Hi, this is my first post. Please be relentless. Maybe this will be helpful to other GMs who are not comfortable running the Dreaming Palace as is. I'm a long time scholar of rulebooks finally getting my hands dirty as a first-time GM.
TL;DR: Looking for feedback, opinions, suggestions. I changed Pratchett from Norgorber-loving Necromancer to Imbrex-worshipping Enchanter and themed everything around drugs and abduction, also removed the sexual implications. Pratchett is experimenting with various states of consciousness before he erases or alters his victims memories and profits off of their belongings. Afterwards he either sells them off to his Shadow Plane associates or releases them into Eskers Camp, where they won't stand out or nobody will care enough to investigate.
So, for a number of reasons I decided to change nearly the entirety of the final chapter of the first volume of the Agents of Edgewatch adventure path that is prominently called: "THE MURDER HOTEL".
Instead of a slaughterhouse the Dreaming Palace Hotel is now a drug den and humanoid trafficking hotspot, although the fetchlings Pratchett is working with are only interested in very specific people, I don't want them to be generic slavers. It is very important to me that all of the missing persons can - in theory - be saved by my players, eventually.
This involves changing almost all of the encounters to be themed around various drug effects with the potential to take care of the victims non-lethally. While some of them are still be present at the hotel, others have already been released into Esker's Camp - having lost/altered part of their relevant memories - and some being taken somewhere into/through the shadow plane by the fetchlings. The last part is a possible hook because we might be leaving the Edgewatch AP behind, maybe even venture out onto the Open Road, after the first volume. If we stick around I might change the cult to be worshipping Monad instead of Norby.
Since I'm running this for only 2 heroes with a buffed free archetype my encounter budget is roughly cut in half. Luckily my players are quite capable and I'm able to increase the difficulty for some encounters from moderate to severe, but I'll probably have to make adjustments on the fly depending on when the hit level 4.
I'm not quite done changing everything and was hoping to get some feedback and maybe suggestions on how to fill in the gaps. I'm removing all the peepholes and want to put something more interesting where all these secret walls are. For loot I would replace the scroll of bind undead with a scroll of modify memory and the corpseward pendants with maybe a pair of Wayfinders. It would imply that Pratchett somehow managed to make Pathfinder Agents disappear and give my players an incentive to seek out the Pathfinder Society (another possible hook to continue outside of the AP).
I'm going through the map as listed in the AP and I've put in links to Archives of Nethys for my replacements. Here's what I've got so far:
E7. SHACKLES ROOM
The Mimic is a killer, it has to go. I will alter the scenery and put a (Weak) Pixie here, waiting invisibly. I think this particular Pixie is not the brightest and was hired or tricked by Pratchett to "entertain" the guests, being none the wiser to what is happening in the upstairs/downstairs. The Pixie could be wearing that same piece of jewellery that was originally left in the Mimic, perhaps a gift from Pratchett for its reliable services. Of course the Pixie can be reasoned with and interrogated just like the Mimic.
E9. GALTAN ROOM
This requires another change of scenery and I'm going to replace the Flying Guillotine with a Hallucination Powder Trap.
E16. BRASS ROOM
The scenery here also has to change entirely to accommodate the summoning of two (Weak) Fungus Leshy. I can see Pratchett experimenting with the effects of spore clouds, possibly in combination with other substances. Since the trap was already commissioned I don't mind changing this to a primal summoning spell.
E17. CHELISH ROOM
Probably switch out the graphic artwork and summon a (Weak) Dandasuka instead of the Barbazu.
E20. MWANGI ROOM
Will remove the Canopy Drop and Giant Viper and instead add a (Elite) Dream Spider or two.
E21. PRISONERS
Kemeneles and Lyrma will be subdued or otherwise unconscious. It seems Pratchett has been trying to find just the right combination of chemicals, administered at certain intervals, to achieve overlapping effects. The shelves and cabinets are assorted with substances like Knockout Dram, Shiver, Bloodeye Coffee, Elven Absynth and there's a hint of Flyleaf in the air. It's quite possible the victims have developed addictions and don't remember much of anything (Cytillesh being one of Pratchett's favorites).
E22. NIDALESE ROOM
Reflavor to resemble some kind of Bacchanalia, with all kinds of Alcohol readily available for the guests - add in a bottle or two of Irriseni Ice Wine, if you fancy.
E23. NOBBINDALE'S QUARTERS
I changed the previous room to go in hand with the new resident of these quarters. Instead of a murderous Redcap there is an oblivious Satyr living here, who enjoys nothing more than getting blackout drunk with the people next door, but will go to great lengths to defend his employer/supplier.
E24. RALSO'S QUARTERS
Instead of two humanoid children I made a custom Monster that combines the Soulbound Doll and the Leopard in order to give Ralso a little pet cat, still animated from parts of her sister's spirit. Ralso is maybe also a Fetchling Half-Orc now, foreshadowing.
E25. ROOKERY
There is no light in here, all the windows are tainted, and a (Weak) Shadow haunts this place, if you want it can be small (child-sized?), although I'm probably only going to hint at the idea that it could be a remnant of Ralso's deceased sister.
E27. OSSIRIAN ROOM
Animated Statues will stay, but change to resemble Isis and Osiris (because twins!).
E28. CLOUD ROOM
Gas traps work fine for me.
