Strange that you cannot pause before they kill you.
What are you doing just rushing into that location then getting hammered by all 4 of them?
Are you using pauze button in the right top corner? The one you need to click with your mouse? If so try the spacebar (if you have the default setting).
First time I got in there I abused the game engine:
<span class='standouttext'>Spoiler : </span><span class='spoiler'>
The moment the dialogue ends, do a quick save then do a quick load. This will result in the baddies in the area forgetting that you are around(unless they can seeyou or hear you fight).
Then you can sneak up to them and either lure them to the safer area near the entrance or backstab them a bit.
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For a non abusive approach I did the following:
Equipped one char with all the stamina boosting equipment I had.
Rushed that one into the middle getting the attention of all 4 deathknights.
The other char picked one with a bow out to whack. Meanwhile the other char was doing the headless chicken dance (run around like crazy). After taking out the first archer, take out the second while the other char keeps running around with 2 knights on his tail. Kill archer, kill next knight and the finally use both chars to kill of the last knight.
Note that this requires extensive use of the pauze option in the game.
Haven't tried the last approach so I can't say if it works.
You are standing next to an exit, use it any time the situation gets hairy to get mana/hp (and sleep if needed).
