Ok, confession: this is one of the settings I'm least inspired by. An oddity of a domain, Borca is dominated by two Darklords who exist in an eternal rivalry but also have different schticks. Ivana Boristi is a ruthless noblewoman who is also a master poisoner, using the gardens and greenhouses of her estate to generate toxins, while Ivan Dilisnya is a crazed man-child with an army of clockwork toys.
While they reflect opposite expressions of it - Ivana an ambitious woman underestimated because of her eternal youth and Ivan a creepy man-child who's actually quite old in appearance - both embody the weirdness and myopia of the ultra-wealthy.
And, frankly, not to get too real-world on everyone, we're sort of in an era where out-of-touch plutocrats with bizarre worldviews built on a constant feedback loop of yes-men have become real deadly menaces. Borca might not be all that fantastical when such people are calling the shots in the real world.
The ultra-wealthy, whether they be landed aristocrats or billionaire tech bros, always seem to forget that common people are actually, you know, people. They see those below their socio-economic class as "NPCs" who serve more of a statistical purpose for their own enrichment and ego than being individuals with their own dreams and desires.
I think that's what we lean into with this adventure.
These adventures are not meant to be the definitive one for each domain - I'd have used vampires in the Barovia one if that were the case. Thus, I'll focus in on a particular aesthetic and theme:
Ivan Dilisnya is a man-child obsessed with toys. He hides in his estate, affecting the identity of a little boy (I imagine that people aren't generally aware that he's really an old man). But he also makes clockwork toys to entertain him.
I think that we have the action start in a place like Lechberg, a town near the Dilisnya estate (with no real description in Van Richten's, at least). The party arrives to find the town is covered in banners and advertisements about the upcoming Clockwork Parade, a festival to bring some cheer and frivolity to the town.
The party perhaps knows an NPC from Lechberg, and is going to meet them there on the day of the parade. We'll say this is a friendly child named Sasha - maybe the party is better-acquainted with one or both of Sasha's parents.
Heralded by a clockwork jester, as well as clockwork automaton of Ivan, the parade seems pretty whimsical, but there are so many marching toys that it's had to see through them to others in the gathered crowds. In the commotion, someone who makes a good perception check sees that some of the toy soldiers are actually grabbing people from the street. Perhaps a big clockwork owlbear or something actually swallows some members of the crowd whole, but in that truly nightmarish way, no one seems to notice with all the music and entertainment.
By the time the parade has left town, dozens of townsfolk have been abducted, but many are reluctant to even mention it because they fear criticizing the entertainment that their kind lord has provided for them.
However, the party finds that Sasha was among the people taken, and they track the clockwork parade (which has notably picked up the pace significantly once out of town) back to the Dilisnya Estate.
(Alternatively, maybe the Clockwork Parade actually takes either some or all of the party members.)
There, they find that the abducted people are being forced to serve as game pieces in Ivan's games - for example, he has a chess game where the pieces are played by townsfolk who are dressed up for their role, but when a piece is taken, the person playing them is killed.
The party must fight their way through Ivan's constructs, trying to free the captured people. I think as they delve deeper, they find as well that the clockwork soldiers in the parade, who had very convincingly realistic faces, are made by grafting the faces of Ivan's victims onto the constructs.
If done at low levels, one can use things like Animated Armor to represent the Clockwork soldiers. Some might also use simple beast or monstrosity stat blocks, but with a few adjustment to make them work as constructs.
At higher levels, again, you have a lot of leeway by just taking various humanoid (or other) stat blocks and turning them into constructs (giving things like poison immunity and immunity to charm and fear effects).
Logically, this adventure probably does lead to a confrontation with Ivan, but I think that the key to making Ivan work is to start off with a sense of innocence: Ivan speaks throughout his estate through some kind of speaker system, and affects a little boy's voice - play up the idea that Ivan is actually an innocent victim in all of this whose toys have run amok. The party doesn't see Ivan until they start to realize that he isn't what he says he is (I think he becomes very possessive of Sasha, trying to turn them into his "best friend" by converting them into a special toy).
Once the party actually finds Ivan, he's not going to be much of a physical threat, but he ought to be protected by powerful construct minions - maybe even give him a Shield Guardian. If you do so, and the party is still low level, probably build the adventure with an expectation that the party doesn't defeat him, but merely has to flee the estate with Sasha and anyone else they can rescue.
Just on an aesthetic level, I think you could look to the puppets from the game Lies of P for inspiration on how to describe the "toys" that Ivan has turned his victims into.
I do see this probably as being one of the lower-level adventures in the series if you choose to string these all together as an anthology. Next, the fun and games don't stop: we're heading to The Carnival.
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