Today was the first time that we played an adventure that I assembled myself. I did get the idea from a comment in this Beginner Box forum thread, but I worked out the battle map from the map of Sandpoint and planned out the four-stage encounter myself. I based everything on the info in both the Game Master's Guide and the Gamemastering info in the PRD, but I was still nervous how it would all play out. I really had no idea if it would go too fast and easy, or if the party would be overmatched in the final round.

As it turned out, it worked out perfectly, taking almost an hour to fight through the first three waves, then another 40 minutes or so for the final round and wrap up. All of the characters took some damage at one point or another, but none were ever in dire peril. In the final stage against Zordion the evil wizard, our NPC cleric and one of the PCs failed their saving throws against a cause fear spell in the first round, but the other two PCs had some good rolls and wore him down despite a steady barrage of magic attacks, which I thoroughly enjoyed dishing out.

Working through this short adventure was a great confidence booster for me. I did all of the difficulties, experience point and treasure budgets by the book. The PCs are starting to accumulate a modest amount of wealth, and are getting close to moving up to second level.

After our session was over, I spent some time drawing up a map for next week. I still need to populate some parts of it, but I think it's sufficiently devious to give us an enjoyable session next weekend.