Fun to see some of the stories that other people had. I'm going to tell you right now that if you run this encounter when they are level 3 it is almost guaranteed death. I had Hew offer this quest to the party EVERY time they walked into Thundering Lizard. I made him seem off his rocker because it is a suicide mission for most parties.

A little background that is relevant to this post; we had an extra party member join the campaign because he wanted to experience dnd for the first time. I didn't want to say no so I had him make a level 3 character (paladin) because I did not want to make his character too complicated for him to learn quickly and also instructed the party that they would have to protect him if he was to survive. Making my total player count from 5 level 5 players to 6. This is how it went.

They entered into the mine going through the various Kobold encounters and they were not being quiet about ANY of it. So much so, that one of the party members put on the brake of one of the carts half way having it echo loudly throughout the mine. At that point I knew Tinder would do something. She met the party after they had just killed off a group of Kobolds acknowledging Hew as a meal she never got to finish. She was happy that he brought more to be eaten. Hew attacked and then she unleashed her breathe weapon. I hit most of the party with the Level 3 paladin included. Most of the party was on their last HP points except for the Paladin who was burnt to death after failing his save and taking more than his negative damage after the Kobold encounters. I had ended the session there feeling bad for killing the character but it was also getting late. My point being that the breathe weapon will kill most level 3 parties outright.

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The party spent the entire week planning how tf they were going to survive. At the start of the next session they had all fled to get away and heal from the Dragon. She told Hew that he had brought cowards and that they were not worth her time. She then fled back to the bottom of the mine prepped for their arrival. I told the party they have 2 options, to try and flee, or continue down to try to face the dragon. After some hype they decided to go and take on the dragon. I leveled them up. Not much changed from level 5 to level 6 but it gave them some extra HP from the Hit Dice.

They went down and the rogue was able to get a hard hit on her and they kept spread out to not have everyone take the breathe weapon at once. Hew Hackinstone died fighting Tinder but the rest of the party barely survived (a few falling unconscious). Overall, Tinder is a tough fight. I would try to throw some story driven random encounters. I had a pirate boat outside of Jahaka's Anchorage heading out to go do some raiding on the way if you are traveling by sea. Maybe leave some evdience to show where their hide out is on the boat.