I did eventually make it out, after about 2 hours of save scumming. To describe the experience in a way thats easy to understand:
1. teammates SUCK so much.. i couldnt have them help me fight, since they would bodyblock me. And im pretty squishy, being around level 13 at the time.
As well as the fact that they often wont help you fight unless they look directly at the enemy. also, Cecily just wasnt tanky enough to go through that fight.
i was able to set off the bomb, but the best i could do was damaging around 3 enemies, maybe killing one of them.
And, even though Cecily is more than happy to ignore me being torn to shreds to her left, neither her nor Grey Rat are okay with just following me as i walk past the one group of enemies. So scratch any sort of escape, or a direct fight..
I actually did naturally come to the conclusion you suggested. I decided to set a row of traps, then bait an enemy to walk over them and follow me into Cecily's cell, where all three of us would wail on him. If i could get everyone to aggro.
2. Resources were harsh here.. i didnt have a ton of food, and with unreliable teammates i couldnt avoid taking damage. That was the reason for most of my resets. Since i couldnt just leave, Whether Cecily and Grey Wolf had died or not, i had no choice but to save them both. And i realllyyy didnt wanna start from my last save..
It took me about 8 tries to manage to kill both Cecily and Grey Wolf, then make it to the door. I was super disappointed when i realised it still wouldnt let me go.
It took me another 2 hours to manage to trap and kill every enemy blocking the door, while ensuring the survival of my companions. I got SA'd right next to Cecily and Grey Wolf more times than i can count. Wouldnt be so bad if i could skip the cutscene.. had to hope i coild open my save menu before the animation started, or i would waste about a million years waiting to restart.
Overall, i definitely think there should be a level requirement for this quest to appear. Especially when it was advertised as a stealth quest, just for the completion requirement to be group combat.
It took me a while after this to realise i never wated allies again though. Travelling with Elise to capture the fishman baby was hell.. he couldnt fight up close, and could hardly see more than a few tiles ahead of him.
And if i didnt take aggro, Elise was dead for sure. They couldnt defend themselves otherwise. But that wasnt the frustrating part.. the amount of times Elise killed me with his explosive spell...
So i set traps and baited the enemies into them again. It worked after a few tries. The main issue with allies is the teamkilling. There were several times where Grey Rat, Cecily, Whipman, or Elise would kill me because i accidentally hit them right after the combat encounter ended.
Between being murdered by my allies, body blocked by my allies, their lack of adaptability to stealth, and their poor targetting.. needless to say, ill be adventuring solo from now on
Honestly i was disappointed with the combat system. The dev spoke about it being better than turn-based, but i think it falls flat a bit. Its difficult to hit people, because their hitbox is bound to the square theyre moving to, rather than where they are visually. Its difficult to attack someone who's moving unless youre using a polearm, and even then if they move diagonal from you its tough as well.
Also the fact that combat ia pretty much entirely dependant on your stamina rather than health. I dont think ive ever died from running out of health, but rather just from stamina damage. And with how relentlessly enemies chase you, it doesnt feel possible to back up and rest mid-combat most of the time. I still snjoy playing but i avoid combat. And if i have to fight, ill just use the trap technique.