[ACT 1 - teahouse] Is it possible to not harm the ppl? (some spoilers may occur)

[Gyrmadet]

While exploring the Grove, I noticed that one vendor had weird stats, I have the screenshot somewhere: "Auntie Ethel" lv1 HP 6 and... 125Kg weight? wut? ofc I thought of a glitch.
I quickly forgot the info, and went on exploring.
At some point, when scouting the map I ended up in a area where two man were accusing this lady of being a hag, so I connected the dots and thought something else was going on.
Again, I didn't want to bother so I reloaded and took a different route.
Fate doesn't lack irony, so a few feather fall and long jumps after, I ended up in a stinky swamp and guess what, "auntie" was there. Since I was basically certain that she was hiding her true form, I ungrouped the party and positioned for battle during the (sic) forced cutscene, and annihilated her in one round. Well, half round, to be precise: my nuker grand opening ceremony brought her to 12hp, the other DD finished her off.
Then sent Shovel to explore and there seems to be plenty of captives or hypnothised ppl, so the question is: can I avoid killing them? how?

EDIT - ok for those curios: if you kill the hag quick enough on first sight (aka the moment you enter the teahouse for the first time), no one will aggro you in the 'dungeon'. The captives, if interacted with, will thank you and run to safety (except the headless girl, she seems unreactive), and the Masks will not attack you even if you talk to them.