Anevia taps Lucette on the shoulder and gestures her back a bit so she can whisper in her ear without Hosilla overhearing.

"We might learn something from the prisoner to inform this decision. Maybe about the ritual. What's the vrolikai's interest in the neathers? But don't discuss this in front of her yet."

Lucette nods subtly. 

"Anyway. It definitely and truthfully is the case that we surface crusaders could really use some backup from the underground crusaders right now."

"Yeah! Usually I'm not sure when it's right to encourage people to put themselves in danger, or endanger their families by leaving to crusade. But Kenabres is at risk of being overrun by demons, and they and the cultists already know about the Neath, so it might not stay safe down here."

"I know we need to help the crusade for our own sake, not just for others'. I don't care if the payoff is tomorrow or in a decade, eventually the demons would have come for us. And I'm here today so I want to fight today." Left unstated is that he probably won't be here in a decade. "It's not my choice to make for everyone, but I'll try to convince them it's the right one."

Hosilla can't really figure out why he doesn't consider "run up to the surface, and then keep running", but far be it from her to discourage fools from fighting demons. She's a Baphometan, not an idiot Deskarite; let them self destruct while she sits safely out of sight. 

...admittedly she's not in that position right now, but a girl's gotta dream!

"Let's get everyone topside this time, because I'm not coming back down here tomorrow when a vrolikai could teleport in at any moment."

Camellia would much rather go up into the city without shepherding a bunch of mongrels, but she wants her adventuring companions with her when she ventures out into the fighting. (And Horgus Gwerm.) 

Lucette nods. 

Alright, the next step is to go talk to the other Neathers, probably. Maybe incidentally find out what happened to Wenduag. 

The Neathers are still milling about the entrance to the Maze!

One of the three tied-up unconscious neathers has woken up, but she's... uncooperative. And weird. And frightening, in the 'what happened to her?!' sense. 

(Wenduag is not immediately visible.)

"Fuck you peck you to death you die," mumbles the (barely alive) owl-woman covered in purple feathers.

Someone in the crowd tentatively identifies her as Krilla, a fletcher from a neighboring tribe.

Well. They have, uh, some information, on what happened to her. There was a fucked-up vrolikai ritual. 

On the brighter side, they totally did successfully rescue these kids! Before they got fucked-up vrolikai ritualed!

The kids are tearfully embraced, and their parents and relatives thank the party profusely. (The close relatives of three unrelated kids make up most of the tribe; this is a small community.)

News of the ritual is more of a muted tragedy, since none of their own tribe were affected. They really hope these people can be cured, but fundamentally they're waiting to pass them off to their own tribes to take care of. The off-screen victory does serve to stir people up against the demons and eager to go crusading.

If they defeated dozens of cultists and a vrolikai and rescued its prisoners - with two of the tribe in the party - then how hard can it really be, right?

Yeaaaah, about that...

Lann has to tell Chief Sull they have bring up all the mongrel tribes to the city in the next bell, two bells at most, and any tribes who don't come have to hide in the remotest corners of the tunnels. Because a couple of bells from now, the Maze, and probably the part of the Neath closest to it, are going to get... doomy.

He'd rather convince Sull in private first, but he can't exactly whisper in the middle of a crowd and everyone's expecting them to tell them what happened, so. 

...but they - Lann and the rest of the party - well, some of the rest of the party - are definitely going up to secure somewhere safe for the tribes' civilians to stay in the city, so everyone else isn't tied up guarding them and can actually fight the demons! They can go ahead of the tribe, as long as they're very sure the tribe (and all the other tribes, most of which aren't here yet) will follow them promptly without Lann having to personally hurry them along.

"We have deshided to go; there ish no reashon to wait. And the Light promished to protect us."

"But I cannot shpeak for the other tribesh. If they shee the Light of Heaven and hear itsh promishe, they are more likely to come quickly. If they come when you are above, shecuring our refuge -" he spreads his hands - "I will do what I can."

After some hurried organization, most of the tribe goes back to their village to pack everything they can carry; they can still be back before everyone else has assembled. The few people who had trickled in from the nearer neighbouring tribes go back to warn their people to hurry, and Chief Sull sends another runner to the two tribes farthest away, warning them to come quickly or not at all; the runner's parents are from one of those tribes, so he can stay with them if they can't make it in time. 

Wenduag drifts in, out on the periphery of the gathering, takes one look at the bound Hosilla, and promptly disappears again. No-one questions her in the general rush.

"Chief Sull and Lann both have valid points. If the area of the city where we come out is secure, it won't take too long to come back here to show the Light of Heaven to the other tribes, but that's the best case. Also, we still need to question Hosilla; she might even know something time-sensitive to the fighting up above, but without truth spells there's a limit to what we can do quickly. Miss Wex, what do you think? You are the bearer of the Light, so it's mostly your call."

"If we're sure this place is safe until tomorrow, we could rest before going to fight in the city," Camellia offers.

“I don’t think we can be sure this place will be safe until tomorrow. Separate groups could question Hosilla and scout the surface?”

"We certainly don't need everyone to question Hosilla. And you're right, we should hurry as much as we can, and not take up all of today. If we're splitting up, it probably makes the most sense for me to question Hosilla, and you to lead a scouting party, since you can fly." And since Anevia is experienced in questioning people, including being evil hurting them if she has to, although there's only so much she can do without a truth spell.

Lusilla nods. Okay, who wants to volunteer for the scouting party?

"Ugh. I really want to help and not sit here uselessly but I'm not sure you want me for scouting." 

Lann volunteers! Obviously!

He saw Wenduag out of the corner of his eye and would really like to ask her what's up, but she's vanished again and presumably has her reasons, he doesn't exactly have the time to track her down. At least he knows nothing bad happened to her.

Camellia doesn't really see the point of scouting where she doesn't get to stab people, when there are others who'll do it for her while she rests.

On the one hand, she'd enjoy stabbing Hosilla some more, and maybe Anevia will welcome her help?

On the other hand, stabbing opportunities are likely to arise even on a scouting mission, for a smart girl who's on the lookout for opportunities. If she's very, very lucky, she can stab so many people that when she does rest, she'll wake up second circle!

"Do you want me along? I'm out of spells and I've never practised sneaking."

"Well, I'm not amazing at the version of sneaking that involves pretending not to be there* instead of pretending you're supposed to be there,** so it's probably fine."

*Stealth checks

**Bluff checks

This startles a laugh out of Camellia. "Terendelev's daughter and a half-dragon, pretending to belong among cultists and demons? Now this, I have to see."