"What the hell!" He's going to shoot them out of instinct but, uh, maybe they should at least knock them out for questioning or something?

She kills the one who rush her, but will try to knock the others ones out, hitting with her hand and not the sword.

Hitting people bare-handed doesn't normally kill them, but hands aren't normally made out of solid gold.

One of them ends up stable, but will need healing if he's to wake up reasonably quickly.

Current version of his healing spell is very exhausting, perhaps they can wake him up if any of them also need healing?

"We shouldn't spend healing we might need ourselves."

"I think I knew that one" - he points to one of the dead bodies. "Hovlan, a hunter from another tribe. We used to meet sometimes, out in the tunnels, but he stopped showing a while ago."

"He used to say he wanted to try the Maze... I thought he was just joking."

"Their bodies are reddened, all over. Maybe they found a disease in the Maze that drove them mad." Wenduag draws back, as if afraid of being infected.

"I hate to say it, but I don't think we should use up our very limited healing on someone who didn't look like he could hold up a conversation, right before we walk into another fight."

On they go.

The next room is a dormitory. Or perhaps it is a barracks, because everyone here is armed and attacks them on sight.

There are almost twenty men with glaives and crossbows, apparently including some clerics who cast bane and bless and other first-circle spells (and who also have glaives).

Luckily, about half of them are unarmored and taken by surprise; perhaps they were in fact trying to sleep.

If they hold the door they can fight them one or two at a time, but their archers won't help much. If they push in, they'll be surrounded in a tight space. If they fall back, they'll be surrounded in a much larger space, or the cultists might bar the door against them while they get reinforcements.

Seelah will follow Malenia's lead, because they totally forgot to agree ahead of time on who leads the party, and Malenia is clearly stronger than she is which is a good proxy for being more experienced as well.

They don't care about the furniture here, right? Because she's going to go in, spinning her sword around at impossibly high speed.

She can shred both cultists and furniture! Unfortunately Seelah can't help her very effectively while she turns the whole room into a blender, because that looks, uh, not necessarily very discriminating? She and the others can at least take care of any cultist who run in their direciton.

The remaining cultists try to run away through another door. While screaming at the top of their lungs for help.

Yeah, she isn't entirely used to fighting with a party at her side.

At least one of those running away can get a thrust from her sword, the rest will probably get away.

Shooting them in the back is hard, because Malenia's in the way and they're out the other door.

"Do we pursue?"

"We're not here to kill everyone, we need to find the kids. Wenduag, which way?"

They're back in the long hall, past the obstruction. There are two more doors here. Wenduag thinks the one they should go through isn't the one the cultists ran to.

There's also a large basin full of fresh-seeming blood.

"If they get reinforcements they could attack us from behind while we're fighting someone else," Anevia warns.

"We should check where they ran off to, see if they are regrouping."

Then they'll go after them! This door has stairs that lead down again, while they've been consistently going up, towards the city.

"I don't know what's down there," Wenduag cautions.

At the bottom of the flight there are two doors again, but the cultists left the one they used open. They're huddled in a small room, arguing with the presumed-reinforcements.

Unfortunately being terrified of Malenia means they're constantly glancing back, so the two groups see each other at about the same time.

"Rally, or I'll feed your guts to the dretches!" bellows one of those who hadn't faced her before.

Thrust, slash, slash?

One of the newcomers is a cleric of Baphomet who can bless and bane and channel and swish his glaive! ...not at the same time, though.

Thrust, slash, slash works quite well, especially since the cultists are still stuck coming at the party through a narrow door and right into Malenia's range.

Unfortunately, the noise attracts the people behind the other door, who want to pacify the scene with extreme prejudice!

They have red skin and black horns and scimitars, and they run right into the party's squishy archers.

"Demons!" Seelah shouts as she tries to interpose herself, but the corridor is too wide for her to hold back all three of them at once.