Seelah is very much in favor of this plan, especially with the example of what happens when they do the opposite so fresh in her memory. She charges out the basement door like a human wrecking ball and, when she realizes their good fortune, slams her new sword straight into the closest archer. 

If you were to use one word to describe the fight scene they walk in on, it would be busy. More people are engaged in combat per square foot than Luzai has ever seen in her life, even counting the events of the festival plaza, and they're not nearly so polite as to form up in lines or pair off. Fortunately it's still reasonably easy to tell who is who; one side of the melee combatants is a group of paladins and soldiers in heavy armor lead by Irabeth Tirabade, and the other is an eclectic mix of demons and human irregulars attempting to keep the former group away from their archers and wizards. Said ranged combatants also have their own opposite number, largely a mix of Eagle's Watch and people in what Luzai may recognize as the stylized Sarenrite symbol favored by the Sunrise sword, but what makes their location especially convenient is that they came up right behind most of the cultist ranged combatants and there isn't anyone in position to get between them and Seelah.

Oh, awesome!!! 

This is plausibly the best place in the entire city they could have come up. Definitely better than a lot of places there isn't any fighting at all. Luzai experiences a lunatic urge to stand there and cheer, but she does, instead, acid splash an archer that Seelah has not just stabbed. 

Stabbity stab. 

Camellia is a big fan of target rich environments like this.

Even with them in the rear, the situation isn't necessarily doomed. Having people with swords up close is obviously not great, but two dozen archers and a handful of wizards against two melee combatants is pretty good as these things go. What’s harder to handle is that some of their number decide not to stick around and see how many people are following behind Seelah, and while about half of them are braver or more fearful of their superiors than that, the lesser numerical advantage proves a lot less decisive. To make matters worse, once the cultist archers are otherwise occupied and can’t lay down supressing or harassing fire, the crusader archers are free to focus on supporting their own melee combatants. The fight doesn’t last much longer from there.

Once all the combat is over, Luzai's first impulse is to go ransack the dead wizards for spellbooks. She looks over the dead cultists to identify who's what, and--

"Luzai!" 

What if, instead, she is Hugged. 

Luzai gasps softly. There had been enough people in Irabeth's group of crusaders that she hadn't seen him--"Villibor," she says, a quiet, pained sound like a broken bone being set properly. Hugs indeed. 

With the battle finished, the crusaders set about collecting the arrows undamaged enough to be reusable and patching their wounds. Not many of them are strong enough to channel, but the ones that are have quite a few uses of it and there's always lay on hands for the ones that need a bit more.

Their leader, however, is in the middle of a reunion of her own. She picks up Anevia in a hug and spins her around.

"Nevi, you're alright!"

"Beth, watch the plate - not so tight!"

When her wife sets her down, rather sheepishly, Anevia grabs her for a bit of a more grounded hug.

"It's good to see you're alright too. Had an exciting few days, between nearly getting lost in the caves and having to deal with a den of cultists, but no permanent injuries. The others with me are a mix of people who fell down with me and helpful natives - the stories are true, there really are whole villages living in the underground. We've also got a civilian with us, but Horgus Gwerm will be a bit since he was hanging back from the fighting."

"I'll pick a few people who are out of healing to escort anyone who needs it to the Defender's Heart - that's where we're running the defense out of, at least until we clear out the garrison enough for it to be an option."

Reluctantly, she slowly disengages from her reunion to go speak with the newcomers.

"Luzai, I'm glad to see you made it through as well - your brother was worried sick. How are you doing on spells?"

"Iiii am down to cantrips, unfortunately--I have Prestidigitation, Detect Magic, Acid Splash, and Resistance. But, uh, the others were well-spent, mostly, we had to fight a really annoying cultist named Hosilla to get here." She's not going to mention Hosilla's patron demon right now, that would sound like bragging and also the thing she did to it wasn't a spell she had prepared.

She's not about to second guess any tactical decisions for fights she wasn't there for.

"Understood. Do you have experience with a crossbow?"

If not, she might want to suggest Luzai go with the group heading back now. She's not really in a position where she can afford to give up help, but cantrips aren't much use against demons and she'll need living wizards just as badly tomorrow. 

"Yes I do." She's mostly been using Acid Splash, instead, for human cultists, but against demons--

She's not going to mention the Deskari incident that was pretty obviously related to the special emergency bolt, but it sure is brought to mind by the question. 

