Dm needs advice with story

[Arcasus]

Spoilers below if you are a player of a Rise of the Rune lord Campaign AP.

The book gives the traits in how to make your characters involved in sandpoint. I thought that was neat as I read the description and I got the idea of maybe instead of just giving the players traits to make them invested . How about I make them from sandpoint and let them earn traits through a prequel . Plus I’ve ran the story a couple of times and I have two players new to roll 20. I figure hey this will give them time to learn the system before I record it and put it on the internet to look back on.
I ran the beginner box for the new players and had Tsuto and Nuaila be back ups so when they got older , was going to do a time jump , it would really hit home. A player died during the dragon fight and since Nulia was a child I had the fountain in the beginner box set start glowing . This event resurrected the player but also is when nulias angelic traits came out . One of my players is nualia brother so when this event happened he began his transition but it didn’t a 100 percent take over . As the back ground says she begins to get her hair pulled and poked in order to gain tears . Marius ,Nualia’s brother , tries his best to protect her until father tobyn puts his foot down and stops her from leaving the church . The town is hit by a disease , which is a little foreshadowing to COTCT, and the players go out and collect ingredients to stop the plague . They are only able to collect 2/3 which then causes 37 percent of the town to die .
At the end of the session tonight I asked everyone how they felt and thought about the town losing so many people . One of my players said you know we can spin this that the town was sick and a God brought Nualia to save the town . The evil people died from the plague and the good people lived . My players went in an hour rant of how the church could try to use this as leverage to take over the town and how the merchants would fight back. New roads would have to be built . One mentioned how since desna has no main church , to our knowledge, sandpoint under Tobyns rule would be a main church of the religion . He mentioned that since he raised Nulia and shes angelic now he must be doing something right and people would flock to the city in order to see her .
I have some ideas on how I could expand the prequel more before the actually story starts Include : save town, make nualia center of new religion, expand town, put down heratics, expand territory . If anyone has any other app’s, ideas, modules, movies, etc I would love the help. I didn’t think it would make for such a rabbit hole.

[Sunderstone]

I ran Crypt of the Everflame as a prelude, but modified it by starting everyone at -2000 xp (sort of like a 0 level adventure start). I changed/modified certain encounters to balance with the lower levels attained by the end. My goal was to keep them at level 1 or 2 for the beginning of the actual AP.

My changes to Everflame:

Plot Hook-
After a brief introduction, probably at “The Rusty Dragon”, Ameiko Kaijitsu can approach them to look for her missing friend who is overdue from Magnimar by the name of Aldern Foxglove (foreshadowing Aldern, though I skipped the Boar Hunt in actual play as they had already befriended him by saving him here and at the festival). I had Aldern tasked with accompanying the Butterfly shipment on his way back from Magnimar.
Eventually, the party locates Aldern Foxglove on the side of the Long Coast Road a few miles south of Sandpoint, battered and bloody at the edge of the Whisperwood. Foxglove and a few hired men were ambushed by two travelers, an elf named Iramine, and a man known only as Zerren (foreshadowing Caizarlu Zerren from the Sanatorium in the Skinsaw Murders), and a handful of their minions. They forced Foxglove on a detour further into the Whisperwood eventually leading them to the crypt of her former adventuring companions. Aldern and only one wagoner, a man named Roldare, survived. Their wagon (containing the butterflies for the Swallowtail Festival) can be recovered at the crypt entrance without much trouble.

Everflame Prelude changes-
Only one of Foxglove’s party survived, the wagon driver Roldare. The rest were used as fodder for the traps and monsters within. All of Iramine's minions were also killed by the denizens within which required Iramine and Zerren to obtain new "volunteers/fodder". :)
Run “eyes in the dark” and “treacherous hillside”. Wolves will not fight to the death.
Area 1: Change the door on the eastern wall to a secret door (perception DC 20). Roldare accidentally discovered it while fleeing from the skeletons during the initial foray. One of Iramine’s minions lies dead here.
Area 2: Skip the maze and pit traps entirely. Just keep the most direct route heading to the southern junction (to areas 3-5,11).
Area 3: There are 6 bedrolls and some equipment here that belonged to Iramine’s minions. Roldare will be found here.
Area 4: Another dead minion can be found here.
Area 5: Foxglove’s two remaining servants Mortimer and Jasper, were killed here by Zerren on their way out of the crypt to eliminate any witnesses. They rose as Lesser Shadows (ToH 541) due to the residual negative energy when the Midnight Mirror’s wards were bypassed.
Area 11: The trap will spin but the arrows have been spent. A minion’s body can be found here, riddled with arrows. This trap should not reset as it's a possible TPK here.
Area14: Possibly remove one Giant Frog.
Area 21: Remove the Guardian Statues.
Area 22: Possibly reduce Asar to a normal Skeletal Champion (Bestiary 252). Kassen explains that the tomb robbers took the Midnight Mirror. Kassen recognized Iramine immediately as a former member of his adventuring band, but doesn’t know why she came for it. He only knows that the mirror has some connection with Shadow magic.

Hope that was of use. The Midnight Mirror is from another paizo module, I was planning on Iramine becoming a recurring enemy.