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With no one riding the merry-go-round anymore the group teams up on the elemental and start hitting again. After almost everyone hits the elemental - even from Ohrmizd who lies prone with the creature looming over him - and some serious wounds are added to it you Ohrmizd sees something like a grin on the shifting form as it lunges out for the finishing move. The huge fist approaches like in slow motion and Ohrmizd's life passes before his eyes as the whole elemental disappears from the material plane.
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When the Elemental finally disappears Manuun runs over to Ohrmizd to check on the big Oaf.
"Miz come on you are fione aren't you?" Seeing him still slowly breathing Manuun helps him up. "Come on let me help you. What do you think you were doing here? One day you recklessness is going to get you killed man."
Then he turns to Omari. "I think he needs some healing. Do you still have some spells left?"
Ohrmizd stands up with some effort, calling to his goddess to patch him up.
"Humf, how to catch the air? That was rough eh?" the man recovers his smile "Where were we? Oh, yeah, those stairs in the center. We shall go down before more of those guards decide to come check"
Then he turns to Omari. "I think he needs some healing. Do you still have some spells left?"
"Naaah, he's fine" - Roryx nods at Ohrmizd - "Really now, it was but a draft. Worst it can do is give you a cold" - he might be smiling underneath the cowl.
"Now that ruckus... May call more of them upon us" - he adds, keeping watch for any more enemies - "Do you want to make a stand , and try to rest around here somewhere? OR retreat?"
Heshan slowly turns his head towards Roryx with a face full of shock. "I would never have thought of you as the comedic one." he grinned. "But yes, rest is preferred as I have no spells left."
... "Where were we? Oh, yeah, those stairs in the center. We shall go down before more of those guards decide to come check ..."
"Hold still Ohrmizd, somehow that thing has damaged that brick you use for a head." Omari hurries over to Ohrmzid and begins to treat his injuries, calling on Erastil for healing.
As he heals Ohrmizd, he continues, "Heshan has the right of it, we need to rest, certainly not advance further into this complex. I have little of Erastil's blessings left. As it is, to have everyone in fighting form may take a day. I think we must fall back to the refugees."
"Thanks Omari" Ohrmizd looks back to were they came from "So to the slaves again?"
Just in case, he bumps more healing on his wounds.
"Seems the goddess is not pleased today"
The floor appears badly damaged, scarred with cracks and huge gaping holes. Pieces of old wood and rusted metal bars cover some of the damaged areas, though they hardly seem safe. Along the north wall, loose rock and other debris neatly fills a wide arch, blocking the passage save for a few narrow gaps; likewise, in places the ceiling of the chamber has fallen, exposing small gaps to reveal the sky above.
Thick pillars of stone line this oversized hall, draped in cobwebby ropes strung with tattered prayer flags. Along the north and south walls, various doors, arches, and stairwells offer exit. In the center of the room a pair of elaborately tiled, diamond-shaped columns etched with coils of twisting vermin rise up; the column to the east is hollow and contains an ancient iron staircase that spirals down into darkness.
A wide archway opens into a large square room. Along the room’s outer walls, statues of robed, morbidly obese humans sit cross-legged, perhaps in some sort of praying position. The heads of all the statues have been smashed off. In their place rest small piles of humanoid skulls. In the center of the room four iron braziers surround a marble font half full of brownish, stagnant-looking water.
The three rooms in this wing are all identical—each contains six or so cramped, nest-like beds cluttered with bits of rotten meat, bone, and matted gnoll fur. These rooms reek particularly strongly of gnoll urine. The stairs in the central hall lead down.
This hallway has mostly collapsed—the gnolls never bothered to clear out the tunnels. Manually clearing the earth from this tunnel takes hours of work.
Ohrmizd searches throughout the different rooms before leaving for rest.
"We better avoid this place, the cracks look pretty dangerous"
Ohrmizd takes away the cobwebs with the hand to better have a better sight of the prayer flags "This staircase here. It might be the path we want to follow downstairs"
"I wonder what food they eat so much here in the middle of the desert to get that fat" Ohrmizd searches the statues then the braziers "I am not drinking that water, it looks foul"
Ohrmizd covers his nose to avoid the stench to urine, but moves away the beds to check if they conceal the gnolls treasure.
"Clearing this place will takes us a lot of time. Not worth probably"
Also, before leaving for rest, he will deprive the gnoll guards from their useful items.
There is nothing of worth found in any of the rooms.
"Once they see this carnage, they will entrench themselves - we will need to be prepared for that" - Roryx adds.
"If that is the case, we will at least have some time to rest ourselves. We will just need to keep watch at night."
"Or they will pee on their filthy rags feeling our breath on their back-neck, ha!" Ohrmizd chuckles while coming upstairs following Manuun's lead.
During the night, Ohrmizd will be taking the first or second watch, spending a few more spells to cure himself before sleeping.
And in Omari.
The group retreats through the tunnel shoveled free earlier into the gargoyle tower. There they carefully check that no one is observing as they sneak over the yard to the other tower where the slaves hide.
They are already looking forward to Omari serving magical dinner.
