Iron Gods - The Divinity Drive in PFS mode

[Upaynao]

I offered to run book 6 of Iron gods in PFS mode for a yet-to-tbe determined group of people. But as I'm reading up on it, I have questions not about the content and its transition ot PFS, but with teh setup.

To me, if you have not played the preceding 5 books in either mode with the character you are bringing in, you shouldn't be getting the benefits of items found in those books. However, one doubles as a plot item and should come along with a number of sub-items that define the last area.

Spoiler:

Cassandalee's AI Core is an item that is not just plot-related, it also brings some very tangible benefits. I applaud that in these sorts of adventures, but I struggle to deal with it and the associated cores the PCs should have found on a very basic level. In my view,
if they didn't play it, they don't have it. But i'm afraid of it being too overly harsh.

Furthermore, through their progression they should have come across an item to make their lives a lot easier. [spoiler=Doors are awesome!] If they do not have a prismatic casrd, I can already see the series of wrenched portals left in the player's wake. Should that be given to them? Or should they just hope to find one within the ruin? (which they do find about 1/2-way through, if they look around.)

What are everybody's thoughts?

[Ascalaphus]

If you skip straight to the ending of any adventure path there'll be things that make no sense at all. Why do these players want to go right to the end?

I think you can tell them without spoilers that it will be problematic.