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As a general note, the scales on all the maps in this adventure should be adjusted and/or the maps should be replaced with ones that better reflect the scale in the text of the adventure.
Also, this is a darklands adventure so there should be plenty of time to enjoy darklands. In the travel sequences use the following rules:
TRAVEL: I describe some basic elements of the environment they are traveling through and a "mood" and then allow the players to give the LoTR travel scene directors cut description of the scene to earn a Hero Point.
CAMPING: Watches are done in pairs so two players at a time do some social bonding around the camp.
We do about two or three scenes of travel and one scene of camping per day of travel...
Okay let's get to fixing the adventure:
Prelude:
Choose a different starting point: In my case, all the characters were on the road traveling to Highhelm to respond to the invitation to the festival. As an introductory adventure, we have them sitting around a campfire and getting to know each other and then the camp is attacked by forces foreshadowing future events... the campsite was accidentally located right by the exit of a smuggling tunnel: Blacknoon weapons smugglers with clan a Molgrade weapons shipment pop out of the cave and surprise watchers.. in their loot there is PO indicating these will be sold to a buyer named Cadji)... the tunnel has been collapsed internally by the Blacknoon when the smugglers fail to return in case players investigate the tunnel
Book 1
Chapter 1... add content from the Highhelm book. We expanded on the basilisk game and the adolescent cloud dragon MJ's pranks quite a bit. I also added an underlying plot by low level agents of the Ash Engineer.... ALSO... make sure to highlight the tension between the religious establishment in Highhelm and the small community of Rivethunn. Foreshadowing this and building on this tension is the underlying theme of the whole adventure.
Chapter 2... expand the travel montages and camping scenes through the darkands! This adventure will hinge on you adding extra underdark exploration... this is another good place to highlight the lasting impact of the quest for sky, the tension between dwarven pantheon and rivethun, and darklands denizens receiving a call to join the bloodbane coalition ... also, point out if possible that the hryngar are resentful to dwarves that completed the quest for sky through the environment (this lays the foundation for BBEG's motivation) as you travel in the direction of Hagegraff for a bit before turning off to Guldrige
Chapter 3... can be mostly run as written
Book 2
Chapter 1 Expand and fill in the darklands exploration... use the environment to show the lasting influence of the quest for sky on the darklands and begin hinting at the bloodbane coalition being gathered. Show the major story beats of the quest for sky through battle sites in the timeline at the start of book 1, etc. and also reveal the rivethunn heritage of the dwarves with relevant spiritual sites ...
The court of ether encounters can be played for the most part as is, but the ritual and cult infiltration needs to be fleshed out more since it's almost the whole reason to come here... like the fulcrum this chapter turns on is the least described part... this is a heads-up to GM's running it... get yourself a cultist compound map and build out a bigger infiltration/dungeon crawl here ...
The journey back should also be expanded on with more darklands travel and environmental story telling but stronger hints about the bloodbane coalition being gathered while also outlining with environment/neutral wandering NPCs telling how hryngar chose to not complete quest for sky and how this dispute split the dwarven community ... as well as the abandoned ruins of an ancient abandoned orc settlements with that have been converted to dwarven pantheon related structures
Reaching highhelm should result in another homebrew adventure here as well... more mid-level Ash Engineer goons this time connecting the Ash Engineer to Hagegraff and Narseigus ...
In the victory, clan matron or other NPC holds a shindig to celebrate these heroes and then takes them aside. She introduces them to Bronwyll, who has come secretly to highhelm to recruit adventurers to help her bring down Narseigus. She's jealous because he took a promotion meant for her and she wants the help of outsiders to Hagegraff to get in the penthouse and find incriminating evidence of his diversion of Ministry of Magic resources for his plot with the Bloodbane Coalition. The clan matron/other NPC is convinced that the party should also find some information that could help them defeat the sorcerer that threatens all the Five Kings Mountains. Bronwyll provides a list of contacts in Hagegraff that should enable them to gain access to the penthouse... (the PCs they're going to meet in Hagegraff in the next chapter)
After that, the Hagegraff story pretty much plays out as expected, but Bronwyll's actual plot at the end is to catch the heroes raiding the penthouse to arrest them and that's how she plans to get ahead in the political scene of the city. In the penthouse they find a journal with information that if players look closely should help them understand that they can break Narseigus' spell holding Zogototaru in the third book by reminding the worm of his connection to Taargick.The penthouse should be a massive enough map to allow for multiple troops on each side to do combat while players try to get out of dodge.
