My players nearly did the same thing. They only went through about 5 rooms before they found the rat and the Skulk and Mimic that was guarding it. Then the Skulk led them right to the Hobgoblin guards.
I basically did what you suggested. They had to retreat after the encounter with the hobgoblins and when they returned I had doubled the hobgoblin guard.
Now the hobgoblin guards don't seem to give much in the way of experience, but my group ran into both ragymuffins.
Why would your players be any less interested in getting the kids? I mean the point of why there are down there is to save them right? I would suggest if they "don't retreat" have a Skulk ambush waiting for them at the bottom of the elevator (maybe 5 of them). The Skulks give a bit more experience than the hobgoblins. Another option may be if they do retreat have the Skulk that is wrapped up in the ragymuffin sneak into Keygan's and they surprise him and he tries to lead them to the other ragymuffin.
In any case you should let them level up as soon as they have enough experience for second level.
BTW my group would have done the exact same thing as yours, if the barbarian hadn't picked up the piece of wood holding the door open to that first room. and then said "huh, maybe I shouldn't have done that," when the door rolled closed. :)
My players similarly skipped Jzadirune, (pesky elves and their uncanny ability to find secret doors)!.
They fought and killed the Stone Spike and Xukaxis(sp?)... barely. The group decided that they wanted to make sure they wouldn't have enemies coming at them from behind and headed back for Jzadirune to make sure they wouldn't be fighting a battle on two fronts.
To help you remind the players that the enemy left behind is the enemy that will strike from behind have about a half dozen mixed denizens of Jzadirune form an ambush in the elevator room. A fight like this will be tough, and remind the players that Jzadirune is far from empty.
Mine explored Jzadirune nearly totally, but had hard time finding the secret door, the dark ones fled to malachite fortress and told that there was some adventurers killing everything.
Kazmogen decided to send some hobgobelins scouting/killing, as the characters were in Keygan house they were assaulted by night and had a hard time, capturing 2 hobgobs who told them the way.
The guards at the elevator were 6 fully ready and armored, tough battle again.
After some rest, they went down, killing the stone spike and the "ogre", next room they attacked the hobgobelins but stayed in the corridor, reinforcment came and finally Kazmogen with the Durzagon and all, Kazmogen was worried about these adventurers knowing that his trade was lost, he sold them the remaining prisonners and they bought the 3 children from the Durzagon, Orbius won the bet on the one he wanted.
As they are 7 when they went down they where only 1st and 2nd level.
If your players don't want to go on if they feel that's to hard it's really a problem because even at 3rd level it is hard.
Ok.. so in typical party fashion, my players have managed to pretty much skip Jzadirune. They found it, chased/killed the first two Skulls just off the first room (J3??), found the tunnels, found/subdued the Skulk with the key for the rat, negotiated with the mimic, rescued the rat and were lead to the elevator by the skulk with the key.
So.. two hobgolbins later, they are decending to the Fortress, all at 1st level...
Anybody else have this happen? Any suggestions on how to keep the plot moving but not kill everybody off with the first encounter?
If the party retreats, I can delay them with beefed up guards in Jzadirune and in Keygan's but its going to pretty hard to make that work AND keep the players interested in pursuing the kids.
I had the exact same experience. But it did not matter so much, because they started the adventure being 2nd Level already. So they solved everything concerning the kids, headed back up and were celebrated by the people in Cauldron.
Then some time later, they wondered that they must have missed something in Jzadirune and they also realized that they must have missed Kazmojens treasury (they did not find the room with the second mimic). So they decided to head back and explore everything. But I foiled that, because I feared a pretty lame and boring dungeon crawl. So I let Todd Vanderboren buy Keygan Ghelves house. So now the Stormblades are in control of Jzadirune and the Malachite Fortress. I figured that the access to the Underdark might be pretty valuable to the noble power houses in town.
So my players now have already a certain attitude towards the Stormblades, which makes it easier for the conflicts in Flood Season.
Then some time later, they wondered that they must have missed something in Jzadirune and they also realized that they must have missed Kazmojens treasury (they did not find the room with the second mimic). So they decided to head back and explore everything. But I foiled that, because I feared a pretty lame and boring dungeon crawl. So I let Todd Vanderboren buy Keygan Ghelves house. So now the Stormblades are in control of Jzadirune and the Malachite Fortress. I figured that the access to the Underdark might be pretty valuable to the noble power houses in town.
So my players now have already a certain attitude towards the Stormblades, which makes it easier for the conflicts in Flood Season.
I was worried about my players wanting to return for what they missed, but then I saw this bit of text in Zenith Trajectory (page 131-132 of the SCHC) "There's a complication. Another group of Adventurers - they call themselves the Stormblades, perhaps you've heard of them - caved in all the passages beneath Jzadirune and the Malachite Fortress about a monnth ago. So there's no easy acess to the Underdark from Cauldron anymore."
So my plan is that shortly after the players resuce the few people left from the Malachite Hold the city is going to hire the very capable Stormblades to cave in the passages leading to Jzadirune, which means there will no longer be a direct route back to it. Plus I'm planning on having 6 members of the Stormblades, but one will be afflicted with the Vanishing and disappear, just another good reason to close that place off, heh.
