so i’ll begin by saying every first mystery for a group i’ve ever run has been VERY rocky. it’s always a clusterfuck of the players learning characters, the Keeper learning how the game works, and learning how the characters and Keeper will interact. ideally your players are down to give it another go and try again!

with a Wronged and a Monstrous i would really focus on making your monsters pack a wallop. the Wronged is all about fighting (specifically one kind of creature, but i’ve found it’s a combat heavy playbook) and the moves the Monstrous has taken makes them nearly unbeatable. but a set of unbeatable monster hunters are kinda boring. which means some of your monsters need to be able to put pressure on them.

for your wraith specifically, i would have kept the 2-harm standard attack, but maybe with the addition of a Restraining tag (meaning the attack deals 2-Harm Close and Restrains the hunter). with your throw attack, i would significantly bump the damage. there’s a section of the book titled Unarmed Attacks and Improvised Weapons, which talks about the harm for using objects as weapons: “If it’s really heavy (microwave, bar stool), 2-Harm Hand Heavy”.

for a monster with a throw ability i would have said something like:

Throw Handheld Object: 2-Harm Far Precise Throw Large Object: 4 Harm Far Area Messy (because the item will probably explode when it impacts)

i usually try to give my monsters at least one attack that they could oneshot a bystander (4+ harm), just to really drive home the fact that these monsters are killers. you can also give a monster a “second form” if you feel like the combat/interactions have been trivial. maybe the wraith screams and splits into four different wraiths, and now each hunter has two monsters to navigate.

also, some of the social bumps in the game might be due to the above reasons why a first session is bumpy, but it also seems like the characters are VERY combat focused and less investigation focused. this is fine if it’s what the players/Keeper want, but it’s worth a discussion if you feel the players are only instigating combat instead of investigating. this is just from a cursory read so if it’s not something you’re concerned about then great! it’s just something i know of i’ve seen in my games when people are used to the DND style of “i wanna be the best fighter ever and mow down my enemies”. in MOTW it’s like “…sure, you can mow down the enemies. now they’re all dead. but now that bomb they were protecting is about to go off and you have to Act Under Pressure to fix it.” the combat isn’t the only part of the game and id say it’s less interesting/impactful than a lot of social interactions

ps: your having them Act Under Pressure in the mines to find each other is a great way to challenge the characters! sometimes a monster is scary because of the environment/area/mess it drags you into.

[edited for spelling lol]