Both Ethel and Marrin have heard of trolls before and have heard that they are difficult to kill. They have a remarkable ability to heal quickly. Marrin remembers one story about an unlucky troll ending up in a vat of acid and that being the end of them.

Dagg is within reach of the ice troll, having just let go of it as it rose out of the icy water.

Marrin and Ethel are only about 15 feet away as the swirling snow that came up meant they were almost on top of Dagg before they found him.

Dagg is quite focused on the ice troll but he does manage to give a short answer to Ethel. "Have to cook troll. Not eat if not cook."

Ethel gets the attention of the ice troll, who visibly cringes and shrinks back from the necromancer, doing its best to keep Dagg between them.

"Well, good to know Dagg. Ethel, they don't like acid either, but really who does. You magic up any acid? I'm going to see if I can get it to run away."

Marrin starts hissing dissonantly towards the troll, angling so the troll needs to move out over the water.

DC 16 wisdom save (on save half damage, and no running away and no AoO from Dagg): 21 damage

The combination of Ethel's fearsome appearance and the nerve wracking ghostly whispers from Marrin do the trick. The ice troll turns and runs out on to the ice.

Dagg swings a very large makeshift club that he's picked up somewhere along the way and clobbers the troll as it runs. From experience, both Ethel and Marrin can tell that blow would have instantly killed a lesser creature (and probably anyone in the party except for Avaria), but the ice troll only stumbles and continues on.

It does yell back over it's shoulder in a language neither Marrin, nor Ethel, even with her vast knowledge of languages, understands. But Dagg waves a dismissive hand.

"Liar. Ice troll liar," Dagg calls.

The troll keeps running. Dagg makes no attempt to follow the troll out onto the ice, and he calls to the dire wolf "Wait. Sneaky troll drag under ice out there."

K' is up, then back to Marrin and Ethel.

----------------------------------------------------------------

Is Jan following Avaria into the inn?

"Huh. Now I've got to ask"

She yells,

"Dagg, what did the troll say?"

She is quietly impressed Dagg is smart enough not to just chase the troll out on the ice, and goes so far as to say to Ethel, a bit of grudgingly,

"I'm reassessing Dagg's intelligence, upwards this time."

Dagg looks back at Marrin and shakes his massive head.

"Troll say just hungry. Say not try eat Dagg. Say Dagg try eat troll," Dagg says. He looks back and shouts something in the same language the troll used out over the ice then shrugs. "Dagg not eat troll again. No good."

"Great. How about we let the troll keep running and we can move the other direction?"

She squints into the storm after the troll.

Maintaining concentration on her spell, Ethel watches the troll retreat until she is convinced it isn't immediately returning.  Then she gives a pointed look at Marrin.  Ethel slides off her horse to stand before the towering giant.  “You saved us.  That thing could’ve turned us into lunch.”  She gestures out across the lake.  “We never would’ve seen it coming without you.”

Her voice softens further as she steps closer, her hand briefly touching his massive arm.  “We pulled you from that dirt because no one—giant or not—deserves to rot like that.  But we never expected you to save us in turn.  You’ve done more than enough, Dagg.”

She pauses, searching his simple, earnest face.  “Whatever debts were owed are paid—paid with interest, if you ask me.”

She smiles, a little sadly, but with genuine warmth.  “I think... it’s time for you to go find your own path now.  Somewhere you can be Dagg the Mighty.  Or Dagg the Troll-Slayer,” she adds with a wide grin. “You don’t need to trail after us anymore.  We’ll remember you and Wolfie—every time we see a boulder or smell wet dog.”

She steps back and gives him a deep, respectful nod.  “Go with our thanks, and may the gods—and good food—find you, wherever you go.”

((K is keeping a hover, visible to Martin and Ethel in case the troll comes back and they send them for help.))

Jan will make sure the horses are settling in, but then not wanting to get in Egg's way, will head in. 

Her current appearance is pretty close up her natural looks, a bit older and age worn.

IN THE STICKLEBACK INN:

Jan notices the inn has fewer patrons than earlier. It is getting later and almost all were clearly locals grabbing a pint.

The innkeeper closes the door quickly behind the group and the meager warmth from the low burning fire feels good, especially to those who waited in the cold while Jan and Marrin had their hot supper.

"You're quite the group," the innkeeper says, as he tallies up the count. "Six visitors at the start of winter."

He gestures up the stairs.

"We're not the biggest of inns, but the biggest in Peltarch," he says. "So, best I can offer you is two to a room."

ON THE SHORE OF ICELACE LAKE:

The troll disappears into the darkness. Whether it keeps going or just bides its time out on the ice is hard to tell at this point. In any event, K doesn't see it return.

Dagg listens carefully to Ethel, shushing Wolfie's growling at one point.

When she's done, Dagg thinks for a very long minute and then finally nods.

"Dagg hit troll hard. So hard," Dagg says with a lopsided smile. "Dagg and small women even. Dagg go. Dagg not like all ice. Go back home."

With no hesitation, Dagg turns, and heads off into the dark. A quick loud whistle from the dark gets Wolfie turned around and following. K sees the hill giant head in a more or less straight line southwest. Whether by chance or some homing instinct, Dagg appears to be making straight towards the Spire Mountain range.

Soon, Marrin and Ethel are along with only the wind cutting exposed skin, and howling in their ears for company.

Ethel watches Dagg recede into the distance.  When last she turns and mounts back up on her pony, there is a strange look on her face.  

She pulls her hood up against the cold wind and turns back in the direction of Peltarch.  "Marrin, I'm cold.  Let's go."

