Bedlam follows.
All the care of the elvenfolk is ruined by the trampling racket of the dwarf (not to mention the rest of the party). Anyone in that hall knows that someone is out there...
"Wait! They are trying to lure us away from the Fountain! It must be their weakness!"
I'm going to delay to see if Anzath keeps charging ahead or not.
Anzath winces as Bedlam comes stomping down the hall. She turns to Talathel and whispers, "Vhere iz vizard?"
To Adelie, he says "The Fountain is the source of disease and abominations on this level. I believe the desecrated statue is the cause."
Tragershen feels the blood-warm liquid seeping into his clothes... deep breath. Prestidigitation will clean that right off... whoops. Deep breath inhaled a bunch of demonic microbes! But Prestidigitation clears off much of the gore on the statue and the graffiti that isn't carved into the stone. When his spell touches the ring of hands, he notices them squirm, as if there's some kind of circular, sinister handshake going on--each seems to tighten its grip on the wrist in front of it.
The fountain shows no sign of summoning activity.
As he begins working the fountain of Sarenrae clean, Vael joins him. She looks furious, but also like she's more concerned with the desecration than Anzath's hollers for glittery assistance down the corridor. She mutters, "What... what should I do...
Adelie watches as he prepares for combat.
Down the hall, Bedlam, Aurora, Anzath, and Talathel converge on turn in the hallway.
Talathel thinks as he calls to Tragershen:
"Tragershen, how might we all best contribute to safely destroying this fountain?"
"We still need to deal with these demons, you know! You can guard the fountain for now!"
Brandishing her staff, Aurora goes in. If she can close the distance with a 40ft. movement and get an attack off, she will do so — otherwise she settles for simply closing the distance as best she can.
Tragershen feels the blood-warm liquid seeping into his clothes...
When his spell touches the ring of hands, he notices them squirm, as if there's some kind of circular, sinister handshake going on--each seems to tighten its grip on the wrist in front of it.,, Vael joins him. She mutters, "What... what should I do...
"We have to get those hands off the statue's neck. They seem to be actively resisting my cleaning spell. They may be the cause of the plague."
Adelie approaches the fountain. He wrinkles his nose.
"This is horrifying."
Seeing Aurora rush in, Anzath gulps down her potion and follows behind the cleric.
The dwarf steps up front and center.
Her Me be you smelly mosquitoes!
He takes out a Dye Marker; readying to use one one.
Talathel racks his brain for some helpful information. All he can dredge up among the many competing tidbits he's gathered in his long experience is--this fountain is demonic and involved with summoning, so there's likely something going on with a connection to the abyssal plane. The hands must have something to do with it.
As Aurora charges around the corner, she finds herself heading down a short staircase--and into an ambush! The stairs suddenly become incredibly slippery, the air smells like an ungodly fart and grows opaque with a yellowish mist that also blasts up the stairs into the faces of Anzath and Bedlam!
Aurora slips and tumbles down the stairs--right into a rat swarm, and within range of a nasty little demon! The fumes from the demonfart make Bedlam want to hurl, but this time, it's not his bombs he'd be hurling. Bedlam's dye marker would be great except he can't see through the fart fog, which was readied first. He does become nauseated from the truly horrific air quality and may only take a move action.
vs. Aurora
Aurora feels herself being nibbled by horrible rats! But she has a feeling that she hasn't been infected by their disease. She's prone in the swarm, and there's something else trying to kill her, but she can't make out what it is through the fog! It can't seem to get through her armor, though.
Adelie approaches the fountain. He wrinkles his nose.
"This is horrifying."
Adelie completely resists the pestilence. Huh.
Anzath holds her breath and takes a leap of faith through the fart cloud.
Anzath flies through the yellowish gas--over the grease, over Aurora, over 300 rats, and lands on the ground just beyond. She falls to one knee and almost tips over--but she keeps her footing, barely. As she flashes her gaze around the room she's in, she sees rows of decrepit stalls and rusty horseshoes.
She also sees two squat, hideous little demons. One of them is sitting right next to her at the edge of the fog--the other is standing directly across from the staircase. One to the north, one to the east.
