SOFT HEARTS MAKE FOR SOFT MARKS

The Tower lay on the ground in front of Conrad, wincing and gritting his teeth at the pain of the severed tendons in his now nearly useless legs. On the ground yes, but Conrad noted he was far from beaten. The man’s eyes made promises of violence that were plain even without words.

He struggled to a sitting position and made to reach for his fallen spear.

“No,” Conrad said, kicking the weapon away and out of even the large man’s considerable reach, “You stay where you are. I didn’t come out here to kill anybody but after what I just survived?” Conrad blew out a long calming breath, “I will crush your legs into useless meat bags if I need to in order to get you to just sit,” he gestured calmingly at the ground, “and talk to me.”

“We don’t have anything to say to each other,” The Tower said, though he seemed to take Conrad at his word and had quit squirming.

“No? How about names? Let’s start there. I’m Conrad. You robbed my family's shop,” Conrad gestured vaguely in the direction of Edge, “Place by the name of Border Zone, right up against the outer perimeter of the Edge node.”

The Tower looked momentarily thoughtful. “Good people, your parents,” he said, “Cooperative. They know their son’s a killer?”

“They know who robbed them, ” Conradi said, waiving away the irrelevant question,“They'll forgive me doing my job.”

The Tower looked past Conrad to the bodies of his dead henchmen, “You sure about that?”

Conrad turned to take in his grizzly work. Dirk’s brains were splattered all over the cheerful colors of Eloise’s cottage, and Red Bandana - Conrad still didn’t even know his name - had died without even falling to the ground. He was slumped on his knees, a long trail of viscous blood, snot, and saliva dripping from beneath his namesake. His severed arm lay just next to him, pale amid the pooled blood of the man’s last moments.

Looking at it all now? The Tower’s words stung.

The violence of the scene shocked him. He didn’t even know these men, hadn’t even seen them before five minutes ago. Killing the Seekers had felt good, it had felt right, Chaos take their souls they had deserved it. But could he say the same for these men?

He didn’t know. They had robbed people, yes, and maybe what Dirk had said about hangings waiting for them in Edge had been true, but Conrad was an adventurer, not the law. In every fantasy and day dream he had ever had about being out here and doing this kind of work, he had been killing monsters. If ever he imagined taking on other adventurers it was in a sporting sense, a tournament or friendly duel.

Now, inside of a couple of weeks into his tenure as an adventurer he had killed five people.

At the thought he noticed the notifications of rewards for their deaths were minimized and waiting for his attention but he continued to ignore them. Getting XP for this slaughter felt… wrong. And yet Order didn’t take sides or judge. Whether these men deserved to die or not, to Order’s way of thinking - if such a thing as perspective or thinking could be applied to a god - rewards had been earned.

He checked his quest log and saw that no update had been triggered. The conditions stated that he had to “bring The Tower to justice or appease the people of the hamlet.”

Finishing it was an option. He could truss The Tower up and drag him back to Edge. Killing him here and now was also an option. That would no doubt appease the villagers, but it made Conrad sick to even consider it.

But before he did any of that he wanted to know that what happened here meant something. He wanted to know what the hell was going on.

“I can’t keep calling you ‘The Tower’,” Conrad said, “The other men, they said your name is Karno.”

Karno kept quiet so Conrad continued, “I’m sorry about what happened here. I didn’t want to kill Dirk or…” he nodded toward Red Bandana, “Truth be told I came out here to save people. Eloise went missing a couple days back and I’m here trying to find her.” He gestured at the ruined garden around them, “I thought it was you that did all this.”

The two men were silent a few moments before Karno spoke, “Paul.”

“What?” Conrad asked.

“You killed Dirk and Paul,” he said, “Paul was a Miller. And Dirk was a fieldhand playing at Rogue. Wanted to take advantage of the way Barrett changed things.”

A Miller? That was a tier two non-combat class. And Dirk was no doubt brand new to the Rogue class if his fighting was anything to go by.

