I just thought I would post some interesting tidbits of information here in regards to my rather unique WC sessions. I have a group of 3, 4th level PC's but they have 2 1st level NPC's that travel with them as well (bodyguards). We are playing in the Birthright campaign setting, so I had to do some serious work to fit this adventure path in.
Anyways, most of my players commented that this adventure would be absolute death for a 1st level party. I disagree for a number of reasons, but mainly because my group seems to approach every single room/encounter in the worst possible way. For one thing, they don't have the rogue go first to search for traps. The shooting iron balls trap, sprung by the paladin, the wind tunnel trap sprung by the cleric, the poison gas trap, also sprung by the cleric. 2 of the 3 players are accomplished D&D veterans, yet they still seem to bumble into every monster lair and trap in the place.
Luckily, the monsters seem to be rather weak against the party as I didn't beef them up too much due to their trap problems :) The grick was dead in 2 rounds, the strangler didn't do a single point of damage before it was sliced in half, the medium water elemental was dead in 2 rounds. The worst monster the group faced were those acid beetle swarms, and that was because they had no area of effect spells and NONE of them had torches :P
They do manage to roleplay relatively well though, and figured out how to find the Land family bodies, Kullen, and Filge's hideout all without ever encountering the owlbear or the severed arm.
The Tomb Mote encounter was absolutely hilarious though, the party didn't know whether to attack the thing or throw a leash on it :) I can't wait until they enter the observatory and encounter Filge and his minions. That fight will be one to remember. I am anticipating the undead will be of little use against a paladin and a cleric, but the necromancer is gonna get some serious beats in before he is killed.