Ya, I didn't get the feeling like the group was rail roaded into anything. At most, I'd agree that Sark set things up (by directing the group into the gun powder fields) for them to go through a pretty epic(ly dangerous) set piece. But the group still had a chance to heal up, to follow the rats to (relative) safety, to be protected from most of the damage by the wall (70% chance it would hold), use that orb thingy people mentioned, and it wasn't pre-ordained that Sark would role all those 12s etc. Obviously, this is the result of hindsight, so I didn't have a problem with anything the group did. This is my first experience with D&D though, so that could skew my expectations.