Yes, I remember that part, but I thought you were past there, and I couldn't remember another gargoyle and earth elemental combination (I knew you meant elemental; that part wasn't confusing me).
Just before the room with the pentagram, there is a books that reads "In a row, like the water flow, six is thrown, one is not shown, look around on the ground, watch your back or you'll be hacked".
Water flows from high to low, so if you start with the highest lever (top right) and go around in a circle clockwise pulling the next lowest lever, no gargoyles will appear, and the earth elemental will remain a statue when the stairs are revealed.
There are a couple of variations of some arrow types, which can not be stacked. Otherwise, it should be automatic when you pick them up.
Drag a stack into/out of/between inventories, and hold the Ctrl key down before dropping, and you will get a 'split stack' window to determine how many to transfer.
No, there is no monster respawn. In the after-game battlefields you can respawn entire battlefields, but that's not much help now.
Originally the DK Patrols were intended to be much harder, but the difficulty was scaled back. The dialog warning wasn't changed, though.
The game was designed so you couldn't get those weapons, but there is in fact a glitch which will let you do so:
armory trick in act 1.
Which merchant did you kill? There are quests in the citadel section, which you may want to do before killing any NPCs that are friendly (or at least are friendly if you are wearing the citadel armour disguise).
