As Crannoc speaks of - what sounds like defilement to the bandits - the apparent leader holds nothing but a look of contempt and disgust on her face. As he turns to speak to her, she spits in his direction. "I wish we had a vampire, anything to rip you freaks into shreds." As Crannoc watches her response, he sees no lie. The woman definitely wants you all dead. You do notice that she strategically doesn't respond to suggestion of bats...

"It's just a stupid name. He told us it would strike fear into the people of the Greenfields."

"I. Grow. Tired. Of your insolent. TALK!" exclaims Hildr, her voice crescendoing in volume, to the woman. Calming herself, but only a bit, Hildr adds, "If you have nothing useful to say, close your trap." Then she says to no one in particular, "Somebody gag her. I can't trust myself to do it, gently." And she spits at the bandit's feet.

Charisma (Intimidation) check: 16

The woman flinches as Hildr rounds on her, squeezing her lips shut. After a long pause, she says quietly. "The Greenfields have become more trouble than their worth. If you let us go, we'll bury our friends and leave. Won't ever see our faces again."

Crannoc's voice is not hostile, only musing.

"This one is the leader of this part of their pack.  If we let her go, I think she will simply take a shortcut to the tower to warn Calavaz and the others.  Just a moment ago, she was demanding our weapons and coin, and she clearly wants to kill us. She never responded about the bats  Even if true to her word, she and the others will only disrupt the skein of Nature elsewhere.  I think it best to make and end and leave three corpses, not two, to feed scavengers and continue the cycle of nature.  Fresh shoots and flowers shall grow from the leavings of those who consume their bodies.  As Silvanus intends."

His dagger is in his hand.  "All of us return to the soil eventually to nourish the earth.  My sense is her time is now.  The rest we can take with us and leave tied up and unconscious just out of earshot of the tower so we can take them with us on our way back."

Iris looks between Crannoc and Hildr, then down at the woman bandit. "I-I don't think we need to execute her. If we're already taking the others with us, why not her too?"

I don't really want us to start playing executioners either. Gawain keeps the thought to himself, but throws the bandit a lifeline. "My friends here want to kill you. If there's anything you haven't told us, anything useful...Well now would be a good time to drop it."

Gallant does not want to kill either but knows it is important to look fierce so he will pull out his rapier and point it at her.

help action for whatever is happening 

Crannoc's dagger remains leveled at the eye of the bandit leader.  "I will respect the group's decision, but I do not understand.  Execute?  We have already 'executed' two of them just now, and they were trying to 'execute' us with their scimitars and crossbows, not take us captive.  Is it not for the greater good that this hostile pack leader, who by her own words shows no remorse, wishes us torn to shreds, and will take up banditry elsewhere with a new pack if free, nourishes the animals, plants and fungi of this land instead?"

Looking at Crannoc, it is clear he does not know the difference between executing and killing and does not understand why there should be any distinction.  That is a humanoid nuance, lost on most beasts.  Silvanus represents nature, red in tooth and claw.

The woman's eyes stay locked onto Crannoc's dagger, silent as the discussion goes on. Even as Gawain addresses her, she remains quiet for a moment before slowly speaking. "They aren't bats."

"He called them striges, and I have no idea how he controls them but he does. I've seen them suck beasts dry...And other men. There was another band in the area, wanted to take what we took. They were husks by the time those things were done."

Her eyes flick between the dagger and Gawain, eventually settling on the paladin. "I keep talking, and you keep him from bleeding me out and smearing what's left on the trees?"

Hildr is indifferent about whether the "pack leader," as Crannoc calls her, lives or dies. The insolence had to stop. Apparently, it has.

"We've learned some useful things from this bandit. I am not opposed to sparing her life. There is no honor in killing the defenseless if it is unnecessary. Let's find a suitable place to conceal the captives -- they shouldn't be visible from the road -- tie them up, divide the loot, and press on. Their comical 'Night Lord'"—Hildr scoffs at the pretentiousness of this assumed title—"will miss them when they do not return. So, unless someone needs to take an hour to rest, there is no time to waste."

Gawain nods, "We're not letting you go. But you'll live. What else do you have?"  Internally, he files away a reminder to have a conversation with Crannoc about this later. This wasn't the first time the half-elf seemed...Confused by norms. No harm was meant by it, but he felt an explanation for their decision was owed. 

"Agree with Hildr. I'd like to get to the tower as soon as possible. If our luck holds, there won't be too many others there."

