I modified the Irontooth encounter for when they returned the next day...I put Irontooth outside the cave in the circle of power while the surviving wyrmpriest finished an unknown ritual, turning Irontooth into a Solo Berserker...I also had the wyrmpriest summon 4 skel minions to fill out the encounter. Irontooth missed a lot of rolls, but 1-shotted the rogue at least.
When Irontooth died, I had his dying curse freeze the land around them and create an entrance to a dungeon below. For this dungeon I modified Kobold Hall from the DMG, switching out the kobolds for undead and customizing the traps to create the Frozen Tomb of Onith. I got the feeling we were all tired of kobolds and ready for something new
Also I wanted to exhaust Kobold Hall before the players read up on it.
-------- Frozen Tomb of Onith -----------
Encounter 1 (500 xp) - 2 skel soldiers + 8 skel minions. Gave them a taste of double marking, and ranged attacks behind a front line. The players didn't break a sweat.
Encounter 2 (500 xp) - 4 skel minions + 1 chillborn zombie + 1 corruption corpse zombie. This fight was fun, though the players thought the exploding zombies were cheap. This fight also introduced aura and status effects vs the PCs.
Encounter 3 (800 xp) - 2 Boneshard skels, 2 Blazing (cold) skels. This time the PCs got their butts kicked. The boneshards had them backed in a corner when they became bloodied, and the explosion was brutal. The blazing skels were tough and my rolls were hitting 90% of the time. The stacking necrotic and cold damage was just nasty. The PCs killed the 2 boneshards and had to run back to town. I let them come back and kill off the blazing skels by themselves.
Encounter 4 (750 xp) - hobgoblin (necromancer) warcaster, 2 hobgoblin soldiers, 2 skel soldiers. This fight was a lot more managable for the players, though the fighter was knocked out almost 3 times. The cleric successfully turned both skels, pushing them into a corner, and the mage had a sweet shot with freezing cloud. The skels died without a fight, and the warcaster almost knocked the mage into a pit, but was put down quickly. The hobgoblin soldiers just would not die...the players had a string of awful rolls and the AC 20/22 is downright tough in the first place.
Encounter 5 (Skill Challenge) - I wanted to try a skill challenge, so I had the players negotiating with Onith's ghost who was bound by the hobgoblins. The players came up with some creative role playing, but they rolled so bad that they failed the challenge (a few times over). I gave them XP as a consolation prize.
Encounter 6 - We're starting here tomorrow and I Don't want to give it away...certainly not that white dragon at the end of DMG ;) ;) After this they'll be lvl 3.
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I don't really like how the skill challenge resolved. It would have been cool to dovetail that into a quest and some treasure. On the surface skill challenges seem like a good way to facilitate role playing, but that fell apart when players were missing rolls and only picking their best skills. We'll probably try again and use DC 10s across the board.
After the last encounter in the tomb the PCs will be off to the Shadowkeep, where I'll need to upgrade (and possibly consolidate) some encounters since they'll be level 3...
It is tough to find a good balance for the encounters, but it has been fun looking for the sweet spot. Right now it looks like encounter monsters need to be at least +1 lvl to be interesting,with +2 being a good challenge, and +3 a bit much. The players don't have a lot of meat, but they do have a lot of healing and a good amount of offensive power. The dice wildly effect battles...I may need to start rolling behind a screen.
To be continued.....