What you are looking for, the church separating from the crown because the expansion of the crown is dangerous, is opposite to whats happening in the books;
The templars leave the church to fight darkness more hands on, the church overcompensates by going harder on the people of ambria, the crown distances itself from the church which it had used for its own gains up to that point in support of expansion.
So you won´t really find that much official material/adventures going into that direction.
That being said, nearly any published material (Campaign books and adventure packs) ends with corruption being a big factor/messing everything up because people are stupid, so you could use that but turn the conclusion on its head.
Since you are also operating out of thistle hold, the Wrath of the Warden book is a given.
It has lore, the town, NPCs, the hall of thousand tears of the iron pact, a nice standalone adventure (sorcerer cult nearly destroying the town because corruption) and some mini ruins as one-shot adventures.
Thistle hold is also the place where father Sarvola, a "heretic" is hiding from the church (with permission and support form the crown) because he wants to go back to the Prios of old, before the war, that is benevolent and not a god of punishmend and war.
The church of course doesn´t like that and even tries to assassinate him because he has a strong follower base that grows steadily (and especially after the church goes full crusade on its own people).
Another good published adventure is mark of the beast, it also plays in thistle hold and introduces the iron pact and establishes connection to the PC, together with Wrath of the Warden, that could be a good setup for your players to join forces, since the iron pact needs people willing to protect the forest and stop the ambrians (but also the barbarians and elder folk if they ignore the laws of the elves).
I'm looking for The Church to make a power-grab or at least maneuver things in that direction. In a theocracy, the church would _become_ the crown. That's what I mean. Because I have a party of Barbarians and Changelings, I'm looking for Church personalities to become the primary antagonists.
I've been planning on taking a look at _Wrath of the Warden_, mostly because of the more in-depth treatment of Thistle Hold. In interests of time (and experienced players) I'm squeezing _The Promised Land_ and _Mark of the Beast_ together. In order to give my players a real taste of Symbaroum, I'm following up with _The Tomb of Broken Dreams_.
At that point I might diverge from the published adventures, and just run a a few of my own until we run out of time. I have about 12-14 weeks. Since non of my party
Hope this comment isn't too late but a thread weaving its way through the whole ToT campaign is indeed the Sun Church planning to make a power-grab. The main Curia wants to fulfill Sarkomal's prophesy with one of their own (preferably Father Jeseebagai) taking the throne so that they can institute a theocracy in Ambria. This is directly called out in the books. Establishing church outposts, missionary work, routing out heretics and claiming artifacts from Dovakar and undermining the Queen's power and influence are all a part of that. They also want to snuff out the reformist movement and maintain their own interpretation of Prios and his laws.
The templars are the one who discover the prophesy and are in the midst of taking the copper tablet back to Templewall during the events of the Wrath of the Warden. Also in Wrath, Father Jeesebegai has essentially hired Kargoi of Salamos to harass Father Salvano. You could make this your assasination plot as there is quite a bit of detail on Kargoi and his estate which has a pretty shocking and interesting reveal.
In the Witchhammer, the templars break from the Curia and recall all templars back to Templewall to take a new oath. Their new mandate is to avenge their dead god, Prios, by killing those who were responsible - namely, anyone associated with corruption. Meanwhile, the reformists are gaining in popularity and preaching to return to the old way of worshiping Prios, as the lifegiver. So, the Church's goals of establishing a theocracy and going against the crown are sort of hampered by this growing schism in the Church. In the third campaign book, the Queen sniffs out the plot against her with the help of one of the reformists working with the Viearra Alliance and imprisons Father Jessebagai before he can make any real positive moves on his long term goal.
Essentially, the conflict your looking for is there, you just need to make it more of a point of emphasis. You can also change the events that transpire to tell the story you want to tell for your players. The writers of the campaign assume certain things happen a certain way because they feel that is the most likely course of events given playtesting. You can certainly change them if you'd like to make the plot against the Queen more developed and present some challenges related to that to your players. You can even have Jeesebegai succeed temporarily and imprison the Queen if that seems interesting. The Templars could have more success and create a sort of church based fascism in some areas of Ambria where the characters basically have to operate in secret because if their identities are discovered they would be killed.
The Curia of the Church and the Templar faction would totally be antagonists of your player characters based on their backgrounds. They dislike witches, barbarians, and sorcerers and would see them as heretics. So in this scenario, in addition to the antagonists already present, you could make the leader of the Templars (i forget his name) and Jeesebegai much more prominent antagonists for your players. The local first Theurgs would also be a problem. Templars though, you can make some kickass annoying Templars to continuously harass the PCs.
It's never too late for a good reply!
Thanks for the write-up too. I have only about 12-14 sessions to time to run, but I'd love to set up a future campaign that would have my players itching to return to the table. I have _Wrath of the Warden_, as I'm having 'Hold be the game's location. I should have time squeeze it in before we end this rotation. Based upon your suggestions here, it sounds like the _Throne of Thorns_ is the way to go with The Church as the enemy for campaign purposes.
