How would you tie these PCs into Age of Worms? And a rant.

[Ozreth]

I've just begun running age of worms, they are nearing the end of the first dungeon in Whispering Cairn, four sessions in. There isn't much buy-in presented in this adventure, but my PCs have some hooks that I'd like to tie into this AP.

1. Two dwarves from Greysmere, one looking for an alchemical substance to help thwart a disease that is growing on the fungus farms kept underneath Greysmere. Another who is looking for a lost artifact of St. Cuthbert.

2. A wild elf whose warrior lover disappeared overnight.

3. A monk from the Twilight Monastery living in Diamond Lake to protect the trade envoy who trades Kalamanthis between the Moanstery and Diamond Lake, and works as a barkeep to gather intel on the town ever since the violent conlfict between DL and TM years ago.

I'm thinking potentially the hills that the Monastery harvests Kalamanthis from and the fungus farms at Greysmere are potentially becoming infested with Kyuss worms, and the PCs learn of this after returning from the Cairn back to Diamond Lake.

Maybe the lost lover replaces Alastor Land? Perhaps being last of the bloodline was drawn to the Cairn, unsure why when he died he remained in limbo (is this even explained for Alastor?), but needs his remains buried and wants them buried in the Bronzewoood Lodge cemetary. Upon arriving, they find that other elves/druids etc remains are missing. The wild elf PC had previously shunned the inhabitants of the lodge and their studies/worshipping as pointless, but now may feel some attachment.

Now, a rant:

I regret not having read through the whole adventure before running it, and definitely should have waded through the many threads on the AP. The entire first adventure seems very disconnected and pointless to me, and more like a way to impose a bunch of irrelevant GH lore onto the party. It seems to take until the end of the second adventure before the party even have a real reason to be invested in anything at all, and even then, why should they care about a worm and some prophecies?

I've read through the overload and see some promise in the overall adventure, I can see how it plays through to the end epicly, but it feels like it will be a chore to get there. But I'm sort of taking that as a challenge. It seems almost universally praised (though all of the praise comes with caveats about all of the issues), and I want to see if my group gets enjoyment out of it the way others have. Things often play out differently than they read.

[W E Ray]

(double post)

It can be grossly difficult to find ways to incorporate individual PC goals and ambitions into a published adventure -- the more specific the player made his or her PC's ambitions, and the more linear an adventure is, can make it downright impossible in some situations.

But you answered it perfectly in your OP: Since Adventure One and Adventure Two don't feel like they're furthering the overall AoW plotline for you, it makes these opening adventures the Perfect place to get all the player-driven stuff accomplished, while building up to the AoW overall campaign plot.

(And you're right, especially in long (high word-count) published adventures, you really gotta read everything BEFORE play.)

But here's a couple more spots you may find useful for future PC-driven elements where you can read ahead and see whether they potentially fit, in addition to changing the little-boy Ghost to some other Ghost that fits with a PC:
1) "Zenith Trajectory" takes place in the Underdark in a Kua Toa city -- that's a good location to put some Dwarven-needed alchemical-fungus if the Worms are ruining Greysmere.

2) "The Prince of Redhand" waaaay near the end of AoW includes a gala-party where a ton of NPC-interaction and Fluff can take place. You can read up on Alhaster and some of the NPCs in the party and see if there will be an opportunity there to have included some of the Twilight Monastery and Diamond Lake politics in Alhaster. (I'm not sure where the Monk PC is trying to go with this background, but, maybe Alhaster...?)

3) "The Spire of Long Shadows" is a good place to get more Fluff on Kyuss and you may find a place in or around that adventure to include the mystery of the Elf's missing spouse/lover.

4) Lost Artifact of St Cuthbert you can put anywhere -- in any treasure pile in any of the later adventures (when finding an Artifact is more Level-appropriate). Pick one (such as the Dragon Ilthane) and then find a couple places throughout the adventure, even in a moment of ad-lib that jumps out at you, to give a hint the Artifact is in (for example) a nearby Dragon's lair.