Shadi projects a bolt of ice. It slams into Lady Andaisin's head.

She falls to the ground.

The spiritual weapons from the cultists swing at the marines. Both miss.

The cultists themselves will step sideways a few paces and swing for the captain! One hits, tearing into his shoulder.

Seven zombies shamble in through the left doors. Three are covered with horrid diseased pustules.

The cleric of Sarenrae throws a fireball at the group of zombies. Three are consumed completely, and the other four are barely still standing. 

A guardsman removes Lady Andaisin's head from her shoulders with a single swing of his sword.

The rest of them charge the remaining cultists! They slam the two over the head with their halberds. The cultists fall down and don't get up.

Garril runs at a zombie and tears a hole in its chest. It collapses.

Navarro enters the room from behind the left door! He stabs a zombie through the back of its head. It collapses.

He sees the state of the room. "Holy shit! Are you guys okay?!"

The second captain and his squad of guardsmen arrive and make quick work of the remaining zombies.

The huge metal vats bubble. For a moment, nothing moves.

"By inches! If there is anything else in this entire burning place, more than the Pharasmins will be going before their goddess! We need to get somewhere safe enough for some Channels, and soon. Is that way clear? My new spell should be able to block the other door, and hopefully anything else will have to go the long way around and give us a few moments." Where by block the door she of course means not actually block the door, but the cultists will probably believe it and she'll see them coming.

"There's no more hostiles back the way we came. This place is linked to the surface with an elevator. More reinforcements should make it down soon, in groups of six."

The second captain sighs. "They've got people strapped to horrible devices in one of the other rooms. We need to get them out, once this place is clear."

"Good. Horrible torture devices are worrying but not our greatest priority right now; we need to spend at least a few moments channeling and restoring ourselves or we're betting thirty more seconds for them against our lives and the lives of everyone in here that they only had the one high-circle cleric and recruited only a single Whisperer. Is that a bet you're willing to take?" The captain does technically have command, but her plan is obviously right here at any reasonable tradeoffs, she just needs to frame the situation to make that evident to avoid any humanness getting in the way of keeping them all alive.

The first captain turns to face the guardsmen. "Execute any who are still alive. Then we'll heal up and clear the rest of this place."

The guardsmen execute the unconscious cultists.

The cleric of Sarenrae channels twice. The wounded guardsmen all heal completely. The captain and the marines are still injured, but they look much better.

Silent Image over the other door, then she can talk. The guard just saw her cast the giant (apparent) wall, and each of them either failed to see through it or saw how much it saved their lives. Either way, that should get them impressed with her. There won't be a better chance to maneuver them where she wants them to go.

First, she turns to the guard who sundered Lady Andaisin's focus. "Thank you for handling the unholy symbol. Without that, we were two seconds from all dying." Or perhaps running, in her case, but she's not going to say that out loud.

"On that note, she was a fifth circle cleric. And a just recently fifth circle cleric would not have ashed the Pharasmins in a single Flame Strike, she was either high in fifth circle and lucky or scraping the bottom of sixth. The strongest public clerics in Korvosa are Abadar's seventh circle, Pharasma's seventh circle, and Asmodeus's sixth. That puts her as the fourth-strongest cleric in the city, and she was supported by" six, six, another two, that's "fourteen second circles. I'm sure the guard would have known if there was an Urgathoan cult that strong, even in the Shingles. These people came from somewhere outside Korvosa, and they came for a reason. Urgathoa means disease or undead, and they obviously weren't putting much effort into agitating the Vault."

She times herself so this happens right about as the Sarenrite channels the second time. "Captain! Have you been getting reports of disease, anywhere in the city? If not, you need to be looking into it, actively investigating as soon as you can once we're done here. Disease does not wait, and this may be our only warning before all the Shingles are alight with plague."

Yes, if this works, this will bring down the price of Remove Disease. It will also keep the Urgathoans out of the city, and not able to spread their arcane version, however it works, among the local wizards. A city held by an Urgathoan cult out of the Academae is a city with nothing good to scam, no chances to be clever... A healthy underworld needs a healthy city to feed on, and the Urgathoans have no such scruples. She, and the guard, need them and whatever they've been working on out and gone from Korvosa. This is her territory.

"We've not had any more disease than usual, for this time of year." He gazes up at the huge metal vats. "I don't like the look of this..."

Navarro walks up onto the railing. "They're full of the same stuff that was in the barrels. Some sort of red sludge. We should get an alchemist down here."

The first captain nods. "Sorcerer, please pull down your wall. We must make sure nothing is left here to ambush us."

"As you say. My friend is solid." She checks that there's nothing on the other side right now, then gestures for it to quickly fly through and back. "You should all be able to see through it now."

"Thank you. Guardsmen, marines, form up and push into the next room!"

"Yes, sir!"

They get back in formation.

The marines also get back in their formation. They're first to breach the next room, through the door on the right.