Chapter 6: The Highway of Danger

On the Highway of Danger, between Towns 216 and 217…

            Tariel and Artalax were traveling along when they heard a screaming voice form up ahead. "Help me!" the voice cried. "We're being robbed! That guy is robbing our caravan!" Tariel rushed forward to help the victims, while Artalax stayed back ready to cast spells if necessary. When Tariel came to the caravan, he saw two people with arrows in them lying motionless on the ground, and a thief-looking guy stealing everything he could from the caravan. "Artalax, these people need a healing spell now! You help them, I'll deal with the robber."

"I'm a wizard, not a cleric. I only have offensive spells. You have your paladin healing spells." Artalax casted a powerful spell that froze the robber in place, and Tariel used his healing powers to help the wounded. After that was taken care of, Tariel confronted the robber.

"I am Tariel, of the elite Paladins of Altaria! You must cease your evil now! Stop robbing innocents or you will be smitten down where you stand!"

The robber replied, "Man, another group of adventurers acting all heroic. A man just can't make an honest living anymore."

"Honest living? You were robbing people!"

"Well I mean, for a perfectly good while I was making a fine honest living robbing everyone who came. Everything was completely aboveboard and legal. Never killed a person, just shot 'em once with the immobilization-enchanted arrow, then took everything they owned. But now that that no-good Prince Arthanis came to the throne, he's been training up all those adventurers so now wherever I go there's some heroic dude waiting to arrest me."

"Yes. In fact, Prince Arthanis trained me."

"But now not only are there a lot of adventurers, there are just no other robbers anymore. Used to have safety in numbers, you know? But since I'm the only one I really don't have a defense."

"Why are there so few robbers so fast?"

"Well, most people say it's because of all the new adventurers. Everyone likes our new prince, says he's made the roads safe and all. But I heard there's this Kalmeth guy going around, heard he's been giving bribes to evildoers to stop them evildoing. Says it's part of some evil plan."

"But if Kalmeth is evil, then why is he getting rid of the evildoers?"

"Don't know much about it, all I know is that at this point I can pretty much take whatever money comes along. At this rate in just a few weeks I'll probably starve to death, considering how hard it is to get any money to buy food. Needless to say the Kalmeth guy hasn't come to me yet, or I wouldn't be here."

"But where do all the robbers go if they stop robbing? I haven't heard of any reformed robbers or anything."

"I've heard through the grapevine that when the Kalmeth guy bribes 'em he takes them to this place called Carpathia. Don't know much about it though."

"Carpathia. Do you know anything about what's there or where it is?"

"It's through some magical teleport something-or-other, that's all I can tell you. Don't have a clue what's over there."

"So it seems you're not a good source of information," Tariel said, then turned to Artalax. "Artalax, should I continue interrogating the prisoner, or should I just execute him now?"

"You should probably give him some civil liberties first."

"Don't know what those are. But Prince Arthanis said that anyone who mentions them is probably a traitor. I'll just go back to interrogating him."

Tariel continued interrogating the robber. "Why have you done this? What justification have you for robbing innocents?"

"I said, it's the only way a man can make money anymore. I mean, I'm a thief character class, so that's what thieves do. Just trying to make a living, and then some rich adventurer comes up and spoils my fun. I'm going to be a Communist now, with all that's going on."

"What's that?"

"Well, I used to be a serf, couldn't really make a living there, then I was a peasant, couldn't make a living there either. It's all because of rich people like you. Every time a member of the proletariat tries to do something, some highfalutin bourgeoisie knight comes in and stops 'em. It's the same stuff over and over again. The rich oppressing the poor. The bourgeoisie oppressing the proletariat. I know they say they're all heroic and all, but they're really just selfish. All they care about are their experience points and levels and magic items, don't care anything about the poor independent thieves like me."

"You do realize that Prince Arthanis is recruiting thieves to act as tax collectors. You could put your talents to good use there."

"I said I don't want anything to do with Prince Arthanis. Don't know why everyone loves him, he's just the same as all of them – big rich guy who oppresses the proletariat all over the place. That's why he wants the tax collectors and all those adventurers everyone loves him for. I'm just going to be collecting taxes from more perfectly honest thieves like me, ain't any better than what I'm in now."

"So what do you think you are going to do?"

"I don't know. Right now just waiting for the Kalmeth guy, but maybe I might want to try to find Carpathia myself. There must be something good over there, what with all the thieves going there. On the other hand if they need a bribe to go there, might not be so good."

"If you want to, you can join our party. We're trying to find the Gate to Carpathia too. And while you're with us you can tell us more about this "Communism" of yours. We could use all the help we can get."

"That sounds like a good deal. I'll take it."

Good and evil? Working together?

Has this happened before – ever?

The evil plan though – it sounds strange:

Is Kalmeth cunning, or just deranged?