"Absolutely not", BoneSmith snapped at Jovial's question, "we worked too hard to keep Player puppets away from the empire to start letting them trickle back in just when we found a cure for the Feral Plague"

Allen was surprised at the reaction, "but", he asked tentatively "why?".

"Players have access to Skills and Spells",BoneSmith said remembering Allen had to be told everything, "and they invite youngsters to groups and go to unsupervised quests", she stopped like this explained the problem.

"OK" Allen replied, "but the younger Kobolds are immune now", not having the fear of the Feral plague ingrained in his very bones seemed to be the greatest divide between him and the Kobolds.

"This may be true", she seemed to think about his words, "but we can't have Players running everywhere disguised as Kobolds", her mind seemed to settle back to its traditional guard position.

"It's just for Jovial", Allen said, "he won't be stuck in Garnet forever", not wanting to lose his friend, "and then we won't see him ever again".

"If Jovial wants to come to the Empire as a Player", BoneSmith finally answerd, "he can come as a Human", she paused, "I promise to process his entry papers as fast as can be done".

Allen could see Jovial's face falling "leave it Kanga", he finally said, "its just like every rich guild", accepting his fate, "they don't want some lowbie recreational to murk their pond".

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"It's not like that", Allen fealt he had to defend his new home, "some traditions are hard to let go of".

"Don't fuzz me Kanga", Jovial answerd quietly, "I know how things work", slowly shaking his head, "we can party when I'm not in the correction prog".

Allen didn't want to accept that, "What if I put the Feral cure property on him BoneSmith?" he finally asked, "only it will not turn white for a very long time".

Seeing Allen's determination moved something in BoneSmith, "Can you make it another color?" she finally said, "to distinguish between regular Players and the other kind?" referring to NPCs without saying the words.

"I could make them blue and green" his enthusiasm returned, "or any color actually", focusing the visual on his friend "what is your favorite color Jovial?"

"You mean that Kanga?" Jovial looked hopefully at BoneSmith, "my fav color is green", to answer Allen, "you really mean I can join your guild?"

"We don't have our guildmaster to approve new members", BoneSmith replied "but I will help you come as a Kobold to the empire if Allen puts the Feral cure effect on you".

"Weren't all of you moderators in the conclave?" Allen asked.

"When Trapper's rebellion failed MinerSlave revoked everyone's moderator status", she answerd bitterly, "only the peasant and she remain as moderators", thinking further, "we couldn't leave without losing the Warren and she wouldn't kick us out entirely for he own reasons", she explained, "and it leaves her in a position of power though she vanished from the Empire and won't be allowed to return even if she wanted to".

"Where is the Warren?" Allen asked tentatively, "I remember it was just a cave".

BoneSmith gestured at the shrine, "the whole temple and caverns below were built as part of the Warren in more dangerous days".

"Oh" was all Allen could say to that, never bothering to check the actual name of the temple complex and just calling it by the name the other Kobolds gave him.

BoneSmith turned to Jovial, "where do you plan to spawn the new character?" she asked.