Encounter 1 - This went fine. Prior to the game, I wasn't sure how to handle the Lantern Lodge mission if the players went for diplomacy, as raiding the ratfolk's footlockers seemed to be a bad thing for a guest to be doing! In the end I didn't get a Lantern Lodge player, so the problem was bypassed, if not resolved. The players used Diplomacy and got through fine.
Encounter 2 - I had high hopes of murder here, but my dice betrayed me. The dark slayer went too late in initiative to stop the dispelling of the first darkness, and while the stalker put up a second one, the sorcerer with the party had dispel magic and the cleric had daylight. Action economy defeated the dark folk with little damage done.
Encounter 3 - This was a fun one. The swarm popped up, and the alchemist stepped up. I was in two minds about whether a regular bomb would trigger the collapse, but I also knew he had another kind of bomb up his sleeve...but having spotten the weak ceiling, would he really use it?
Alchemist bombs. I ask 'what kind of bomb?' Answer: 'regular bomb. Oh, actually, I'll make it explosive.' Mwahahahaha! 50 damage to most of the party.
Encounter 4 - The party then dug through the rubble after healing up. As they broke through, one of the party was exhausted, and two were fatigued. Perfect time for 2 advanced gugs to attack!
The gugs won initiative and moved up to bottleneck the party in the narrower corridor they were exiting. In the first round, I took 7 attacks of opportunity as characters kept walking into 'the Venn diagram of doom'. Then a full attack on the exhausted dwarven tank...5 hits, 104 damage. Already injured, the dwarf dropped to -50 hp! However, a (very!) well-rolled breath of life from the cleric brough the dwarf up to -13 (1 point above their Con!) and stable.
Unfortunately, the cleric then went down in the next round, dropped to -9 by a gug claw. This meant there was nobody to help the inquisitor when he went to -36 from the other gug's full attack. So sad.
At this point the party were getting worried - the main fighter had 12 hp remaining and the sorcerer and alchemist were not looking forward to being the front line! Still, some flame strikes saved the day and the inquisitor was raised the next day.
Encounter 5 - compared to the gugs, the dragon was easy. With 2 buff rounds, the party were in much better shape than they were for the surprise gug attack. The dragon tried wall of stone; the sorcerer dimension doored. Then it got staggered by a terrible remorse. All the while the dragon is getting pelted with frost bombs and an enlarged, divine favoured (from spell contract), hasted etcetera fighter is ripping it up. The dragon got 2 actions and then bit the dust.
