Once the madman goes down Roryx approaches him, trying to understand if he may still be alive and stable.
Heshan blinks as the madman took a full blast to the face without even flinching. He instinctively checked his fingers. "My magic could not be weakening that much..."
Unable to understand if the man is dead or alive, and with really no knowledge to do anything about it, Roryx grimly moves away and after the others.
The gnoll continues upstairs, walks into the quarters and falls on a bed, where he starts snoring almost immediately.
As a frustrated Ohrmizd shakes him awake again the gnoll is like "Who are you? Where am I? Who am I?" with a heavy slur and total disorientation.
Ohrmizd shakes a bit more the gnoll "I am Madfang, remember? You were leading us to Rovenka, remember?" he releases the gnoll with a push and kicks him again "What kind of war can we have if they keep sending me such a rabble unable to remember the f&$!ing assface of their mothers!"
"Stand up and walk utter numskull!" he kicks the ass forward once more.
The gnoll grins and it escalates into a hyena like chuckle as Ohrmizd rages. But to prevent further kicking, the gnoll starts moving again. He moves down the stairs in the quarters into the maze. There he turns west where three doors are in the middle of three walls in the shape of a semi circle.
He opens the right door. Well over a dozen nests of tattered blankets, straw, and furs cover the floor of this chamber. A
pair of tables surrounded by rickety chairs stands in the middle of the room; Six tense gnolls in full gear sit in the room. "You know where Rokova is? No?"
He closes the door and moves on to the next one. The walls of this room are densely decorated with lines of scripture written in red, decorated here and there with images of fanged mouths ringed by nine spidery legs. Eight mounds of sleeping furs line the walls, and in the center of the room sits a low circular stone table with a slightly convex surface. Rancid-looking candles line the edges of this table, and its center is caked with dried blood and heaped with bones. Six gnolls in robes stand around in a circle singing some incantations. The drugged gnoll closes the door again immediately.
He moves on to the next door. This filthy, reeking room is without decor—only a thick layer of vermin-infested moldy straw and lumpy sand covers the floor. Only a broken old man with barely any teeth left in his mouth sits in a corner.
The gnoll shrugs, closes the door and moves on to the north.
The Madfang disguised Ohrmizd tries to cover and conceal the party as the gnoll checks the barracks
When the drugged gnoll closes the second one with the apparently gnoll acolytes, Ohrmizd whispers to Manuun "Hei Man! Can you jam those locks or find other way to make sure they do not get out of there easily?"
Ohrmizd tries to recognize the old man there "Why the heck do we have that old man in the prison?"
"Hurry up, I am losing my patience piece of filth"
The gnoll looks at 'Madfang' like he is even more crazy. "That's a slave." he points out the - to him - obvious. "You want to transform him too?" The image of a large old toothless man makes the gnoll lose it and he throws a fit of laughter.
"That would be utterly interesting" 'Madfang' shows his magically disguised crooked teeth "But I doubt the Carrion King and Rovenka would approve. Keep moving scum!" he pushes the gnoll forward.
"Hey!" the gnoll turns towards Ohrmizd and pushes with his index finger on 'Madfang's' chest. "You're talking b%@+~!#~."
"Keep moving or I will make a lousy frog out of you!" 'Madfang' menaces are no joke.
"Hmmmm..." The gnoll turns and leads the way to the large hall again. Moving through the pillars into the area of the big bug he warns "Hurry, before you get eaten." he moves on to the carrion throne, which is moved out of its center position.
Where the throne stood is a hole with a flight of stairs leading down. "Rokova is down there. We're not allowed. Are you?"
"I will wait here with them to ensure they do not get down until Rokova emerges" 'Madfang' points out of the throne chamber "Perhaps you are not as useless as I though. You can go now to rest."
The gnoll happily leaves and disappears through the next door.
Ohrmizd follows the gnoll with the eyes as he goes.
Once gone, he uses detect magic to check the possessions of Madfang that he quickly dressed up to pose as the madman.
Then, he addresses the others "Well, team, what do we do now? It seems Rokova is there down doing who knows what... how do we approach this? We go in yelling the true god's name and knock him down?" his eyes turn to Omari and Roryx supplicant.
vs DC 15
3 rank+3 trained +2 wis
Omari sees that Madfang is dying, and has no pity for such a madman. Instead, he follows Ohrmizd's lead, letting the gnoll guide them into the complex.
Omari is not enthusiastic about going down another level just yet: "I like clear lines of retreat. I think we'd be better off checking the rest of this level, especially if Manuun is good enough at charming locks to keep them all from ganging up on us."
As he speaks, he uses his wand of CLW to heal some of Heshan's injuries.
"The idea was to avoid a war with the gnolls, and we have it in our hands. We just need to end Rovenka, who according to the troglodyte's info is clearly the instigator of the war" the Keleshite points the stairs down "Let's do not hesitate now my friend. We are a small operations team, we cannot just slay all living gnoll even if we wanted, a war legion would be required for that" Ohrmizd looks at Roryx knowing he is not up to just kill all the gnolls "I was more kind of asking about how we proceed with Rovenka. Tactics, preparing spells, etc."
"This Rovenka seems to be a caster of some sort" - Roryx ponders - "So we need to take the fight to him, and stay in close quarters. That should be our focus" - he adds - "If we cannot get close initially, I can still turn momentarily invisible, and perhaps approach" - the magus shares with his companions.
"But the question remains - if that is our intention, how will we ever manage to approach unnoticed?"
"I can make you all invisible as well," Heshan added. "Although that would all but deplete my second level spells. If we could draw this person to us, things would be a lot easier."
