Okay, so we have lost two players. Whilst regrettable, it doesn't seem like there was any way around that, they didn't like my encounter design. It happens, player and DM preference can very, and whilst some compromise is necessary and good, D&D is a social game after all, it probably won't work on something as fundamental as encounter design.<br/><br/>TheHangedMan seems to also think this encounter was too hard, what about AndyZ and Velatha? If you want to continue I should be able to recruit more characters, and explaining their presence should be easy enough, they're after the bounty too. Are you interested in that? If you don't want to continue, because you feel the encounters are too hard, too many of the original party are now absent or whatever reason, then I understand.