Ghost cave in the Underground River

Ballad

In the middle of the subterranean Underground River area, there's a cave that's populated by a throng of shadows and wraiths. Once you kill them, a posse of named ghost adventurers appear and initiate dialogue. No matter what you say, it seems, the ghosts end up attacking you. It is a fairly tough fight, yet they leave no loot, and killing them gives no new journal entry. The cave also has no lootable caches or containers, making me wonder...

...what's the point of this area? Are the ghosts part of a quest I somehow overlooked? It all seems a bit too significant and deliberate to be a random fight, yet so far I haven't found anything that would indicate otherwise.

abacus

There's a dialogue string that avoids combat... they end up asking you to take their remains to the soul portal/rift

(in the chamber past the dragon)

It might take an ability check (Charisma maybe?)

Ballad

That would explain it. My poor Charname has Tourette's (Cha 9) and tends to make a poor first impression. On top of that, he's a gnome.