I seem to have run into a similar situation. My party immediately found the secret door and disabled the stairway trap due to a pair of natural 20s on the Rogue's part. They then discovered the Acid Pit in the passage beyond, but not the secret door because the pit was in the way and the Rogue (sensibly) didn't want to risk setting it off. After the Rogue failed to disable it a couple times, the party's gnomish artificer inexplicably tried it herself, accidentally triggering the pit and dropping to 0 hit points from the combination of the fall and the acid. She managed to grab a rope lowered by the party (dropping her to -1) and was quickly hauled out and revived.
Rather than giving up because the hall was now blocked by a pit, the party's spiked chain tripmonkey got out a grappling hook and tried to pull the pit closed. He failed his use rope check several times but eventually succeeded in pulling the trapdoor closed, making enough noise that that Hobgoblins stationed on the elevator heard the party. They would have dismissed it as infighting among the skulks, but the party rogue immediately rolled another natural 20 to disable the trapdoor, searched for a secret door, failed badly, and started swearing up a storm. The hobgoblins realized that this wasn't a case of the skulks fighting over a choice bit of treasure, and opened the door, expecting any intruders to be dropped into the pit when the trap activated. When this didn't happen, they attempted melee. Despite their heavy armor, the party managed to easily defeat them.
Rather than continuing to explore Jzadirune, they remembered that the Divination riddle implied that they had a limited amount of time to affect a rescue, and immediately activated the lift and descended, at which point I ended the session.
That's all well and good, and some of the advice in this topic (for example, having an ambush waiting for them when they return) is definately something I'll consider. But here's my dilemma.
My party is still Level 1. Some of the stuff in the Malachite Hold (Hammerer Automatons, Kazmojen, and possibly some of the more tactically challenging Hobgoblin battles) will be more than a match for them. Should I give them bonus XP for skipping Jzadirune, and if so, how much? I'm leaning toward yes, for several reasons. First of all, they basically succeeded spectacularly and in doing so found the shortest possible path to their goal. Second, they are keeping on task admirably, and have stated that they're aware it might be risky, but they want to save the Orphans before it's too late. And finally, as I said before, The Malachite Hold is going to kill them if they're not ready - granted there are several Deus Ex Machina possibilities in place, but I'd rather not use them if I can avoid them.
The main reason why I might not want to give them bonus XP is they've announced they intend to go back to clear Jzadirune out later, and I don't want Chapter 2 to be too much of a cakewalk.
What does everyone think?
Eric "Critic of the Dawn"
What would be fun? Sounds like pushing on with the mission would be the most fun. If they go down there as 1st level, not fun - they'll die. So either you re-calc all the monsters in Malachite to be apporirate challenges, or hand out some story awards to bump them half-way into level 2. The starting battles in Malachite might even then make them level 3 by the time they reach Kazmojen. That covers Malachite.
Jzadirune is not a bunch of fun. If the players really want to explore it, I'd make multiple areas of it disappear. The northern section with the greel, pulverizer and ragomuffin could still provide a good challenge.
If after that they are too high level for Drakthar's Way, you might just skip that adventure entirely.
Fun. Hmm. That is a very valid point that often gets overlooked.
The party has momentum on their side at this point, and it'd be awfully silly of me to stand in the way of it or let them get killed. With that in mind, I think I'll send enough bonus XP their way to get everyone comfortably into level 2. Halfway through might be a bit much, though. They've basically said they know rushing in is probably foolhardy, and ideally I'd like them to feel like they're taking a significant risk in forging ahead before they're ready. If they're defeated, I have Fario and Fellian (and possibly even the Stormblades, if it comes to that) to help them escape from imprisonment.
I'm also going to make sure they know that there's no great pressure for them to completely clear out Jzadirune (other than rescuing poor Starbrow) if they aren't so inclined. That said, I suspect the completists in the party will want to do so anyway. If this is the case, I may cut the available experience by having the Stormblades show up and take out a number of the weaker encounters - I've had good success in the past getting my group to hate rival parties, and with all the good stuff available in the Hardcover, here, and at therpgenius, I anticipate some great times to come.
Eric "Critic of the Dawn"
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We had a pretty enjoyable scene in jzadirune too. Our rogue, being the stereotype he was, immediately went for the chest that held the mimic and found himself stuck fast to it. That party was pretty burnt on spells at that point and were in need of a rest and the cleric had lost his only weapon. In the first round everyone pretty much beat on the mimic as best they could then its turn came up and it nearly killed the rogue(put him at 1 if I recall) and he started to panic.
Bottom of the round the cleric's turn comes up and he considers his empty spell list, then glances around for anything he could use as a weapon and then looks straight at me and goes 'I'm going to punch it'. The mimic misses its AoO, the cleric roles ridiculously high and hits. He dishes out his big 1d3+2 damage and knocks the mimic unconscious.
It was a great moment at our table. Everyone is beating on this chest while it seems to be eating the rogue and the cleric walks up, punches it until it goes limp and then simply says 'Lets go get some ale.'