Ohrmizd nods to Roryx "I like that. Sneak on him, close quarters fast" the Keleshite listens attentively at Heshan's magical plan "You better safe some of that magic to fry him, Heshan. Let's try this, you can make invisible Omari, Kheldron and yourself. I think Roryx can vanish himself, and Manuun... he is an stealthy one, I have seen him sneaking in Hadrah's kitchen to have extra stew, and I am confident Rovenka is not even going to imagine he is there" he laughs slightly before tapping his own chest "As for myself, if he hears me coming, he is only going to see Madfang arriving with more of his odd requests, I hope that is enough to confuse him the time required for us to close on him"
Then turning to Omari "I believe our retreat is well covered, we can try to undo our path, and if that does not work, after so long in this temple, we know about one or two secret other exits I think"
"We can go against the priests and explore other rooms after dealing with Rovenka. Let's profit he is in a closed space busy with his dealings there down"
While invisibilities are cast, Ohrmizd puts instrument of agony on his scimitar and shield of faith on himself.
A set of granite-hewn stairs spirals down into the darkness. At the end of them is an unexpected sight — an elaborate underground garden lit by softly glowing crystals in the ceiling twenty feet above. Gravel walkways wind between verdant trees and shrubs that rustle softly in a gentle breeze that seems to come from nowhere. As the garden’s centerpiece, cracked granite benches surround a cobblestone fountain filled with crystal-clear water. To the south, a gently flowing creek runs across a pebbly streambed that passes through a rock garden and into an iron grill drain along a passageway to the south. To the north, a lone almond tree stands in alcove, while to the west, a double arch leads to a small circular room. Four sandstone sculptures chiseled into the forms of huge angry faces stand throguhout the room.
While waiting to see how the rest of the group proceeds, Ohrmizd tries to identify any magical item from Madfang using detect magic.
He does not cast his spells until he is sure the group wants to proceed forward.
As per the new info obtained of looking down the stairs... "Shall we check that fountain first thing?"
Ohrmizd keeps trying to understand what elements are in Madfang's equipment, including the bloody weapon, his nasty bombs that so much harmed the group and other tools in his apron, and using detect magic to identify if any of those are magic before trying to push the party in any direction, casting light or any other spell.
Omari keeps Khedron close at hand, holding onto the ruff of his neck to guide the elk - neither of them are experienced at operating while invisible (neither can see each other, of course, and there is also Heshan wandering about invisibly). The pair of them hang back, trying to minimize collisions...
After identifying Madfang's gear, Ohrmizd helps Heshan turn people invisible, he casts instrument of agony and shield of faith on himself and starts descending the stairs.
When it is clear the place is dark, he also adds a light on his scimitar. Ohrmizd, still in Madfang's disguise, wrinkles his nose as he sniffs the air "Do you feel and hear that? It seems like someone build a garden here below... not what I would expect from someone called the Carrion King"
Slowly and carefully, Ohrmizd sneaks past the central stones and approaches to the fountain to examine the water.
Everything in this garden seems to be magical. Literally and figuratively.
There is no creature down there that one could hide from. But just as you start to get comfortable in this nice garden, the mouths of the four stone heads yawn open to belch gouts of fire and smoke. As the smoke settles, four bulbous creatures that consists of many tangled legs, a bulging body of puffed flesh, and a mouth filled with sharp fangs remain and attack.
The first rast turns on 'Madfang', flying over and biting him.
Ohrmizd holds back, a bit startled at the lava's show "Fantastic welcome fireworks" shouting in pain as he is surprised by the rast first attack.
Omari and Khedron push past Heshan and then Roryx. Once into the garden, Omari stops and draws his bow, commading Khedron "Guard" as he does so. Then he fires a shot at the thing attacking Ohrmizd.
vs flat footed (invisible attacker)
4 bab+3 dex +1 enhancement+1 pbs +2 invisible (no penalties for shooting into melee or 1 person worth of cover)
+2 str +1 enhancement+1 pbs
Manuun does the creature a good deal of harm. As does Omari.
The next two rasts come over and stare at Manuun and Omari.
"That is not exactly how a sorcerer works.\,"[B] Heshan winces as he takes up a position. [B]"I cannot simply choose the spells given to me."
But he did have some none-fire spells, delivering it on the one close to Manuun.
"Well, given they came out of a lava-something I am not surprised at all!" states Ohrmizd in a tone of alarm "What kind of creature are them?"
Seeing how the creatures gaze Omari and Manuun, Ohrmizd asks for sacred assistance "Sarenrae, fill my heart with your purity to protect me from this misaligned creatures"
Ohrmizd attacks with his scimitar trying to drop the injured lava-thing in front of him.
Seeing the paralysis taking effect, Ohrmizd casts remove paralysis to free his friends.
Heshan takes an easy shot. The last rast joins his friend in an attempt to take Ohrmizd apart.
+5 Cleric + 2 con +1 resistance
Omari feels the magic of the Rast's gaze, but bears up! His wisdom lets him realize how dangerous such a gaze could be in combat; he shouts He turns his eyes entirely away from the creatures, focusing on the stairwell, and sets himself and Khedron in motion, he expounds while running away: "If we stay here, we will be paralyzed meat. They might not pursue, and if they do, the curve of the stairwell will let us fight them one at a time, with only 1 gaze to contend with!"
Roryx retreats after Omari without looking back - "Get out of there! All of you!" - he roars to his remaining companions.
"Understood." Heshan decides to help move things along by twisting his body in order to emit a fog. Said fog moved over to cover the creatures as Heshan made his escape behind the ranger.