The cultists are having...less luck. 

For one thing, none of them have any idea what the fuck is going on; for another, the only evidence available is not that the creature isn't going to hurt them. They rally, but more slowly than the crusaders, and, well, Nirvana bamboozle the judges, none of them get away. 

Okay. 

Well. 

Nobody is actively fighting anyone else right now. 

Lusilla takes on human form, the better to introduce herself with. 

"Hi, Anevia! Hi, Camellia! Are you guys okay?"

"Well, I won't lie, I've been better. But I really appreciate you getting back to the surface promptly. How're the kids?" 

"We found them and got them back to their families. Now, this may shock you, but it turns out the Shield Maze was infested with Baphomet cultists." 

Snort. "I guess maybe I shoulda paid more attention to Hulrun when he said there were nests of cultists under the city." 

Hulrun, Hulrun, why does that name sound familiar... the guard who took the weapons off her stretcher? She hadn't known he had opinions on cult activity. Well, whatever. 

"We dealt with the worst, by which I mean strongest, ones, but it didn't seem worth it to hunt them all down. I think the Neathers are going to do some work on that but we didn't discuss those plans in detail so you probably shouldn't assume there aren't any cultists underground quite yet." 

Nod. 

"Thank you for helping Anevia. My name is Irabeth Tirabade, commander of the Eagle Watch." 

Wasn't Anevia's name also Tirabade? Are they...cousins, or something?* Whatever, not the point. 

"I was glad to be able to help. It, uh, looks like you guys could use some more help right now, probably?"

*Yeah, cousins, like Amara and Michelle are cousins. 

"We certainly won't turn it down." 

"So, uh, what...is happening, here? I assume it's not just, like, killing demons and associated cultists so that there will be fewer demons around."

"This is the Grey Garrison. Ordinarily, it's a bastion held by the Eagle Watch. Now, though," sigh, "the cultists have overrun it and are using our own fortifications against us. Which would be annoying enough on its own, but when Deskari picked up and threw the Wardstone," which SHOULDNT BE POSSIBLE "it landed here, in the upper floors. If we can restore it to its normal function, we can retake the city." 

Ooh, a plan to actually solve the problem, not just chip away at the demon population. 

"Okay! I can fly, and bop around, but I can't take anyone while I bop around. And I can do some other stuff that doesn't matter as much right now. And I'm a weird kinda sorceress that can do Cures, but a pretty weak one, and I've used up most of my spells."

"Bop around?" 

"Some kind of teleportation." 

Lusilla shrugs. "I didn't learn the formal words for most of this stuff." 

Nod. "Even if you can't take passengers, the ability to bypass the cultists' defenses is likely to be quite useful."

The present area having been cleared of cultists, the crusaders assume formation and make their way up the stairs, where two different groups of cultist are waiting at different angles of hallway. 

"--Hey, I know you!" one of Irabeth's recruits says of one of the cultists. 

"How's it going, pal?" asks the cultist. "Want to join? Your lot will be dead soon, but we'll be alive!" 

"--Uh--"

"Come on, leave these losers! The crusades are over, soon the demons will rule the whole world!" 

The recruit looks nervously over his shoulder at his several comrades who would get attacks of opportunity if he decided to defect and run over to the cultists. "Uh, no thanks. Hail Iomedae!" 

"Your loss. I won't enjoy killing you, but..."

Yeah, well, better to die in several rounds than Right Now. 

Speaking of which, time to enter combat!

The cultists are unpleasantly surprised when the pale seemingly-human girl decides to Suddenly, Starfish. Lusilla has been getting this reaction a lot and seems to be having some form of feelings about it. Probably eventually enough cultists will successfully flee encounters with her and tell all their friends that people will start expecting it. She's not sure how she feels about that either. 

Lusilla's ability to casually bypass the cultists' defenses is, in fact, useful; being able to appear behind them where they weren't expecting to have to defend from means only having to hit their flat-footed AC instead of their full AC sometimes. And it draws fire away from her friends and allies who have neither damage resistance nor fast healing. 

When all of the cultists--and the few dretches backinng them up--have fallen, Irabeth leads everyone along the balconies that compose most of this room, surrounding a great statue of...Iomedae? Iomedae seems like someone there would be a statue of in a place like this--and up the next flight of stairs. 

What greets them at the next landing is a lot more worrying than a few dretches. 

"What's this? Do we have guests?" the demoness asks lightly, her voice syrupy-sweet as though with poisoned honey, her slickly painted lips widening into a grin that shows just a little more tooth than the welcoming smile she's parodying. "I'm so terribly sorry for the mess...why, I haven't even poured the blood into the goblets yet! Why I--Oh!" 

Lusilla is one of the last up the stairs. She could have been sooner, but there was some structural instability, and she wanted to make sure nobody else got hit by falling pieces of architecture. 

She can hear the monologuing before she comes into view--monologuing that, for some reason, Irabeth hasn't interrupted with her sword yet. 

So she assumes human form as she crests the top of the stairs, the better to maintain the element of surprise with. 

"What a delightful surprise! Staunton, my little sweetheart, it's been so long! I've missed you so much... have you missed me? Admit it--you missed me terribly!" 

Hm, hm, hm. What have we here. Not any kind of demon she's ever heard of, and she's heard of every kind that ought to have come through the Worldwound, but that doesn't mean it means the Eagle Watch any good. Should she pretend not to notice it, in order to fuck with the paladins? Or should she point it out, as a "favor" to Staunton and in order to fuck with it. Decisions, decisions. 

"Minago. You again, you wench."