Just started my group up Saturday, after having nobody show up for the first hour (We only have a four-hour timeslot to work with because of location), and then the second person not showing up until the end of the second hour. Ended up just having them both draw up two third level characters so we'd have a full party of four, and then kicked things off with roughly 40 minutes left in our session.
Aparently having only one other person to argue your plan with (Instead of our usual three to five) makes the group run like lightning, because they managed to break into jail, rescue the convicted party member (Set up, sham trial, etc.), knock three of the four guards unconscious, stabilize said three guards to guarantee they don't die, ransack an evidence locker for convicted members' equipment, and get the hell out of dodge. Normally this would've been a four hour affair, and they pulled it off in 30 minutes.
Shit. If they keep this kind of pace up, they'll pretty much finish everything I had planned for them by the end of the month. Oh well, I gave them an easy encounter (The guards were all basic level 2 soldiers made using the DMG, and didn't manage to call for any more help before being totally curbstomped by three third level PCs) and rushed through a lot of the descriptions, so next session will (Hopefully) take the four hours I planned for it.
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