D&D 5E D&D Encounters - Scourge of the Sword Coast play report (spoilers) - Complete!

A couple of weeks ago I noted that our numbers had been dropping. They surged back this week with a vengeance; two new players and a lot of returning players meant we had three tables each with a DM and six players. That’s 21 people playing D&D! Logistically this was a challenge, because the store also had (unusually) people playing Attack Wing and Magic, taking up valuable table space. We managed, but it was a little too noisy for my liking.

On my table, we had a ranger (Sondra), three rogues (Harry, Danielle and Tait), one mage (Lily) and a bard (Josh). Josh’s bard was the replacement for his mage who died last week. One particular lack of the group was that of a front-line fighter. Sondra and Josh sort of fulfilled that role, although neither was particularly happy about it. They needed a lot of cure wounds spells to stay standing. Otherwise, the rest of the group were in sniping or spring attack mode, as I explained how the rogues could best do additional damage (discussed here).

The exploration of the Floshin estate had already taken two sessions, and consumed a third session as well. The unease of the characters was high, once more, especially with the lack of front-line fighters or clerics, although both Sondra and Josh were able to cast three cure wounds spells apiece. I removed a few encounters with elemental grue to speed up play, and even then they weren’t able to reach the final encounter! I’ve a feeling that we won’t be getting through everything in the adventure; I’ll have to cut things out to finish it in time for Dead in Thay.

The group began by exploring the remaining rooms on the second floor. This brought them to a sitting room that contained four dread warriors. I was beginning to add further details to the description of the undead so that there were further clues to what was behind everything; in this case they were wearing antique, ornate armour of a particular style. Unfortunately, none of the group rolled high enough on their History or Arcana checks to identify them, so they players were aware that something was up, but not what it was. The fight mostly saw Sondra standing in the doorway being attacked by a couple of dread warriors, with the rogues using attack and retreat harassing attacks. Lily used a magic missile spell before settling back into cantrips (mostly ray of frost) as she realised that there might well be a really big encounter she needed to use her spells on. Once the battle was over, the group took a short rest to allow Sondra to recuperate somewhat.

With the entirety of the second floor explored, the group descended to the first floor using the spiral staircase. Four sets of armour were set in the room they descended to – and I completely forgot to mention that the stairs kept going down to the cellars! Instead, most of the group focused on the door to the garden while Josh examined the armour. Only to have it attack him – two sets of animated plate jerked into action, and a small imp sat within one of the helmets, trying to stab him with its poisoned tail. (Yes, it’s the imp that killed the servants; the tail is the source of the wounds that Lily discovered last session).

Josh fell back and the rest of the group ran for it! Danielle darted into the garden, followed by Josh, Sondra and Lily. There they were struck by the beauty of a blue-leaved tree, and could see into a couple of the other rooms of the mansion – where no dangers lurked. They just stayed out of the way as Tait and Harry rushed up the stairs, shooting at the armour and keeping out of its way. With the ability of the rogues to hustle as their extra action, I saw no problem in them easily outpacing the armour. When the animated armour couldn’t detect them, it headed back down the stairs – and they moved forward and attacked again. The armour was hard to hit, but relatively fragile, and so it didn’t really take that long for the rogues to take them down. Instead of alerting the rest of the group to this, they instead started to investigate on their own, opening another door and finding a well-stocked cupboard with some valuable dining settings. They were definitely thieves, and so they started to loot.

After a while, the other four joined them. The group did not remark upon the fact the imp had vanished, but just kept exploring the manor house. A dumb-waiter caught Danielle’s eye, and so she jumped in, her gnome the only character who could fit inside, and the group lowered her into the kitchen below. It was a large, well-stocked kitchen with some joints of meat evident, so she took them back up with her to feed her dire-wolf, Fluffy.

More exploration of the first floor allowed them to find the dining hall and more servant’s quarters. A well-stocked library was of great interest to Josh and Lily, and they browsed through the books, discovering that the armour worn by the undead was that of Thay – the great land of evil necromancers, far to the east of the Sword Coast.

