In my Campaign I have at this moment:
Sebrahn - Tiefling Bard
Jack - Drow Rogue
Ivorthalion - Elf Ranger
Shivra - Drow Cleric of Sarenrae
All Characters were Level 1 at this point of the campaign.
After defending Olegs trading post against those nasty bandits and capturing Happs Bydon, my mary little band of heroes cleared the Thorn River camp and killed Kressle.
After this deed was done, they decided to end the banit threat for good because you can't really enjoy exploring a country while savage bandits hide behind every tree. Through interogating the survivors, my heroes learned about the (not very precise) location of the Stag Lords fort and marched to scout it and eventually hit it ...
They marched hard towards south and five to six days and some very interesting fey encounters (including an army of spear wielding potatoes *thanks to the user with this idea ^^*) they arrived at the fort.
With some help from the now befriended fey and some scouting by Jack the Rogue and Ivorthalion the Ranger, they decided to sneak in from behind, because an all out frontal assault was out of question and they had no booze or disguises to bluff their way in.
My players crawled up the hill only to be ambushed by the Zombies which were a really nasty surprise. But thanks to the clerics channelling they managed to repell the first two waves. At this point the guards were on alert and my players hid inside some bushes etc. and thanks to their really good rolls (I think the lowest roll was a 21), they succeded in hiding from the third wave of zombies and the badit guards (who thought it is just another Kobolt who got ripped apart)... well and because the enemies rolled badly.
They entered the fort via the hidden passageway and snuk into the Stag Lords room, where Sebrahn the Bard shove his sword into the sleeping Stag Lords black heart, only to be grabbed by the villain and to be forced to look into his dying, angry and vengeful eyes (it was not very pleasant for our bard, especially because the cleric did not really approve to the whole sword into the heart thingie and because Sebrahn is very supersticious and now thinks he is cursed ... and perhabs he is *GM grins very evil* ... and yes i know drow and stuff, but there's some backstory why she is cleric of Sarenrae and why she and the Rogue aren't evil as hell, but that's an other story).
While the Stag Lord met his end, Jack the Rogue moved silently into the yard and tried to release the Owlbear, only to be caught by Akiros. Because of his own talkative abilities and Akiros ability to realise this is the moment to act the two agreed on a truce and released the beast ... and got lucky not to be the first target of little Beaky.
And thus hilarity ensued ... and by this I mean claws and carnage.
The bandits in the yard were sleeping and stood not a chance. Dovan hold quite well, but got grappled and mangled by the Owlbear. Some of the bandits run over from their camp nearby to fight the beast or shoot it from the top with arrows but were ripped to shreds. Only Auchs could stand against it, but in the end fell too. With the majority of their comrades transformed into the yards new paintjob the bandits run away into the night, never to be seen again (.. or perhabs they will be *GM rubbing his hands*).
The band of heroes returned from the secred passage where they hid during the carnage and started to look for survivors. One was Falgrim Sneek who luckily survived, lucky for the characters and not for him because I am sure he has an appointment with an executioner. The other survivor was the Owlbear, which at this point was dying but our ranger saved and befriended it ... well it accepted his help and didn't try to mangle him and considering the fact that thing is an owlbear this must be true love.
After they buried the dead and looked through the bandits loot and treasures my players decided to put some guards on the fort and returned some days later to Olegs to continue their task.
Well, they cleaned the fort on Level 1 ... I let them try and they were lucky. I maybe help a little bit but their success based on their really good dice rolls and some really bad luck on the badits side. But that's life ^^