Just as a newbie, I've had a similar thing happen. I was walking through the sewers, having encountered nothing more terrifying than a dire rat, when I came across a Bandit, who apparently summoned a Greater Wererat. It blocked the only way I had out of the sewers. The other way had been locked, and I was stuck in there, between a door I couldn't get through and a room containing two Greater Wererats and two Bandits.
I eventually attempted to run through, and got killed. Had to respawn and take the XP hit, since I knew nobody who would really be able to/bother to go down into a place I myself wasn't sure how to get to, kill two Greater Wererats/Bandits, then lug my corpse back to the temple.
On talking about this to someone on tells, I was told it was because of the Gothic Horror setting...