Alright, as promised, a quick report on how a group of new players comported themselves while taking on "Mad God's Key" from Dungeon 114.
Spoilers Below . . .
When the newly formed party noticed the two thugs ransacking the locksmith shop across the street they were at first unsure what to do. Finally, the rogue (who kinda took on the leadership role) went over to find out what was going on. The rest of the group began to follow, attempting to talk until the thugs pulled their daggers and the fight was on. One of the thugs was quickly dropped and the other immediately surrendered. Theldrat (the locksmith) arrived and they party learned of the missing key. They also learned of the stolen book from the city watch members who came to arrest the two would-be thieves.
It was fun to listen to the players try to figure out what to do next. At first, some wanted to go and find out more about the book, while the others wanted to seek out Irontusk (the PCs made a successful Intimidate check to get that piece of info from a thug). Finally, the decided, since they were sort-of hired by Theldrat to seek out Irontusk on the docks.
The chase along the docks was fun, comical, and ultimately successful. At least three of the PCs were victimized by the boat full of fish and ended up flat on their backs. The monk finally got close enough to land a punch on Irontusk, who promptly smacked her with his club. The player's response? "I run away." Much laughter ensued. While Irontusk was attempting to untie his boat and escape, the druid and his wolf animal companion made it over and were able to knock the half-orc unconscious (the monk had previously landed a pretty good punch). From Irontusk (another successful Intimidate check) they learned of the Green Daggers and headed that way.
At the Green Dagger hideout, they managed to get into the building via the barricaded door (thus alerting the occupants). The rogue as very obsessive-compulsive about checking every door for traps (at least until the door trapped with the iron sphere trap - much to her chagrin). They fended off the krenshar and took down the downstairs guard (and learned to love flanking during the krenshar encounter). When they made it into the Grand Staircase room, they started skirting around the chandelier (all of these kids are Phantom of the Oprera fans), but promptly forgot about it when the bad guy in that room made an appearance. In the rush to try to get to her, she dropped the chandelier on 3 of them, but were eventually successful.
After finding one of the pit traps in the Chamber of Veils the hard way (I omitted the pair of halfling rogues as the PCs were pretty beat up and time was running short) they encountered the head of the gang and were able to glean information from him without having to fight.
Time ran out before we could go any further, but when they put together the gang's illness and the missing book, there was a massive "aha!". The players took some actions that were outside of typical class roles (i.e., the cleric started opening doors as he had the most hit points), but they worked together pretty well for a bunch that are still learning the basic rules.
All in all, it was a very fun evening, and I look forward to playing with them again. A couple of them are already talking about forming a D&D club at school.
