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***MAJOR Spoilers for BOTH Ustalav adventure paths below, careful if you plan to play either Strange Aeons or Carrion Crown***
A few years ago, I ran Carrion Crown for my group, which was the first time we made it all the way through a full 6 Volume AP, and had a blast. After a couple other excursions to Cheliax, we're back in Ustalav for Strange Aeons. But as I read through the books, I can't help but feel some strong similarities from the Big Bad perspective - a maniacal and egotistical wealthy mastermind who's not much of a combat threat on his own terms, but is always one step out of reach of a direct confrontation until he activates Armageddon. Granted that's a somewhat common trope of Fantasy, but given the similar setting it hit a little too close to CC for my tastes.
I started brainstorming how I could differentiate it a bit - not to the point where I'm going to abandon the 'chase-style' plot line, but to at least make the villain a bit different.
My thoughts are along the lines of the following, but if anyone else has gone through a similar exercise, I'm very curious!!
Lowls has been dead (if not physically, mentally/spiritually) since he left town at the start of the AP. He certainly was not a good guy (as evidenced by keeping slaves and ruling his lands with an iron fist) but things took a significant turn after he went to the Dreamlands. It was not just a coincidence that the Yellow King fragment which broke off from his journey to the Mad Poet is aloof but overall friendly - Xhamen-Dor purposefully ripped the innocent intellectual curiosity away from Lowls and left it locked in the Dreamlands, leaving a massive void for Xhamen-Dor to fill and leaving the Egotistical and Fearful sides of Lowls remaining.
While the AP references a 'seed' infesting Lowls, and by the end referencing them as a 'merger', I'm going to make it a bit more direct, adding a couple of points (and some heavy foreshadowing/hints) where the PCs can perform the Dream Ritual again and go to other places in the Dreamlands where Xhamen-Dor ripped the other two 'facets' of Lowl's mind asunder. Perhaps the Egotistical/Power Hungry shard can be encountered in the Mystereum, while maybe the Fearful (Why gather power if you're not afraid of something you need to be powerful against?) side was left in the Parchlands at the end of Book 4 to whither in agony forever.
By the end of the arc, I feel this makes Lowls' tale into more of a tragedy than someone who just was power-hungry (and conveniently out of reach) for 5 books of the AP and then was consumed. And while I might need to more heavily introduce the link between Xhamen-Dor and the PCs earlier to keep them motivated to stay on the hunt after they find the last 'fragment' of Lowls, I feel it gives the through-line of the villain enough of a different feeling to to our old friend Adivion Adrissant, who also spent 5 books just out of reach before merging with something to become a super-BBEG in Book 6.
Thoughts? Other watchpoints? (I've only skimmed the books and haven't started playing yet, so may be missing details) Other ways you've tackled this problem (whether or not you played CC?)
You might want to tweak the details of what the PC's did for Lowls, and how he sacrificed them. The story as written paints him as kind of an a&!&&%~. The key point is why he chose to do it; since the sacrifice is the big turning point for him(and the point where he most directly hurt the PC's) so hitting the right note there will probobly determine how the PC's eventually see him.
That bing said, I like this change; it makes Lowls a more interesting character. you can use his jornal in book 2 to help illistrait his changing behavior/mindset.
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In my campaign, it's Weiralai that the PCs believe is behind what's happened to them. She's the one that brought them to Lowls and I've laid down hints and weird behaviour from Weiralai at Iris Hill now that the PCs have mostly got their memories back. They suspect that she has played some part in manipulating them and making them into different people - they question the things they did in their returned memories since much of it doesn't match their current personalities. Similarly, they suspect that she's somehow manipulating Lowls too. You could do something similar to help make Lowls into a tragic figure.