The combat continued to go badly. This was helped by some really great dice rolling from the GM and some really sucky dice rolling from the players. This was even after the players appeased the dice gods by bringing chippies to the table.
While half the party was engaged with several hobgoblins, Immerealios, the mage, pursued a goblin into an unexplored room, only to meet an ambush of goblin archers. The only thing that saved his elven butt was mage armour.
After a lot of effort, the party finally finished off the last of the hobgoblins. By this stage half the party was unconscious and dying.
Rather than waiting for the counterattack from the goblins (Baleon heard "go get the boss" in goblin from behind the door he was holding shut), the party fled the tower, dragged their wounded comrades away to camp and take a long rest.
Halfway through their long rest, the party meet some surveyors, Imidris and Earial, and their two guards. These nice folks shared their food and camped the night with the party. Everyone enjoyed having a few more bodies to share watches with.
Mid morning, the party scouted the castle, mapping the back of it and finding the two back doors.
They also found the tracks or a dwarf and another person (light tracks, maybe an elf or slim human). Cael and Diero followed them (splitting the party again) and found Gundren's dead and tortured body.
Their employer and, for some of them, their friend. Dead. Tortured.
The party regrouped, after the rest of them followed Cael and Diero's tracks.
Time for blood.
The party went in the secret entrance, found the two hobgoblins in room 12 and ambushed them. So far, one hobgoblin tried to overrun his way out of the room, and failed. The other RELEASED THE KRAKEN, umm, I mean the OWLBEAR!
We ended the session in combat.
90 XP each for several groups of goblinopids (including some from last session), total 1165 XP.