A secret trapdoor led down to the cellars, so the group decided to take that. Well, most of the group: Sondra, Danielle and her dire-wolf stayed above. A few storage rooms were found, but of more threat was the laundry, in which two water grue – horrible, oozy spheres of unclean water – were resting in a basin. Upon being disturbed by Tait trying to climb onto the basin to see out the high windows above, they attacked. The group ran back, especially after discovering that while the grue were moderately easy to hit, they had a lot of hit points and wouldn’t go down easily. Sondra descended into the cellars to help them upon hearing their screams, but was unable to persuade Danielle to help. Tait and Harry discovered that whilst they were able to hide from the grue in side passages, that didn’t really help when the grue turned into the passages! Josh was able to intimidate one of the grue into retreating after it was badly wounded, which made the work of the heroes a lot easier. Eventually both were slain, and the party continued to explore the cellars.

A workshop contained a statue of a devil impaled by a sword, but – again – neither Lily nor Josh could identify its import. It wasn’t a good day for their knowledge rolls! They then discovered the stairs up to the main chamber… oops! We laughed at that, and Danielle and Fluffy rejoined the party.

More elemental grue – another water grue – attacked as they investigated a fountain at the intersection of some corridors. Alone, it wasn’t much of a threat. Proceeding down one of the corridors, they discovered the kitchen that Danielle had seen before. The other corridor led to the pantry, which, they found, also had a secret door that led to the barracks. Some of the group were very interested in the fine arms and armour they could find in the barracks; they were more than delighted to find two potions of healing; but they were puzzled by a suit of crudely made armour in the chamber.

The owner of that armour they found in the cells adjoining the barracks. A half-orc, now dead. The group were extremely surprised to discover that the corpse wasn’t undead. It’s funny – I didn’t even think about it that way, but considering what had happened to all the servants and guests here, the fact that this half-orc hadn’t been turned into an undead servant of some kind was quite unusual. Lily, examining the corpse, discovered that it had been drained of all its blood, but there were no clues that they could see showing what killed it.

The next room held danger: four dread warriors and a Thayan wight! This was a tough battle, and Josh and Sondra spent as much time healing themselves as attacking. Josh finally brought out his bardic song, and the group badly needed the bonus to damage that it gave. At least the cramped quarters meant that the group couldn’t get overwhelmed. The battle was long, and it was tough, but eventually the group prevailed.

At this point we’d been going for two hours or a little more, and the other groups were packing up. One more encounter was needed to finish the Estate, but, given it might involve a lot of role-playing, I didn’t want to rush it and so we closed the session there. The group had done a lot, and I was very happy with how it had gone. I know a couple of players won’t be making the next session, though I think everyone at my table will be there – I guess we’ll see if I need a fourth copy of the adventure if new players keep turning up! I’m finding the adventure absolutely excellent to run, and I hope the players are enjoying it as much as I am.

We had fewer players at Goodgames Ballarat this week, but it was still a healthy number with 17 players turning up. Tables were DM+5, DM+5, DM+4, and with the shop quieter as well, the games went by pretty smoothly. My own table was lacking Harry, but Lily, Danielle, Josh, Sondra and Tait were all present.

I finally organised myself well enough to bring in miniatures and dungeon tiles this week, and was all ready for the big battle against Shalendra, a poor elven woman who had been possessed by a devil. I was also prepared for doing quite a bit of role-playing when the group realised that she was possessed and tried to save her.

You’d think I’d know better.

In any case, I set up the miniatures and terrain tiles (some of Dwarven Forge’s tiles from their last kickstarter) and we began with the group exploring the chamber they’d defeated the undead in. It was well appointed, with a blood-smeared statue of Corellon Larethian, the elven god, prominent, but the group were only interested in loot. The main treasure they found – a jewelled dagger – was snaffled by Tait as Josh concentrated on the non-existent pockets on the undead.

One final corridor and room awaited – and they were confronted by the angry Shalendra, who attacked them after they refused to leave.

One of the troubles that faces this party is that no-one actually wants to be a melee fighter. They’re all the “hang back” type, which gives them a bit of a problem when there’s no-one to hide behind. In theory, Josh (bard of valor) and Sondra (ranger) should be in the front rank, but they’re reluctant. Even who was opening the door gave them pause – eventually, Josh was nominated and didn’t dodge quick enough. And so started the battle against Shalendra…



Josh is facing Shalendra at the bottom of the picture – Shalendra is in red. Lily’s wizard is standing in the middle of the room, and Sondra, Tait and Danielle are sniping from back in the corridor. The battle also involved an imp and a fire grue, but the imp died very quickly to a very good bow-shot. The grue was more trouble – Lily was being chased by it until she was able to drive it back with a Thunderwave spell.

