"...why do you sound annoyed?"

"I appreciate knowing who to keep safe as a newborn lamb and who has a great fucking axe before combat."

"That does sound like tactically useful information. What happened? I didn't see what was going on behind me."

Camellia sighs. "I expended certain daily-use-limited resources to make myself capable of engaging in direct combat with the cultist who punched through the wall, until he could be taken down by the rest of the rearguard. I can do so for another... four minutes, in two-minute segments. I also deployed my familiar, Mireya, who can become combat-ready twice more today. So, if that happens twice more, I will need to be protected... if not like a newborn lamb, then like some other source of mutton."

Nod.

"I suppose we'll have a better picture of whether you'll need to do that once Wenduag gets back."

     "...this is dangerously close to questioning my orders."

"We are both servants to the same master, are we not? We should seek to serve him the best we can. Each of these fools is more valuable than a dozen of your men. All I ask is that you leave the boy to me."

     "You call him the boy, though you are even younger. It is a pathetic affectation. He must be brought into the fold, not coddled."

"I will bring him into the fold. But I will do it in my way."

     "...very well. But if this is a trick, you will die in the most exquisite agony."

A glint of teeth in the darkness. "Spare me your promises."

A darting shadow flits back into the room with the adventuring party.

"There didn't seem to be any more cultists," it reports, resolving back into Wenduag. "They might have received a message to evacuate, from those guards."

… Huh.

"I wonder why they all concentrated in this chamber, then."

"Better chance of one surviving long enough to get the Sending off?" Anevia guesses. "Or to delay us while the actual messenger got through the maze. Plenty of reasons to stack troops."

And they can move on. Anevia's in front, for traps, and in combat she'll zip back between Miko and Lann, who confirms that while he's best at range, he can still hold his own while harried. Seelah's in back behind Camellia, watching for any threats that might get close enough to make Camellia expend more resources. Wenduag has chosen to follow while hidden, so that if anyone tries to ambush them, she can counter-ambush.

The traps are thick on the ground. Occasionally there's one where the route through is obvious enough that Anevia doesn't have to disable it, just tell everybody to only step on red tiles that have a skull. Still, they make good time, because... nothing's attacking them...

Miko watches Anevia work. She can see more than she could before, but it's still not obvious to her what indicates a trap and what means nothing. It's interesting to watch.

"Who built this place?" she asks at one point. "Was it already here when the crusaders came down?"

"No. The entrance was uncovered... fifteen thousand gongs ago, maybe? By my father. It was mostly unworked stone, then. We don't know who's been excavating it – it's too dangerous to send proper scouts in, and... well, Wendu told me not to scout it out myself anymore."

"…Huh."

A glance in Camellia's direction.

"Is that the sort of thing where you'd be able to use that spell from yesterday to find out more? Not that this is pressing tactical information; I'd rather get to the surface than determine what's going on with…"

Gesture.

"Here."

"The stones would know," Camellia confirms. "Anything deliberately carved knows when and how. Not why, and the who often isn't very comprehensible beyond 'slaves' or 'magic' or 'fiends'. I agree that it isn't much of a priority; Mrs Tirabade seems to have the tasks the spell would trivialize well in hand."

Yeah, and who and why are the main questions on Miko's mind.

She doesn't have anything more to say, particularly, until the next interesting thing that happens. Which will hopefully be sunlight, or at least a stairwell labeled SURFACE EXIT, right?

Yeah, no.

Anevia gets halfway through her examination of a room they enter several minutes later, then stiffens –

– at the same time as Camellia.

The flagstones stand up. Some individually; others in packs. There's now a swarm of earth elementals of various sizes surrounding the party, with Anevia very effectively sandwiched.

Ugh.

Miko summons her mount now, so that he'll be ready if and when the combat starts.

Oh, it's starting.

There's about a dozen Large elementals in this room. There's maybe twice that many Medium elementals. It's difficult to count the Small ones. None are individually very threatening, but it's going to be an annoying fight, with no one to deal area damage and both ranged attackers surrounded.

Lann, being surrounded, unstrings his longbow and sets to jabbing elementals with the pointy bit at the top.

Anevia swears quietly, but produces a shortsword and sets to work.

Miko follows suit, choosing targets based mostly on which ones are closest.

And Ashrider stomps the elementals with his hooves.