"Back the way we came in, up through the former Gargoyles tower. If we can do something to obscure our tracks between there are the refugees hideout, that would be good."
As we retreat "I will do my best to minister to our hurts over the evening. I will take the dawn watch as is my habit. As for tactics, there appear to be 2 ways down , but they are so close together, I suspect they come out next to each other - which leaves us with a frontal assault on a chokepoint next raid... I don't like it."
vs DC 15
2 rank+3 trained +2 wis +2 healer's kit
vs DC 10
...
They are already looking forward to Omari serving magical dinner.
When treating deadly wounds, you can restore hit points to a damaged creature. Treating deadly wounds restores 1 hit point per level of the creature. If you exceed the DC by 5 or more, add your Wisdom modifier (if positive) to this amount. A creature can only benefit from its deadly wounds being treated within 24 hours of being injured and never more than once per day. You must expend two uses from a healer’s kit to perform this task. You take a –2 penalty on your Heal skill check for each use from the healer’s kit that you lack.
vs DC 20
2 rank+3 trained +2 wis +2 healer's kit +1 guidanceAnd a possible Aid another from Ohrmizd
Piles of broken stone partially block this archway. Several hideous scarecrows made from the headless corpses of slain troglodytes stand propped against the walls here.
Assuming nothing happens during the night and watches, Ohrmizd wakes up the next day fully refreshed "Awwwwn, butter toasts and an orange juice please... uh"
Realizing he is far from home, the man stands up and cleans a bit himself from the arduous night of sleep "Oh, well, I guess that tasteless magical stuff would be ok"
After performing a few prayers and warming up with some scimitar practice, the Keleshite sits for breakfast "I guess we are coming back to where we left it, descends those stairs where the elemental attacked us if there are no new gnoll guards reinforcements"
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"Nothing against Omaris wonderful Spell but I am really missing Hadrahs Soups. Maybe next time she is wiling to join us."
Manuun prepares his belongings, this time making sure he keeps the magic Arrows they found handy in case they meet another Elemental.
When the group sneaks into the temple he scouts ahead trxying to see if the gnolls have revisited these caves.
The group sneaks back to the gargoyle tower and down the stairs. But the passage that was only barricaded yesterday is now closed with a solid wall of stone.
Omari looks closely at the stone wall, even pokes at it a couple of times with the butt of his spear.
+4 Cleric + 2 wis +1 resistance +2 vs Illusions
The wall is real solid stone, just like the surrounding rock. But it looks smoothed.
"Not to be against Erastil, but he could work on flavor," Heshsn nodded in response.
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Well rested and with his spells restored, he was in good spirits as he walked alongside the rest of his party.
Once he gazed at the rock, he placed s hand on his chin. Maybe there is something we can move to get past the stone."
"Well, stag stew is stag stew. It gets as far as it is" says Ohrmizd while having breakfast "I also miss Hadrah's soups"
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"I am surprised at how good bricklayers the gnolls have" Ohrmizd shrugs at Omari's comment on magic being involved.
"Haleen always says: when a door closes a window opens" comments Ohrmizd "Before trying to bring the stonewall down, I suggest we have a calm search around to try make sure there are no secret door we overpased"
Ohrmizd casts heightened awareness to make sure the odds are higher "Sarenrae help us find the path!"
To his surprise Ohrmizd finds some fine lines on the wall of the long corridor that leads to the former spider lair that look like a hidden door. As part of the hiding this 'door' has no handle and nothing else that would give away how to open this.
"Look here! I think I found something boys!" Ohrmizd says altered by the finding.
The man tries pushing, pulling, forcing it to rotate with all his strength "There is some door here, we just need to find out how it opens"
"Let me have a go at it my friend." He concentrates his eyes on the wall, his eyes glowing slightly as he tries his best to seek out any magical aura on the wall.
There is no magic on the wall and no mechanism to be found.
Roryx takes a look, then begins pushing - "Be prepared guys, just in case"
As all together push the fine line widens into a crack and slowly with the noise of stone grinding on stone the piece of moving wall opens a passage into another room unlit room. The noise of many legs is heard clocking on the stone floor.
"Hold the chokepoint" - Roryx grunts, and zaps his wand of Shield.
You opened the door far enough to enter and for whatever is hiding in the darkness to notice. But through the small gap you can only see the left corner of the room which gives no hint about the occupants.
"Let's keep pushing that open!" Ohrmizd pleas while renewing the light on his scimitar and pointing it to the front in order to see better what is moving in the darkness.
Omari steps back, to give Ohrmizd and Roryx some working room, and draws his bow. He is ready to loose at the first sight of an enemy.
+3 bab +3 dex +1 enhancement(weapon)+ 1 PBS+ Precise shot: No penalty for firing into melee, Deadeye Bowman can ignore 1 person worth of cover
+2 str +1 enhancement(weapon) +1 pbs
Ohrmizd pushes but he is unsettled by the noises coming along.
"We need to redouble our efforts my friends. Push! Now!" with a new push, the Keleshite forces the secret door to give away and let them keep adventuring "Evil doors, are the worst enemies!"