“What were men like that doing turning to banditry? What are you doing out here?” Conrad asked.

“What do you think we’re doing out here?” Karno asked.

“A couple of days ago I would have said you were just some opportunists mooching off hard working people and taking advantage of the apathy of adventurers. But I spoke with some of your victims, not to mention my parents. You’ve been taking, sure, but you’ve been leaving them with what they needed to keep going,” Conrad said.

Karno looked surprised at the admission and Conrad waited a moment for him to confirm, deny, or do something to help answer the questions he still had.

“I’m bleeding,” Karno said, finally.

“Shocking,” Conrad said. He tapped Mara’s dagger, still bloody, against one of his armored plates.

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The big man sighed heavily, then yanked on his shirt sleeve tearing the whole thing off one arm. He tore it again lengthwise and began binding the wounds on his legs.

“Talk with you once I quit bleeding to death,” he growled.

“Ok, point taken,” Conrad said, checking his inventory. He had potions ready, but didn’t want the man actually on his feet. Instead he selected some of the Candid Fudada he had leftover from his time in the dungeon. It helped sooth pain and provided a small amount of health regeneration, but not enough to get Karno back to fighting strength. Not quickly at least.

He called out to Karno and tossed him the clump of moss, “Stuff the wound. It helps. Promise.”

The man did as he was asked and relief flooded his face almost instantly, which precipitated a more urgent application of the remaining moss. A minute or so later he pulled with a final tug on his bandage and leaned back.

“You going to help me or not?” Karno asked.

“What?” Conrad said, incredulous.

Karno’s voice was flat, “I know adventurers. You’re too smart for this, can see you practically tearing up thinking over what you’ve done. Real mercs don’t spare a thought. You though?” Karno sighed deeply and nodded in certainty, “You’re green, you screwed up, and you want to make it better. So help me.”

“That’s it? Help you? Not going to promise to kill me over your friends?” Conrad asked.

Shrugging, Karno replied, “More like coworkers. I’m not happy about it, but I’m not turning away the only chance I’ve got.”

“I’m the guy who has been tracking you down. I’ve got about fifteen quests related to killing or capturing you. If I’m the only chance you’ve got, it’s in me explaining how you shouldn’t be hung for robbing half the hamlets around Edge,” Conrad said.

“And if that’s all you do, merc, then you’re killing the families of these men,” he gestured at his dead ‘coworkers’, “Well you’ll be killing Paul’s family. Dirk signed up.”

Conrad’s heart stopped briefly at that information and he stumbled over his words as he said, “What are.. What do you mean?”

Karno smirked, “Thought so. You got a heart. And you fight.”

“Every couple of days we head back to Barret,” Karno spoke slowly enough that Conrad took out his map, and Karno seemed to understand the gesture, “Settlement called Great Pines. We bring in the goods we’ve taken. And as long as we hit our quota, our family’s aren’t forced to fight in the Arena.”

“OK what?” Conrad said, squinting, “Let’s start with Barret, heard his name enough to be curious.”

Karno nodded, “He’s an adventurer. Was. More of a warlord now ever since he found the Arena. New dungeon, and as far as I know new type. Appeared a stone’s throw from Great Pines.”

“And the families?” Conrad prodded.

“That’s what we’re out here for. I didn’t rob your parents’ store because I wanted to. Barrett is growing the dungeon. He needs items, materials, all kinds of things he can feed to it so that the rewards it spits out when you best it are better.”

The Warren Dungeon under Edge had grown somewhat naturally with the city being right on top of it when it manifested. Sometimes adventurers died and it absorbed them, taking much of their knowledge of skills and magic, along with their items and experience and adding it all to its own. Dungeon’s weren’t overly creative on their own, they needed interaction from the outside world in order to come up with new drops, loot, monsters and challenges.