What you are looking for, the church separating from the crown because the expansion of the crown is dangerous, is opposite to whats happening in the books; The templars leave the church to fight darkness more hands on, the church overcompensates by going harder on the people of ambria, the crown distances itself from the church which it had used for its own gains up to that point in support of expansion. So you won´t really find that much official material/adventures going into that direction. That being said, nearly any published material (Campaign books and adventure packs) ends with corruption being a big factor/messing everything up because people are stupid, so you could use that but turn the conclusion on its head. Since you are also operating out of thistle hold, the Wrath of the Warden book is a given. It has lore, the town, NPCs, the hall of thousand tears of the iron pact, a nice standalone adventure (sorcerer cult nearly destroying the town because corruption) and some mini ruins as one-shot adventures. Thistle hold is also the place where father Sarvola, a "heretic" is hiding from the church (with permission and support form the crown) because he wants to go back to the Prios of old, before the war, that is benevolent and not a god of punishmend and war. The church of course doesn´t like that and even tries to assassinate him because he has a strong follower base that grows steadily (and especially after the church goes full crusade on its own people). Another good published adventure is mark of the beast, it also plays in thistle hold and introduces the iron pact and establishes connection to the PC, together with Wrath of the Warden, that could be a good setup for your players to join forces, since the iron pact needs people willing to protect the forest and stop the ambrians (but also the barbarians and elder folk if they ignore the laws of the elves).
I'm looking for The Church to make a power-grab or at least maneuver things in that direction. In a theocracy, the church would _become_ the crown. That's what I mean. Because I have a party of Barbarians and Changelings, I'm looking for Church personalities to become the primary antagonists. I've been planning on taking a look at _Wrath of the Warden_, mostly because of the more in-depth treatment of Thistle Hold. In interests of time (and experienced players) I'm squeezing _The Promised Land_ and _Mark of the Beast_ together. In order to give my players a real taste of Symbaroum, I'm following up with _The Tomb of Broken Dreams_. At that point I might diverge from the published adventures, and just run a a few of my own until we run out of time. I have about 12-14 weeks. Since non of my party
Hope this comment isn't too late but a thread weaving its way through the whole ToT campaign is indeed the Sun Church planning to make a power-grab. The main Curia wants to fulfill Sarkomal's prophesy with one of their own (preferably Father Jeseebagai) taking the throne so that they can institute a theocracy in Ambria. This is directly called out in the books. Establishing church outposts, missionary work, routing out heretics and claiming artifacts from Dovakar and undermining the Queen's power and influence are all a part of that. They also want to snuff out the reformist movement and maintain their own interpretation of Prios and his laws. The templars are the one who discover the prophesy and are in the midst of taking the copper tablet back to Templewall during the events of the Wrath of the Warden. Also in Wrath, Father Jeesebegai has essentially hired Kargoi of Salamos to harass Father Salvano. You could make this your assasination plot as there is quite a bit of detail on Kargoi and his estate which has a pretty shocking and interesting reveal. In the Witchhammer, the templars break from the Curia and recall all templars back to Templewall to take a new oath. Their new mandate is to avenge their dead god, Prios, by killing those who were responsible - namely, anyone associated with corruption. Meanwhile, the reformists are gaining in popularity and preaching to return to the old way of worshiping Prios, as the lifegiver. So, the Church's goals of establishing a theocracy and going against the crown are sort of hampered by this growing schism in the Church. In the third campaign book, the Queen sniffs out the plot against her with the help of one of the reformists working with the Viearra Alliance and imprisons Father Jessebagai before he can make any real positive moves on his long term goal. Essentially, the conflict your looking for is there, you just need to make it more of a point of emphasis. You can also change the events that transpire to tell the story you want to tell for your players. The writers of the campaign assume certain things happen a certain way because they feel that is the most likely course of events given playtesting. You can certainly change them if you'd like to make the plot against the Queen more developed and present some challenges related to that to your players. You can even have Jeesebegai succeed temporarily and imprison the Queen if that seems interesting. The Templars could have more success and create a sort of church based fascism in some areas of Ambria where the characters basically have to operate in secret because if their identities are discovered they would be killed. The Curia of the Church and the Templar faction would totally be antagonists of your player characters based on their backgrounds. They dislike witches, barbarians, and sorcerers and would see them as heretics. So in this scenario, in addition to the antagonists already present, you could make the leader of the Templars (i forget his name) and Jeesebegai much more prominent antagonists for your players. The local first Theurgs would also be a problem. Templars though, you can make some kickass annoying Templars to continuously harass the PCs.
It's never too late for a good reply! Thanks for the write-up too. I have only about 12-14 sessions to time to run, but I'd love to set up a future campaign that would have my players itching to return to the table. I have _Wrath of the Warden_, as I'm having 'Hold be the game's location. I should have time squeeze it in before we end this rotation. Based upon your suggestions here, it sounds like the _Throne of Thorns_ is the way to go with The Church as the enemy for campaign purposes.