What's supposed to happen here is that there are tons of archers firing at the group from inside the Moathouse, while the melee enemies (The bandit leader Enzer, a few regular bandits, and a barely tame rage drake) confront the PC:s in the courtyard (area #3). What actually happened when I ran this was that the whole group ran from the drawbridge to the stairs. Taking a double move gets you there in a round, so you can imagine the cluster that formed in the main hall (area #4).With smart players, you too should expect the encounter to mostly take place there. A subversion would be to have the drake chained in the courtyard (weakly enough to break free when the PC:s arrive).
Anyway, one of the players decided to try to talk to the bandits. Not a bad idea, I thought, and whipped up a skill challenge. (That's the beauty of PbP: If your players surprise you, you have a day or two to come up with a comeback.) There was probably going to be a fight either way, but if they succeeded Enzer would spill some clues about the lower levels before attacking. Otherwise, there just aren't that many.
Some fateful rolls later, there was a fight. Enzer is a decent distraction, the rage drake is nifty, the archers do their job even in close quarters. However, the Human Bandits are rolling +4 attacks versus AC:s of 19 and 21 (in my group, which wasn't overly optimized). That's just silly. This was certainly a harder fight than the frog butchery, but in the end, the PC:s will prevail.
As I mentioned last time, consider moving two or three of the frogs in here too. Maybe they barge in after the PC:s cross the drawbridge, adding another incentive to stay in the courtyard.
Next up: The Moathouse basement is a nasty place.
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