(You can also see that I need to do more painting of the dungeon tiles… life tends to get busy and I ignore them for a while).

When Shalendra was badly hurt, she began begging for mercy. Her personality changed, and she claimed to have been possessed. I began to move into roleplaying mode; however, Danielle showed no mercy, shooting an arrow through her eye and killing her instantly. Well, there went that bit of plot development! Shalendra’s body erupted into fire and burnt to ash, as had the body of the hobgoblin shaman back in Julkoun.

Papers covering the floor of the room proved to be Shalendra’s journal, in which she recorded her quest to reopen the portals of the manor; a quest that had led her to seek help from the Red Wizards of Thay in their stronghold – Bloodgate Keep. No clue as to the location of the Keep could be found, however.

With no further enemies to fight, the group began to plan: what would they do with their newly-acquired manor. Yeah, they’re D&D players.

Eventually, after a few days rest, they returned to Daggerford. It’s worth pointing out at this point, that only Tait’s character has actually been in the town – every other player started after the first session. I actually gave Lily and Sondra my tablet so they could read what happened in the first session! The sight of the refugees still surrounding the town did not exactly inspire pity – instead, they began to plan to get cheap labour for the new manor. The guards told them Sir Isteval was back, and they soon found themselves invited to dinner at his house.

Sir Isteval was appreciative of their efforts for the region, and told them of his explorations, which had pinpointed Phylund Lodge, an abandoned noble hunting villa, as the staging ground for the gnoll raids on the Trade Way. The group really wanted to know where the villagers from Julkoun had been taken, and Sir Isteval promised to organise trackers to find out where they went. The group headed off towards the Lodge in the meantime, hoping to free the villagers once they dealt with the gnolls.

As the group approached the Lodge, they could see ruined walls surrounding the villa, but the main building appeared to be still standing. Most of them also spotted the gnolls who were trying to ambush them. Combat was soon joined, with both sides mostly staying back and sniping at the other side. Josh and Lily slowly made their way up towards the gnolls. I’d neglected to bring in my wilderness dungeon tiles or a battlegrid, so we improvised:



Once the gnolls were slain, the group were ready to explore the lodge, but, alas, we’d run out of time. The battle against Shalendra had actually run quite long, as had their return to Daggerford, so it was time to pause the adventure for another week.

Have you uploaded those pregens yet? I've been thinking of a format like that (with "actions" all in one place so it's easy to know what your character can do).

The eighth session of Scourge of the Sword Coast had five players: one new, Troy, who played a fighter, and four returning faces: Danielle (rogue), Josh (bard), Tait (rogue) and Sondra (ranger). This was Troy’s first game of D&D; I hope he enjoyed it.

Structurally, the session ended up being almost entirely combat. The gnolls that were guarding Phylund Lodge put up a big fight against the group. I used D&D miniatures and Dwarven Forge dungeon tiles again this session, but I discovered that I didn’t have the right minis – for some reason, they’d ended up at home rather than still being in my car. We proxied a bit as a result.

The group continued on from last session, with the group approaching Phylund Lodge. They could see the stone lodge buildings were still pretty intact, but the wooden palisade and gatehouses had collapsed and were now overgrown. Tait and Sondra scouted forward, disturbing a pair of hyenas that were running around the grounds. Tait killed one with his bow – he’s a specialist archer rogue – but was unable to kill the second before it could raise an alarm. Two more hyenas came into sight, and Danielle charged forward on her dire wolf, slapping one to the ground. Sondra, seeing Troy menaced by another hyena, used Animal Friendship to charm it. Josh ran forward to help Danielle, but was shot from the windows of the lodge by gnolls – he quickly ran for cover.

I was placing dungeon tiles to show the lodge, and filling it in as the group discovered more of it. The blue d6 is the charmed hyena standing near Sondra. Danielle’s rogue is next to an enemy hyena (red d6). Standing on the walls – actually behind windows – are the gnolls, whilst Tait has just run into the lodge and discovered a gnoll waiting for him! Troy is the dark elf near the corner of the other part of the lodge, and you can just see Josh’s miniature hiding in the corner between two of the gnolls.



Danielle, Troy and Josh realised very quickly that they didn’t want to stay in the open, and rushed to aid Tait – this took some time, and Tait was sorely hurt by the time they caught up with him!