"Two to a room is fine... There are two more who should be here soon... If not I'll have to go looking for them and make sure they aren't frozen solid. Will you have room for them too?", Jan asks.

Marrin huddles in her saddle and listens with interest to Ethel's play and chips in with her agreement that the debt has been paid and echoes Dagg's assertion he hit the troll 'so hard'.

As Dagg and wolfie head off she calls,

"Good bye Dagg Troll-Slayer, I will sing your songs!"

She smiles, more gritted teeth than smiling really, and says,

"I happen to know a warm-ish inn not to very far off."

As they ride back to Peltarch she chats with Ethel,

"I really should be taking lessons from you Ethel, that's twice you were able to convince Dagg!"

By the time they are to town Marrin will have switched to a new face, a nice craggy and lanky man of middling years with a receding hairline. When she gets a chance,  she'll need to change clothes though...

Avaria nods to the Innkeeper, still too angry to engage in pleasant conversation, she leaves that to Jan.  Instead she walks over to the fire and tries to unfreeze herself after a long time in the bitter cold.  She finds a lot of her fur stiff from it all and she shudders as it slowly thaws.

Marrin and Ethel make it back to the Stickleback, and spotting no sign of the others or any horses out front, figure out quickly that there is a rear entrance where the stables are. They arrive just as the innkeeper's son is finishing up brushing down and feeding the horses and ponies from the rest of the group.

"More?" he says with a groan. He watches the pair go inside.

Inside, the main room is more or less just the party now. Avaria sits so close to the fire that smell of burning peat appears to have adopted a slight hint of wet dog as well. Hammerdasher sits nearby with Geffroi, discussing the merits of just walking into the prison on the other side of Icelace Lake versus trying to sneak in.

Ula sits quietly with something warm to drink, watching Avaria, watching the fire. Soren isn't quite as close to the flames as Avaria but he's still clearly cold.

Jan has a collection of keys for their rooms. The innkeeper ended up having to ask their only other guests to move in order to free up a larger 'family' room. The group has three rooms available to them. The family room will sleep four, and the other two will sleep two each.

The innkeeper looks to be ready to lock up the front and back doors but is shouting to track down his son.

Ethel moves to join those by the fire, chilled to the bone.  She orders a tea - or some other suitably warm beverage - and addresses those by the fire.  "It's done.  Dagg and his pup are walking back to the mountains and out of our hair."

Her tone says 'mission accomplished' but she has a sad look to her, and she carries herself like a tired old woman.

Marvin shivers and points back the way he came for the innkeeper,

"Think yer boy was in the stables."

He half limps over to the fire with the others, calling behind him,

"I could do with something warm in my belly, if you got somethin'."

Then at the table with Geff and Hammerdasher he'll call back,

"And any news of the road and the horse tribes would be nice."

Looking at the pair he leans in and says,

"What do we know about this place? Can we take a mixed approach? Some walk in and some sneak? Do they welcome walk ins? How would we sneak?"

He scratches his stubble while he listens.

Hammerdasher looks up and sighs. “My clan more or less built the End. Because of that, we’ve been part of the Lord’s Alliance since the start.”

Seeing that the others aren’t necessarily following, Hammerdasher cuts to the chase. “I can show up and get in and can probably bring a couple of you with me as long as –“ he pauses and looks around to make sure the innkeeper isn’t too close, “- as long as you look like dwarves. But that will only get a couple of us in.”

Soren who has been listening without looking like he’s been listening looks at Marrin, deducing it’s her, and smiles. “Am I to take it then that there’s no performance contract waiting for you here in Peltarch?”

He looks to the kitchen where the innkeeper can be heard yelling for his son again and then the scrapping of pots and pans as he rounds up the last of what dinner might still be left for the group.

“And that indeed,” Soren continues. “you’re looking to visit the prison on the other side of the lake?”

He laughs but then turns serious and leans in to keep his voice down “guards burn out quickly there and they’re always bringing in new ones. Swap places with a few and you get yourself invited in instead of having to sneak.”

Before he can say more, the innkeeper returns with a pot of the remains of the chowder and several bowls, along with mugs of hot mulled wine and tea.

“Nothing else left, I’m afraid.” The innkeeper says. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve a layabout son to wrangle.”

The innkeeper locks the front door and heads through the kitchen again.

Martin looks thoughtful at Hammerdasher's option,

"I could come with you as a guest, how much access would that grant us? What kind of magical wards do they have in place, do you know?"

Marvin winces at Soren's words,

"Sorry for leading you on there sorry, I think I said I had a job up here and you assumed it was for a performance. It is honestly more about the retribution than that. Either way, we'll see you beyond adequately compensated for the guidance and... Well all the other nonsense that you helped us deal with."

He'll assess the group then,

"Guards are a good option for most everyone else, but I don't think Ethel can pull that off.

Hammerdasher merely shrugs at the question about magical wards.

"I'd get access to meet with Korda," Hammerdasher says. Then he looks at Ethel for a few moments and then smiles. "Could you pretend to be am inquisitor, Ethel? One that uses harsh magic to force criminals to talk? That might fool the guards."

Soren waves away any need for an apology.

"Give me first crack at the ballad that commemorates this adventure and we'll call it square."

"I could go either way, guard or a member Clan Hammerdasher. We just need to decide on our strategy."

To Soren Marvin raises his brows,

"A ballad? I think you could easily make an epic from this, with only light embellishment."

Insight on Soren being okay with how things turned out: 19