After an hour of rest at the top of the stairs, the party decides to move cautiously up the trail. They come upon a series of old stone arches jutting out from the cliff wall on their left. Some of them are partly crumbled, with fallen keystones and chunks of stone wall laying about. One arch is intact, and upon examination, they discover a tripwire at shin-height, running up a series of eyelets to some type of unidentified device nestled into a crevice near the top of the arch. With rough terrain around the arch, and 4 horses to lead across, they decide to ditch the horses so they can proceed more carefully on foot. They return the horses to the foot of the stairs and come back to carefully pass under the arch. Cycek and Davros scout ahead and soon discover a goblin attempting to hide in the rocks just off the trail. They confront him and and persuade him to come out of hiding to talk. He is reluctant to talk, but seeing an opportunity to profit, he warns them of trouble ahead, and sells them a length of rope and spikes to help them climb the wall. He mentions his boss “Eve” as well as someone he refers to as “Zoey.” Their business concluded, he quickly scrambles back into hiding near the edge of the cliff. When Davros investigates, he sees the goblin scaling the cliff down to the lower plain.
Deciding to climb, they set up their climbing rig at one of the damaged arches. After a bit of trial and errors, including some injurious falls, three of the party make it to the top. As the three pull up Cycek using their rope, a band of goblins and hobgoblins led by a huge bugbear come down the trail and launch arrows at them. The bugbear “Eve Viscerator” is huge and aggressive. She shouts at the figures atop the cliff and throws her javelin, to no effect. The party returns fire, beginning with Sartan throwing one of the glass vials they had taken from their would-be assassin a couple days earlier. The vial shatters and a cloud of black smoke billows out, immediately killing two goblin archers. One of the hobgoblins drops to his knees while the other three are wracked by coughing. The bugbear boss is unaffected and defiant.
The party, having the high ground, launches a barrage of arrows, and Mishok brings down the sacred flame, quickly decimating the attackers below. Eve and the remaining two hobgoblins run off and take cover. Eve is riddled with a arrows and smoking from the severe burns she suffered.
Their opponents routed, the party moves on through a landscape of trees and rocks, catching sight of a black structure in a clearing ahead. The tree cover diminishes as they approach the structure, which appears to be a low, cylindrical shape (like a massive hockey puck). They split up, one pair moving clockwise, and the other counter-clockwise around the perimeter. Mishok and Cycek discover an opening in the north side of the stone, while Sartan and Davros discover a massive ogre and a pair of goblins rushing them from the woods to the southwest. Sartan moves to engage the foes, while the others go into the opening in the stone. They discover a roofless passageway following an interior perimeter of the stone. Davros receives a grave arrow wound, but also fells one of the goblins. Deciding that flight may be a better option than combat, Sartan and Davros move toward to north, with the fast-moving enemy in pursuit. Blows are exchanged, and Sartan and Davros are both brought to the brink of death. But, they manage to get into the relative safety of the stone structure. The ogre hurls one of the goblins up over the wall, but to little effect as that goblin is soon slain.
The session closes with all party members inside the interior passage, and a bellowing ogre just outside an opening that is happily too narrow for it to enter.