"Ah yes, the troll. I wonder if it would be smart enough to accept an offer to leave with its life."
"I don't know, Karla. We don't even know for sure how it petrifies people!", Wulfram replied. "It could be meeting it's gaze, or it could be something else. Maybe the prisoner can tell us something."
"Great job everyone. I can't believe that Rogar took down a dragon in one shot. Saved us quite a bit of trouble. Let's let the prisoners know what happened." She pulls out the group's wand of cure light wounds.
"Who still needs healing?"
"I could use a bit more," Wulfram replied to Eustoma.
Rogar gives a dismissive wave, "I' was jus' a lucky shot. An' ah can' do it all day- tha' exhausted me like nothin' else. Thinkin o' which, ah can still use a bit o' healing myself"
As fer tha lizard- ah could fight i' wi' mah eyes closed- ah can see through tha earth instead o' mah eyes. It's nah easy, bu' ah can do it. It's how I knew tha dragon in tha pool was a fake.
Wulfram drank a healing potion and said, "We'd better show the troll out, before it gets up to any mischief!"
When you head back downstairs, the troll Parthuk peers thoughtfully at you as he pets one of his dire weasels. "You seem to have survived your meeting with Ibzairiak. Does this mean the dragon accepted your offer of alliance?"
The troll rises up to his full height, seeming to size you up. He notes your singed and blood-spattered armor and weapons, the hard looks in your eyes, and the apparent ease with which you have dispatched his allies above. He lets out a disdainful grunt.
"Very well. I'll show myself out." He fits the dire weasels with a pair of harnesses and then starts down the tower's steps, dragging one leg in a limp behind him. You follow them out, watching until they cross over the bridge out of the fort and disappear into the woods.
Wulfram escorted Purthuk out and watched him cross over one of the bridges. That done, he turned his attention to the unconscious rocs in the courtyard. "I'm going to check out the building at the far end; it's probably the stables. We'll want to confine the birds."
As he walked to the southwest end of the fort, he looked around for a cart to help with moving the avians.
There are a few carts around the courtyard, near the incomplete trebuchets. They are large enough to confine the rocs.
A heavy chain holds the doors of the southwest building shut, bound with a large but cheap padlock. One of the keys you recovered from the hobgoblin lieutenant fits the lock. A dozen cages line the western and northwestern walls of this wedge-shaped room, their doors bent and their floors crusted with dried dog blood. It appears that this is not a stable, but a kennel. The room is now wholly unfit for habitation by civilized creatures; the large training area is littered with cracked bones and gristle, and the walls and ceiling are smeared with offal.
Wulfram hears a shriek, followed by the appearance of a translucent, ghostly woman, her face distorted by wrath into a hideous mask! A dozen phantasmal collars and chains restrain her as she grasps at the shaman, preventing her from reaching him so long as he remains outside the building proper.
Wulfram jumped back as the apparition reached for him. When he saw that she couldn't reach him, he addressed the ghostly figure, trying to calm himself. "I am Wulfram Bartos, of Phaeandar. We have just liberated this fortress from the invaders of the Ironfang Legion! May I ask your name?"
Eustoma jumps back out of the way as the woman screams and tries to attack them, "What is she? She doesn't look like a creature that can turn someone to stone."
"Curse you, the Legion, the Rangers, all of you!" the spectre shrieks. "The trolls tore me apart! Devoured me alive! Step a little closer, and I will give you a death no less cruel!"
She lunges at Wulfram, the chains tightening and holding her back.
Wulfram stepped back to speak with the others. "I'd like to help her, but I don't know what to do to ease her spirit."
Eustoma moves into the doorway. "I"m so sorry this happened to you. We've killed trolls. They are evil creatures. Is there something we can do to bring you rest? The hobgoblins and dragon are dead as well."
The spectre's ranting devolves into incoherent shrieks as she yanks against her phantasmal chains. It doesn't seem like diplomacy will help her angry spirit.
We need more information. Wulfram said to Karla and Eustoma, "I'm going to talk to the surviving rangers. Hopefully they can tell us something about this woman. Maybe that will give us a clue about how we can help her rest."
He went back to speak to the surviving members of the garrison, and tried to find out more about the dead woman.
The Rangers mutter when Wulfram describes the ghostly woman. "Ota Gax," says Cobb Greenleaf. "She was a violent and short-tempered monster. She had a bloodthirsty streak a mile wide, but so long as she limited her cruelty to Molthuni troops, we turned a blind eye to her depravity. I won't say I'm sad to hear she's dead, though if her angry spirit is lingering about, she's going to cause problems. Best way to deal with her is to probably destroy her."
