Lann also doesn't want to leave the extremely Good and generous strangers to risk their lives for his tribe while he goes and hides.

He can be persuaded to do it, on tactical grounds, but he doesn't like it.

"I'm a better second on tactical grounds because I expect to be able to outfly them," Lucette points out to Seelah. Plus a chain shirt is less antisneaky than Seelah's full plate, but that might be better left unsaid. 

Yyyeah, Seelah understands "fight or flight" but is constitutionally incapable of the latter. 

"I'm sorry I can't go with you."

"So am I. I wish -"

It makes sense that they're doing it; it's for their own benefit (or everyone's) and not just his tribe's kids. If only the kids were at stake, Lann would be the right choice to scout ahead, with Wenduag as his second. It all falls together neatly, there is nothing wrong, so why does he still feel bad about this?

"Thank you," he settles on.

But first they're going to ask the librarian about the four colored stones and the secret room!

"Oh yeah, I set those up for them. You have to press them in the right order to open the door, or you get jolted. And the reverse order to close it again. The cultists are idiots who can't remember a four-press sequence to save their lives, or even write down the secret in a secret location, so they hung up those paintings outside in the right order to remind themselves. Which makes the whole thing entirely pointless, as I've tried and tried to explain to them but - Baphometans!" He says it like it's a curse.

"Make him do the pressing in case he's lying," Camellia suggests.

"I mean, it makes the paintings make sense. And it's not like a jolt is that big a deal. But seriously, why else those paintings, they aren't, like, good." 

"Maybe your jolts aren't a big deal, but I assure you my traps leave people satisfied!" he says, indignant.

...She raises an eyebrow. "Satisfied isn't the word I would use for a bigger jolt." 

"Hosilla asked me for it! And she's hard to please but she never complained about that."

Snicker.

"If you're prepared to trust a Baphomet cultist's taste, I can't help you." 

"You're more than welcome to try it yourself!"

She wrinkles her nose. "Pass. I think Camellia is right and you should play with your own toy."

"I can open the door for you. If you want to be jolted, do it yourself. I told Hosilla and I'm telling you now, I'm not going to make super-jolts if I have to jolt myself to test them."

"...what about the books you wanted?" The aforementioned books are laid out neatly on one of the tables.

"I don't want to be jolted. Anevia has a bag of holding." 

Anevia puts the books in her bag, and the party sets off again, with a slightly grumpy librarian in tow.

Once he sees the battlefield strewn with corpses the party left behind them, he nods approvingly. "It's going to be much quieter around here - quite worth cooking my own meals again. I do hope someone cleans up all this before it rots, we have one stinking room too many already!"

Speaking of which: he walks up to the colored panels and presses them quickly: yellow, blue, red, yellow.

The poorly-hidden stone door slides down into the floor, leaving a clean opening. "All in working order," he says, somewhat pointedly.

The room behind the door contains several chests and Baphometan banners and, on a little horned altar, a sword surrounded by six clean skulls.

"That's Radiance! I'd recognize that hilt anywhere, look -" Seelah moves forward excitedly and Anevia has to half-lunge to stop her with a hand on her shoulder.

"First we check for traps." She inspects the scene carefully, as well as the floor leading up to it. "Nothing obvious, at least... Detect magic again, please?"

She detects. 

"Well, it's magic," she says after a moment. "...The aura matches what I'd expect, for Radiance," she adds after a couple of rounds.

"Mm. Mr Librarian, care to pick it off the altar for us?"

He picks it up and passes it over. "No-one here does traps worth a damn other than me," he says dismissively.

"I mean, is it surprising that the lone Nethysian is more competent than all the Baphomet cultists put together?"