Bedlam (of course) follows Anzath.
He readies to toss the Dye Marker at a smelly demon.
Bedlam holds his breath and leaps, aiming roughly for where he'd seen a staircase moments before. Could this possibly go wrong?
Nah. He pirouettes and lands on his feet just beyond Anzath. Good thing she went to a knee on her jump!
Unfortunately, it's now the demon turn.
Sprays of grease appear out of nowhere, turning the ground under our heroes into a slippery mess:
...but they keep their footing.
The next gout of Grease is aimed at Kritfisher:
Anzath jerks the violet violence out of the path of the stream.
A voice mutters high in the corner of the room, speaking arcane gibberish.
The two fat little demons step back and let loose with their most terrifying magic:
...both of our heroes are now shaken. Bedlam is nauseated and shaken. Anzath is shaken. Both of them are standing in a Grease spell. Aurora is prone in a pile of rats. What a lovely list of conditions!
Oh, those rats!
...Aurora keeps getting nibbled, but she does not botch the saving throw against disease!
Tragershen looks between the ststue, the wreath of hands, Vael and Adelie. Then he grimaces and looks down the hall where the cacophony of battle sounds echo from.
"We have to help them. We can solve this puzzle in a minute when we've retrieved them."
With that, he runs towards the battle. He has the Run feat, so he can move five times his move without loses his dex to AC.
Tragershen: what do you do when you run into the poison gas? You can hear combat beyond... and below.
He'll stop short of the gas. If he has a move action left, he'll ready his vial of stillgut. If not, he'll wait until next turn. He has one more round of action after this before he needs to renew haste (using bonded object casting) or it will lapse.
Happy to follow any suggestion that gets him away from the fountain, Adelie chases after Tragershen.
Moneduloides is still following the Defend command to the best of her abilities.
A look of horror convulses Vael's features as the scale of the desecration of Sarenrae sinks in to her consciousness. "Go ahead. I need to save my god." She begins to pray fervently, holding her scimitar in front of her as a makeshift holy symbol.
Bedlam tosses the Dye Marker at a stinky, smelly, dirty demon!
Anzath realizes her element of surprise failed on these demons. But, she still has one marked as her target. She tries to fight through her hindrances to reach it.
She slides over to the nearest demon and strikes.
Aurora rises back up to her feet (taking any AoOs) and moves to get out from the fog — which probably involves walking out onto the grease.
Well, at least she got out of the fog?
Talathel tries rushing through the fog, leaping over grease and risking poison fog to do so!
And should he find a foe, that foe is getting a speartip driven at them!
Otherwise, he will search.
Aurora stands and rushes out of the stinking cloud only to fall in the greasy squares beyond.
Talathel also leaps into the unknown. Unfortunately, he ends up nauseated and prone at the foot of the stairs, on top of Aurora and in the second pool of grease.
Anzath slashes one of the smaller demons as she shimmers into view!
And that's when all hells break loose.
The pestilenzi who is orchestrating the mayhem telepathically orders up another stinking cloud as soon as the rest of the demons get in their licks... literally.
But first, a bat swarm appears and settles around Talathel's head, hovering over the greasy spot. The rat swarm rushes out of the staircase onto the greasy spot. Both Aurora and Talathel are swarmed (and we'll place them adjacent to each other instead of comically stacked prone in a single square, why don't we...)
Anzath's dretch goes all out:
...it manages to inflict a little damage.
The pestilenzi rush upon their foes, each emerging from invisibility to gnaw their opponents! Acidic saliva carrying unknown illnesses dribbles from their teeth...
Talathel gets bit by a pest! The fangs burn his flesh, and then the disease attacks his system...
...Talathel is now incubating Pestilenzi Rot. He'll find out what that means in a minute or so.
Then, the next Stinking Cloud cooks off, and the little alcove in front of the stairs is full of another big ol' opaque fart cloud.
Bedlam is even more nauseated by this one, resetting his clock to four rounds! That means 2/4 of you are now nauseated for the next four...
The relatively weak magic of the dretches wears off quickly--the staircases' cloud fades away. Talathel and Adelie see more of the same down below, though.
Bedlam violently vomits!