But this was the first time Conrad had encountered the idea of growing a dungeon intentionally. It made sense in theory - if you could keep sending new items and material into a dungeon, it could theoretically grow much faster and produce loot in the style of whatever you put into it. Given that this “Barrett” guy had been feeding it everything from weapons to farm animals and equipment, it could mean that he intended to grow the settlement of Great Pines into a proper city and lord over the dungeon as a source of unlimited wealth.

“The deal is simple,” Karno said, “Keep bringing in the goods and Barrett won’t use your family and friends to feed the dungeon. That privilege goes to others outside the town.”

“So Barrett was too impatient to trade for items to feed the dungeon and didn’t have enough on hand, so he conscripted a force of men to take what he needed from the countryside,” Conrad said.

“That’s the shape of it,” Karno confirmed, “He wants to consolidate his power before other people get wind of what he’s got and try to seize it from him. And it's working.”

“Who does he have of yours?” Conrad said, already anticipating the answer but not sure how it fit into the narrative Karno was spinning.

Karno grunted, “Nobody at first. Told Barrett to screw off and I left, but Eloise… she’s got people. And a lot of the robberies were getting violent at first. Sending homesteaders to rob homesteaders? They weren’t having it. But send ‘The Tower’?”

He chuckled humorlessly, “Eloise’s idea. It’s her father’s shield I’ve got here. We figured we could keep more people alive by making ‘em give up what they had rather than thinking they had a chance fighting to defend it. Barrett liked that. Said he’d leave Eloise alone and let me do the work for her family.”

That was a good move, frankly, Conrad had to admit. Karno was an imposing man and in every single one of the robberies it had been only that - robbery. Never murder, never a fight. “But what’s changed then? Eloise is gone, looks like this place was ransacked,” Conrad said.

“No idea. I did what I could to keep the stealing as civil as possible, left folks what they needed to survive and start over, and we haven’t missed a quota yet. I’ve been coming here as often as I can to check in on her, but we’re due back with our stuff tonight,” Karno said.

“So when you said you wanted me to help you,” Conrad said, putting it together, “You want me to help you take back this shipment.”

Karno nodded and was about to speak when Conrad cut him off, “But where does it end? I’m not helping you rob the people I’ve promised to help.”

“Barrett took Eloise. As far as I’m concerned he’s ended our agreement. But we’re still expected back and her family plus Paul’s lives are on the line. You help me bring their things and their bodies back, then we get those people to safety. ‘The Tower’ is finished, you complete your quest, and we wash our hands of this whole thing and get the hell out,” Karno said.

It was a dangerous plan, but it appealed to the hero that Conrad wanted to be when he accepted the quests to come out here and hunt down The Tower. But Troy and Mara had been right, the whole thing was turning into a mess and he was in over his head. He needed help.

“We head back to Edge first, I’ve got some friends and maybe we can–”

“No,” Karno said immediately, “In case you can’t do sums, we’ve got a few hours of daylight left to get to Great Pines and it’ll take at least that long to get back to Edge. We can’t do both. Barrett doesn’t tolerate late delivery.

“Besides, there’s no approaching that town with a group, and no going in unseen. Barrett’s got eyes everywhere, and half of Great Pines are volunteers. A group of adventurers coming in with me gets everybody killed. Besides, you don’t know Barrett. You’ve got no clue what you’re signing your friends up for. We go in, we make nice, then we get out.”

“Place sounds like a fortress,” Conrad said, skeptical, “They just shut their eyes when people leave?”

“They won’t follow far. The area’s been getting bad since folks have been hamstrung in their homesteads. Monster dens are flourishing. A few villagers aren’t worth the trouble of clawing back.”

It was a terrible plan. But that was the funny thing about making bad decisions. You make one, things go sideways, and before you know it the only options left to you are all bad or worse.

“Fuck it,” Conrad said, removing a healing potion from his inventory and tossing it to Karno, “We live.”

Karno held up the potion in thanks before gulping it down.

“Drink it all,” Conrad said, “I can’t carry all three of you to Great Pines.”