The campaign begins

Well, I've finally started my 1st edition AD&D campaign up. I currently have 4 players running 5 PC's.

The party breakdown is as follows:
Tristan, an NG human fighter, with 2 war dogs.
Sarlac, a CG elven ranger/mage
Seamus, an NG human cleric
Etna, a CN elven thief
Trina, a TN half-elven druid. Trina also is psionic, possessing the discipline of Levitation.

This campaign began with everybody in the town of Saltmarsh, a coastal town with a population of about 2000. Most of the PC's have not actually met at the start, but their adventure began with Tristan, who quite desperate for employment, decided to loudly proclaim in an inexpensive tavern pub that he is an adventurer in need of a job. Most of the patrons looked at him like he was some sort of nut that fell too far from his tree to even know he was a nut. One crazy looking old man, however, gave him what he said was a "hot tip" about a haunted house on the high sea-facing cliff to the east of Saltmarsh. Tristan dismissed this guy as some sort of loon before thinking he wasn't going to have much luck here. He seemed eager to get some sort of credit for the tip, but was ambiguous as to how that was going to happen.

Etna has been exploring the town for a while, having lifted a map of the town from a merchant who was none the wiser to her acquisition, and eager to further excercise her skills as a thief, she decided to try to pick somebody's pocket in the market square. Alas, her attempt was discovered and she quickly ran away attempting to lose her pursuers in the crowd by the docks. She quickly blended in with the crowds near the docks and her pursuers abandoned the chase.

Sarlac and Seamus had already met eachother and were travelling together already. Being new to the area, they asked Etna, who they presumed to be from the town, if she knew of a tavern nearby with rooms to stay in. There was one just across the road from where they were standing, and Etna directed them to it. This happened to be the tavern where Tristan was at. Sarlac tied the wardogs harnessess to a post on the tavern porch and they all went in. Seamus asked the tavern keeper how much a room costs, and it turns out to be pretty cheap.

It was at this point that Sarlac's attention was drawn to Tristan, who figured he'd put his offer out there of seeking employment once more before giving up. After Seamus inquired about what was going on, Tristan mentioned the rumor he had heard of a haunted house, and that intrigued most of the others into thinking they should go and check it out.

Meanwhile, outside, Trina has come across the wardogs tied to the post outside the tavern. As Sarlac came outside, he saw Trina petting one of them like it was her own - who had decided to make friends with them. Sarlac is initially disconcerted by this, but soon realizes that Trina meant his dogs no harm, and after exchanging pleasantries, they realize that a druid could be handy to have as a companion, and all of them headed towards the haunted house, which, unbeknownst to them, was being used as a base of operations for a gang of smugglers, led by a 4th level illusionist.

Upon arrival at the house on the hill, they circumnavigate the house once to get their bearings. All of the windows to the house were very dirty and they cannot see clearly into the house, so Tristan decided to break one near a door to take a peek inside. Debating about whether or not the door itself may be trapped, Tristan decides to test it by hurling a large rock at the door. It rattles the door with a resounding BANG, and the rock falls nearby. Unknown to the party, this loud noise had alerted the smuggler in the cellar immediately below that somebody was upstairs, and he went to get the others in his gang, to arrange to attack them. Meanwhile, the party ultimately decided that Etna should examine the door, who didn't find any traps, but proclaimed some measure of uncertainty about whether or not she was correct in that assessment. While others were debating over whether or not they should risk opening the door without being sure if it is really trapped or not, Tristan decides to simply open the door.

The ranger noticed that there were some tracks in the dust leading from the door they came in to a point near the middle of the room, where they seemed to simply disappear. There were no other tracks anywhere that they can discern.

As the party gets closer to the middle of the room, however, the party heard a disemboded voice that says "Welcome fools, to your Deaths!" with a menacing and sinister laugh afterwards. Tristan remarked that perhaps that old man wasn't so crazy after all.

Etna decided to go to the far end of the room and open the door she sees there. They come into a hallway that ends in an open arch and what can be seen even from that side of the hall to be a very large room. There are doors in the middle hallway though, and the party decides to investigate one of them first.

Tristan quickly opened the door to one of the rooms, where they take four goblins completely by surprise. The goblins were unable to even retaliate before Tristan and Sarlac had managed to dispatch them all. Trina's attempts at communicating with them were wholly unsuccessful.

