If we’d been sadists of a certain stripe, we could have had Byron and Gravedust find out first hand what had happened to Gastonia in their absence. Byron’s current chipper attitude, a throwback to his earliest appearances, would’ve taken a beating if he’d seen that adventurers were largely worse off than before, thanks to his and the Berserker’s actions and opportunists who exploited both. But we’re not that pointlessly cruel, so Byron gets to go “What the heck, I die for a few weeks and everything falls apart” without really suffering through the details.

I’m reminded of the conflict shown here, in which Bandit obeyed the letter of Syr’Nj’s instructions and went, “Y’can’t yell at me f’r followin’ your orders!” when challenged about it. The younger sky elves understand the Silver Rule a bit better.

FB:

KIDS! You can talk and talk ’til your face is blue*… KIDS! But they still do just what they want to do**… Why can’t they be like we were, perfect in every way? WHAT’S the matter with KIDS TODAYYYYY?***

*[Because you’re on a mountain and it’s twenty degrees below zero]

**[Help reunite the party]

***[Not enough time reading GUILDED AGE! That’s pretty much their only flaw.]