I’d made Troy’s fighter using the “simple” build which just has increased chances of dealing critical hits rather than all the manoeuvres – much as I like the manoeuvre system, it’s tricky for a player in their first game when I’m going to be somewhat distracted running the rest of the game. However, a ten percent chance of dealing a critical hit every attack is not bad at all, and he got one with his great sword, slaying one of the two menacing Tait, the other was slain by Tait himself, now he had someone else in melee allowing him sneak attack chances. With the two gnolls in the entry chamber now dead, Tait opened the door to the main chamber, only to find that both gnolls were waiting for him – he was struck again by their bow fire. He dodged out of the way and let the others slay the remaining gnolls.

Stairs leading up were investigated, and two more gnolls were slain. There was a door in the far wall, and further places to explore upstairs, but the group was hurt; they needed to rest, and so they rested for an hour – a “short rest” in D&D Next terminology.

Meanwhile, behind the door to the east, four gnolls sleeping in the stables were waking up. They considered their options: attack immediately or lay an ambush? They chose to ambush the party when it came through the door, and so they did. As the group fell back, the gnolls rushed in!

Tait was surrounded, and once again Troy rain to his aid. Sondra and her pet hyena took on two gnolls, whilst Josh began to sing and Danielle fired arrows from a safe distance. It wasn’t that long before the gnolls were defeated, but some cure wounds spells and healing potions were used before the group headed upstairs.

Correctly guessing there’d be more gnolls outside, Tait chose to climb the wall and get in a window as Sondra and Troy climbed the stairs. They swiftly discovered not only gnolls, but a Wizard of Thay waiting for them… and Tait discovered that his window led into a side room, not the landing where the fight was going on!

Sondra’s hyena was killed protecting its mistress, and Sondra fled down the stairs. Troy rushed to the room that Tait had entered, and found himself caught by a hold person spell – luckily for him, he was quickly able to shake it off.

Some of the gnolls chased Sondra down the stairs, and so we had a battle going on two levels at once. I reconstituted a portion of downstairs map, and had the two battles going side by side!



The group actually did really well, and were able to dispatch the gnolls without being too hurt in return. One last gnoll and the wizard fled, but they were chased down, another critical hit to removing the Wizard from this life!

And that was, unfortunately, all we had time for. The next session will – with any luck – see more variety in the action. This was a really big fight sequence; I do enjoy them, but not every week!

GX.Sigma said:

Have you uploaded those pregens yet? I've been thinking of a format like that (with "actions" all in one place so it's easy to know what your character can do).

Click to expand...

Here's the sheet that I gave Josh (the others aren't in this format yet, and it's still a work in progress).

View attachment Josh Halforc Bard 3a.pdf

Cheers!

What spells did Josh choose?

kira3696.tripod.com

ren1999 said:

What spells did Josh choose?

Click to expand...

Not quite sure; I'll ask him next time I see him. I know cure wounds was one, though!

The ninth session of our Scourge of the Sword Coast campaign saw us down a DM: Paul is on holiday, and his replacement (which we’d organised weeks ago) couldn’t make it. Thankfully, we were able to run just the two tables, with six players on each table. Strangely enough, seven of the players had played most of their sessions on my table, but as Harry has missed a lot of this campaign due to other commitments, it was easy to shuffle him onto Ben’s table.

On my table were Tait (rogue), Sondra (ranger), Troy (fighter), Danielle (rogue), Josh (bard) and Lily (mage).

Last session we’d cleared out most of the gnolls in Phylund Lodge. This session saw the group continuing to explore the lodge for any further gnolls that might be hidden somewhere. And the crypts below the lodge.

They spent a fair bit of time exploring the rest of the upper levels. The gnolls had left some traps on the exterior doors that weren’t so difficult when reached from inside, and so Tait and Danielle were able to disarm those. The general run-down nature of the lodge was readily apparent, as were the changes the gnolls had made to make it fit for their habitation: bookcases with the shelves knocked out and filled with fur and grass proved a handy bed for gnolls! More refined touches were proof of their human master – the Red Wizard of Thay, who had been slain at the end of the last session.

