Yes, the only way I know of currently to save one of Auntie’s slaves is to leave them alone as you pass them in her lair and then leave them alive during the fight with Ethel downstairs. Having them there does make the fight harder of course! But at the end of the fight they’ll turn neutral and you can talk to them, and one will remove her mask. (Though if you kill Ethel too quickly to see her surrender speech, they’ll stay hostile and you’ll have to run away and come back before they’ll calm down and speak, which I think is a bug.)
Removing the masks before Ethel is dead is meant to kill them, apparently, though it seems like a valid strategy to me. And it’s interesting they were gone when you knocked them out and left their masks, though, as when I’ve tried that on a previous patch I think they actually died (though not sure if that was just the time I knocked them out with Nature’s Snare, before I realised it continues to do per turn damage on unconscious targets … d’oh). But still the game doesn’t handle knocking out rather than killing well, and usually treats it just as though you’ve killed the NPC. There was another thread about this not all that long ago. I do hope Larian will put some more work into this element though, and it would be great if the masks recovered (or could be healed) and would interact with you if you knock them out then kill Ethel.
