Chapter 10: Prison Derision
Later, at Narital Prison…
Tariel could not help but think that the Princess was not all she was cracked up to be, seeing as she sabotaged his effort to complete the quest. Tariel told Princess Talia, "You're a traitor! You're obviously an enemy of this kingdom. You prevented me from killing the Evil Bad Guy at the end. And now we get to this, this prison. It might turn out that I don't want to marry you at all, if you keep messing up our quests. I mean, I didn't even get the 5,000 experience point quest completion bonus."
Talia replied, "This just proves my point. You adventurers are so concerned about your levels and experience points that you don't care about civil liberties at all. You just want to kill them, as fast as you can. I had hope that you weren't that kind of hero, but I wanted to see you in action before I made a commitment. I didn't want to marry and then divorce, because that's a 15 percent experience point penalty."
Tariel was unfazed by Talia's accusations. "See, you care just as much about experience points as I do. So quit your whining about "civil liberties." I mean, the bad guy wasn't innocent anyway. I know, I didn't give them a right to an attorney and I didn't tell them what they were accused of, but they weren't criminals, they were enemy combatants. Just remember what Prince Arthanis always tells us: you're either with us or you're with the Evil Nonhuman Forces Of Evil, and if you don't agree with his agenda then you're unpatriotic."
Robari jumped in, agreeing with Talia's viewpoint. "See, I told you those adventurers were good-for-nothing scum. They don't care about the people, they don't care about the proletariat, all they care about is their loot. Maybe, Princess Talia, someday you can join me in my Communist crusade and we can unite all the downtrodden, oppressed monsters and we can rise up and overthrow the ruling class!"
Later…
As part of the party's rehabilitation, they were required to witness Narital Prison's torture chambers in action, so they can see how bad torture can get. They peered into one of the torture chambers and observed a human stretched out on the rack, begging for mercy.
"Please! HELP me! STOP it – ARRGGHHGH!"
So far, this was just standard torture stuff, But soon it started to get interesting.
"I told you, Carpathia is an adventurer's paradise! I gave you the information! Now let me out. squeak stretch YYYAAAARRRRRRGGGGHHH!!!"
Tariel asked the guard on duty what kind of information they were trying to extract. "In this wing are all the people that come through the Gate to Carpathia. I mean, we're trying to figure out what's behind there, but nobody we send through comes back, but sometimes people from Carpathia come through this way, so what better way to find out than by asking them?"
"But why do you have to torture them?"
"We've tried asking them nicely. But they keep saying the same things. They say it's an adventurer's paradise. But it has to be incredibly dangerous, because nobody who has entered has ever returned, so they must be either getting killed or captured and put to work for some evil scheme."
Meanwhil,e, the interrogation was continuing:
"ARRGHHH! Okay, fine! You can buy 4 tickets for the price of 3! Save more with super deals – YOWWWWW!"
"Answer the question! What evil dwells within the depths of Carpathia?"
"I told you! We have all kinds of monsters! Levels 1-50 and more on the way! And plenty of –AAAAAHHHH"
"We know there are monsters! We want to know what evil scheme the monsters are being used for!"
"There's no evil scheme! We just want to create a safe and –YYEEOOOWW – healthy environment for adventurers – AAARRRRGGGHHHH!!!"
"I know you are lying! Tell the truth or the torture will continue!"
"Okay! For a limited time only you can get 25 percent off on all magical items – AARRGGH – YOWWWW – and here in Carpathia we have the latest line of Heal-O-Aid Mark VI Super Strength Healing Potions at all the general stores – AAYYYOOOWW – we've been rated number one –AAYYYYYYYAAARRRGHHHHH!!!!"
"It doesn't look like we'll get any more information out of this person. But we've got several other people who have already come through the portal. We can torture them, too."
"You say that nobody comes back once they go through," Princess Talia said. "But maybe they're not coming back because they don't want to be captured and tortured like this."
"That's not a problem," said the guard, producing a list of names. "We keep a record of everybody who has gone through. If someone who we sent through returned, we would know he's one of us and not a Carpathian, so that's not a problem."
"I see there's several dozen names on this list," said Tariel. "Have you sent anyone through that has telepathic powers? That might be useful because they could use there telepathy to communicate back."
"Actually, we did send one through, her name was Teletha. She told us, though, that because of the long distances involved she would only be able to send one message back. It was something about "45 gold pieces per minute". We did get the telepathic message, and it says, that yes, there was an evil scheme going on."
Meanwhile, somewhere in Carpathia…
Teletha was trying to telepathically communicate with her homeland when she said,
"Come to Carpathia. It's like an XP machine."
But with all the static on the line, what they heard was:
"Run from Carpathia. There's an evil scheme."
It turned out it was all just a case of bad telepathy.
Get the Sprint TPS Free & Clear Plan from Telepathic Communications today!"
Eventually, the heroes were released from prison and made their way toward the Gate to Carpathia, the previous events only heightening the mystery as to what lay beyond. Was Carpathia really an adventurer's paradise? But if so, then why wasn't anyone coming back to tell the tale? Or were those who passed through the portal being trapped there forever, perhaps by some malicious being bent on world domination? But if that was the case, then how could he be stopped if nobody was strong enough to escape his clutches? And who was this "Kalmeth" that Robari had mentioned? Could he be involved in some way? As Tariel, Artalax, Princess Talia, and Robari stepped through the portal, none knew the truth behind the mystery but they would find out soon enough…
And so the portal has been found,
But on the other side, will evil abound?
Does this place deserve its legends?
Is it hell – or is it heaven?