Ok, so my group's regular DM is in Nome for a few months for his job. Since I have an almost totally complete setting they made me DM. First session was Saturday (we play Saturdays since I work Sundays and two others go to church). So I'll morph this thread into a nice navel gazing campaign log.

Players: Starting at ECL 5
Female Gnome Sorcerer 5 [conjuration(summoning), air mephit] who worships Vehumet (god of blowing things up with magic). Played by our resident "that guy".

Bugbear Monk 1

Human Fighter 5, great axe whirlwind specialist with no ToB.

Human Fighter 4/Warblade 1, alternating between a whip-dagger and a great axe.

Dwarf Fighter4 /Cleric of Okwaru 1 (battle god), aiming for Champion of Okwaru, which he will start at level 7. That will give him Might at level 10 and a special Okwaru weapon at level 11.

Start: Very minor grumbles about the limited armor selection at the start, but not too much since it was free. They decided to go to Silvar for beer, with a minor detour to annoy the fairies. Ignored pretty much everything in Silvar except for the the beer and a tin replica of Demonslayer in the smithy. There was some discussion of stealing the fake sword or stealing the cows for steaks but nobody went for the noises behind the cow shed or the abandoned magic item shop. I think my possible plot hooks need to include more blunt force trauma. I'll move the Nephil prisoner raid from Cotra to Silvar and say someone died from a leftover trap in the magic shop during the fighting. That will also give me an excuse to kill the cows and deny them the steaks.

A trip to Fort Dunvo had them chatting with Captain Johnson and buying alchemy items from the sage/mage. They were literally warned about Fireballs (the mage got blasted during the last attack on the bandit fort), but didn't bother to do anything with the info. The next day they arrived at the bandit fort (abandoned ruin of an old fort) and did a nice slaughter. The only real notable moments were four rogues breaking stone short swords on the whirlwind fighter, one elf ranger failing so badly on a hide check that he was captured unharmed (he was the last one fighting but trapped in a room with no escape), and a couple of the self-disarmed rogues escaped with single digit hit points. Oh, the mephit went into negative hit points twice, which is good. That's working as I hoped it would.

They devastated the skeletons that were trapped in a corner of the fort and the wight didn't manage to hit anyone in the three rounds it lasted. A bit less effective than I'd hoped, but not surprising. They slept in the fort and dispatched most of a scouting party of gnolls (three dead but the leader escaped) before returning to Dunvo for their reward.

Total loot this session was 900 gold (400 found and a 500 reward), 100 silver, a spellbook sold for 700, a scroll with Wind Wall left on it, and an eternal wand of True Strike. Plus five assorted bronze swords and two bronze chain shirts. They've decided to accept Captain Johnson's challenge to find the Nephil fort being secretly built in the north wall of the cave and then travel to Fort Draco in search of steel armor and weapons. That will be for next week.