Well. I did manage to talk to the halfing woman and talked to her about how she became enslaved, etc. And I did go in with Remove Curse for the others who refused to take off their masks. Doesn't work, it's not a curse. So as of right now, the only way I could get dialoge from the halfling woman was to kill auntie before entering her lair.
Did you ever get chance to try the workaround I'd suggested and run away after killing Auntie down in her lair, while the masks are still alive, then return afterwards? That has always worked for me when the masks remained hostile.
