I'm not sure if this is the right place for this post, but I don't know where else I would put it.
Spoilers for the AP will be below, so if you haven't read it yet/ don't want spoilers, turn away now.
The ironfang invasion looks amazing, and I plan on running it some day for a group of my friends. The Nirmathas/Molthune in the default setting is another thing I happen to be a fan of.
Of the two nations (especially with how I plan on presenting them), I'm more partial to Molthune, and I have the feeling my players will be as well from what I know about them. I think our entire group would have a lot more fun acting out Molthune's tale of the Ironfang invasion, and what lies beyond that. But for now, I only want to focus on the Ironfang invasion.
Even though the invasion really kicks off in Nirmathas, am I correct in understanding that Azaersi wants both of the rival nations and even chunks of Lastwall as icing on the cake? If that's so, I was thinking about kicking off the adventure with the PC's being members of fort Ramgate (or possibly another fort on the border), or members of a small town that sprang up adjacent to the fort, seeking protection under its walls. Not all the PC's have to be members of Molthune's military, but that'll be encouraged. Overall, they can't want to actively subvert Molthune, which I don't think will be a problem.
The game would open similarly to the standard IFI: a town being taken and the PC's running for their lives. The changes would be:
1. Starts off with Hobs capturing a full fledged fortress with the help of the Onyx key
2. The PC's- or at least some of them- get to watch as Molthune's Lord General of the Border: Resper Cyrno, who the PC's will know is a legendary warrior in her own right, gets cut down by Azaersi personally. Introduce the big bad as being wayyyyyy outside their pay grade and help encouraging them to run away even more, while also taking the characters outside of their comfort zone as the chain of command gets trashed and discipline breaks down from an unexpected and overwhelming onslaught.. She won't be the only officer killed.
The reason for taking the fort is ultimately to throw a rench into Molthune's war machine, so they won't be able to as effectively march into Nirmathas, finish her troops off, then try to take Nirmathas for herself. She might organize raids on some of the other Lord Generals as well, fully intending to shatter the chain of command which Molthune's heavily leans on.
As the fort falls, the PC's run around Not-Phander and try to save who they can before booking it into the countryside with enemies hot on their tails.
In the longer term, Molthune is going to find out about the obsidian key, and after seeing just how effective it is at conquering things, they will do just about anything to get a hold of it. After that, maybe they go and conquer Druma. I don't know, that all comes later.
Anyways... the point of making this thread is me wanting to try and convert the initial bits of the AP to be Molthune centric. I have some other things involved for later in the game, but at least initially, I will be using Trail of the Hunted as a guide for my own sake. Does anyone have any advice or feedback on how I might even start to go about this?