A Second-to-Worst-Case Scenario
Defeating the naga, we find our way to an exit from the twisty passages. Fortunately, this exit leads to a room that contains the kidnapped woman we've been looking for. Not quite so fortunately, she is unconscious and in a cage that also contains a huge demonic-looking monster with a monstrous weapon. The cage has a spell like a Wall of Force cast around it, so that the puny metal bars aren't just ripped to shreds by the monster and it escapes. There is also a handy lever near the cage, which looks suspiciously like it should open the cage in some way.
The first thing we do is to restrain Metrius so that he doesn't pull the lever before we're ready. Then we wonder what we're going to do. We need to get the woman from out of the cage, but there is the obvious difficulty of not wanting its other occupant to be anywhere near us. 'We could close the doors to the room', our priest, Scintilla, suggests. It's a good idea and may stop the monster from escaping out of the room until it finds the handle, and overlooks the fact that we'd still be in the room with it. But the brainstorming process always produces some less-optimal results as well as the better ones.
'We should pull the lever', says Metrius. 'What's the worst that could happen?'
'The monster is released, it attacks us, and we all die.'
'Okay, what's the second-worst thing that could happen?'
'Um, it attacks us and three of us die.'
'Who lives?'
'Wendel.'
'I think that's the worst thing that could happen, actually.'