E31. BOTTLE ROOM
Instead of Pickled Punks (ew!) we're going with something a bit more on theme: a bunch of (Weak) Yellow Musk Creepers. If Pratchett wants to alter people's brains this little plant is definitely something he would experiment with.
E32. THROPHY CHAMBER
This is where my agents will find a number of victims dosed and unconscious. They can be rescued, but only after taking care of one (Weak) Basidirond who keeps them under with his hallucinogenic cloud.
E33. RENDERING CHAMBER
This is why I left the chutes in E8 and E29. A massively oversized (Elite) Luminous Ooze is a great addition to this dungeon and we'll worthy of replacing the Ochre Jelly. It may even have mastered the Splits.
E35. NECROMANTIC LABORATORY
Obviously this can't stay, but it should be simple enough to replace everything with research on various drugs and enchantments, how to induce split personality disorders and other psychic conditions. There also no more Wights here.
E36. SKINSAW SHRINE
Instead of Wights in the Lab the agents encounter a pair of D'ziriak guarding a particular mirror (no spike pit), that leads to the shadow plane. The D'ziriak will Plane Shift, if necessary, in order to escape and the players currently have no means of operating the mirror.
E27. PRATCHETT'S DUNGEON
There's no Binumir, although they would be a nice fit for the overall Imbrex flair, instead the agents will likely encounter Pratchett by himself, if the jig is up, or accompanied by two (Weak) Fetchling Scouts. The Scouts will attempt to get to the mirror with one or two other hostages/victims while Pratchett keeps the agents busy (change this if your party is bigger). For his Reaper's Lancet Pratchett is using more Cytillesh instead of Hunting Spider's Venom. He's also developed an addiction to Zerk (on purpose) and if he has opportunity to casts True Strike before combat he will also inject a dose of Zerk once the agents enter the room and engage them. Since Pratchett is an Enchanter Wizard now he has the Befuddle 1st level and the Charming Words focus spell.
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It's very good and it more or less fits perfectly with the clues and situations presented earlier in the adventure. Except for the detail that Pratchett had been recruited in the past by a gang of Norgorberite cultists.
Which brings me to another point: The only thing I'm worried about is, what are you going to do about the other books of the campaign? The main antagonists of the adventure path are a bunch of power-crazed cultists of Norgorber, the god of greed, murder, poison, and secrets. There's some twisted stuff in the other parts and it's only going to get darker and darker for the players or harder and harder for you to replace everything. It might be worth considering soft-moving your whole campaign to a less edgy adventure path.
Thank you for taking the time to respond! I tried to follow the clues presented in the book and thought about where else they could lead me.
It might be worth considering soft-moving your whole campaign to a less edgy adventure path.
That is more or less the plan, hence the various hooks I'm putting out there.
Quitting the force is an option. Doing other stuff in Absalom is an optoion. Having the events of the future volumes serve as a backdrop is an option, maybe get the characters involved on the periphery. Maybe play some Society Scenarios, maybe also in Absalom. Or continue as Edgewatch but do something entirely unrelated like follow up on the missing people, do some shadow plane stuff, custom police stories.
As long as the players enjoy it, I'm pretty much open to follow any of those paths. Maybe I'll run the AP as written in the future with a different group.
Edit: Another option is that my heroes could've been past victims of Pratchett that somehow ended up as Edgewatch agents. We didn't get to do a lot of prep before our first session and I had them start as level 0 rookies, apprentice level after the first barfight and only first level after completing their first beat. I had their choices shape which classes, skills and feats they would start with and we rolled for heritage.
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One of the advantages of doing this is that Ralso can probably be saved now.
She's a bit of a confusing NPC. She has all this backstory of being a troubled kid, taking a few hard knocks and making some bad choices, ultimately ending up as a side-kick to Pratchett. So when I first read though, I was like, "Oh, this is interesting. Is there a possible redemption arc here?". But no, as the module is written, she is totally broken and evil beyond any level of saving, which seems like a waste. In fact, as she fights to the death and doesn't really want to negotiate, without edits, I would expect that most parties deal with her as another random monster, with her backstory going to waste.
By toning down the rest of the crimes, this opens her up to being a more interesting NPC, perhaps one that could be turned against her master.
One of the advantages of doing this is that Ralso can probably be saved now.
Thank you, that is an excellent insert. I was hoping to give my players more diplomatic opportunities already. Most of the creatures I selected share a language with at least one of the agents.
I also looked into volumes 2-4 a bit more and honestly, I don't think there's too much that would have to be adjusted here, if we decided to continue on this AP. The final chapter of volume 2 is another big one, but after that there changes would mostly be thematic/narrative with swapping out the occasional abomination here or there. The Norgorberites make heavy use of poisons and gas later, which makes me think Pratchett could've been a useful idiot worshipping the "wrong" gods, with the T4 always keeping a close eye on his progress.
Wish I had had the time to go through everything before we began :D
Given this a little more thought. Leaning towards making Prattchet an Illusionist now, Warped Terrain and Mirror Image feels so appropriate for his new self. Also going to put some more in-combat alchemy at his disposal, something like a blindpepper tube, yellow musk vial, dread ampule, peshpine grenade...
Planning to replace the corpseward pendants with two custom relics. Still going to hide a wayfinder somewhere in their path, I like the nudge towards the Society. Speaking of which, I did more background checks on fetchling (slavers) and found out about the Onyx Alliance and their connection to the Blakros family (I wasn't involved in any 1E society play). Pretty excited to salvage these scenarios, should my players decide to follow up on that :)