Whispers in the Woods

"Yes Moryana, can you control these gray skinned men?" Anton looked questioningly, nearly accusatorily, to the young woman

Seeing the men, Miyana merely glares at Moryana through narrowed eyes, keeping her bow trained on the closest of the men.

"They’ll only listen to Magda" Moryana voice strained from holding the fox in her arms, her face pale with exhaustion. "I... I don’t think they want us to leave." As she spoke, the gray-skinned men moved closer, forming a half-circle around the front door. They don't attack just yet, but they stand so tightly together it would be impossible to squeeze through.

Nope.
Will quickly estimates 24 grey-skinners. Emerald eyes glance at his four friends, and he adds, Unless we each want five of them, I think we need to return into the Tree, and find a way to break the spell keeping them guarding sentry.
Our fightery fellow looks at Moryana and says plainly, I think we'll have to deal with mother and grandmother.

Boudica nods. She turns to Moryana and says, "Where can you and Stefan hide that is at least someone safe, or out of the way? We need to ascend and deal with them. OH! And do you think that potion that can burn through the hedges could burn through their webs?"

"I just want to get out of here" Stefan, looking more dejected then before, lowered his head with defeat. He slowly stepped backward into the house, until they figured out what to do

"They're not particularly bright" Moryana murmured. The men continued to stare at her blankly. None seemed offended, or even aware, that she was talking about them "- They follow orders to the letter."

The fox in her arms was growing heavier by the second, and it looked like it was running out of patience of being carried by someone. With a reluctant sigh, she crouched and carefully set the wounded creature down.

"The potion will burn through anything, yes" she replied to Boudica. She had no idea what kind of 'web' she meant, but if the ichor could eat through stone and steel, it would likely handle a web just as easily.

"If we defeat the two hags, what will happen to the gray men, I wonder? Well, in any event, we have decided. Back upstairs with the potion to dissolve the webs and to pursue them up the stairs. Moryana, is there anything you can tell us about what to expect up there? And is there anything we can do to prepare, or weapons to bring? Can you help? Please."

After heartfelt discussion is completed, our fighters fellow leads his compaions back upstairs, with the potion, to dissolve wickedly wound webbing.

"I… I don’t know" Moryana stammers as she looks away. "They warned me never to open the doors to their rooms. Said they were protected by magic" she crossed her arms tightly, swaying slightly from side to side "Grandmother’s staff can become a venomous serpent. And Mother… she turns people into animals. Pigs, mostly"

She paused, and glanced up
"Some of the potions in their lab… maybe they can help you. But they are dangerous. All of them"

Before we go up, let’s get those potions. We’ll need all the help we can get.
Will helps secure the potions from the lab. Then, eventually with his friends, he goes upstairs.

While Will fetches the potions, Boudica makes sure that Moryana and Stefan can be tucked away safely while the rest of them fight.

"I wonder if the potion would dissolve the grey men... or flesh," Miyana adds with a note of finality.

Boudica shrugs and says, "Maybe! But do we have enough? There's 12 of them... I'm hoping killing the hags will shut them down."

Yes, the potions should probably be tossed immediately at the hags soon as we see them. What happens, happens.

Moryana looks genuinely horrified at the suggestion of throwing the dissolving potion ON someone. She says nothing, however, and follows you back down to the basement in silence. Once there, she positions herself by the tables and begins cataloging the potions. Most of them are poisons - either 'harmless' brews that make their victims fall asleep, to deadly ones that will shut down your body in a chocking paralysis.

There are also more disturbing vials: one that ‘summons’ a giant centipede ('it grows inside your gut'), a resurrection potion that revives the dead ('but you wouldn't want him back'), another that turns the drinker's blood into corrosive acid ('will harm anyone or anything who cuts you'), and Blisterwine—a grotesque concoction that erupts the skin with swollen, throbbing warts, each leaking a toxic gas.

"I do not trust that Moryana, pretty face, just lives here with those hags?" Anton added to the conversation

Boudica acknowledges Anton's suspicions, but says, "I have heard tales of hags kidnapping young girls and transforming them into hags to complete their coven. They need three, at least in the tales I've heard. Then again, those tales also say the hags all share a single eye... so maybe they can't be trusted. In any event, the die is cast. We go now to face the hags."