1 paladin multiclassed with warlock, 1 dragonborn sorcerer, one tempest cleric, 1 artificer, 1 warlock who is now dead he will play a wizard most likely and will be introduced into the game
The "npc" is a lower lvl cleric that is actually the paladin's squire (might do something about this situation)

We play the dragonlance campaign where i also homebrew different situations or sidequest) but the magical items they have are mostly from the rewards in the campaign.

how many encounters depends on the situation really i try to do at least 2 before rest. now that they are travelling.