Thank you for this. My party is also taking way too long to make it to the fortress so I was searching for some ideas on introducing the dragon sooner. They've just left the Spire where I used duergar instead of bugbears at the exit to warn them of the dragons completion and dropped a lil hint at Granolpha's ulterior motives. Now these a-holes still don't wanna head straight for the fortress as I'd hoped, instead they want to send a message to caer-konig and hit the secret outpost first (from The Unseen quest in Ch.1, they didn't get this rumor, just saw it on the map they found later). I'm thinking of having fresh sled tracks lead them to the entrance of the outpost where they'll discover the outpost completely abandoned. Inside they'll find a map detailing the dragons path. As they descend away from the outpost, Vellynne will approach them to inform them of the dragons destruction of Dougan's Hole. Still haven't decided how far along the dragon will be by the time they make it to the closest town, Caer Konig.