Lancelot
Adventurer
I'll add another vote for "build-your-own", given the backgrounds described.
Personally, I'd put in a strong vote for the classic Slavers series: either the original A1-A4 or the 2e remake (...which has it's detractors, but I've run a modified version with great success). Orcs are major antagonists in A1/A2 and the 2e remake, and Theg Narlot / Turosh Mak would make a good stand-in for Obould Many-Arrows.
Assuming you're using 4e rules, A1 can be scaled down easily to suit a 1st level party. Alternatively, you could preface the series with something to give the party a couple levels... ideally tying into the campaign motivation of orc slavers raiding down out of the mountains. If you're looking old-school, I'd consider B10 ("Nights Dark Horror"?) which has a nifty siege of a homestead by kobolds, which could be working for the orcs. Alternatively, there are any number of low-level Dungeon adventures which could be adapted to form that first intro module.
Once into the heart of the Slavers campaign, you've got many sessions of gaming ahead of you. A1 alone is probably 2-3 sessions, and it's the smallest of the modules by far. A3 has a full urban setting which can be expanded through multiple side-treks. If you're running with the 2e remake, it's an entire campaign setting in a book.
My gaming group is a bunch of old-timers who are passing familiar with the classics, but we're still getting a huge blast out of playing some of the modules that we haven't played in 15+ years using the new ruleset. Somehow, 4e seems to lend itself better to revising the classics than 3e.
I'm struggling a bit with your second campaign plot, but (while I'm on my old-school kick) I'd recommend B4 "The Lost City". Huge, huuuuge dungeon crawl with increasing levels of difficulty, plus the underground city itself forming an expansion area for an ongoing campaign. Alternatively, there are some great options in AD&D modules like C1 (Tamoachan - exploring and recovering old "Aztec" ruins in Chult, perhaps?), I1 (Forbidden City - Chult again...), or I3 (Pharaoh - which could make sense in eastern Calimshan/Mulhorand).
If you were dead-set on the adventure paths below (say, for convenience... or because you'd simply like to DM them), I'd go with Savage Tide. It's not the best of the APs below, in my opinion, but I can see a way to make it fit with your plot #2.
1) The PCs start in Athkatla, and do some urban adventuring there. ST is less "Pirate-y" than you might imagine, and can be reskinned to remove some of those elements. Main opposition in the 1st module is quite urban, suiting a big port city like Athkatla.
2) The PCs explore along the coast looking for ancient ruins. This is consistent with the 2nd module, which also has a side-trek to one of the old-school "forgotten ruins" locactions mentioned in my list of modules above. Info gained in the 2nd module leads across the seas...
3) ...and that's where the path would have to break from being set in Amn. The next 5-or-so modules are a sea voyage and exploring ancient ruins on lost islands. The end destination could be Maztica or Chult or simply some island out in the ocean, but it wouldn't be in Amn proper. Still, it's consistent with your theme. Maybe it's an island similar to Evermeet that the elves have considered lost for ages, and the PCs are trying to recover it.
4) The final 4 modules of the series take the party off-plane altogether, but we're talking Epic levels here.
Personally, I'd put in a strong vote for the classic Slavers series: either the original A1-A4 or the 2e remake (...which has it's detractors, but I've run a modified version with great success). Orcs are major antagonists in A1/A2 and the 2e remake, and Theg Narlot / Turosh Mak would make a good stand-in for Obould Many-Arrows.
Assuming you're using 4e rules, A1 can be scaled down easily to suit a 1st level party. Alternatively, you could preface the series with something to give the party a couple levels... ideally tying into the campaign motivation of orc slavers raiding down out of the mountains. If you're looking old-school, I'd consider B10 ("Nights Dark Horror"?) which has a nifty siege of a homestead by kobolds, which could be working for the orcs. Alternatively, there are any number of low-level Dungeon adventures which could be adapted to form that first intro module.
Once into the heart of the Slavers campaign, you've got many sessions of gaming ahead of you. A1 alone is probably 2-3 sessions, and it's the smallest of the modules by far. A3 has a full urban setting which can be expanded through multiple side-treks. If you're running with the 2e remake, it's an entire campaign setting in a book.
My gaming group is a bunch of old-timers who are passing familiar with the classics, but we're still getting a huge blast out of playing some of the modules that we haven't played in 15+ years using the new ruleset. Somehow, 4e seems to lend itself better to revising the classics than 3e.
I'm struggling a bit with your second campaign plot, but (while I'm on my old-school kick) I'd recommend B4 "The Lost City". Huge, huuuuge dungeon crawl with increasing levels of difficulty, plus the underground city itself forming an expansion area for an ongoing campaign. Alternatively, there are some great options in AD&D modules like C1 (Tamoachan - exploring and recovering old "Aztec" ruins in Chult, perhaps?), I1 (Forbidden City - Chult again...), or I3 (Pharaoh - which could make sense in eastern Calimshan/Mulhorand).
If you were dead-set on the adventure paths below (say, for convenience... or because you'd simply like to DM them), I'd go with Savage Tide. It's not the best of the APs below, in my opinion, but I can see a way to make it fit with your plot #2.
1) The PCs start in Athkatla, and do some urban adventuring there. ST is less "Pirate-y" than you might imagine, and can be reskinned to remove some of those elements. Main opposition in the 1st module is quite urban, suiting a big port city like Athkatla.
2) The PCs explore along the coast looking for ancient ruins. This is consistent with the 2nd module, which also has a side-trek to one of the old-school "forgotten ruins" locactions mentioned in my list of modules above. Info gained in the 2nd module leads across the seas...
3) ...and that's where the path would have to break from being set in Amn. The next 5-or-so modules are a sea voyage and exploring ancient ruins on lost islands. The end destination could be Maztica or Chult or simply some island out in the ocean, but it wouldn't be in Amn proper. Still, it's consistent with your theme. Maybe it's an island similar to Evermeet that the elves have considered lost for ages, and the PCs are trying to recover it.
4) The final 4 modules of the series take the party off-plane altogether, but we're talking Epic levels here.