His bedchamber proved the most interesting of the lot, and Lily went straight to his spellbook. Unfortunately, she didn’t detect the presence of magic (or, more correctly, magical traps) first, and so was caught by the Explosive Runes spell he’d scribed on the first page; Lily threw herself to the ground and survived, but the book was incinerated, along with all the clues it gave to the plans of the Red Wizards! Surviving the blast was a bowl and a magical lodestone, although none of the characters could work out what they were for. They were happy to find a few baubles to add to their loot.

No more enemies were left on the upper levels, but a staircase in the northern building led down to the wine cellar and crypts. There, they met a gnoll chieftain, possessed by the same type of flame entity that both the hobgoblin shaman in Julkoun and the elf woman in the Floshin Manor was possessed by. It had the ability to cause fear at will in addition to attacking each turn, and soon enough three of the party were fleeing. The gnoll had two wolves aiding him, but Sondra used her magic to charm one of the wolves, although it proved reluctant to attack its former master.

Eventually the group rallied and slew the gnoll; its body exploding in a flash of fire. For once, no-one was standing in the blast. Tunnels led away from the gnolls chamber, which, the group discovered, led to various crypts. The first ones they discovered were empty with no sign of the lords who once were buried there. Heading southwards, the group discovered a pair of secret chambers. The first held a fine bronze bowl filled with holy water, which the group were happy to take. The second held a magically-trapped skull, which shot flame at the group as they attempted to enter. Troy rushed in and destroyed the skull with a pair of good blows. For his trouble, the group found a potion of mind reading and a strangely-shaped incense burner.

Continuing south, the group reached a shrine to Tempus, god of war. There, three dread warriors, made from the corpses of the Phylund lords, awaited them. The party made short work of them, although they were quite concerned that the statue of Tempus was about to come alive and attack them! They retrieved a magical longsword from the undead, and then discovered a secret door behind the statue. It led to another shrine, this one to Malar, an evil deity dedicated to the savage aspects of the hunt. While interesting to devotees of Realms lore, it didn’t really pertain to the quest.

We were now out of time, and upon scanning the rest of the crypts, I noted some rats and a few skeletons, but nothing more of import, so I informed the group that they found nothing more of interest. Back to Daggerford they went, where they hoped that Sir Isteval had discovered where the prisoners from Julkoun had been taken.

The pacing in this session felt wrong to me; all the big combats happened last week, and there was only one “important” combat (against the gnoll) which happened at the beginning of their trek into the crypts, not at the end. I’m not entirely sure what the dread warriors were doing in the shrine, either. So I came away from the session feeling slightly disappointed, although the interactions between the players were a real highlight of the game.

We’re approaching the end of the adventure now. Due to the way the scheduling works for us, we’ve got three more weeks before Dead In Thay begins, that adventure continuing on from this one. Ben’s group has been moving faster than mine, so they should get through all of the adventure sites; I’ll leave out Harpshield Castle unless the unthinkable occurs and we get through Firehammer Hold in a single session!

We’re moving towards the end of this D&D Encounters season, and this session began with Josh getting drunk.

Well, Josh’s character at least. Returning to Daggerford, our half-orc bard felt that his best course of action was to find the owner of the Floshin estate (Darfin Floshin) and persuade him to hand over the manor to the party. Lily, Danielle and Josh had very much enjoyed the manor when they’d explored it several weeks ago, and had been greatly devastated when they discovered it was still occupied. This was Josh’s plan for getting it back. Josh very much plays up the comedy element of his half-orc bard, and the idea of getting the owner drunk, but becoming too drunk in the process to actually take advantage of that, really appealed to him, and, indeed, to many of the other players at the table.

Not everyone, however. There is limited time in each Encounters session, and I could see some of the players getting concerned by how much time this was taking, rather than actually getting on with the adventure. It’s a difficult thing to negotiate. D&D is a social experience, and I feel there must be a balance between roleplaying (including these comedy moments) and the action-oriented storyline. I was willing to let this one play out, but I was conscious of the timing involved. Josh wound it up himself, and we progressed to a meeting with Sir Isteval, and things got back on track without too much time spent in the diversion.

Sir Isteval brought good news. Well, mostly good news: his trackers had discovered where the villagers from Julkoun had been taken: Firehammer Hold, a dwarven stronghold in the mountains. After some discussion, and some shopping in town, the group travelled there along the Iron Road, taking in Secomber and Uluvin on the way. They inquired in those towns about the hold, only to learn that the trading shipments from there had stopped, and the merchants that had travelled there to find out what was occurring had not returned. I also emphasised that the local lords did not have the soldiers to deal with the threat themselves; all their men were needed to protect the towns from attacks from the gnolls and hobgoblins.

