Anevia looks at him consideringly, but elects not to challenge this amended statement.

"Wenduag wants us to get an early start tomorrow morning," Seelah says. "Not to wait for the other tribes and their warriors. Go in, save the kids, clear a route if we can, report back if we can't. It sounds like a good plan to me."

Gord, Lann and Anevia would also rather be part of a small adventuring party than guards for a big, slow-moving host that would benefit from scouting ahead anyway.

Gord heads off to pay Dyra to wake him before dawn - his personal clock is messed up and she's probably the only one here who reliably knows when dawn is.

Then he sets up his collapsible tent, with its built-in alarm tripwires. (He's an adventurer with a bag; he doesn't need to take over someone's hut and his blanket is frankly better than what these people have to offer.) Sets his back against the cliff face, sword close to hand. And works on convincing himself that sleep is more important than fruitless worries and speculation.

Whether thanks to the highly customized tent or his own demonstrated prowess in disemboweling centipedes, Gord wakes up with the wires untripped and himself unmurdered.

He feels a lot better after praying for spells and taking a dip in the lake. Almost cheerful, in fact, and ready to take on the world once more.

First order of the day: fix Anevia's leg. Having a third archer is nice; having a rogue, as well as someone who can vouch for them to the Eagle's Watch if they make it that far, is invaluable.

Having slept on it, Camellia has reluctantly decided that delving filthy dungeons is no place for a well-mannered young lady. She will stay with the tribes for now (and Horgus Gwerm).

Good. They don't need a slaver in their party.

"Stop wasting time and go already. We have to make it to the city and back before the other tribes arrive and some idiot decides to try the Maze without us."

Wenduag takes them in a rickety boat (where do these people get the wood?) to the opposite side of the lake, and from there it's a short walk to a stone-and-mortal wall with a big door standing half-open.

"We don't have a way to track the kids, and this place is a maze. We need to find a safe path to the city, and then double back and look for survivors."

"I hate that you're right. Do you know how to get to the city?"

"I never made it all the way but I can take us a few floors up."

The first room is a kind of antechamber, with just one door in ohe opposite side. It's lavishly built, with a smooth stone floor with geometric patterns and a red-colored strip in the middle simulating a carpet. There are outright chandeliers hanging from the ceiling and one of them is lit, and so are the candle-holders stationed around the sides of the room. 

Completing the picture are clumps of lit candles placed on the floor around two sacrificial bowls that stand before hanging images of Baphomet, Lord of Goats and Minotaurs.

"This place is clearly not abandoned. There must be full-time Baphomet cultists keeping it clean and lit!" He looks accusingly at Wenduag.

She thinks quickly.

"So that's Baphomet? There are humans here sometimes but they're afraid of the worse things in the dark. Not all the Maze is well lit."

"The last time I went in was three months ago. This room has been cleaned since then." That's really obvious, so she might as well get credit for pointing it out.

"You should have told me it was like this! We could have taken all the candles in this room for the tribe!"

"That's why I didn't tell you! You would anger the Maze-dwellers and lead them to the tribe! You should be thankful nothing ever comes out of it, and only stupid children go in!"

"Quiet," Anevia orders. (Quietly.) "Whoever or what-ever lives here might be close. We need to move unnoticed if we can, whether to ambush or avoid them. Ideally we'd capture and interrogate a cultist."

She isn't really surprised by finding signs of a cult of Baphomet below the city; they're a dime a dozen in Kenabres, and calling the place a maze rather gave the game away. The big question is what this cult has been getting up to besides high-quality masonry.

Gord isn't very enthusiastic about attacking someone just because of their faith, and he has no misconceptions about what an interrogation of a demon cultist looks like, paladin in the party or no.

"We'll offer and honor surrender," he says firmly.

"Of course we will!"

Seelah is painfully conscious of being the main impediment to any sneaking-around this party might need to do.

Of course she'll only interrogate them after the cultists predictably refuse to surrender to a paladin! (She does not say this.)

These people might be very strong (at least Gord is) but they have weird surfacer ideas Wenduag doesn't really understand.

They're willing to fight people and kill them, but not to interrogate them after? It's in the captives' interests to cooperate to survive!

The next room is indeed much darker, and also much larger; a hall long enough they can't see the far wall. There are torches in wall-scones whose small pools of light only make the spaces in between seem black as night.

Seelah takes a torch. Gord casts light on a pebble; it's quicker and safer to put it away than to douse a torch quickly.

There are statues along the walls, but most of them lie broken. Walking forward reveals a bigger pile of rubble blocking the room.

"This must be from the earthquake. We have to take the longer way around it, through that side door."

Lann has been carefully looking away from any sources of light and into the darkest patches of shadow and so he is the first to spot, in the corner near the rubble -

"Someone's there!" he calls, drawing his bow.

Shit, they noticed him! And they have a paladin! Is this how he dies?!

He snaps off a crossbow bolt at Lann while his fellow starts casting magic missile.