Mrs. H.'s page

My players just hit level 3 and are about to emerge into Kenabres. Reading ahead, i am concerned about having them ascend to their first mythic tier at the same time as they hit level 6, especially as one of my players is brand-new to RPGs. She's taken to the roleplaying very readily, but the mechanics are still a bit of a challenge, and as they are leveling up every other session (session = only 3 hours), i know she's not getting enough practice with her abilities before gaining new ones. She's my only new player, but i feel like that's suboptimal for all of them, and it's only going to become more complicated when we add a new rules system on top of everything. i don't know yet whether all the mythic tiers are added in this way, at the same time as levels, but i'm going to do my best to prevent it if so.

For now, though, i'm looking for ways to separate level 6 from tier 1. i'm not awarding XP, but simply leveling them as per the guidelines on the advancement track (page 6), so the challenge is to manage encounters/story development to give them extra time at each level. Ideas i have so far:

• Toss in as many random encounters as possible on their way to Blackwing/wherever.
• Have the PCs accompany the Eagle Watch knights back to Neathholm to seal the alliance with the underdwellers.
• Come up with some side plot regarding Chief Sull's missing son (he's been mentioned a time or two anyway, so i ought to come up with something, although i don't know what yet).
• Have them level up halfway through the Gray Garrison (although i'm betting it won't take more than 3 sessions to do the whole thing, so that might still be a tad quick).
• Ignore that last level-up and just have them hit 6th level early on in Sword of Valor. It doesn't look like they'll be underpowered if they start book 2 at 5th/1st.

i need to reintroduce them to Hosilla at some point, too, as she escaped with Radiance in our last session (and she'd rather not rejoin Vhane without sealing the security leak from the info-dump note). i don't know that that'd be enough to stretch out the encounters, though.

Thoughts?

Laure's players: DO NOT READ.

i'm a relatively new DM (have only run a few single-session things so far), and have recently started running Wrath of the Righteous. At our last session, my players threw me for a loop. Long story short, the cleric ended up dead, and the sorcerer (a pacifist charmer chef) and the rogue (an angry 13-year-old) ended up captured/surrendering to the traitorous underdwellers in H6.

The remaining two party members (inquisitor and fighter) are upstairs with the NPCs, and all four PCs are low on hit points, and out of healing and spells. They've been told they're welcome to return to Neathholm to rest up and whatnot, and they might do that, but i'm less concerned with what that part of the group does than how to handle the two captured PCs. Splitting the party aside, i'm almost wishing i'd just killed them all off outright, as i am having a hard time working through how to roleplay Hosilla as a captor. None of what i can find that's been written about her gives me much to go on. i've found some good info on Baphomet, but i'm not sure whether/how to work that stuff in as part of any interrogation that happens. Plus, they don't know anything she'd be interested in that i can think of, so how long could interrogation go on before she decides to just kill them? i want to give the rest of the party time to put together a rescue mission, but that kind of time is going to be hard to fill up.

i'm still getting the hang of how to manage the story and players and a half-dozen NPCs all at one time, and although i'm enjoying it, it's a little overwhelming. What i'm hoping for is a few people who are more familiar with the AP than i am, or have more DM experience, or both, who can help me think through my options. How do you handle captured PCs? What's up with Hosilla?