Unfortunately, the heat from your magic is too slow to permeate through the rocky gargoyle. Rather than melt it into lava-slag, as you intended, you awaken the gargoyle instead!
You're knocked sprawling as the gargoyle shakes off its stony outer hide, take 1d3 damage. The gargoyle's upper half is free, but its bottom remains stone. Its face is glowing red from the heat of your magic, Hisstla, and it spits partially-melted stone in rage at its sudden awakening!
Beyond the door, the chanting stops abruptly...
What do you all do?
"I would suggest that we wait until the stone has cooled down to the point where it cannot attack us anymore. That will also give us time to figure out if any of the chanters are going to come and investigate..."
Hisstla seems genuinely confused by what happened, looking from her hands to the stone and back again. "This has never happened before." she mumbled to no one in particular.
Unfortunately, the gargoyle doesn't seem like it wants to go back to sleep. It struggles at first, as its legs don't seem to want to wake up, but it's growing more agitated by the second. It's pulling hard against the stone plinth it's built on, spitting and clawing the air in your direction. Its wings flex and beat powerfully, creating a breeze in the hallway that has not been felt in years, buffeting you back. The stone at its feet begins to crack, and it'll be free in moments. What do you do?
Seeing as the creature is not settling down, Lionel attacks it with his quarterstaff, aiming for a cool part of the beast :
Doing
Using his Tiger's Claw technique, which makes the attack "Messy".
Geetra-Na seems frozen for a few moments then hurriedly tries to enchant her bow
Causing it to glow a bright blue colour
Dal-Jerei frowns and sighs, calling upon his magic, blessing the ranger but generally otherwise seeming impatient at the situation.
Lionel charges the first gargoyle just as the second begins to awaken at all of the sound. Initially, the flurry of blows from the monk is too fast for the formerly-stone creature to react, but its thick hide absorbs most of the damage. The argonians behind him call upon their magic, casting new light in the underground tunnel that shines through the barrier and into the sea beyond.
The gargoyle battling the Redguard is completely free now, and is forced to step backwards off of its plinth due to the ferocity of the human's attack. It reacts by flapping its wings hard, launching itself forward in a linebacker's tackle at the monk, seeking to pin him to the ground. Defy Danger!
The second gargoyle awakens after the first is already done, but reaches its fully awakened state much faster. Reaching downward, it digs its claws deep into the stone floor, pulling loose a double handful of sharp stone shards. Like an Aldmeri flechette thrower, it flings a cloud of rock and dust at Geetra-Na's face! Defy Danger to you as well!
The ground beneath all of your feet rumbles and shakes suddenly, and you hear a scream from beyond the door.
Geetra-Na tries to duck under the debris as she starts to pull out an arrow
The rumbling in the floor shaking her from her stupor, Hisstla will summon her blade of fire.
Lionel attempts to deflect or push the creature off of him :
By rolling on his back, placing his feet on the abdomen of the gargoyle, and flipping the creature over his head! Then he gets up, preparing for his next attack.
The old Argonian starts at the scream beyond the door and begins to call on his magic to try to buy them some time to deal with the gargoyles. It does not go as expected.
Geetra-Na ducks under the gargoyle's volley of stone and draws an arrow smoothly from its quiver, fitting it to her bow's sights. So quick is the Argonian that she eludes the gargoyle's attention for their follow-up.
Instead, the gargoyle that awakened second turns its attention to Hisstla, crawling along the ceiling in a blink and dropping on the immolator from above with a stony hiss.
Lionel successfully knocks his assailant off of him, but unfortunately Dal-Jerei was in the wrong place, wrong time. The gargoyle goes flying and lands on the old cleric, knocking him prone and the wind out of his lungs. Dal-Jerei, take 1d6 damage and defy danger to escape the gargoyle's ferocious scrabbling! Lionel, you see this happening and move to assist immediately, but you also notice a faint glow coming from under the door.
As the creature falls on her, Hisstla scrambles back to avoid being pinned underneath it. After it lands, she attacks it with her blade of flame.
Hisstla desperately tries to counterattack the gargoyle as it attacks her from above, but with her added concern for getting out of the way, it amounts to little more than a little sword-waving in the gargoyle's face. Its flames singe the gargoyle's skin, but don't deter it from attacking once more, filled with the mindless rage of the inanimate.
It grabs for your wrist, Hisstla, but you manage to yank it back in time to avoid being grabbed. However, your flaming blade drops to the ground. What happens to the magic of your weapon when you lose contact with it?