"If we mus' destroy 'er, so be it. Le's ge' this over wi' quickly." Ragar, standing slightly off to the side as always, speaks up.
Resolved to put her spirit to rest, you engage the spectre with enchanted arrows and earthen blasts. The undead quickly dissipates under the barrage, her spirit sent to the Great Beyond.
Searching the kennel reveals a stash of trophies under a loose stone in the floor: 512 gp, 14 Molthuni medals (worth 25 gp each), a magic bead, and two pairs of magic gloves.
The only threat remaining to be dealt with is the goblin and her "pet" in the forge.
Before attacking the last goblin, Rogar stops Karla and asks for a bit of healing.
As they stand outside the forge, Rogar closes his eyes and puts his hand against the wall, feeling the minute vibrations caused by the smith and his pet inside, trying to get an idea of where they are and relaying the information to his companions.
Rogar's tremorsense allows him to locate two creatures inside the forge building. One is in the center of the building, while the other is in the western corner.
Wulfram was saddened by the necessity of destroying the spirit, but there seemed no other way.
Eustoma doesn't have any better luck identifying the bead.
Eustoma suggests sort of a plan, "Two inside? What if Rogar uses his tremor sense to take out where we think the stone lizard is. I can fire at the goblin from the outside out of range of the lizard."
Wulfram said a prayer to bolster Rogar.
Broken blades and rent breastplates--all in desperate need of repair--lie in orderly stacks near a warm, glowing forge. A mostly disassembled suit of plate barding stands on two sawhorses in the western corner of the room.
A tall and brawny goblin stands by the forge, swigging from a bottle of liquor. She looks at you as you enter, her expression darkening. "Eh? What's this? Not hobgoblins, no. Intruders, yes! Manwatcher, wake up! We have company!"
From beneath the barding in the corner, a monster stirs. This fat reptilian monster has eight legs, bony spurs jutting from its back, and eyes that glow with pale green fire.
The goblin laughs. "It's been a while since Marrowcrack's had a chance to feed. And I'm starving!" The goblin drops to all fours as she transforms into a snarling, canine beast!
Seeing the goblin change form, Wulfram dropped the wand of Hold Person he had ready, as he judged it unlikely to work. He drew forth a potion and drank it.
"Let me know when you've killed the lizard, Rogar," he said.
Marrowcrack concentrates and begins disappearing and reappearing at random, much like Bristle Billie did back at Fort Ristin! She snarls and rushes at you, dodging Wulfram's spear thrust.
Before entering the room, Rogar attunes himself to the earth, feeling its every vibration. The effort exhausted him, but he straightens up before entering.
As the Rogar breathes in, feeling the earth around him. He slips by Marrowcrack, and closes his eyes as he approaches the lizard. However, he's far from blind, and sends out a spike of earth at the lizard in the corner.
Eustoma has Sia stay outside for the moment. She fires two arrows at the barghest. Both of her arrows fly through the creature.
Eustoma fires two shots at Marrowcrack, but the creature blinks out of phase and avoids both arrows.
Karla coats the canine creature with glitterdust. She snarls as the magic blinds her!
Meanwhile, Rogar slips past her and approaches Manwatcher with eyes closed. Sensing the tremors of its footfalls, the dwarf blasts the creature with a spike of stone, badly wounding it!
The lizard hisses and trundles forward. Its gaze foiled, it bites Rogar, chomping through his stony skin.
Wulfram had no room to use his spear, so he dropped it and switched to his mace. The beast disappeared just as he swung, reappearing a moment later.
Rogar grits his teeth as the lizard bites him, but steps back, gathering a cloud of the endless metal dust that accumulates in every smithy, and launches the spear of deadly metal at the lizard.
Eustoma tries again firing two arrows at the barghast. Sia remains outside.
As Wulfram's mace passes through Marrowcrack, she lashes out, landing a hit with her claw. She wipes the glitterdust from her eyes and is able to see again.
Eustoma's two shots pass through her as she blinks out, too. Meanwhile, Rogar blasts Manwatcher again, leaving the lizard in a crumpled heap on the floor.
Wulfram continued to attack the creature, but was baffled by the random disappearances.
Rogar wheels around, sending another blast of metal at the creature fading in and out of existence. What looked to be a deadly blast, however, it passes through the beast as it blinks out of the plane.