We were bound in what looked like a small loothouse, a shallow cavern with natural stone walls and various items piled up in a disorganized manner. The thieves must have had this scam running for a while to have acquired this much stuff. None of it looked particularly spectacular, but there were a couple heavy looking bags of what I suspected were hard currency sitting on a table. The number of thieves in the cavern were small, maybe 6 total, but the number of captives was much higher. There were, all told, 12 of us. A few of the captives looked an awful lot like peasants, just trying to make their way in the world, while a couple of the others were clearly meant for combat. There was a Risi, who I recognized from my time in the race selection, with muscles on top of muscles. His face, though, showed defeat. Maybe, I thought, I can get his help.

“Look, we can’t kill them, it isn’t good for our profits.” One of the thieves was sitting in front of a book, it looked like an old-world ledger. His face was streaked with ink, or soot, maybe both.

“And why not?” The merchant from earlier, who I had learned was named Balkin, was at odds with the ledger-keeper.

“Because if they end up dead, what do we do? Bury them? Where? Here, in the cave? Do you know how much that would stink in just a few days?” He stood from his table, and smacked a hand against it. The loose coins that were gathered rattled a bit, one fell off the table and rolled towards me. I watched it slowly turn in circles as it stopped, landing on its side, face up. My eyes shot back to the ledger-keeper, who was now visibly sweating. He looked shaky, and a little pale, maybe he didn’t like the idea of murder.

“Okay, fine, you win Lark. But what do we do with them? We’ve only been doing this for 2 days, and already we have 12 people captured.” Balkin was now tapping his foot in irritation, expecting some kind of answer immediately.

“I don’t know, we need to relocate. It won’t be long before someone sees what we’re about, and sends the local Wardens, or worse, the City Guard.”

“No, we’re too far out for the guard to even be bothered. That’s a solid hour’s walk in full plate. You expect them to come to us? They’re occupied with the Thieves Guild thing.” Balkin raised a hand and spread his fingers, like he was disinterested.

“Oh, the disappearance of the Gentleman, yeah. Well, still, we need to find a new place to do this. We can’t keep it up here. Someone will notice.” Lark was close to talking sense into Balkin’s thick skull. I could see the gears turning in his head. I used the distraction to loosen some of the fibers on the back of my boots. Hopefully I could make something sturdy enough to pick the locks of the manacles on my wrists. I was well into the process when I felt something metallic hit my hand. It tumbled to the floor and let out a slight clink. At this point, Balkin and Lark were arguing so loud that most of the other thieves had left, and neither of them were paying attention to the captives. I looked around to see who had basically handed me my freedom when the Risi gave a quick nod, then shifted his shoulders farther than his manacles should have allowed. He was free! I shifted my body a little bit, and leaned back. My fingers reached the cold of the metal lockpick, and I twirled it about to get it into the right position. All those years of twirling my pens and tools while working paid off in spades.

“Damnit Lark, these stupid reasons you have aren’t even remotely valid. We have a good thing going here! Why should we break something that is already fixed?” Balkin slammed his fist down on the same table Lark had hit earlier. More shaking, more coins shifting, more tinking as they fell on the hard stone ground. At the same time, the lockpick I had been working ever so gingerly snapped in the lock. Well, shit, there went my amazing escape. But then a thought occurred to me, I was an Engineer. Surely something in my ability tree would be useful in this situation!

I dumped 3 proficiency points into my skill tree to unlock Dismantle, which allowed me to break the mechanical pieces of anything I touched, so long as they were simple. With a thought, I activated it with the manacles as the target. The manacles got hot for a minute, but then I felt the lock inside click. I shifted my hands and caught the manacles so they wouldn’t fall. I leaned up against Ina and did the same. Her manacles popped as well, and she caught them deftly. I looked over at the Risi, who had just started to stand as Lark stood up and shoved Balkin. The Risi used the chaos of the shove to grab an old dagger and lunge at Lark. He deftly moved out of the way, and kicked the Risi in the shin. The look on Lark’s face was priceless as his kick did next to nothing. The Risi, however, backhanded Lark in the face, knocking him to the floor.

“Get up, get moving. Free the others, cause chaos. I will take care of these…” He looked like he was struggling for the right word. “Idiots, that’s the best I can come up with for them just now. They’re idiots.” He kicked Lark in the chest while he was down, eliciting a long-winded shriek from the poor man. Balkin was recovering as Ina pulled her blade free and carved a wide gouge into his arm. He shouted something about murdering us all when he had the chance, which quickly led to him shouting for the rest of the thieves. I knew we needed to act fast, otherwise we were going to be overrun. I stepped from prisoner to prisoner, using Dismantle on all of their manacles. A thought occurred to me while I was freeing them. Where the hell did the thieves get all of these manacles? They were pretty high quality. One of the prisoners was a burly looking man with a salt and pepper beard and short, shock-white hair which stood on end. He rose quietly when I freed him and grabbed a pole axe from the pile of various weaponry. He weighed it in his hands, a brief smile covering his face, as he moved to the front of the group.

