"How very kind!" Thpas eagerly place the pies in his bag to be saved for later, making sure that Sylciss doesn't swipe them in the meantime, "But how should we repay you for this generosity?"

The sack squirms and something inside cries "Let me out!" with the voice of a young child.

Quote from DungeonLord58 >>

The sack squirms and something inside cries "Let me out!" with the voice of a young child.

Edited post 809 ...

The woman is thrown from her cart head first into the filth of the streets. "Why!" she wails, spitting the mud from her mouth.

"You have a child in a sack! That's reason enough for you to suffer the embarrassment of a tumble into the streets!" Valanthe replies.

Calling to her compatriots, Valanthe exclaims, "Get that child out of that sack!"

Then turning back to the woman, through gritting teeth, Valanthe menacingly inquires, "What were you going to do with the child? Where were you going? Is this all for Strahd?" 

Emre quickly rushes to Valanthe's side, shield in hand. If no one closer is moving to open the bag, she goes to release the child.

A bit surprised at the scene, Thpas allows Sylciss forward to harass the woman. (Sylciss takes the help action for Valanthe's interrogation) 

Communicating to his familiar "This is what you've been waiting for, little one. I thought there had been enough suffering and destruction and fear in this land. Apparently, I stand corrected." 

Thpas then pulls out his length of chain. As he does, it straightens itself in his hand as he holds it. His grip tightens as he raises the chain rod toward the fallen woman.

Byllemura rushes towards the cart, untying the bags' knot from a distance with a flick of her left hand (casting Mage hand), shouting "I'll take care of the child. Keep the old lady at bay!"

"Strahd has nothing to do with this!"  She screams, "The boy's parents traded their son for my dream pastries!"

Inside the sack is a squirming, kicking little boy of about seven years old.

Emre stands aside for Byllemura to aid the child, and joins Valanthe. "We need to shut this operation down," she says quietly to her compatriot. Then, to the old woman, "Where do you make these pastries?"

"At an old windmill south of town." She says, feigning innocence. "You can't stop my business. It's all that me and my daughters can do to survive! The people of Barovia will die without my pastries. They are magical! They give the consumer dreams of their greatest desires!"

"Taking children as payment? This must not be allowed to continue." Thpas points his finger at the woman to cast True Strike. "You're done taking the future away from these people."

initiative: 9

With a scream, the woman vanishes in a cloud of mist.

Thpas fires off an Eldritch Blast into the mist that was once a merchant woman, "Wha- where did- she's gone? We have seen some terrible things here, but this is Far worse than I expected. There's something more to her than what we saw... kindly old women don't just vanish into thin air! Let alone trade in the lives of children as payment of baked goods."

"Damn it!" Emre belatedly starts forward into the empty air. "The windmill...didn't the old ***** say something about that?"

Emre keeps thinking aloud. "The vistani mentioned the 'Old Bonegrinder,' and a 'Mother Morgantha'... this old lady mentioned daughters. Do you think that could be her? What foul magic is at work here?"

"I don't know, but I doubt that they really are her daughters, just as much as this boy would have been her son. He couldn't have been the first child offered in such a dark bargain, but I would not be surprised if he was the first one to have been saved.  There are likely other children in danger, under her care… If you can call it that." Thpas nearly chokes on the word care as it is such an unbefitting description of such a vile morality.

"In danger, or dead already," Emre agrees. "This is obviously a sick offense to society. Seems trivial now that we were about to go look for a toymaker."

Valanthe turns to the little boy and asks, "Do you know where she might have gone and if she has daughters of her own besidew the children she takes? Your parents tried to sell you off - did you want to go back to them or is there somewhere else you can stay? Perhaps that nice family running the inn?"