So the party just went threw the mirror in the Demon skar legacy. However they did not find alkalst nor did they kill all the giants or ettins in the dungon. They party just missed out on lots of stuff. and lots of XP so i'm looking into an adventure in the desert that would be good and not having kaurophon show up just yet. or mabye have him travel with them or somthing... However i'm wondering how to tie in the adventure with the Hags or somthing so that i can place aklast in the desert. all they know about it is that it was tolen by agents of evil... any ideas?
Sounds familiar. My group had similar problems.
One potential way of solving it is to proceed with the plot as-writ, but be "generous" with the encounters crossing Occipitus. I don't know about your group, but mine has no transportation magic and at least two sub-30' PCs...so it's a good week's travel to Test #1, another good week to Test #2.
Some CAREFULLY balanced encounters should grant plenty of chances for garnering loot and XP, and save the inconsistancy problem.