"The upper room of the tower is ruined, collapsed in. That's where he keeps his beasts." The woman pauses, as if wondering what else to share. "We all sleep downstairs...There's like a few basement rooms or something. You won't find too much resistance there. Osgood and Pulk are meant to be watching the door from the arrow slits, but I haven't left or entered the tower yet without finding them drunk and distracted."

"For your sake and ours, I hope you've told us the truth here." Gawain says. He takes what rope he has left, and turns to deal with the fourth bandit they hadn't tied up yet. "Let's get them secured and on our way then." 

Crannoc considers his companions, who all seem bound by a custom he does not understand.  He nods to Gawain and withdraws his dagger.

"It seems I have much to learn.  To be clear, I was not proposing to kill the one who showed his belly during the fight.  But the pack leader who Iris put to sleep with her magic never showed her belly - she awoke spitting angry and wanting to tear us to shreds in her own words.  Perhaps we are saying, now that she has apparently revealed more information, that she is showing her belly?"

"I agree, Hildr, there is no honor in killing the defenseless, but I find no honor in killing in battle either, as we just did and they tried to do.  No honor or dishonor in any kind of killing.  Killing is just... killing.  Honor doesn't come into it.  You either do it or you don't.  For food or territory or safety or defense of oneself, one's young, or one's pack.  At least that has been my custom.  But you have accepted me into your pack, and I must learn your customs."

He helps dispose of the corpses as he promised, in a way so as to encourage predatory scavengers to find and eat them.

"Speaking of your sleep magic, Iris, that was well done.  I was thinking that it may work well against these Stirges."

Gallant surprisingly quite speaks up, “I can also assist in putting them to sleep but I may need time to rest. Do we know where they drink water, we could potentially poison the water for the birds and a sleeping potion of sorts that Cronnoc can potentially make to take care of the folks who are in the tower. We could also avoid this if we attack at night, while the guards are sleeping.”

"If the enemy is blind, as I am blind, in the darkness, and if I am guided by those who in darkness can see, then the night can provide cover for an approach. But if a fight begins in the darkness, I am next to useless. This has always been the great handicap of humankind."

Iris nods, "I can do that once more if they become a problem for us." She'll divide out the coin she found among the bandits as best she can. Remembering what was said about the tangleweed, she'll take out the jars of the strange liquid and hand them to Crannoc. "Weird plant things seems more your speed than mine. I don't even know what this stuff is."

Crannoc looks a little sheepish at Iris' words directed at him.  Quietly, out of earshot of the captive bandits, he replies:

"In truth, until we learned of this liquid the to repel the tangleweed, you heard from our conversation with Escobert that my only idea had been to burn it.  A ruthless thought, lacking in imagination.  Such aggressive, perhaps carnivorous, plants are unfamiliar to me in the Misty Forest.  I do have the ability to converse with and befriend animals from time to time, but less so with plants, even though you saw me summon a thorny vine in battle."

He thinks a moment.  "I suppose I am more of a scout, soldier and defender of Silvanus' world, and not as attuned to the forest as my dryad grandmother is to her heart tree.  Or perhaps a treant or many druids would be.  All have a role to play.  I will accept these jars and we will do our best."

Crannoc observes and sniffs the liquid to judge whether he does think it would likely repel plants with motility and tropism.  He is fairly sure it is the truth, but does so just in case it is all just a trick to get the party to rub something else, perhaps the bandits' urine, all over themselves...

Survival plus Guidance:  22 + 3 = 25
(Or 16 + 3 = 19 if Nature).

He also awaits any answer from the bandits on Gallant's question on what they use as a water source while at the tower.  "If their guards are truly distracted at their posts, we may just as well approach by day."  Crannoc suggests asking when the bandits think Calavaz is expecting them back.

"I don't even know if those things drink water." The bandit replies. "We have a well for ourselves, but it's in the rooms underground."

As soon as Crannoc unscrews the lid and smells the strange liquid, he is immediately hit with an absolutely pungent scent. Given how powerful and distinct the smell is, it's almost certainly elk urine.

Crannoc seems unfazed by the strong scent and lets the rest of the party know that the liquid is elk urine.

"Perhaps we press on today in an effort to arrive while there is still light giving ourselves a choice of attacking in light or dark?  Once there, we can test the elk urine on one of the captives first to ensure it is not a trick.  Smear some on one and maneuver them into the tangleweed, perhaps?"