A Bad Place in HZD

I got back to HZD over the weekend, picking up where I left off: getting ready to do stuff in the Ring of Metal (?).

Problem is, getting in. I mean, I guess it's been around long enough to speak freely...

You follow the...eh...whassisname into the Ring. He leaves you to arrange for the braves to gather near the explody hole, which Aloy has to create. So the only way INTO the ring is to slide down a ramp into hiding, because there's a friggin bellowback firething patrolling right there, and tons of cultists milling about.

So I got cute and sniped a few cultists and cleared the area, and thought I could take on the firebellowback in relative peace, but...nope. Everyone started running over.

So I ducked back under the ledge, and when the cultists came over I sniped them in the head. Every. Single. One. Of. The. Cultists. Who. Came. Looking. For. Me.

Soon there was a pile of bodies on the ridge.

Of course, seeing a body puts NPCs on alarm. Add to that the fact that this arena keeps spawning enemies so no matter how many I kill, more show up. I can't kill all of them, and now I can't even get onto the ridge to get into the Ring because NPCs are stuck patrolling my only entrance.

Now I'm screwed. I hope I have a save game from before this debacle. I can't even rely on dying to clear it, because the bodies are just...lying there in a heap.

MAYBE if I loot them, they vanish over time?