My players started the first adventure in Jzadirune and were lucky so far. They could quickly overcome the initial two Skulks without raising a general alarm and even succeeded in capturing the one Skulk with the silver key for the rat cage. That one pleaded for his life and told them of the elevator to the Malachite Fortress.
So the group immediately went there, killing the Hobgoblin guards and taking the elevator down. In the fortress they just killed the Stone Guardian and the polymorphed Ogre/Oythug.
Everything went smooth so far. Now my question to you veteran GMs out there.
1. Do you think, that the fight with the Stone Guardian is loud enough to alert the Hobgoblins in the Main Entrance Hall ? And how would you conduct retaliation on the PCs during a general alarm ?
2. Eventually the Dark Creepers and remaining Skulks will find there dead comrades and know that something went wrong. How would you play that out ? Would you let them descend through the elevator ? Setup a trap, when the group comes back ? Or maybe disabling the elevator, to prevent the group from coming back that way ?
Although this last option would force the PCs to take the Underdark passage. And I am not so sure, that I want to get into this.
If you have any thoughts on this or run into some similar situations let me know.
By the way, the group is already 3rd level with 7 PCs, so I think I can give them a hard time anyway. they are a little overpowered, if I play it tame.