Book 3
At the start of book 3 we take a short montage and I explain the gap as like going from Empire Strikes Back to Return of the Jedi... the clan matron/other NPC has used their contacts and devised a plan (not unlike the battle of endor) where the situation is described: the korr well is situated at the heart of the five kings mountains, the fortress above it is key to security for the region. below it forces are gathering at the cavern waiting for even deeper down where narseigus will gain control of the worm and together undo the seals and then attack the whole of the five kings mountains.... the plan is to send a small strike force onto the moon, cough, into the cavern to disrupt the bloodbane coalition and then turn off the shield generator, cough , open the seals while chaos reigns to allow the combined fleet, cough, a larger legion to descend and fight them while the characters board the death star and fight the emperor, cough, descend to the depths and defeat narseigus... hopefully when the dwarven legion arrives the seals will not be operational .... and montage complete we open book 3 at the cavern skipping the negotiation scene in this chapter.
the rest can play as written until the after fight with Narseigus. Rather than having another dungeon after the BBEG... it's time to land this thing. Present a closing choice instead:
The outer tomb has carvings depicting Taargick as leader and proud defender of dwarven legacy, and Stoneriver awaits in this chamber like the grail knight in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade... This encounter can play out as a social encounter: he poses a sphinx-like riddle that is designed to test if the players have internalized the broad messages of the campaign
Consider carefully the way you go
Which path will forge dwarven morrow
Two doors, one fore, one behind
The way of progress is yours to find
Stay the course with Toragg's pantheon
Or return for Felgunn and rivethunn
basically, should the party choose to allow dwarvish society to retain stability in the white-washed version of the pantheon of Torag, or follow the truth, uncover ancient traditions, reopen the origin lands of the dwarves, but unleash possible widespread confusion as dwarves are forced to reconsider Taargick's legacy and the quest for sky... the choice is in the player's hands...will they choose, wisely?
If they advance forwards, Stoneriver announces that it seems Taargick's secrets shall remain sealed until others come bearing Skysunder and a teleportation circle activates, retuning the party to Highhelm... roll credits with a montage of the heroes defeating the forces of the Ash Engineer focused on Highhelm
If they go back towards the door they entered by, Stoneriver nods solemnly and tells the party that his time watching the tomb has come to an end, and he returns to Toragg's side with a dimension door.
The second room is a corridor with friezes depicting the hard moral choices that Taargick made during the Quest for Sky summarizing the content of the four visions and the original Stoneriver questions
the voices of opposition to return or to stop halfway
the sacrifices of the people, young and old
the choice of mercy for even fearsome foes
The third chamber is vast and empty and engraved with the directions back to Felgunn in a pattern that can only be completed by inserting Skysunder into a backlit slot so the light shines through the gem in the pommel to get a map to the planet luke has been hiding on all these years, cough... Felgunn ... roll credits with a montage of journeys through the Darklands ending at an opening of a cave giving us a teasing peak of Felgunn
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Basically, in the hardcover edition, I'm imagining replacing the page count from the final dungeon with random darklands encounter tables for various levels and "rumors" tables that can drop in hints about the major tensions: (a) bloodbane coalition gathered by a hryngar that resents dwarves completing the quest for sky and wants to warp their history to turn against them (b) dwarven pathenon (toragg) vs. traditional spiritualist rivethunn (c) negative impacts of the quest for sky on darklands inhabitants that continue to echo until today.
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my party TPK'd in the bakery, so my direct knowledge of running the game is limited to book 1 and reading through the other two.
1 - the 'festival' should be a multi-day affair. I ran it so that it lasted for a few weeks, so the party could be at the 'kickoff' event and then we can conclude it at the 'dinner party'. that way you can have pcs go and have a place to interact with npcs throughout AND gives a reason for people to stick around. AND a better place to meet the key npc who drives the plot in book 1.
2 - there's a big throughline of the adventure that the dwarves did really bad things and it still has ramifications throughout the darklands. this is not reflected in anything in the adventure beyond an npc saying things to them. the troglodytes should be SCARED of the PCs, even if they are willing to fight them. the gnomes should distrust the PCs at the very least. those ruins you wander through in book 2? dwarves made them ruins. The dwarves crimes are brought up from their perspective, not from those who were actually savaged by them.
3 - the BBEG should be at the festival. why wouldn't he be invited by one of the less reputable major npcs? He's gotta learn about the worm from someone...
4 - the whole plotline with the gnome doesn't make any sense at the end of book 1. why is this happening? there's no payoff at all - not in this book and not in book 2 - and there's no reason why you would need this particular gnome. the settlements you are going to are large, and highhelm presumably has trade links with them. then she leaves the party after getting you to a place any merchant should be able to give you directions to. plus the part with getting her out of prison makes no sense at all. remove it or jazz it up.
5 - The Ash Engineer is AWESOME and should be in this trilogy somewhere.
6 - Book 2 ends badly. what the party has just done should end them up in prison. Book 3 starts weakly. Start it with some kind of prison break and a flight through the Darklands back to Highhelm. This gives the BBEG a chance to show up again and taunt them in the cells and reveal his plans so they can show up and be heroes.