I have just recently started the AP with my group. We are just starting Cult of Cinders now. I have read through the whole adventure path and I don't really see much in the way of building up the main "villain".
My problem is that some of my players are familiar enough with Golarion that anything too explicit will be picked up immediately (not too many named gold dragons in the setting). I think one already suspects after reading Voz's notes.
I guess my ultimate question is: Is there any good foreshadowing I missed while reading through? Are the players only supposed to be aware of Mengkare in the final book? How I envisioned it playing out is that they would be aware of a villain and slowly becoming disgusted with what his "lackeys" are doing until they meet him and find him to be much more complex. Any advice or notes would be appreciated.
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Book 2 definitely feels more like an introduction to Dahak as a threat in the world and doesn't feature a lot of Mengkare. Rather it shows why Mengkare is so focused on stopping him.
That said, I've spent my energies making Lammond Breachton appear to be somehow the truly dangerous one (which is true). My players are in book 3 right now, and after the Scarlet Triad made mention that they can't make any moves of Breachill due to their "benefactor", my players assumed that Breachton was somehow behind the Triad.
Personally, I would let book 2 be all about Belmazog and the cult. Let Dahak be a big, looming threat. Once the Triad gets more involved, start steering them towards something being strange with Breachton before slowly unveiling Mengkare behind it all. It's a lot easier for players to just move that knowledge from one alias to another.
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I agree that Dahak should be the pressing threat through the adventure. However, I don't really see a lot of foreshadowing for Mengkare other than the Scarlet Triad that he is not really involved with at this point. I guess, I just fear that my players will pop through the portal into Mengkare's lair and realize that Mengkare is involved only then.
The idea with Lammond Breachton being implied as part of the ST is a good idea through, thanks!
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I am not sure the story is well served by revealing Mengkare early. The adventure kind of hinges on him being unaware of what the Triad is up to. If the PCs learn that the nominally good leader of a Nation is financing a bunch of slavers, there's a very real chance they inform Mengkare through some method or another, at which he point he becomes cheesed off and comes down on the Triad himself, completely destroying at least an entire book. It just doesn't seem worth the risk.
Even if your players know about Mengkare, there's less reason for their character to do so and act on it.
That being said, I haven't read book 6 yet, so the finer points of its connective tissue might be lost on me.
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I made some changes for my game so that Mengkare would show up earlier than the very tail end of Book 5.
Lamond Breachton is Mengkare's human form. Mengkare has been slowly using his power to reach into the aiudara network to keep tabs on Dahak, so he can manifest himself as a projected image in the waystations. He appeared to my PCs at the end of each book after the first to:
Cult of Cinders - Congratulate the PCs for destroying the Cinderclaw and to ask them to not continue their journey. Ultimately, Mengkare has an outcome in mind for this entire scenario that is disrupted by the PCs meddling presence.
Tomorrow Must Burn - My PCs found out Breachton was Mengkare while infiltrating a masquerade ball run by the Scarlet Triad in this adventure. The PCs tried to not let on that they knew who he was, but he dropped the pretense and told them to not adventure any farther or else.
Fires of the Haunted City - Mengkare set the PCs against the Promise of Fire from the start of Book 5 as a "if you're such great adventurers, just save the world now, then" scenario. Candlaron's ghost helped them a bit.
The Scarlet Triad's slave trade is known to Mengkare. It pays the bills for the real project, which is stealing perfect humans/half-elves of all age and stripe to bring them to Promise for reconditioning. He allows it as "the ends justify the means" and most kidnapping specialists are not good-aligned. After all, without people to sacrifice during the invocation, the world ends. The need of the many outweighs the suffering of the few.
Lastly, the gaggle of NPCs my party has recruited from each location went to the Mwangi Expanse during Book 4 to research the Anima Invocation. They discovered it could be used in a less desperate, pure form, but the problem was that the guy investigating the ritual was invited to Hermea. It's pretty open that Hermea has guardians aplenty so it's impossible to get there by most magical or mundane means-- save the waygate. So now they're headed to confront the Triad in Katapesh as a way to get the waystation key to get to Hermea.