My players managed to sneak in up the stairs outside the ballroom, listened into Rhiavadi's presentation, and then rolled huge initiatives and got not only a surprise round, but most of them also went before the attendees could react.
They blasted through the room. And they're not particularly optimized.
Same here. A surprise round and all players won initiative (4 players, but level 14 instead of the recommended 13). It was like a walk in the park.
On the other hand, they took a lot of effort to be stealthy, as 'this lady sounded very powerful'. Good for them. I'm not complaining: the group had a great time.