The group headed down the path in the direction of the cliffs. They had some vague foreknowledge of an ancient stone staircase that descends the cliffs, or the option to rappel down the side- ultimately a 70' drop.
Wandering monster checks were made: this was noted to be an especially dangerous part of the woods.
What they ran across was.. a pair of Satyrs, who were drinking and playing music along the path. The group asked for help in finding the way down, and the satyrs slyly offered to lead them in exchange for 100 gold.
This apparently offended the paladin (Dante), who proceeded to attempt to intimidate the satyrs, (and failed).
The Satyrs suggested they follow them, anyhow, and the players suddenly realized that they may have been in danger.. prompting more threats from the paladin, including a final insult "goat boy".
(In truth, the Satyrs were leading the group towards a series of deadfalls where they hoped to rob the group, but the insult was enough to set them off. )
The satyr pulled his ocarina out and summoned the charmed Owlbear that was hidden nearby!
Rawr!
So the battle ensues, with the paladin charging at the two satyrs, while the rest of the group was nearly overwhelmed by the owlbear. The satyr rakes in 4e are VICIOUS. Able to feint and sneak attack with ease, as well as do a harrying strike where they attack, move up to 3 squares and attack again.
The owlbear on the other hand is a real mauler. It strikes twice with it's claws and grabs an opponent, then on the ensuing round, it doesn't have to roll, it just bites for a horrible amount of damage. Markol took the brunt of the Owlbear's attack, and held it off as best as he could, but within a couple of rounds, he had been knocked unconscious and flung into a set of nearby trees. Eli quickly ended up bloodied, and Dante as well. I think nearly everyone was hurting except for Samantha near the end, who managed to stay back from most of the fighting.
One of the Satyrs was finally killed... the owlbear was beyond bloodied near the end of it. Dante was making a lot of tactical blunders and low rolls, and getting the feeling he shouldn't have picked this particular fight.
What ended it?
Well, because Arden's player was late and had just showed up, we had him arrive late to the battle along with Deonda the ranger and Strongbranch and end the battle at that point. Strongbranch separated the satyr and Dante and called for the owlbear to stop, which after a round or two, the owlbear hesitated and then shuffled away. After a moment, the battle was over and the owlbear lumbered off angrily into the forest, and the Satyr vowed revenge. Samantha was able to heal Markol just before he had to make his third "death save".
GM Note: I probably did balance that particular battle a bit too heavy: It was budgeted at 1100 xp, which was meant to be very tough for a group of five 3rd level characters. Being one person short, the players not realizing how tough the satyrs were ("we're going to fight some wussy satyrs? no big deal..") , and a series of tactical blunders and low rolls by the paladin was enough to really doom them. It could have been a 40% death for the group if I hadn't had Strongbranch show up (Markol and Dante would have been dead).
Strongbranch warned the group to be careful at this point, and offered to guard them for an extended rest. The Satyr (Mannan Mac Liir) vowed revenge on the paladin so we worked that in as a plot point, so now there's a whole clan of satyrs out to kill him. That should be fun later.
In the morning they set off through the forest at Strongbranch's direction and quickly found the cliffs. Unfortunately they also found out that the stone staircase down.. was infested with bloodmote spiders, possibly thousands of them. They had to decide how to get down. Samantha was especially worried about the spiders.
The decision was made to rappel down the cliff face. The idea was that Arden and Dante would lower party members by rope, and then make the final climb down on their own. Arden was an especially good climber, and was able to edescend unassisted. . Dante was very careful, looped a rope around a tree, and still made it down just barely.
They made their way down the cliff ravine, towards the Eldreth Veluuthra camp.
(to be continued...)