A set of iron double doors was picked by Jon's rogue and the party began to descend a long stairwell. At the far end they could see light, so Jon's rogue attempted to sneak up to investigate. Had he succeeded in his stealth check and perception he would have known about the Hobgoblin guards and the Deathjump Spider caged in the far room, but one of the guards shouted "Intruders!" at the sight of Jon.
The party was quick to catch up with Jon in the first round of combat. While some of the Hobgoblins set up a defensive formation at the base of the stairwell, one in the far back room began to release the Deathjump Spider.
The characters also saw a familiar figure among the hobgoblins- a dwarf named Valethor. The cleric (now of Orcus) retreated into a room to the west after some profanities were shouted.
The battle quickly became interesting when, in the second round, a hobgoblin warchief and Matt's old Warlock (now a warcaster) entered from the room to the west. Normally this fight did not have these two characters, but my party is fast approaching level 4 and I want to finally finish the first mission they are on. I did this by cutting out the other Hobgoblin encounters and throwing the two lead hobgoblins in this battle.
Soon the Deathjump Spider was released. It quickly advanced to the nearest member of the party and attacked. Charlie blew three action points and his daily power to ravage the once-necromancer-now-warcaster and bring him down in one round (a very tactical idea, since the warcaster had a lot of power to throw party members into the well that occupied the center of the room.)
The team moved in and hacked away. Charlie used his Tide-of-Iron ability quite effectively, knocking one of the Hobgoblins into the well. Unfortunately the warchief picked up on this idea and then knocked Charlie in. The only good news was that he landed on the first victim of the well and killed the Hobgoblin. While Charlie climbed up, Stranberg and Jon fought fiercely to clear a path to Matt Connor's cleric who was being assailed by the giant spider.
Stranberg blew his powers and action points to absolutely demolish the Spider. He rolled a critical hit on his daily which deals 3[w] damage. That's 6d6+6+1d6 (for a racial he activated before the attack) The total was 44 damage in a single blow. This combined with his previous attack was well more than enough to bring down the eight legged horror.
As Charlie finally pulled himself from the well using the bucket rope, Stranberg successfully bullrushed the Warchief into the well. As the party worked to eliminate the rest of the opposition, the warchief began to climb the rope quickly.
Jon was sure he could do it. With a +12 check to his acrobatics, surely he could jump onto the rope and cut it from above, causing the warlord to plummet to his doom. "Just as long as it's not a 1, 2, or 3 I'm fine. *rolls* Fuck." Before the Teifling had the chance to cut the rope he slipped up and fell into the well himself. I realize now he should have rolled a tumble check to reduce his fall damage, but we forgot, and for the time being he lay dying in the bottom of the well.
It turns out the warchief would slip up on his final climb check before falling back down the well. The party was sure the gravely injured chief would finish the job with a Coupe de Grace on Jon. On Charlie's turn he selflessly flew himself into the well one more time, with the intent to "Flying Tackle" the warchief (we had previously ruled that you deal 1/2 the damage you take on a fall to the target below). Though he didn't kill the Warchief in the act, Jon's Wounding Dagger Bleed effect was enough to finish the job.
Quickly reviving Jon, the party took a rest around the well. After exploring the Hobgoblin living quarters, the party found a stash of gold and a +1 Vicious Short sword in the Warchief's room. Jon opened up a set of iron double doors that the dwarven cleric must have run through and caught the Dwarf by surprise. "SHIT." the rotund fellow squeaked as he fled through yet another set of double doors and locked it.
Jon fumbled a few thievery checks to try to catch up to Valefor, and by the time he popped open the doors he was gone. They now entered a room which (thanks to Matt Connor's high perception) was obviously trapped. A huge statue of a warrior stood poised in the center of the room, and in the Northeast and Southeast corners were two dragon statues, each facing him. The only other doorway was in a small alcove surrounded by maiden's with water vases on the far side.
The party quickly learned the Titan statue sweeps his sword in a close burst 3, dealing damage and knocking those hit prone. The dragon statues further blasted anybody within a close burst 5 with fire and pushed them west 3 squares (right toward the Titan Statue). Moving along the west side of the room, the party was at the mercy of the Titan Statue for a couple of rounds, but they soon all made it to the safety of the doorways alcove.
Or did they?
Suddenly a magic wall of force trapped the four party members within the alcove of the four maidens! They began to pour their vases and water quickly filled the area. I informed Jon that should he succeed on two thievery checks on any one statue, it would be disabled. The rest of the party would just have to bash the wenches. Every round after the alcove filled and swirled water, the party members would rotate counter clockwise to the next maiden. They could then try to bash the statues or disable them. Rotating in this fashion dealt damage every turn to the party and forced the members to coordinate their attacks on statues one of them had previously injured. The whole while Valefor cackled from behind a slit in the iron doors, watching the party get pounded.
It was Stranberg's Bugbear who finally smashed two of the statues and destroyed the wall of force holding the water in. With the trap disabled, the party was free to continue south through the double doors...
