If you are playing the game after the flow of the story, how do you get to Ethel without harming the masks? Is it by chance if exploring the coast of the swamp where the teleporter is?
For me, after I got some informations about Ethel, it was clear that she had to be removed from the landscape, for the greater common good. I followed her through her playhouse and was attacked by people who obviously sided with her. How could I know they were cursed instead of perhaps crazy devoters? And btw it would not have changed a lot, an attack is an attack and has to be fended off.
This way I also never had the situation that Ethel could call the masks for help, I see. Anyway, for me it is one of the most satisfying moments in the game when I kill Ethel, and anything coming in my way is to be destroyed.
