Yeah there's no way this is supposed to be wrapping things up. It's clearly setting up for a continuation:
-Gabranth's death was very very obviously faked. They wouldn't have added all that stuff about "well they couldn't identify him at first, and now people fear his 'ghost'" if he was really meant to be dead. If they absolutely wanted him to die here he could have been the last boss of Dalriada. They didn't do that for a reason.
-Sicinius delivered newly-excavated Bozjan weapons to Gabranth in the last cutscene that looked like they had auracite in them.
-Lyon is still out there and for some reason is capturing and turning in other IVth officers.
-Fran straight up says "I hope we can work together again, perhaps next time in Dalmasca?"
-Fran's field notes finally reveal the deal with Ashe while also establishing she has memory problems.
This is going to continue in the future.
My assumption for why Gabranth did this is that he knew Dalmasca was a lost cause. His field notes say that after losing Bozja they were getting attacked on all fronts, so I think he knew Dalmasca wasn't going to stay under his control. At that point it's better to cut your losses and get out while you still can, so he faked his death so he could work on his plan with those new weapons without being hunted and assaulted by the resistances.
Though I am disappointed that this all was in the field notes instead of cutscenes, I do think it's all really cool developments and I can't wait to see where it goes.
