Clunky but done

It's not a real pleasure gaming in this place, but I got it done. Started them off in "Keep on the Borderlands" with a paladin, a dwarven fighter, an elven fighter/magic-user, an elven druid and a halfling thief played by an eight year-old girl. I wasn't going to run "Keep" but my first player said he'd never been through it and only one other had been through it years and years ago. I wasn't really prepared for it, not having had a chance to review and the last time I ran the thing, it was KenzerCo's "Little Keep...." The little girl is terribly brassy so I had to work really hard to keep her out of trouble (gimme a break - first session, first level characters and she's eight). In fact it was a challenge getting 'em all back to safety.

The resident spell-lobber decided the bounty for orc ears was the quickest way to make money, so they set out wandering about the countryside. Tried to warn him of the peril of random encounters but he's 22 and only familiar with wuss D&D and not Gary's lethality (character only has 4 hp, as well!). Rolled two randoms, %iles dictated they'd found their quarry for the first one. They ran into 19 orcs! All would've been well had the druid cast her entangle right off the bat, but she decided to engage. They were in trouble after the first round. Second round, the halfling was in flight and the paladin and F/MU were down! The druid got her spell off, allowing them to escape.

They limped back to the keep, but I'd rolled an encounter for the afternoon and it came up hill giant! I lobbed an out-of-range boulder and chased them back to base. When they arrived, giant just coming into view, the guards laughed at them, waiting until the last moment to drop the drawbridge chasing the giant away with a volley of arrow fire.

They showed up at the chapel begging mercy. The Curate told the paladin of his mistrust of the visiting priest, so in exchange for healing, they're to find out his purposes and deal with him if those purposes are inimical to the keep. Next stop, I believe, will be the Mines of Chaos, priest encouraging them on.

I think I may incorporate HackMaster's concept of a hp kicker to increase their survivability. The strongest one has 12 hp, the paladin 11 and there's an 8, two 6's and the lowly 4 hp F/MU. I do believe they need a little help.