Overall we had a lot of fun. Much more than any 1st level game of DnD ive ever played.
The statues were a bit of a pain, but we ended up defeating them after dancing around in the room for a bit. Our human fighter mauled the guys while spending the entire combat on his back though we lovingly refered to their "kick 'em while their down" ability as "curbstomp".
Our DM didnt realize that the ghost was supposed to help us during the final encounter, so we fought everything ourselves (i guess it was mentioned in the book after the actual entry for the combat). I was playing the eladrin wizard and thought i would be cute and teleport up behind the cultist and use thunderwave (now known as "sonic booooom!") to knock him down between the fighters. I got up there, hit him with the power, only to find that a force field was blocking him from falling! Needless to say i was dead in a few rounds with nothing but a dagger and a 1d6+4 at-will blast to use without provoking.
The party eventually killed all the skeletons, climbed the platform, and proceeded to gang stomp the cultist in traditional DnD style. Afterwards, we learned how utterly outmatched a party without a ranged striker is against a hovering deathmachine/dragon that can hit the whole party every other round with a breath weapon while flying above melee range.