As the group neared Firehammer Hold, they reached a great statue of Vergadain, the dwarven god of luck and mercantilism. It was defaced with an iron shield displaying the hold symbol of Laduguer, the deity of the dark dwarves, the duergar, ancient enemy of the surface dwarves. The group removed the shield, restoring the statue, and they felt Vergadain’s approval, the offering bowl filling with enchanted water: enough for five vials of healing. Troy filled his flasks, while Josh threw a gold coin into the bowl as an offering. He gained Vergadain’s approval and was blessed for the remainder of the session; the others tried this, but I explained that Vergadain rewarded ingenuity and initiative, so no-one else could gain the benefit. They were only copying Josh’s actions!

Two paths converged on the statue. One led to the Hold, the other into the valley below. The group noted carrion birds circling a site down in the valley, but they did not investigate, instead pressing on towards the Hold.

The main gates of the Hold were barred, and no secret entrances could be found. Knocking on the door also brought no response; however, a guest hold nearby was unlocked; indeed, the bolt had been removed from the front door. The group found it abandoned – a message carved into one of the bedframes read only, “We’re doomed!” with no further indication of what had happened. The keen-eyed members of the party discovered a peephole and a secret door, which led into the hold proper, and so they proceeded onwards.

Tait heard low voices conversing to the north, and so proceeded down a staircase into a guard room, where a pair of dark dwarves were on watch. He ambushed them, and with support from his friends was able to kill them both, but not before they raised the alarm. The group prepared for an attack, but it didn’t come.

Tait continued to scout forward, discovering a grand chamber that held a shrine to one of the dwarven gods. Suspiciously looking around, he found a number of arrowslits overlooking the chamber from the east, beyond which he could see a few duergar. There were other exits from the hall, but he returned to the group to discuss what he’d found. The group were uneasy about directly assaulting the duergar, especially in such a poor chamber to do so, but instead they resolved to find another way around. There was a carved set of double doors leading east in the hallway leading to the shrine, would they give them a back way in?

The doors led to a great feasting hall. Tait, again scouting ahead, noticed a couple of suspicious pipes, slightly corroded, leading into the room. Some sort of trap! His investigations also found a secret door which would likely lead to the duergar. Before they alerted the duergar to their presence in this room, disabling the traps would seem prudent: the group stuffed the pipes with body parts taken from the pair of duergar they killed earlier. Waste not, want not!

At this point, the group opened the secret doors and sent Tait ahead. Tait, in an unusual show of clumsiness, alerted the duergar to his presence, and after suffering a couple of bow attacks, fled back down to the group. As the secret passage was only five feet wide, Troy was quite able to defend it, and he did so as the duergar rushed forward to attack.

The group could hear the shouts of the duergar, and their loud swearing when their plan to release alchemical fire into the room using the pipes failed due to the heroes’ earlier actions in disabling the traps. The initial rush of duergar were stopped, and the remainder of the duergar pulled back for the time being.

Tait decided that he’d try to outflank the duergar, moving back to the shrine to ambush them. Unfortunately, the duergar had the same idea, and as they could see in the dark and Tait couldn’t, they ambushed him! He was gravely wounded, but thanks to his rogue ability to move at three times his speed, was able to outrace them back to the rest of the party. Unfortunately, his friends were not prepared and so Josh and Lily came under attack from the duergar, even as a new wave came down the secret passageway. Troy moved into a defensive stance, parrying their attacks, and Lily used her thunderwave spell to protect herself from the dark dwarves.

The two duergar attacking Josh were slain by Danielle and Tait, and the other two, almost dead from Lily’s spell, fled back down the corridor. Spell-casting and accurate missile fire dealt with the dwarves in the passageway, and soon all was quiet again. Josh healed Tait, and the group paused to catch their breath.

Unfortunately, that was all the play we had time for. We lost some due to having to level up characters (to level 4), and also there were a couple of new players who took some time to get settled. We had three tables this week. Shane (running for Paul) had five players, Ben had three and I had five.

The next session should see us deal with the bulk of the remainder of Firehammer Hold. Until then, may your spellbook stay dry!

4th level characters should rip through those duerger with nary a scratch.

Just remember the map is at 10' scale, not 5' scale