Geetra-Na takes aim at the Gargoyle attacking Hisstla
The arrow heads for the Gargoyle's eye as she lets it fly
Lionel says "There may be others coming up from the hallway! Should we retreat now?" but continues attacking the first gargoyle :
Doing
("Messy")
The old argonian collapses under the gargoyle with a groan and tries to wiggle free, but the thing's weight seems far too much for his tired frame.
"Help..."
Hisstla leaves her brand sitting where it stays and goes to help Dal-Jerei.
Hisstla, roll +the number of Bonds you have with Dal-Jerei to Aid him! If you succeed (7+), Dal-Jerei gets a +1 to his Defy Danger roll, allowing him to escape!
Hisstla darts toward the more recently awakened gargoyle as Geetra-Na expertly plants an arrow into its eye. She has to fire a small volley of arrows to do it, but the important thing is that one of them struck the creature right in its pupil. You can see the arrow poking out of its face and wiggling in different directions as the creature desperately tries to look back and forth, screaming in rage.
Meanwhile, Lionel launches himself up onto the first gargoyle's backside, right between its wings. Compared to the Redguard's speed, the gargoyle might well be moving at the speed of molasses. The monk strikes swiftly, tearing off the gargoyle's ear in the blink of an eye and with a single chop of his fist. Holding the gargoyle by the neck, he begins to pummel it in the soft spot in its head that is left behind where the ear used to be! It's still struggling, but more weakly now, as Lionel punches it basically right in the brain.
There are no more sounds coming from beyond the doorway...
Hisstla charges towards Dal-Jerei and uses her momentum to knock the Gargoyle off of her.
Hisstla shoves Dal-Jerei out of the way, bruising his old scales somewhat, but saving him from the primary danger of the gargoyle attack. Take 1d6-2 damage from your partial success, Dal-Jerei.
The gargoyle, with Geetra-Na's arrow still protruding from its eye socket, continues screaming as glowing runes begin to shine on its stony skin. It hunches in on itself as the runes begin to glow brightly, and its wounds begin to close! Before your very eyes, the arrow is pushed out of the thing's eye, as the ruined organ begins to reform! It's as if an invisible sculptor is fixing a ruined statue...what do you do?
Lionel says "Anyone know how to keep a gargoyle from regenerating???"
Certain acids will do the trick, but the most common technique is simply to completely shatter the body to pieces. A dead gargoyle stops regenerating, unlike a troll.
"We need to harm them to the point of unconsciousness, and then break apart their bodies."
"Then I suggest we all attack one together, because if it is still conscious from a single attack, it will immediately start to regenerate!"
It is as the Redguard says. In the melee, he has mostly subdued the gargoyle's struggles, but the creature is still defiantly trying to claw and slash at him. Continuing to hold the gargoyle while discussing battle tactics triggers the gargoyle's attack once more, roll defy danger to avoid getting your throat opened!
Using his staff as a lever, Lionel heaves massively against the gargoyle, pushing it away from himself.
Geetra-Na; seeing that the Gargolye damaged by Lionel has yet to start regenerating sends another arrow over his head into the Gargoyle's own
Hisstla recovers her blade of flame and then attacks the Gargoyle with it.
There aren't meant to be any "turns" per se in Dungeon World...
Lionel adds to the carnage by attacking with his staff :
Doing
"Messy"
The Argonians with their Redguard companion are able to destroy the gargoyle sentries before they can regenerate further, though Hisstla got a nasty scratch down her forearm before the gargoyle expires (take 1d6 damage.)
At your feet among the scattered and inanimate rocks that were once your enemies is a key attached to a necklace. All is silent in the hallway once the sounds of battle subside...there is no sound coming through the door. What do you do?
Where Hisstla would be injured by the claws of the Gargoyle, there is a hissing sound, and a small amount of steam billows out, and when it clears there is no wound on Hisstla.
The steam billows when it strikes against the magical blue barrier that's keeping the ocean from flooding the tunnel.
In any case, when you silently approach the door and put your ear to the material, no sound reaches you.
"We should just open in and go through, assuming that there are no traces of magic on the door."
"I can't check for magic, but I hear nothing going on on the other side ."
Hisstla pushes past the monk and turns the knob imperiously, shoving the door wide open.
Before you is a wide room, with a short ceiling (just shy of 8 feet by your estimation.)
Inside this squat, wine-cellar like room are Dark Brotherhood banners hanging from the walls. There are benches arranged like pews in a church, facing away from the door. They're occupied with bodies, at least twenty of them, dressed in the vestments of that same dark order. The bodies are all dead, with obvious signs of violence on their bloody and broken corpses.
There is an Altmer kneeling to a squat, ugly-looking statue at the end of the rows of pews. He doesn't respond to the sound of the door opening.