My players wanted to finish Doomsday Dawn despite the playtest being over. We skipped part 5 because it sounded like a slog, but "pirate gala" sounded fun af to folks.[https://paizo.com/threads/rzs42d4m?Red-Flags-Feedback] I didn't put in the awesome work Lyee did rewriting and expanding on the adventure, though I think they have some great ideas I might steal for my next session. [/url]. In particular I like their idea on lowering DCs to make high level characters feel more competent.
But not being shackled to the survey results liberated me to adapt a lot of stuff on the fly. For example, while the party mostly got failures or successes on the pre-gala gather information checks, the two bards immediately started hobnobbing at the party, which served as a fine way to get bits of information they had missed, like the motivation behind the party and Blackguard's Revenge. The party made lots of friends with guests, staff, and guards, and even though they were largely inconsequential NPCs the bards felt satisfied with their interactions.
One of the bards asked a fellow bartender about a woman who went by K he wanted to make an appointment with, implying it was for a sexual dalliance of some sort. Which made for an amusing intro for the bartender to mention Kasbeel the contract devil.
And because it's essentially a one shot, I didn't feel constrained by things like WBL considerations either. The rogue/pirate decided to gamble at the high stakes card table, and wagered his dagger of venom. As such, I ruled the stakes were a 5th level item. I had him roll Deception against the perception DC of a Masterful Rogue, and he won a hat of the magi, glamour runestone, and a bunch of trinkets.
Other big developments included the rogue deciding to steal some of the tributed treasure from the Blackguard's Revenge, which worked as much more deserved way to get the curse of Besmara then critically failing a gather information check. The sorcerer recognized Necerion off the Nemesis's description, but the Nemesis has yet to be in the same room as Necerion so the party hasn't been made. (Which is good. Her secret disguise check was abysmal and he WILL recognize her.) The nemesis also started a rumor the Night Heralds were coming to steal from Whark-- we will see what effect this has on proceedings.
They seem to have wrapped up their individual party shenanigans and gathered enough info to try and approach Whark as a group now, potentially trying to barter for the Last Theorem. No idea what will happen next, but it was a pretty grand time.