Eve Viscerator, the Bugbear Captain, turns to Sartan and growls, “I don’t like you. But you’re a warrior. I’m a warrior. We were adversaries. Now, we’re allies. I don’t like you, but I respect you. And we have a common enemy, that bastard wizard.”
The quickly discuss what to do next, and decide that as Eve is badly injured, they return to the lab to perhaps find a healing potion. They turn to the gate and a immediately greeted by the grinning face in the glass. The creature readies another riddle when Sartan suggests the just smash the glass. Eve takes a mighty swing with her morning star. Jagged chunks of green glass fly and a greening smoke billows forth. It quickly clears, and there before them is a small green-skinned creature with fluttering wings. It darts past the startled pair and runs, laughing down the corridor. With the “gatekeeper” gone and the glass broken, the gate opens freely. Sartan and Eve pass through and find that they are unable to lift the second gate. They search the lobby for a lever or other mechanism to raise the gate and find none.
Within the room, Cycek and Coriander stand guard near the bottom of the stairs. Cycek goes up the stairs to try and find a way to open the gate, also to no avail.
Across the room, Mishok and Davros become aware of voices coming from the lobby at the top of the stairs. A rough, hobgoblinesque voice shouts down, “Oy! Who’s down there!? Intruders! We’re gonna get you!” They hear the clanging of metal and then arguing among the voices, “Get this gate open!” Davros yells, threatens, and taunts them. Then the rogue and his cleric companion make their way across the room, where they join the search for a way to open the gate. Mishok realizes that he has the ratcheting contraption and they use it to bend the bars wide enough for Sartan and Eve to pass through. In an attempt to gather their gear and make a run for it, they form a “bucket brigade” and begin passing as much as they can grab from the work bench and up the stairs. The hobgoblin guards, along with Longdick McGee, make it down into the room and begin firing arrows. Eve, their captain, orders them to stand down, but the hobgoblins are defiant. One fires an arrow at Eve and she loses her temper, throwing javelins at her disobedient soldiers. The wires, of course, present quite an obstacle to ranged weapons, and the javelins twang uselessly amid the steel webbing.
Sartan, however, grabs one of the fire arrows from the pile of gear and fires a perfect shot. The arrow catches the hobgoblin right in the neck, and bursts into flame, blasting a gaping wound that kills the armor-clad soldier. Davros seriously wounds another one, while Mishok brings down the sacred flame on one as well.
Sartan Finally kills one of the wounded hobgoblins with a precision arrow shot to the eye. With that, Longdick and the remaining hobgoblin turn and flee. Meanwhile, Cycek hastily pours three random liquids and some bone powder into a glass vessel, intending to throw it at the opponents across the room. However, seeing the opponents instead fleeing, he rolls the glass sphere down the nearby corridor. The glass shatters and there is a flash, and a splash, and a coating of grease appears on all surfaces at the center of the hallway.
The room temporarily free of combatants, the team re-outfits itself with its gear. But, before long, another contingent of guards emerges from atop the western stairs. Eve successfully gains control of this bunch, and they guard the room while the party rests. After a bit of healing, they also set about looting and damaging the room. All the mechanical spiders are captured. Wires are cut with bolt cutters. Gems and liquid-filled spheres are taken. The large central gem is taken. And the glowing orb is taken. It is wrapped in a cloak, so a single shaft of light shines forth like a flashlight beam.
There is a discussion regarding what the next steps are, and what their goals are. Coriander remarks that she fears for Wendella’s safety. She believes that Della is in too deep, and may have made a pact with an evil being. She may have become a warlock. Eve is friendly toward Wendella and does not want to see her get hurt. She agrees to help the party get her home. But, her goal is to exact revenge on Ekso, and maybe even make this stronghold her own.
The group proceeds up the east stairs and are led by Eve to a door up the corridor.
She pounds several times, calling out for Wendella, who does eventually answer the door. Eve tries to talk to her, encouraging her to go home. But Wendella slams the door in her face. They post guards at the doors to her room, and they go looking for Ekso.
They enter Ekso’s private suite through the dining room, and then begin looking around his room. They notice several curious items, including a spell book, and a catalog of contraptions from Frandlehoobin and Son. Sartan tries to block up a “mousehole” opening with walnuts. The scene ends as they investigate a strange levitating rod.