Mystara: Next Step

The party finally completed The Whispering Cairn in my 1st Edition AD&D campaign. They completed it in a completely unexpected way, taking the obstacles placed in their way as a challenge of larger proportion than it was. In essence, they destroyed the only link to the rest of the adventure - a haunt who was supposed to help them enter the true tomb door. However, they wasted the last charge of the Harkness of Seker to discorporate the haunt and were able to knock the door open with a single spell. Now I had assumed that the magic-user was out of that spell for the day, and things were going well until they decided to dimension door beyond a trap. It was highly unlikely that they would follow the plan as written anyway, even if I had used a younger ghost to lure them in.

One of the players even said that this was a failing of the module - a choke point if you will. I tend to agree with him, but the module WAS designed for 1st level characters and I assumed that it was configurable for a higher-level party. If I had used the ghost I would have killed them. They appropriately used the items they had in their possession and I can't fault them one bit. This adventure was a cakewalk for them, except for a lot of wasted time spent trying to come up with elaborate plans to come through at 100% health. They did spend a lot of resources keeping the level 1 henchmen from dying - part and parcel of me making them have personalities and having the players roll them up and develop them for play. Instead of being spent as a resource, the henchmen became members of the party in a true sense.

So where do I go from here? Well the rest of the adventure is pretty much shot. I was going to lead them to the underground cultists in the nearby mine but I don't know if that is appropriate. Perhaps I should just send them off to the Malpheggi Swamp and do the Encounter at Blackwall Keep adventure next. They need more resources to train and spend on their fortress home anyway. I know they are going to want to head back home with their swag anyway. I can plant new seeds in the coming weeks and see if they decide to bite. One of the magic items I want them to have is a helm of comprehending languages and reading magic. If I can somehow plant a seed leading them to the place where one can be found I'm certain they would go for it.