Etna tried, but failed, to pick the locked drawer of a desk in that room, so Tristan decided to pry it open. While he was doing this, 3 more goblins show up, asking if they had killed the goblins in this room. Admitting to it and prepared to fight, the party was quite suprised when one of the goblins, appearing to be a spokesperson for his group says "Good, you saved us the trouble! Those four were useless and deaf!" The goblin said that they had only just arrived as well, and left those "4 useless ones" in that room while they went looking for loot (evidently much as the party was), they overheard the loud noise on the door (that Tristan had actually caused) and figured that the deaf goblins had done something, which was their cause to investigate. Having cleared the matter up, however, the goblin proudly proclaimed himself wholly satisfied with what they had obtained, which was the hide of a giant weasel they had recently killed, claiming its value to be perhaps as much as 2000 gold. The 3 goblins were not interested in a fight and so left the building expeditiously.

Exploring further, the party hears some groaning and creaking sounds coming from great room to the east. Looking in that direction, they see nobody and proceed with caution. When they are all in the room, however, they are ambushed from all directions by 8 humans that look like pirates, a gnoll, and a magic user of some sort.

Tristan quickly rushes to engage three of them coming from one corner of the room, while Sarlac and his dogs handle three more coming at the side. The remaining three defend their rear against the remaining attackers.

The ambushers attacked with their weapons quickly, and the enemy magic user cast Color Spray at them, knocking the 3 characters who were coming up the rear unconscious for 1 round.

Tristan and Sarlac engaged the foes on their respective sides of the room, each managing to do some good damage to their opponents.

Already the tide of battle had started to shift in the party's favor, and Trina, Seamus, and Etna all woke back up before their attackers got a second chance to strike. The magic user shouts in Gnoll "kill them all", as Tristan and Sarlac (with his wardogs) manage to do more damage to their respective opponents, Sarlac even manages to kill one. Tristan took some damage, and so did Etna, who was easier to hit on account of having just woke up. A flurry of melee blows on both sides ensued and Tristan took down one of his opponents, as does Sarlac. Etna kept hurling daggers at the magic user to try to keep him from casting any more spells. Sarlac's war dogs took down one other character, and the enemy magic user, realizing that the tide of the battle may be turning against him, decided to fill the room with fog so as to make his escape. Sarlac decided to try to hit the magic user with his bow, but Trina was in the way and ended up taking the arrow instead.

Seamus and Trina kept holding off the blows of their attackers successfully, while Sarlac targetted a sleep spell at where he recalled the magic user to be. The spell knocked out everybody on that side of the room, including the PC's, although because the room was now entirely filled with fog, nobody could see anything more than 2 feet away - which made anything but melee impossible.

Leaving his dogs to deal with the remaining pirate they had engaged, sarlac made his way to the area of the room where he figured the unconscious PC's were, and woke up Trina first. Trina, not wanting to waste any time, quickly found the bodies of the other unconscious attackers on that side of the room, and dispatched them before they could wake up. Trina then felt her way down the hallway to find what she hoped would be the magic user's body.

Tristan, meanwhile, was struggling to hold his own, as best as he could, against his remaining two attackers, who were slowly whittling away his hitpoints. Most of the other party members could hear the struggle and made their way towards him while Seamus tried to feel his way towards the outside door to open it and try to dissipate the fog. Trina found the magic user's body and dispatched him as well. Trina then searched the magic user, finding a key, a piece of paper with "MANIFEST: 9 Bolts, 15 Brandy" written on it, and a few amethysts, that she decided to pocket for later.

By the time that Sarlac and Etna had reached Tristan, there was just one pirate left, which they were able to dispatch quickly. Tristan was very badly hurt, however, and needed immediate medical care. Seamus had found the front door to the house and once open, the fog dissipated quickly. Seamus did some healing on the injured party members, but even after this, Tristan was still in pretty bad shape. The party decided to take the opportunity to search the bodies, finding assorted loot and concluded that these characters were from a ship of some sort. Concerned there might be further attacks, however, the party decided to make a tactical retreat at this juncture to get a night's rest in Saltmarsh before trying to make another foray into this building. On their way out, Tristan made a remark that he wants to find that old man and ring his neck, thinking he could easily have had something to do with the ambush. In town, they were able to liquidate some of the loot they had obtained from the smugglers, and used it to purchase a room from one of the finest inns in town.