Hex mostly just stands silently behind the party as they make conversation with the woman, showing no intention of eating the bowl given to her. She watches, somewhat worriedly, as Pipyap happily gobbles up his portion of the stew. She moves towards him and leans down to speak to him quietly, not necessarily trying to hide what she's saying but just trying to not interrupt the conversation already happening. "So, what do you think of the stew? You've eaten a lot in your life, I'd suspect. What do you think is in it?"

"Would you be so kind as to share what you may know of all this? I'm sure we're as eager to leave the Quivering Forest as its inhabitants are to see us gone." 

"Eat first, dearie," the woman says kindly. "I'm not going anywhere. We can talk of all you wish after we've eaten. Hunger has a way of making this old woman grumpy, and eating alone even more so," she says with a smile. Seeing the party's hesitation, a sad look comes across her face. "Surely you wouldn't turn down my hospitality, would you?" she asks, crestfallen.

"So, what do you think of the stew? You've eaten a lot in your life, I'd suspect. What do you think is in it?"

"It'sh delishus!" Pipyap says without stopping. He takes a big gulp of the stew and then comes up for air. "What is this seasoning, old woman!? It's like I'm getting all the flavors at once!" he remarks. The woman giggles and simply explains, "There are many flavorful herbs in the forest you won't find in your taverns in Phlan."

Pipyap holds his empty bowl out, kicking his feet in excitement as she takes the bowl from him and ladles more stew into it.

To Sylyra (and anyone else who is inspecting the food), it smells delicious, evoking rumbling from his stomach as his body instinctively compares it to the diet of uncooked natural berries he's been eating over the last several days. The stew, with chunks of game and root vegetables, looks similar to what one might find in a tavern, but to Pipyap's point, has a seductive aroma of exotic and unfamiliar spice.

"While it does look appetizing," Sylyra says finally, a pleasant smile warming his features, "I only eat what I prepare for myself," he lies. "I do not mean to offend you," he adds truthfully, "but I must abstain." He continues to hold the plate and bowl at waist height, his features relaying an easiness he only half feels.

Hex nods in agreement with Sylyra. "Yeah, sorry. Don't mean to be rude but I already ate before we came here so I'm stuffed." She holds her bowl out towards Pipyap. "Pipyap can have my serving. I'm sure he'll enjoy it for me."

Auriel doesn’t outright lie, but he puts his stew aside. "We’re thankful for your hospitality, Madam Greenteeth." he says, addressing the woman directly by the name she still hasn't acknowledged, "I hope you can excuse us, but we need to get straight to the point and discuss the matters that brought us here."

Carl holds completely still, waiting to see how this goes and listening in to the conversation.  Meanwhile, from time to time, he gives a backward look at the house, listening for anything inside, looking into any window that he can see.  

"I hope you can excuse us, but we need to get straight to the point and discuss the matters that brought us here."

The old woman smiles politely and crosses her fingers over her lap. "Now dearie, I would be an awful host if I didn't offer you a meal, wouldn't I? And what would that make you if you turned down an offered meal?" She leans forward, the smile never leaving her face. "We will have plenty of time to talk, and I will have plenty of answers. After. We. Eat."

After a pause, she stands and ladles herself some stew. "I apologize, loves. I wanted to be a good host and wait for all my guests to eat first, but you're taking oh so long and my stomach is rumbling something fierce," she giggles, sitting and eating a few spoonfuls of stew.

For Carlthuzad:

Hex sighs and relents, taking a small bite of the stew. "There. We ate. Now can we talk?"

"Na i ellath," Auriel mutters between his teeth when Greenteeth urges them to eat once again. When he notices Hex reaching for the food he can't help but exclaim, "Hex, wait!" as he moves to try stop her, but he is too slow. Pausing mid-motion, he looks at the tiefling searching for any reaction that might indicate something is wrong after she's eaten.

At this point, he looks directly at the elderly woman and bluntly says, "Look, I'm tired of your games. You want us to eat? Well, I'll eat when I feel comfortable doing so, and that won't happen as long as those two remain caged and you continue with this charade" he gestures broadly, indicating the scene around them, "you've somehow prepared to make this place look like paradise instead of the real Quivering Forest. Let us have a true conversation, and then we might consider eating your food."

As soon as he finishes speaking, he glances apologetically at Hex, Uragum, and Sylyra—a look that says, "I'm sorry, I couldn't stand this any longer!"

Sylyra kneels down and places his plate of food on the ground as Auriel says everything the druid is feeling. Once the eladrin has finished, Sylyra clears his throat, pushes his hood back, shapes his face into something pleasant, and gives a little nod to the old woman. "You must know that your reputation precedes you." He turns his head slightly, his curiosity forcing him to glance in Hex's direction before he looks back. Is she still OK? "We are here to bargain. We do not mean to offend you. We do not want to fight you. But we also don't want to put ourselves at a disadvantage because we have not been careful." He takes a step forward, lifting his empty hand, palm up, in a sign of non-violence. "You can't blame us for being overly cautious. After seeing the state in which you delivered the man back to Kabel's Hill and these two here in a cage, you can understand where our mistrust — or at least extreme caution — comes from." His smile widens a little. "If we can come to some kind of understanding, we will happily remove all of the trespassers from your forest. Ourselves included."

"There. We ate. Now can we talk?"

"Absolutely, dearie. I hope it's to your liking. If it's not, I have some more standard spices in my cupboard I could use to make another smaller pot," the old woman says as Hex tastes the rich, but now cooling in temperature, stew. "What is it that you would like to know?" Pipyap takes enough of a break from his second bowl to glance over at Hex in waiting.

