"I'm not sure how successful we would be bluffing our way in. These are also a motley bunch, certainly, but if anyone is suspicious enough to call us out we don't exactly have any scythes to brandish."

"We're just here to scout them out, right? Maybe we don't have to get inside; if we attack them and the people inside come out to chase us, we'll have some understanding of their strength anyway, and we can just flee before they reach us."

"I'd sooner not go with a plan that involves intentionally getting in a fight with a group we know outnumbers us. If we need to pretend to be cultists but lack the equipment, the obvious solution is to ambush some of them and take theirs. Any bloodstains will just add to the effect."

Luzai makes a face at Camellia's suggestion, but has to admit, "That's a pretty good point." 

"We wouldn't even necessarily have to kill them; I bet cultists mug each other all the time." 

"Is there some reason we'd want to leave them alive?"

"I'm squeamish about killing," Luzai sighs, "but not, you know, to the point where I let it get in the way, if I can help it, which I generally can. I'm not actually an idiot, under the circumstances every cultist standing with the demons is nearly as much of a threat to the city as the demons themselves." 

If they want to go after cultists to disguise themselves, there are two main options. In the first case, they could pick one of the ancillary groups, who would likely be the easiest to get the drop on without getting an alert, or they could go after one of the relatively better equipped groups and hopefully come out with holy symbols and other paraphernalia to really sell the act. The former would be a simpler task, while the latter might help better stand up to any scrutiny they come under in the the course of infiltrating.

Villibor would like to vote for the latter option on the grounds that “better equipped” might include spellbooks.

Seelah is also in favor of a better prepared group, since they're probably more of a danger to the people in the city.

Okay. Where are some reasonably well-equipped groups not in immediate view of other groups, and do any of them look especially wizardy.

The only group that visibly has a wizard - so identified by his familiar - is very much in sight of their fellows. There's one group over there that has someone who seems to be unarmed, and another that has someone with a crossbow and potions? If a wizard isn't advertising their presence or using magic, there's not that much to differentiate them from a crowd like this beyond having a hand free to cast.

Let's go with unarmed guy, crossbow and potions could easily be, you know, a guy who happens to have his crossbow drawn instead of his melee weapon, and doesn't happen to have his melee weapon visible. 

Then Seelah will once again take up the rear of their group. She hasn't gotten any happier about it, but until she figures out how to sneak in heavy armor she's just got to get used to the fact that she can't keep people safe on a stealth mission. 

The cultists in question are sitting around a fire, cooking their lunch. One of them is theoretically on lookout, but they're paying more attention to chatting with their fellows than their job, and most of them look like they'd take at least a few seconds to be ready to fight. Unfortunately, there's also not a lot of cover near them; if they want to get less than a block away, they'll have to trek right through the open, while limiting themself to ranged combat would make it a lot easier to to flee.

Is there a building they could maybe circle around to the back of and then sneak up on them through?

One of the houses does look to have a back door, but while it'd get them closer they'd have to break in.

Under the circumstances that seems fine as long as they don't take anything? And as long as breaking in means "Camellia picks a lock" and not that they have to bust down a door.

She can handle what passes for a lock in this part of the city, yes. It's not even particularly difficult.

The owners of the house seem unlikely to object to this entry, since it's presumably their corpses on the ground. As long as they stay lower than the windows, it's not particularly difficult to get to the busted-down front door without being spotted, and at only about twenty feet off that gets them close enough to overhear their conversation.

"I'm just saying, Faxxon's a real prick. I've had enough of that condescension from the paladins, I don't need it from some guy nobody's heard of who wants to tell us what to do."

"Why didn't you just say that to his face, then?"

"What, and pick a fight with a minotaur? I'm just saying that it was Lord Deskari who conquered the city, not their oh-so-important templars."

Luzai holds up her hand and starts folding down fingers to count down as a signal, then casts Grease. 

The cultist on watch takes a step as part of emphasizing his point, and immediately has to grab on to a nearby barrel not to fall. He calls out to his comrades in alarm, and turns to face the charging woman with his scythe.

Oops, she should have tried blinding him before he spotted them. Well, she can fix that now. A coruscating beam of light lances from her finger and slams into the would-be roadblock.

He's long since been inured to not being quick enough to do anything about problems he sees coming, so instead he'll just pick one of the people who seem to be having better luck standing to tag with a bolt.

Thock. Thock. Thock. Feathered shafts sprout from various cultists' body parts.