Carlana: "I have announced Joplin's return, and your arrival. I thought it best to speak before he did - otherwise he'd have saved you from a whole squadron of drakes, and kobolds to boot... at least, that's how the stories would go"
Carlana apologized for seizing their belongings temporarily - but it was to ensure the safety of the community, not to take anything that wasn't theirs. However, she noted that a number of expensive items were present in their packs. As they seemed an adventuring sort, she asked if they would trade some of those items for some gear that would be more useful out in the wilds. The party agree, and she gives them an assortment of adventuring gear.
Carlana: "I prefer your crystal ending up on my table rather than a trader's desk. I'm not proud, but being a young leader these small things are taken into account when weighing up my leadership. You have to look the part. "
The party ask her a number of questions, and learn that the "world-ending event" was actually a war, involving biological weapons. They also learn that this was only 40 years ago. This is a contradiction of the information obtained through Module #7. Carlana herself oversaw the building of the fortress, while herself a teenager. The party realise that #7 is corrupt because of his 'lies'. Carlana says she can have someone inspect him. They also learn from her that kobolds killed the dragon. After their conversation, she tells them:
"If you want to rest now, you will be shown to quarters. If you are willing, I have some jobs I would really like an assist with. You'd be rewarded. You are free to wander the fortress at your leisure. Forgive the locals if they are wary. There are non of your particular 'distinction' living here. You might notice there is one kobold among us. He is quite friendly, and a little eccentric. They call him Rufus the poisoner - but it's just a harmless nickname."
She agrees to meet them at 12 noon at her quarters the next day, to talk about jobs. She returns their gear, and takes her leave. #8 has no need to sleep, so he volunteers to stand watch with the guards on the wall. The fortress is surrounded by a moat inhabited by alligators - except at the front. Echo, Enbel and Altus decide that the moat presents a unique opportunity to dispose of the body of Set. They wait until there are no witnesses - except #8, and they head up the stairs to the top of the wall, and drop the body off.
DM's note: At this point I made the party roll bluffs against #8 to fool him so he wouldn't suspect that the body that they were dumping was actually that of Set. The aim was to keep their cover story intact. It was successful, as they managed to convince him that they were doing a favour for Carlana. This had the knock-on effect that #8 became more wary of Carlana, and began to think of her as 'shady'.
#8 sees figures to the south, but cannot make out exactly who - or even what - they are. He makes himself known among the guards - and they seem to get on well. The next morning, they decide to venture around the town before their midday meeting with Carlana. They meet a young girl on the street who seems very excited to be seeing the new arrivals. She gives them her name - Sepo. She decides that Altus is her favourite, and gifts him with a friendship bracelet - before saying that she's not meant to be out of her house, and running home.
Walking through the town, they notice most of the shops are closed. The blacksmith shop however, is not. They go in and introduce themselves. The blacksmith is named Erik, and his workshop is in complete disarray. He provides armour for the guards in the fortress - especially those who go outside the walls to protect the farmers. Since he does all the work alone and without assistance, he doesn't often find time to clean up.
Erik comments that #8 is not efficiently made. He offers to upgrade #8, give him a lighter armour with equivalent strength. In exchange he could harvest #8's current armour plating to make more armour for the gnomes. The party all hand over the drakescale they harvested from the bodies of the slain drakes. Erik takes it as a treasure. The gnomes do not have much - or any - of this precious armouring material, because they don't join the drakes in combat if they can afford it.
Erik also tells them of the death of Sepo's mother: she was picked off the ground by a drake and carried away while farming, and because of this her father is now very protective, and doesn't like Sepo to be outdoors. Sepo's dad - Zanster Trickfoot - used to work in the shop with Erik, and when his wife was killed he joined the guard. As a result, Erik is left to do all the work on his own - and can be partly blamed for the mess in his shop, although part of that is obviously Erik's personality. The party mention Rufus to Erik - they had seen him while walking through the town. Erik tells them of his love of cards - and how he became known as 'the poisoner'. His original training was to poison the gnome population - but he had no allegiance to the kobold's cause of genocide, and asked to be allowed to stay with the gnomes. Erik gets very chatty while working on #8's armour, and storing the drakescale so it won't spoil before he can work on it. He alludes to his loss of virility from too much time by the forge. They meet Charlie also - an older gnome, who seems to be friendly with Erik. Charlie specializes in enchantments. He seems feeble and slow, but when asked by Erik to transfer #8's enchantment from his old armour to his new armour, he seems to take on a more youthful vigour, and executes the enchantment in record time, with a flourish. He then resumes his slow and feeble guise. The party leave to meet with Carlana. As they pass Rufus' house they notice he is no longer on the porch.
Carlana meets with them and despite starting out with the same 'regal' persona as she had employed the night before, she slipped into more informal speech a number of times during their conversation. Her mission for them was to ask them to go to the temple and claim the power cells, as the fortress has been experiencing power shortages as of late. It also comes up in conversation that those cells were not from the Save Point - another lie from #7. She also lets them know about how she once had a 'roll in the hay' with Erik.
#8: "if you have balance issues..."
Some other choice dialogue:
Echo: "I know a thing or two about a thing or two..."
#8: "That seems like a vague statement"
Altus: "She could know anything between 1 and 4 things"
The party tell Carlana their concocted story of a goblin 'Set' who is planning rebellion against the goblin community. She seems to take them at their word and finds the information interesting. When the chat is done, they take their leave. Although #8 would be of considerable strength, they decide to try to obtain a cart to ease transport of the cells. After getting directions, they continue to the stables area, where they meet Lentil (or Bean, as she has been nicknamed). They obtain from her a cart, and they also tell her the story about 'Set'. By her excitement from the story, they discern that she is a gossip - who will be glad to have some new story to tell.
#8, Enbel, Altus & Echo (with Ranger) leave the fortress and head in the direction of the temple. They notice a small spire of smoke coming from the Save Point, but they do not stop by to investigate. On reaching the temple they can see that there has been some activity since they left. There are a small team of goblins there. Despite attempts to reason with them, the goblins attack. After winning the ensuing skirmish, the party tie up the goblin's troupe leader - Tep - and while #8 is enlisted loading the power cells onto the cart, the others check the temple. The note that they posted about Set is gone from the wall. They further deface the temple with graffiti signed 'Set' without #8 noticing (as he never entered the temple). They leave the bodies of the goblins they killed on the grounds outside. Tep made some mention to them about Corvek being missing along with Set, when the party try to tell him of Set turning on the other goblins.
As #8 draws the cart toward the fortress (the bound and now unconcious Tep lying tied-up amongst the power cells) the guard opens the gate and rushes out, shouting:
"Leave the cart and come quickly, it's an emergency!"
#8 quickly dumps the carts load onto the ground - knowing that none but him could lift them back on alone, and wanting to be sure that noone would steal their bounty while they were inside. Following the others inside, they burst into Carlana's chambers. Carlana is hiding behind a chair, terrified. Rufus is unconscious, and is bleeding out on the floor. #7 is standing in the centre of the room, screaming -if it could be considered possible for a droid to do so -
"Fuck, you've ruined everything!"
*End of Game 4*
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I feel that this game was a success. I had thought that the party would progress further, but they were having fun roleplaying in the town, so conversations with Erik, Charlie, Bean, Sepo, and Carlana all took up more time than I had originally guessed. This wasn't a problem however. It was good to see everyone enjoying the roleplaying element, it too often gets passed over by players in games.
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