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After a long time since my post about changing some things in the adventure path, I was able to partially bring it to life. This post is a kind of report with my thoughts on the original events and those added by me.
Book 1
Oh, Torch, the town where such a partly strange, but also interesting adventure began.
The main plot line went as planned: the characters began to explore the part of the ship under the hill, in search of a problem with the "Torch" itself and in search of Khonnir Bane, turning to the knowledge of technology to a spy of the technic league, and also spending money in a local casino. In the complex itself, I did not change anything much, except that I replaced Meyanda with Hellion in the body of some android, and who, as in book 2, commented on the progress of the characters. From the remarkable actions of the players, the players made the Dead Man Lamashtu kill himself, saying that this way he would quickly go to his tribe, which would definitely forgive him. The spy of the technic league was not defeated and, having stolen one of the technic things, left the town. I finished the book with the fact that a "revived" Hellion appeared on one of the monitors and said that since what he needed was not given, he would take it himself. I allowed the generator to stabilize, allowing you to take an automatic 20 and a bonus from the hero's point.
Not much changed in detail part of the story, which I liked. This is a story in a small town in which strange things happen, but also things that you can believe in (fear of the people, corruption, bandits). The players really wanted to help the town, which soon became one of the motivations for traveling further along the plot.
Book 2
The changes began with this book. At the end of the last book, Hellion indicated that he would go to the Torch, and in order to be faster than him, the players almost immediately went to Scrapwall. Together with the AI Casandalee in armor. On the way, they met the Keatons (announced as connected to the main villain), met river pirates and Ghost Wolves, to whom they tried to explain that technology is not evil.
Scrapwall itself was not generally changed by me, but I added "liveliness" to it: it is a city, after all, people live there and not all of them were exiled here from somewhere. Someone was born here, which is why sometimes the characters solved some problems of local residents, for example, with dirty water or an attack of rusty zombies. In addition, any society should have some semblance of a market, which is why it was added so as not to leave the players completely without resources. The gang issues were resolved as expected, but along the way my paladin player could deviate from the code by disguising himself and acting like a maniac to enter their base without problems. The same player then used diplomacy to lead the gangs to Hellion's daze.
Towards the end, AI Casandalee left the armor, Hellion "took" it, giving the armor wearer another distorted flashback, hinting that he too used to be "good", but strayed from that path. The next day, Hellion ordered his bandits to destroy the market and the characters went to storm his base.
Hellion's base and the entire complex... caused some problems. The environment and monsters/enemies encountered there are suitable, but both I and the players did not like that sometimes creeps just stand in the way. Just fodder for wasting resources. This is understandable, to give players experience, but we play without experience, and levels are given out at the right moments, so half of the monsters were simply removed.
The battle with Hellion was interesting. Very interesting, considering that the players did not have ranged, so they jumped on him, captured, debuffed him if possible and somehow beat him. After Hellion said that no one understands the danger of what is in the silver mountain and disappeared into his backup body. Kassanadali in one of the system mechanisms says that in order to fix the Torch and find out what Hellion was talking about, you need to go to Starfall. That's where they then went.
Transition from Book 2 to Book 3
This is another journey, in which little and a lot happened at the same time. To get to Starfall faster, the players decided to go to Chased and from there float down the river. In Chased, they managed to buy/sell the necessary things, sit in prison (and get out of there, because Paladin Android moved away from his principles of non-cooperation with evil and agreed with the head of the office in the technic league), fight the kytons (in Chase, their "main base", plus one of the characters has augmentations), then put new ones, finding a group near the monk-engineers worshiping the pantheon, consisting of Brigh, Irori and Zon-kuthon and finally reaching Starfall. I changed Starfall, making it a mix of something close to cyberpunk and a regular fantasy big city: among many wooden and stone houses there can be strange tall iron houses, giving off neon. In addition, trading in technologies is not prohibited. To do this, you need to get permission from the Technic League. There were 2 reasons for this: I do not want to limit the characters in the ability to buy interesting things and, given that Unity is behind the Technic League, the distribution of things under its control will play into its hands. On the streets of Starfall, the characters are caught by the "police", seizing the Paladin Android, in whose armor is located Kassanadali, and take him to one of the captains of the Technic League, who owned him. He forces him to work for him and immediately after signing the contract, the paladin was summoned by the king. The King in my version is under the influence of drugs, but he is not a closed, but an open man, a responsible ruler who is able to understand that everything is not perfect. In addition, Unity has a connection in the Castle, which is why she often communicates with him or with those who consider it necessary. Important: the Black Sovereign knows what Unity wants to do. In public, he is open, kind and valiant, but in fact, in his soul he is broken, because the barbarian tribes do not want to go to the future, his family wants his death and Unity herself, unwittingly for the king, broke him. After some time, Unity tells the characters the whole plot, not talking about real goals, but only that she wants to help people develop. Instead of Kevot-Kul's words about Numerian patriotism, the players are imbued with both the king and Unity. Unity says that the Technic League appeared because it cannot teach, but only give information due to the fact that it is limited and does not remember much itself, and this can be solved if it is possible to find Casandale's body. The Black Sovereign gives them such a mission, giving them access to everything in Starfall, and also sometimes having fun with the characters, becoming a favorite of the players. After some time, they go to Yandevey, where the body was last seen.
