"That really doesn't explain why it's here!"

"Cultists are stupid," Camellia says patiently. "They probably called it up and then found out they couldn't control it."

"I'm not sure there isn't another door at the far end of that room," Anevia cautions, "it was too dark to see clearly..."

"And throwing a Lighted pebble would be a bad plan. I'm not sure I want to inflict the cultists on them again, it's probably not a Baphomet cultist itself..."

"Yeah. We can just leave and hope we didn't miss anything."

"We can come back later if we found out we missed something important."

How would they find out they missed something if they don't... check?? Never mind, Seelah is probably missing something obvious again.

"Let's go, then."

The party leaves the half-flooded basement and returns to the previous, quite large room. It contains two still-unopened doors, but only one of them can lead to the far end of the hall that was blocked by rubble, unless there are more stairs.

Or they can go all the way back to the long hall, and Lucette can fly them over the rubble, taking the shortest way towards what Wenduag thinks (but can't guarantee) is the exit to the city above.

Door that can't lead to the far end of the hall, they're looking for the kids and also people who might come at them from behind later. 

This door leads to a cozy little library full of bookshelves. There might be hundreds of books in here!

There's also a man reclining in a comfy reading chair, an open book draped over his face, snoring gently. A glaive leans against the bookshelf by his side. It's a very cozy scene, despite the ominous blood-red pentagram marking the book's cover.

...Lucette leans back out of the room. 

"Anevia can you steal the glaive without waking him," she whispers. 

"Worst case he'll still have to fight me for it. Do you want to restrain him or knock him out or kill him?" Which is to say, should Lann and Wenduag start shooting him the moment he moves or Anevia takes away his glaive?

Anevia doesn't enjoy killing people, and he's arguably defenceless (or will be once she steals his weapon) but she's long since made her peace with killing obvious cultists and is more wondering whether they want to interrogate him. Some people think - or feel, even if they don't endorse - that interrogation is worse than 'clean' killing, and she isn't sure about Lucette in that regard, or the others for that matter.

"Restrain or knock out would be best, he might be better-informed than average for one of these goons."

Anevia agrees! It makes this trickier since they can't shoot him, but they have a five-to-one advantage and total surprise, there's no real way for this to fail unless he's secretly very powerful or rigged to explode.

"I'll get his glaive. Everyone else be ready with melee weapons." She moves stealthily to pick up his glaive and, without disturbing anything else, carries it out of the room.

Then she tiptoes back in, slides behind his chair, and puts a knife to his throat. Does one of the others want to try creeping in and holding his arms or something?

Seelah tries to signal with the least possible amount of gestures that she's great at holding people's arms but not so great at creeping! She hopes shaking her head in her helmet didn't get just give them away!

Lann looks uncertainly at Lucette.

Lucette has some rope, it isn't necessarily the case that anybody needs to hold him with their bare hands?

Lann can't tie him up without waking him up! He tries to communicate this very very quietly.

Okay fair. Lann can hold him, then. 

Lucette is very Splendid, and also visually impressive. 

She steps in front of the man, levels her sword directly in his face, and then, once everyone else is in place, spreads her wings with a very deliberately audible snap. 

Snore snore snoaaaah what was that?!

His first instinct is to grab for his glaive, and when that fails his second instinct is to lunge forward. Luckily, Lann can restrain him enough that he only ends up half out of his chair and not impaled in Lucette's sword or Anevia's dagger.

...he can at least grab the book before it falls to the ground! 

"Mongrels? Didn't anyone teach you to knock?! Hosilla will have your hides for this!"

This is suddenly becoming a potential problem! She doesn't recall his face but she can't be sure he never saw her.

Wenduag takes up her accustomed place in the rearguard of the party, watching out for danger and ready to fade into the shadows.

"If you think I'm a Neather, you haven't spent enough time in the city above," Lucette says pleasantly. 

Well obviously not! He's been down here, reading!

"...whatever you are, what do you want that you couldn't get by asking politely?"

She gives him a flat look. 

"I'm Terendelev's daughter," she says coldly, "and I want you to spill on your cultist friends." 

"Ah, a fellow quester on the road to knowledge!" He settles back in the chair. "What do you want to know? I've learned a great deal from the cult, so it's only fair that I repay the favor forward!"