She nearly completely ignores Auriel and Sylyra, only casting enough of a glance over to them to say, "Once you can match your friend's manners, I will answer your questions as well. You're being awfully rude for someone who's barged into an old grandmother's home."

Sylyra's eyebrows bob upward, and then he turns toward Hex and makes a sweeping gesture from her to the old woman as if to say, "She's all yours."

Hex looks slightly uncomfortable at the notion that she'd have to do all the talking. She had hoped to be on the sidelines as Sylyra and Auriel worked their usual diplomatic magic but... she would rather they didn't risk eating whatever the stew might be.

Hex hands the rest of her stew to Pipyap and turns her attention to the hag. She gives the two elves a quick and nervous look before clearing her throat. "Well, to reiterate what's already been said, we'd like to know where the rest of the villagers and Pipyap's actual master, Halvin, are. We only want to return them home safely, stop them before they do something stupid and anger the fae. We found the one you left half dead in the village with his eyes plucked out so surely you must know something."

Auriel rolls his eyes at the hag’s reply, thinking wryly that if he rolled them any harder, he might get a look at his own brain. Despite his irritation, when Hex glances nervously between him and Sylyra, he gives her a steady nod, trying to reassure her that she’ll be fine.

"Oh, Halvin," the old woman reminisces, stirring her stew idly as she looks past the trees, remembering. "Yes, he came to visit a couple tendays ago. I was surprised when he told me he was a part of the Cult of the Dragon. I hadn't the foggiest notion of what they'd want with dear old me."

She chuckles at some part of the memory. "Well, you see, he soon disclosed to me that the Cult had sent him to me, to try to sway me to end the pact that binds the fey to Phlan's defense." She frowns at some unpleasant part of the memory as she looks over to the others that have not eaten. "He was quite rude and unappreciative of my hospitality, however, so I killed him."

Pipyap's spoon falls to his bowl with a clatter as he stares at the old woman, jaw agape. After a few seconds, however, he shrugs, returning to his meal and kicking his legs.

"As for the others you mention...five of them showed up a tenday ago. They were more receptive of my hospitality," she says, looking back to Hex's bowl with a smile. "Having run out of food a few days prior, they were happy to eat a warm meal."

"Of the five, I did send one home as a warning to Kabel's Hill that further incursions would not be tolerated," she explains. "Apparently they didn't get the message, though."

Auriel's expression darkens as the woman casually acknowledges Halvin's death. He clenches the halberd tightly, struggling to contain the anger he is feeling right now. First the elves, now the hag. All of them taking lives as easily, and without any care, as if they belonged to mere toys.

The paladin steps away from the scene, retreating to the door to try regain his composure. After a few deep breaths, he turns back to face Greenteeth, and asks, "What about the other two?", even though it is unlikely she will answer him since he hasn't eaten the damned stew.  

(OOC: does Auriel know anything about the Cult of the Dragon?)

When the hag mentions the Cult of the Dragon, Hex groans and lets out a sigh. "I really thought this one wasn't going to have anything to do with them but guess I was wrong. They really have their hands in everything here..."

She's surprised at hearing of Halvin's death and is even more surprised when he seems mostly unaffected. For a moment, she was worried he would lash out in anger.

As the hag continues to speak about the rest of villagers, with only 3 of the 5 that arrived to her accounted for, Hex frowns and looks to her stew. Oh. She just ate people, didn't she? She grimaces at Auriel's question, really hoping she wasn't right.

"We're sorry about our own incursion into your lands. The villagers were... well they were just villagers. We have more experience in adventuring and the like. Had we not come, they would've just sent more to inevitably die in the forest." She pauses for a moment to think. "Did Halvin ever tell you what the Cult of Dragons wants specifically? Why they want the Pact to end? Are they planning on an attack?"

Uragum swears and finds a rock and kicks it as hard as he can casting it into the woods.  "Those damnable Cultists again.  They are like roaches.  You squash one but then there a dozen more unseen."  He kicks another rock in anger and then begins to take some deep breaths to try and calm his anger.  He walks up behind Hex and places a reassuring hand on her shoulder and gives her a nod and looks at the Hag awaiting answers to her questions.  

"What about the other two?"

The kindly old woman continues to ignore Auriel's questions, but an "Umm..." from Pipyap draws his attention to the imp, who holds up his bowl for the party to see. With his bowl nearly emptied of stew and in his stomach, you can see his concern unmistakably beneath the dregs of the stew - a slightly melted but still intact human eyeball, next to what could be a sliver of bone, or a tooth.

The woman does not react to any of this, simply shrugging as Hex asks about Halvin wanting the Pact to end. "It matters little either way. The pact was broken when those backwater simpletons planted their first footstep in the forest!"

Auriel's eyes widen as he stares into the bowl, his face quickly draining of color. He stands there, silent, for what feels like an eternity, as thoughts race wildly through his mind. "Kill her. Painfully. She doesn't deserve to walk this world, nor breathe its air." "But that wouldn’t bring the dead any peace. There are two who can still be saved. And, what about the Pact? Can it be restored?"

After a moment, the Eladrin's gaze slowly shifts from the remains in the bowl to the hag, narrowing into a glare of pure golden fury. He takes the stew he had set aside, grabs a spoonful and swallows it whole. Then, looking back at the woman, he says, "Yummy. The Pact, is it in your power to restore it?". 

Knowing he stands before a creature of deceit, he isn't certain he'll glean the truth from her words. Still, he focuses on her body language, searching for even the slightest twitch in her eyes that could betray a lie.