She has her own crossbow, still! Also some bolts, although a limited enough supply that it was relevant to her decision to acid splash human cultists. 

They don't have a lot of spare cold iron bolts, but they can give her a few for emergencies when they need concentrated fire and even a normal bolt will injure a lesser demon about a third of the time. She'll spend about a minute talking to the other people Anevia brought with her to get a sense of their capabilities while Horgus Gwerm arrives, then send him off and set on.

With the attempted defense at the entrance having failed so thoroughly, no other cultists try to stop them from clearing the level, but all the staircases up to the second floor are barricaded and defended.

...Well, acid splash is useless against demons, of course, but not against mundane materials--maybe she could weaken the barricade a little bit? --Probably better to stick to crossbow, for now, and ask Irabeth about it at some lull in the fighting.

Anyway, she'd rather be using a crossbow at her brother's side than casting spells by her lonesome any day. She's so glad to have him back; a part of her heart that had been unsettled since the demon attack is soothed down, now.

The bonus reinforcements from underground are pretty good at archery, too, even without cold iron. 

The plan they end up going with is for their archers to pin down as many of the cultists as they can with suppressing fire while Irabeth and a few of her most heavily armored subordinates do their best to charge up the steps. The newcomers more than prove their worth here - the extra weight of fire from four more archers is worth significantly more than the loss in melee combatants she dispatched to escort their charge. The demons try to stop their advance with a stinking cloud, but more fool they; the scent is not exactly pleasant, but Paladins have a lot easier time overcoming the nausea than the cultists do, which gives them essentially free reign against the responsible dretches for several moments. Staunton's waraxe proves particularly adept at smashing through the rushed attempts at fortification, which she's glad for; it's unlikely to amount to much, but heaven knows the man could use a win.

From there, it's a matter of traversing the second floor of the building to cut off any of the other cultists who want to retreat from their current stairwell to regroup at the third floor fortifications. Some of them will probably descend back to the ground floor to flee instead, which nobody is exactly happy with, but clearing the garrison and securing the wardstone takes priority over running down escapees no matter how much more trouble they'll be to root out once they go to ground.

As they work, it becomes clear that while the garrison's outer structure was sturdy enough to withstand the sudden impact of the wardstone, not all the internal structures can say the same. There are a number of secondary holes in the ground and piles of rubble to be careful of, and in one case the brickwork starts to come apart under one of the paladins and they need to be grabbed by one of their comrades.

Luzai is not so naive, in strategic terms, that she would allow cultists to escape deliberately. 

But. On an emotional level, she can't help but be glad of every person who doesn't die. Like, she knows that probably they'll do yet more harm, but--

A chance is a chance. 

She supposes she's going to have to keep an eye on herself, going forward; it's one thing to say she wouldn't allow cultists to escape deliberately, and another to make sure it doesn't subconsciously bias her. 

But for now Irabeth is calling the shots! So this is not Luzai's highest priority. 

Still. Tiny internal cheer every time a cultist does the smart thing and bolts. If nothing else, a cultist who cuts and runs is a cultist who doesn't inflict another wound on a paladin before being put down. 

At first, the third floor stairs look to be similar to those at the second. More heavily defended due to the singular ingress, yes, but a difference in magnitude rather than kind. The difference is, however, that this time they are practically allowed through. While the charging paladins are peppered with arrows on the approach, rather than fight viciously to hold them on the stairs, the demons and cultists make their retreat when pressed. Are the paladins going to come charging after them to be cut off and surrounded?

No, Irabeth wasn't born yesterday. She'll take the chance to safely get the barricades completely out of the way of the stairs, use the more mobile pieces as cover to support her beachhead in warding off enemy arrows, and get the rest of her forces up to the third floor before pressing on.

Oh good, the guests have all arrived. Most of them boring fools, from the looks of things, but at least some of them should scream entertainingly.

Before the crusaders can close into melee combat with the cultists, she sheds her disguise. Despite her horns, tail, and lack of eyes, her beauty is by far the most notable characteristic about her. Tasteful gold jewelry and a red dress accentuate her appearance and cover everything except her cloven hooves, and her hair seems to almost sparkle in the late morning light that filters in through the hole in the roof.

"While I admire the... enthusiasm of your efforts, I can't say the same thing for all the delays and regrouping. Where's your crusader's spirit? Don't you know it's rude to keep a lady waiting?"

Her lips form into a vicious grin as she licks her lips, and despite the natural melodiousness of her voice the effect is rather marred by the disdain in her delivery.