With a bit of looking and your keen assassin senses, you manage to find the source of the noise with ease. You see before you a large 10x10 wooden pen. In the pen, roughly nine goats seem to be absentmindedly chewing grass and roaming about. However, what would be a scene right out of a petting zoo is ruined by what appears to be fifty human skulls mounted along the tops of the fence.

(OOC - do I see any other buildings or signs of the witch or her hut?)

From here, you can make out what seems to be a large mansion, the mists obscure any real details, but beyond that, you can see something vaguely hut shaped.

I'll continue to move forward then around the goat pen, towards the mansion and then if I can closer to the hut to see if that's what we're looking for

Having maneuvered into a better position, you can gain a more advantageous view of the area. Currently, from the outside of the mansion (you haven’t gone inside yet) you can make out more details of the hut. The ramshackle wooden hut has been built on the stump of what was once an enormous tree. The rotting roots of the stump thrust up from the mire like the legs of a gigantic spider. An open doorway is visible on one side of the hut, beneath which floats the upside-down, hollowed-out skull of a giant. Flanking the hut’s doorway are two iron cages that dangle like hideous ornaments from the eaves. Scores of ravens are trapped in each one. They squawk and flutter their wings as if trying to escape.

Does the mansion look like its inhabited by anyone?  Is there maybe a window or something I can look through?

Judging from the state of it, and the rest of this place, there is only one thing that lives in these ruins, and you very much intend to stop that. With that being said, there is a multitude of potential entry points in the mansion. A broken wall, a smashed window, a shattered roof, and more.

Ok - in that case I would like to try and get closer to the hut to see if I can tell if the witch is home before reporting back to the party

Thankfully, the squawking of the ravens quiets your approach. Inside, from what you can see, the hut is fifteen feet on a side and packed with old furniture including a wooden cot, a wicker cabinet, a slender wardrobe, a wooden table, a stool, a barrel-topped wooden chest reinforced with brass bands, and an iron tub stained with blood. In the middle of the room is a ghastly wooden crib with a small, angelic child sitting in it. All the furnishings except for the crib are bolted to the floor. Beneath the crib, green light seeps up through cracks between the rotting floorboards. Next to the crib, in an old, creaking rocking chair, is the woman herself. Dressed in tattered robes and bound in a goat-skin shawl, her age is readily apparent. She has more crow’s feet and wrinkles than you ever truly thought possible with her white, oddly long hair bound up in a bun with a long knitting needle. Her eyes are shut, but you can tell that they’re largely sunken into her head. Her expression, though mired in legions of frownlines, is cracked in a peaceful... smile, if one could call it that, with a nose curved like a sickle. She seems completely unaware of your presence, yet her very existence seems to emanate the power of something very old and very dangerous.

Excellent - with that information - I will return to the rest of the party and explain what I saw 

Elwarith returns to the party and explains what he saw.

"George have bad feeling 'bout hut.  Too much tree." 

“Aye, lad. This whole place is saturated in death. No doubt, it’s been like this for a long time. I wonder who might’ve done that...” Davmorn sighs as he scratches his beard. Kasimir thinks for a moment, “Well, I would imagine Strahd or Rahadin. They are particularly brutal in their executions- Oh, you were being sarcastic.”

"I am quite easy with whatever plan we can form," Viorela offers, "Admittedly, I am itching to slay this wretch, but I can stay my hand if you all think it best we attack her in the guise of night."

"George no know why George think, but George think witch no see in dark."  George shrug.  "George roll twenty." 

Kasimir thinks for a moment, “Strange. That would mean that she’s likely not a magical creature, but then, how could she possibly garner this much wariness if she’s only human. How could she even live this long?”

Adanmar Windblood

"She is a witch, she likely has some dark gifts on her side, but, George rolls 20 so, I am gonna trust him, if she doesn't see in the dark we could have an advantage attacking by night...by now let's say...my suggestion would be to assault her from different sides, Elwarith spots different ways to get in, the Accurate, Grim and me could be in the frontline as we are the sneaky one, Viorela and George could come later and you, spellcasters, I think you should prepare some tricks to counter her spells, Davmorn, you have something to cast in advance?"

"Yes, it is best to not underestimate her, we'll likely have one shot to surprise her before all hell breaks loose.  If her hut is as magical as they say then we will probably have to contend with that as well.  I have a few tricks I can try, if the Dice Gods can even see us in this forsaken place.  In my experience however, any magical using being tend to thwart death longer than others."

“Aye, lad. I could bless the lot o’ ya. Would take a good chunk o’ my magic power, but you’d all be at the top of ya game.”

Quote from Ivanchina >>

 

Adanmar Windblood

"She is a witch, she likely has some dark gifts on her side, but, George rolls 20 so, I am gonna trust him, if she doesn't see in the dark we could have an advantage attacking by night...by now let's say...my suggestion would be to assault her from different sides, Elwarith spots different ways to get in, the Accurate, Grim and me could be in the frontline as we are the sneaky one, Viorela and George could come later and you, spellcasters, I think you should prepare some tricks to counter her spells, Davmorn, you have something to cast in advance?"

 ~Grim? Who’s that? There’s never been any Grim~

Basically, unless he reappears, he’s getting the Samudra treatment. Davmorn is only here because I didn’t want you all to lose a cleric.