The chaos dwarves you forgot about last quest are getting bolder. They've started abducting people from Keldagrim East, but the Consortium isn't doing anything because the east is the poor part of the city. Veldaban is absolutely furious about this callous attitude to dwarven life, but he can't do anything officially on the matter (Get drunk and rant at the Supreme Commander of the Black Guard, yes, but make a difference, no). He wants you to investigate, but before you can, you're called to help the Black Guard deal with a chaos dwarf assault.
You kill one last holdout chaos dwarf, and find that they were holding a Grand Exchange order slip with 'I forgive you' scrawled on the back. The package contains an odd assortment of items, and it's unclear what some of them are for (who would order a single boot instead of a pair?), and there's just too little context for the scrawled note.
Veldaban is in a bad way- he's been drinking heavily even by dwarf standards, and talks in his sleep about a woman named 'Hilda'. The barmaid at his tavern comments that it's unusual to see him drinking without his 'lady friend', but Veldaban insists he's always been drinking alone. He hates being unable to investigate, and he wants you to help him find out what's going on off the books.
When you investigate, you find the odd assortment of items to be very useful in finding another Red Axe operation and navigating a familiar minecart track puzzle. Veldaban finds it familiar too, but he can't remember why. He helps you get to a cage holding prisoners abducted from Keldagrim. You free them, but one prisoner is desperate for you to help her husband, who was recently taken away.
On the bright side, you find her husband. On the dark side, you can't help him and are forced to watch as he is brainwashed and turned into a chaos dwarf. That's what the Red Axe has been doing to all its prisoners- including Hilda. You weren't the only one to sneak in and get a memory wipe- Veldaban and his girlfriend Hilda had also held an investigation. Like you, Veldaban couldn't just be disappeared; he was the commander of the Black Guard in Keldagrim, people would notice. But Hilda was from Keldagrim East and had no special status to protect her, so they chaos dwarfified her. She was the hand cannoneer that you killed, and the titular forgiveness was her forgiving Veldaban for killing her.
Turning Hilda into a chaos dwarf was probably the biggest mistake the Red Axe made to that point, because she wasn't fully brainwashed. She remembered enough of herself to fight the programming and make a Thanatos Gambit- she ordered exactly the things that Veldaban would need to succeed in an investigation if he were to receive the order. Because of this, even though you're found out, you and Veldaban are both able to escape with memories intact. However, the Consortium won't launch an offensive against the Red Axe, because despite the kidnapping, brainwashing, and army-building they've been up to, they haven't yet hit anyone important. This is the last straw for Veldaban, who resigns from the Black Guard on the spot and vows to continue opposing the Red Axe without the Consortium getting in the way. Congratulations, quest complete!
Tropes
- Fighting from the Inside: Hilda did this.
- Hero of Another Story: Hilda is the one who made it possible for you and Veldaban to escape, and she did it all while having been Reforged into a Minion by the Red Axe.
- Laser-Guided Amnesia: Avoided during the quest, but by now both you and Veldaban have had Red Axe mind-wipes.
- Reforged into a Minion: How Chaos Dwarves are produced.
