They blocked me pretty well in the final handoff, bulls were standing on the road, but a hut with diplomacy was dug up, and a little later a scroll with Dimension Door. With its help, I stole a Level 5 hat and things took off. Naga with Air jumped around and swiped goodies from the map, Dace was leveling up. I killed the Fortress computer, found a cartographer at its respawn, upgraded my ducks there, and hopped over to visit my opponent. There was a treasure with a Book of Air under their castle, so I decided to grab that too for good measure. The opponent decided to surrender, thanks for the game.