We just began the Mongrel Lair last night. To my player's (2 Paladins, a bard, and Smasho the Barbarian Philosopher) credit, they worked efficiently. They cleared the cultists, the ranger, 6 mongrelmen, the lizard and the rats in one night. There are 3 unfortunate things though.
1. They opened the door to the garbage room (the one with the giant amoeba), winced a little, cast detect magic and closed the door. They don't want to touch that area with a 10-foot pole.
2. The looked down the hole to area 11-b (connects secret room to a lot of magic) determined that it was right behind the garbage room. Immediately assumed it's where the *ahem* excrement drained to and ignored it.
3. They just killed 2/3 of the dungeon with minimal effort at level 1, the only reason they retreated was because they ran out of healing potions (Seriously, Smasho was basically hooked up to an i.v. drip, through a mix of his role as tank and just plain bad luck.) NOW they are level 2 and have already beaten or ignored the some of the harder combats.
So I was wondering how I should reinforce the lair to make it less of a cake walk for them but still manageable. I was thinking 2 more mongrelmen and 1 cultist and the 1 mongrelman they let escape returned giving Hostilla a rundown of what he saw they could do. I gave him a 50/50 shot of being killed or spared by her and rolled he lives. So that leaves 7 mongrels, 1 cultist, 1 tiefling, 2 dretches, and Hostilla herself who they'd likely fight. 2 gars and an amoeba that will just be ignored.
What do you guys think? Any of ideas how i could encourage them to explore the river area without outright telling them? Are my additions reasonable? Too much? Too little?