I'm mainly asking this with regard to closing attempts after defeating a henchman, but there may be other situations when this is relevant as well.
Say I encounter a henchman on my first exploration of a turn. I defeat said henchman and am granted the opportunity to immediately attempt to close my location. Does that closing attempt count as part of the exploration? Can I use a blessing of Baphomet to add 2 dice to my closing check? If I need to defeat a Cultist of Baphomet, does she still deal 1 combat damage to me?
Similarly, if I'm playing as CD Alahazra and I defeat a henchman by invoking the fire trait, can I move after attempting to close the location?
I hadn't really thought about it before, but I can see an argument that the word "immediately" would suggest that the closing attempt is considered part of resolving the encounter and thus is still part of the same exploration.