We walked up into the mountains and started seeing ruins that are older than even the elves—according to Willfram’s 29 Investigation. He recognizes the runes as Primordial. Brand brings us to the top of a mountain ringed in concentric circles of standing stones. The gang has built a village among the stones.
Our group of gang members scattered upon arrival as three groups came to greet us. The leaders are Kelden Bidrosh, a firbolg male with red hair, blue skin, and a bushy beard; Kreegz, a goblin wearing a chain wrapped around one arm; and Tarralikitak (aka Tarra), a white-haired elf woman with intricate braids and a pet hawk.
We explain that we’re looking for a gang to call home, so we came to check the place out. Vivenna scans the crowd for anyone who looks like former military (she spots one) and for anyone who looks fresh, perhaps recently shipwrecked, but there’s no such luck.
We talk for a while, beating around the bush. Kelden takes the lead and is very polite—even kind. Tara stays quiet the whole time, and Kreegz is definitely the mad dog of the group. We aren’t ready to just say “we’re joining,” and Kelden basically tells us, well, you either join or you don’t. This isn’t a job you’re applying for, and we aren’t applying for you. Fair.
Before leaving, we decide to trade and bring out some of the supplies we salvaged. Then Snuki whips out the magic potion they found while we were fighting the fish-men, and everyone’s eyes get big. They call in Meldren Steelstrike, their arcanist—a white-haired dwarf who clearly thinks he’s better than everyone—and he identifies the potion as one that heals 5 HP per round for 10 rounds.
Willfram is uncomfortable having Meldren around.
But as Snuki keeps pulling things out of their mouth that are clearly magical, we keep having Meldren identify them, and Willfram tries to negotiate a way to obtain Meldren’s pearl (the required spell component for Identify). Snuki also has an Amulet of Equilibrium, which does a lot of cool things I did not write down. Meldren initially doesn’t want to tell us what it really does, but he’s a bad liar and Kelden makes him explain.
We also have a magic coin.
Naturally, they want all the magic items, but all we really want is a shield (which they have), some information about Vivenna’s nerd friend “Cal,” who was sent to the island before her (they claim not to have any information and appear sincere), and the ability to get a letter off the island (also no dice).
Negotiations follow. Kreegz has some fancy pillows that clearly came from the prince’s ship, though Kreegz doesn’t seem to know where they originally came from. Eventually Kelden offers a very magical shield that had belonged to the former gang leader. We don’t want to trade any of our good magic items, so we barter with our magic coin, a pile of mundane goods, and—somewhat unexpectedly—joining the gang. Kelden also asks a favor from Vivenna: he wants her to gather some information for him.
And that’s how we joined a gang. For a magical ancient elvish shield whose abilities I didn’t even write down.
We’re shown to a hut that formerly belonged to some people who were out on the raid today. Vivenna spends some time exploring the little village while very obviously being followed by Kelden’s men. There’s a lot of idleness—people lounging around drinking or playing dumb knife games—and the hilltop is riddled with little caves, all with clear evidence of people going in and out.
Vivenna returns to the hut and talks with Wilfram about his reaction to the other dwarf. He says he never fit in with the dwarves, so he left. It was basically schoolyard nonsense, but it still hurt. She fills the party in on the layout of the place and mentions that Kelden wants a favor from her as part of their deal.
We also realize—a little too late—that taking the shield from Kelden means we’re allied with him specifically. In hindsight, it makes perfect sense, but in the moment none of us were thinking that way.
We get assigned KP duty and help serve dinner to the gang. Everyone knows and likes the cook. We’re told that food was very important to the former gang leader, and things haven’t been as good since he died.
During (or after) dinner, Wilfram slips away to visit Tara, the third faction leader. He’s stopped and searched by a very attractive older orc—basically a hot silver fox—who wants to know why one of Kelden’s people is coming to see Tara, but they eventually let him in.
Willfram and Tara talk.
Tara: “Why are you here?”
Willfram: “On the island?”
Tara: “No. In my tent.”
He’s fishing for reasons to back her in the power struggle, and she pushes back hard. Why would he support her? Kelden has already given him gifts. What would be enough to buy his loyalty? What does he look for in a leader?
Wilfram doesn’t give her a clear answer. Strength is obviously a factor—he even suggests ways to eliminate Kreegs from the conflict—but that isn’t enough. If strength were all that mattered, he’d simply back Kreegs. Eventually he says he wants a strong leader he can trust.
Tara says she doesn’t actually want to lead, but she also doesn’t trust Kreegz or Kelden. Kelden appears kind, but she insists he isn’t. She says she’s in prison because she stood up for what she believes in, while the others are here because they committed crimes for personal gain—and yes, she does feel like she’s better than them. But she doesn’t leave because she isn’t ready to give up.
The whole conversation leaves us liking Tara quite a lot, but also feeling like she has absolutely no reason to trust us—and probably never will. Which sucks.
Wilfram slips back to dinner without being noticed. We gamble with some of the other gang members, with the stakes being that the loser has to go into “the cave.” The other guys lose.
We’re low-key disappointed—we wanted an excuse to go into the cave.
We’re about to go with them to watch them go in, but Kelden pulls Vivenna aside to speak with her privately.
Kelden: “I’m so pleased you decided to join the side of the right, the good, and the true.”
Vivenna (laughing): “Well, that remains to be seen, doesn’t it?”
Kelden reacts with genuine shock and anger.
“What?”
Vivenna immediately realizes that reaction is much bigger than she expected. “It’s a gang…”
She may slightly overplay the dumb-blonde act regarding gang politics, but Kelden makes it very clear that by accepting his shield we joined him, specifically. In his view, he is the rightful leader of the entire gang—and he’s clearly a much scarier individual when he wants to be.
He almost withdraws the task he wanted from her, but she assures him she’s discreet. He tells her to cozy up to Meldrin, the arcanist dwarf, and find out what he and the former gang leader were doing together. Narvarax, the former leader, was a good leader, but toward the end he changed—always sneaking off with Meldrin.
Vivenna asks, “Were they having an affair?”
Kelden’s brain visibly short-circuits.
“I had never considered that.”
Kelden leaves, and that’s where we ended the session.