@Mikel_Jollett Marine vet. The regular military should only be employed in cases of extreme civil unrest and only with strict adherence to the law. This is not one of those cases.
@RichLowry Vance came into this loaded for bear. Nothing short of abject groveling on Zelinski's part would have avoided this. Even then, Vance would have just spewed a bunch of lies that would have gone unanswered.
@ForestedDepth 5e at low levels can be deadly. The op did not provide any details about the number of enemies in the various encounters. An Ice Toad is a CR1 creature. A party of 4 2nd level characters could probably take out 2-3 if they know what they're doing. Five would be a tpk.
@Cartoons2012 @AndrewFmOregon @JonahDispatch "Among his awards, in 2011 he was named the Robert J. Novak Journalist of the Year at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC)."