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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Celebrim" data-source="post: 7706399" data-attributes="member: 4937">Cool.  However, this sounds like the easier 'top down' version suggested when not using the module for tournament play, where you go into the module from the temple at the top.  You get to start on the surface with knowledge of the exit.  The tournament version starts you at the bottom of the dungeon after a cave in leaves you trapped there.  It's much easier to survive the module 'top down', but I have never run it that way.Without slow poison, you take 1d6 damage per (noncombat) turn.  That alone will kill characters of the suggested level in only a few hours, and if you start at the bottom, you can't rest to recover spells or hit points.  There just aren't nearly enough potions and such in the dungeon to counter the damage.  Even with slow poison, which is not a given, taking 1 damage per (noncombat) turn is still enough to ensure low level characters are on a pretty hard clock, and at the very least don't have much of a cushion of hit points in any of the encounters.If you already start with the exit, so that when you need to, you can go back out and get some fresh air, I think this explains why you didn't TPK in and of itself.  Also, many of the traps/encounters, are oriented so that they are harder from the bottom than coming down from the top.</blockquote>