Check your email, littlejohn. (And you should make some drawings of this story hour, too! Do a portrait of Heydricus or Prisantha, or illustrate one of the scenes!)
Thanks for the kind words, everyone-- one of my best friends was in town with Ming + FS, so I've been off-line all weekend. Look for an update this evening.
How in gods name do several L4 PCs survive a L7 fighter, a L4 fighter, an L2 fighter, and various and sundry Rogues with no casualties, then walk into level one of the dungeon, and get 2 PCs popped by stinkin' ogres and goblins?
In the tower fight, we had the better position-- remember how badly the fight there went for your PCs when you played the original TOEE? This time, it was Faust and his elites assaulting us. Of course, we also did have fantastic luck as Esril (or was it Isuld?) critted Faust on an A.O.O. after missing him six rounds in a row.
Plus, we had magic items that would normally be "above our station" using the standard 3e baseline-- a
wand of lightning bolts for example. I don't think any of the wizards in the party could even cast
lightning bolt at the time, but we had about 15 of them to spread around, thanks to that Faust, and Heydricus' quick thinking.
In the ogre fight, we were in a large room that was so littered with bones as to reduce our movement to 1/2. Tisha and Suhi got ahead of the party, as we were trying to put the goblins in a pincer maneuver. So when the ogres opened their doors, Isuld was stranded without her best spells, and got clubbed to death right away. Suhi showed up too late to save her, but early enough to get gang-jumped by the ogres.
We came, we saw, we buried our dead.