Book 3
The events in Iadanveigh reminded me very much of the first book, "The Torch", but simpler, more cheerful. Characters, hung with technological things and partially augmented, fortunately met guards who stopped them from entering, but not without problems (they argued that they came from the king and they can do everything, and the paladin said "I'm a paladin, I won't do anything bad, let me through). I enjoyed describing the village life and its beauty, the wedding in which the players participated. It was a breath of fresh air from the epic before the epic.
The tasks for convening the council were taken and completed. The battle with Yaogai was interesting and colorful: A huge aobomanitsya is trying to hit, grab or eat 2 small characters who are running from him in the garden and fighting back. The task about the spy ... I did not like that it uses stereotypes that work both in our world and on Golarion. In addition, it was strange that there were no other suspicious guests. I added guests from Ustalav and Absalom, who were studying Badwater for some reason. It didn't help much. It was especially funny when Paladin said that the spy was one of the Varisians and that they should ask the locals about it, which would set up all the Varisians as a whole.
While searching for the spy, they find the dungeon ahead of time and almost die from a swarm of bionanites with immunity to weapon attacks, but it's good that the Blacksmith (third party class) had AoE shrapnel, which helped destroy the swarm.
Having completed the task, the players, already with all their equipment, go to the dungeon to search for the body. Since there was an android among the characters, I decided to play on the fact that this is where he came from. The whole scene was tense and even scary. The defective androids looked like Paladin, but heavily distorted, and the android assassin was an acquaintance of the character's past soul, who was trying to fix herself in the forge. Then everything went as planned, only the Gearsmans instead of Unity's order said that they were following Trinity's order (the Union of Unity, Kassanadli and Hellion). Not finding the body and reducing the flow of mutation gases by supplying electricity, the characters went to the Choking tower.
The Choking Tower or abandoned SCP foundation
I have no problems with this part from the narrative or mechanics, but the unusualness of the monsters in the tower and basement (especially there) made my players joke about it being an abandoned SCP complex. Also, frequent traps caused my Slayer to become paranoid and roll perception to every door. In the end, I decided to make the battles specific, because for example the Nanite worm that walks without magic (which they don't have) is very difficult to kill, which is why I added mechanics near the DBD, while someone distracted him, others looked for sources of electricity to hit him. The Daemon, who was in the protective circle, was ignored because of his appearance. But as soon as the paladin realized who it was, he immediately wanted to kill him. One bullet thrown to check what kind of place it was destroyed the circle, causing the daemon to escape and find a hidden room with a teleporter, which he began to turn on to spread the infection throughout Starfall. In an epic battle, the daemon was defeated for a time, the spread of the plague was stopped, and Casandalee was found.
From what I have seen, done and plan, from the story of confronting the enemy and the heating up of forces with the participation of aliens, this story has become about the confrontation of the old and the new in its cardinal manifestations. It is a story and a theme that you can believe in. This is what I like about it, that in the confrontation between an axe and a laser rifle there is something real that society constantly encounters. And the cardinal difference in the sides only enhances the effect.
I'm curious: why'd you cut Meyanda out?
I'm curious: why'd you cut Meyanda out?
Meyanda was suitable to show that Hellion is followed and that he can give strength. But I decided to make the interaction with the Iron Gods earlier and more obvious. For this, I replaced her with Hellion, designating him as a villain with whom the characters need to fight. Between the conversations of the players, I heard a phrase that they are ready to unite with Hellion if something suddenly happens. I think that this is due to the fact that I gave Hellion more time to reveal himself as a character.