"You really would be surprised how much easier a fight is with six people than two," Lann says brightly. "Especially when some of them have magic! Have you heard about magic, Wen? It's so handy! Sometimes it can heal people! When they're hurt! Instead of them hiding in a passage for –"

Wenduag slaps a hand over his face. "Lann, you scaly whoreson mongrel piece of shit – "

lick

"Augh!"

She tries very hard to glare at him instead of giggling like a little girl, and mostly succeeds.

"This is very cute but if we stand here instead of advancing towards the surface for even one more second I'm going to start throwing rocks at you both."

Miko agrees.

"I don't have any spells that would be particularly effective against elementals. I have eight Cure spells prepared, though I'd rather use them on you than the undead. I should have an advantage at the illusions, at least."

She wonders if the demons are going to assume she's aligned with them.

"Elementals are within my remit," Camellia says with a faint smile.

"I can deal with traps."

"And I'm a paladin," Seelah says. "So there's division of responsibilities for you."

Yay, party composition and balance!

"There it is."

Onwards?

Yep! Seelah is totally unconscious of the mild existential crisis she has caused!

The first part of the Shieldmaze is... less of a maze than the name might imply? More a churchy antechamber. The walls bear an unholy symbol scrawled in still-wet blood, a long T-shape with curling horns.

Seelah shakes her head. "Baphomet. Lord of Treachery. Not great."

Camellia swipes a finger along the bloodscrawl, taking a sample and sniffing it; then she looks down at the largely undisturbed dust on the floor.

"What an utter waste of magic," she marvels. "If you've invested in a blood-preservation spell, at least use it for something better than interior decoration!"

Miko tries to think of a use for blood-preservation magic that would qualify as "better" and comes up with nothing.

"That makes me think that either the people who painted that sigil were vain to the point of stupidity, or there's some practical reason for keeping the blood fresh."

Also, she's never heard of this Lord of Treachery. But she hadn't heard of Deskari before, either. This area has some very localized problems!

"The former is not in doubt. Followers of Baphomet are notorious idiots. The latter is merely plausible."

"Huh. Well, does this change our objective in any way? Does it seem likely that there are cultists in the maze right now, or that it's been sabotaged?"

Miko doesn't want to have to arrest cultists! The last time she had to arrest people it went horribly!

"I did see surfacers with that symbol on their clothes," Wenduag says. "Last time. But they were nowhere near the entrance."

Anevia cannot clarify that cultists are murdered rather than arrested in the vicinity of the Worldwound, because Miko did not ask this aloud.

That sounds. Bad.

"We'll keep a look out, then."

And Send to Sull about it once they're out.

"Let's press forward. We're not currently equipped to sweep this entire maze for evildoers."

"Sure aren't. Get through first, send a squad when we're done."

In the next room, there are:

Cultists!

One of them has a longbow. One has a glaive, glowing with arcane power. One has ornate robes and no weapon at all, and is accordingly standing waaaaaaaaay back at the back. One, conversely, has simple robes and no weapon and is launching himself at Miko in a flying axe-kick.

Does this guy think that he can out-monk Miko? She pushes him at the top of his arc, redirecting him towards a wall.

Crash! Right through the stone. This is now an ex-wall, which has gone to meet its mason. Also, now he's at the back of their formation, in the other room, where Camellia is. Swearing fluently, she unclasps the silver serpent amulet from her neck and tosses it on the ground, transforming it into a Medium snake, which flanks the monk against the ghostly battleaxe she produces from nowhere in particular.

Seelah joins the scrum as well, with the sword she already had. It's certainly not less effective.

And Wenduag charges past Miko, turning into something very dark and very sharp, darting past cultists until she reaches the magic-user, whose day abruptly gets much worse.

As the others take their turns, Miko glances between the glaive guy and the longbow guy.

Is it possible for her to get to a spot where she can attack both of them in one turn?