Tragershen quaffs the stillgut and quickly runs down the stairs to see what mayhem the others have gotten into.
If he sees an invisible demon downstairs, he'll point at it and say "One's there!"
Adelie prepares Remove Sickness in his special spell slot, and moves down the stairs with Tragershen and Mone.
Kill, kill, kill!
Some spells and a number of undead creatures have the ability to drain away life and energy; this dreadful attack results in “negative levels.” These cause a character to take a number of penalties.
For each negative level a creature has, it takes a cumulative –1 penalty on all ability checks, attack rolls, combat maneuver checks, Combat Maneuver Defense, saving throws, and skill checks. In addition, the creature reduces its current and total hit points by 5 for each negative level it possesses. The creature is also treated as one level lower for the purpose of level-dependent variables (such as spellcasting) for each negative level possessed. Spellcasters do not lose any prepared spells or slots as a result of negative levels. If a creature’s negative levels equal or exceed its total Hit Dice, it dies.
A creature with temporary negative levels receives a new saving throw to remove the negative level each day. The DC of this save is the same as the effect that caused the negative levels.
Some abilities and spells (such as raise dead) bestow permanent level drain on a creature. These are treated just like temporary negative levels, but they do not allow a new save each day to remove them. Level drain can be removed through spells like restoration. Permanent negative levels remain after a dead creature is restored to life. A creature whose permanent negative levels equal its Hit Dice cannot be brought back to life through spells like raise dead and resurrection without also receiving a restoration spell, cast the round after it is restored to life.
Tragershen knows that he's looking at a Stinking Cloud. He can also surmise that the cloud will dissipate after two rounds, seeing as the other one did. Haste requires some kind of line of sight/effect to cast, but he can wait until he gets his chance.
He also can't see any demons at all, invisible or otherwise, because of the fog. He can hear a few, though. If he'd wait at the top of the stairs with the results of the spellcraft check, you may reverse course.
Bedlam: Thanks for looking that up! We concur that you avoided being bitten by a pestilenzi.
Anzath slashes the dretch three times! Each time she seems to do a little more damage--but most of the hits are soaked up by the same mysterious effect that made the pestilenzi so hard to hurt!
Aurora staggers back up to her feet, and turns her attention to the most immediate threat she is facing: The rat swarm.
You too, Tal!
Talathel struggles to rise to his feet.
He slips, gasping, and tries again.
Even his spear in insufficient to hold him up, but he still wields it.
The fog cloud puts the "sty" back in "stymie," as far as the party's concerned--and puts the "scent" in "ascent" for the demon uprising!
...sorry.
Anyway, let's see what the little boogers get up to this turn!
First, let's check Anzath and Aurora's swipes for concealment, which I don't think I've been running properly to this point:
Anzath loses her first slash to the fog.
Then, let's give Talathel proper acrobatics vs. the Grease (I may have also been doing this spell wrong!):
...Talathel stands with his single action (nausea). Edit: he takes a point of Bleed, too!
Speaking of grease and nausea, let's check Adelie, Mone, and Tragershen, who have tumbled jauntily into the greasy stairs and the fart fog.
Moneduloides obeys his command to defend the wizard by fearlessly bounding into the greasy staircase!
He slips a bit, but manages to get down the stairs and into the stink.
...the keen nose of the wolf proves to be a drawback, all of a sudden! He freezes in dismay at the sheer nastiness of the demonic funk.
Tragershen and Adelie both attempt to leap the greasy patch:
Tragershen gracefully flows down the stairs and catches his balance on the bottom step. Adelie, well, he falls on his face just past the greasy patch--prone, but neither in the oil slick or the stink. He (I assume) will use his second action to stand up...
Ok, on to the demon turn proper!
The demons continue their attack! First, the swarms keep swarming.
The dreadful dretches slash through the fog at their foes:
vs. Anzath
vs. Aurora
Anzath takes some hits!
The pestilenzi continue biting everyone they can!
vs. Anz
vs. Bed
vs. Tal
...but they don't punch through any armor this time.
Vomiting profusely, the dwarf makes a Tanglefoot bomb, tossing at the swarm and anything else in the area.