Coven, using dream related coven powers to contact him.
The Cult of Hastur? The Coven, drawing them to the Star Stelae and directing their rites
Haserton Lowlz drive for his own quest? The Coven, influencing him, telling him that he has to get in touch with Xamen Dor to save his mother.
The Coven might or might not be aware of Adrianah's current situation in Carcosa. The players will never know. But the Coven is what made the first move that made all the domino pieces to fall.
But in any case, I like your feedback. Probably would not play the hybrid deep one angle too much.
More about my changes, trying to make this part of the AP more detective-focused.
I told the PCs that the magistrate was murdered when they asked about him in the local inn. I told them that he was murdered, and decapitated, often a sign of proffsional murders to make it harder to raise from the dead and to make it impossible to speak with the dead. He was found dead near one of the Star Stelae. The characters will probably want to investigate that zone, and maybe interview Constable Barawyn and others.
If the PCs use the Sensitive Mind trait for this (which they will, probably, as they have 2 characters with it, but not too soon, as they have used it in the Briarstone Assylum less than a week ago), they'll find how the magistrate was investigating the zone, one of those curious paintings in the walls, when he look at Constable Barawyn's hand, notice something strange there, and take a few steps back. In that moment a keleshite masked guy (my game's version of Risi) shot him with a crossbow and killed him, then move into the scene and decapitate him. Barawyn stood still the whole scene, with a strange grimace in her face.
So the PC then would know for sure what they already suspect: Barawyn's failure to do anything at all is not negligence, but conspiracy. The problem is, there's no one who will believe them, as they don't have any proof, other than an unreliable group of characters that *say* they can see things when they touch objects. It would be interesting to see how they deal with that.