“Ina, need plan, will be overrun soon.” I shouted at Ina, who turned just in time to avoid the counter-attack from Balkin. She nodded fiercely, and continued to press her advantage. In the meanwhile, the man with the pole axe, a Wode, shouted loudly in the small area. I was suddenly feeling very invigorated, and had an intense desire to fight. I noticed a small half-green half-red marker in the corner of my vision. Was this a buff and debuff at the same time? It had a countdown that was quickly spiraling down from 60. I didn’t have time to inspect it, I pulled my crossbow and fired off a round at Balkin, who was now expertly fighting two opponents. I missed wide, but it was enough to throw him off balance, giving Ina an opportunity to open another wound, this one in his leg.

“Push for the front!” The Wode shouted with everything he was worth, and made an impressive jumping attack, jamming the head of his pole axe at Balkin, who leapt backwards as well. He was an evasive little shit, no doubt about it. The other prisoners were finding old weapons and armor and equipping themselves. I felt nearly heart-stopping cold seep into my fingers as my crossbow developed an odd sheet of crystalline ice. There was another green mark in my vision, another buff. I assumed it had something to do with causing ice damage, but didn’t have time to check. I wasn’t sure who the ability had come from, and it didn’t matter, because immediately thereafter, I was forced down to the ground from an intense scorching heat launching over one of my shoulders. There was a huge fan of flames pouring from the fingers of another of the prisoners, igniting everything on fire. The furniture and various racks immediately burst into flames, and then we were all heading outside quickly. The gigantic Risi had thrown Lark over his shoulder, and was carrying the unconscious thief out of the cave, taking the strides as though he wasn’t burdened at all.

When we were all outside and clear of the thick, inky smoke that was pouring from the cavern’s mouth, I found that we were all surrounded by a very formidable force of men and women of various races, and apparently various classes, all wearing similar attire. The armor was branded with the mark of the local Battlewarden chapter, according to Ina. It was a blue and white crested falcon on a field of silver. Someone had called the cavalry, and it had come none too late. Balkin had been brought to his knees, and there was a Dawn Elf man with a large axe standing in front of him. He looked down at Balkin with eyes filled with anger. “Your thievery ends now, Balkin Hardshadow.”

“You can’t kill me without a fair trial, Veryln. I know my rights. You’re nothing more th-” his voice was cut off as the sound of metal cutting through flesh filled the space. His head rolled off the side of his neck, striking the ground with a wet thump. It took a full 2 seconds for his body to follow suit and fall over. The rest of the thieves who had been rounded up immediately fell to the ground, begging for their lives.

“Round these fools up, take them to the local garrison. Let the city guard handle them. As for the prisoners, who is responsible for releasing them?” The unnecessarily large Dawn Elf, who Balkin had named Veryln, looked through the crowd of prisoners, with our ragtag gear, and our complete mess of organization.

“This man here, Veryln. He’s responsible for setting us free. And let me tell you, I am so glad to be free.” The burly Wode clapped me on the shoulder as he walked by. He stepped forward and clasped wrists with Veryln, who had a smile on his face.

“Good to see you’re still alive.” Veryln turned to me, a different kind of smile now folding his lips. “And who are you, that you would risk your life for all of these random strangers?” I was completely dumbstruck as he put out his hand for me to take.

“Vlad.” Really? That’s it? Just your name? Wow, Vlad, way to make things extra awkward.

“Not every day a person, let alone a Dawn Elf, would risk himself for the good of others. You have my thanks.” I stuck my hand out, and he shook it. I suddenly received a notification, which was both good and bad.

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Quest Update! Thievery in Broad Daylight

You have failed to recover the merchant’s stolen goods, which were destroyed.

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Quest Update! The Daylight Thieves

You have successfully completed a secret quest by routing the thieves who were absconding with passersby and imprisoning them. As a reward for your efforts, you have been granted 500 EXP, and you are now Friendly with the Battlewardens of Rowanheath!

>>>

“Ah, thank you. Yes, was no problem. Had hoped anyone would do same.” I wasn’t really sure what to make of the situation. I mean, I had failed that one quest, but it was given by someone who wasn’t really a quest giver. Is that how it worked? Or did it not matter? I would research that later. Now, Ina and I needed to get to Rowanheath. The sun was beginning to set, and we still had a solid hour’s walk.

“Your thanks is unnecessary. Hopefully we will see you at the chapter house one day. Fare thee well, and thanks for bringing these thieves to justice.” With that, Veryln turned away. He issued a quick, militaristic command and the rest of the wardens turned and marched off, towards Rowanheath.

“I’ll be one of them soon,” Ina said, with a sparkle of expectation in her eye. “And then, Father, I will have followed in your footsteps.” I was very excited to help her achieve her dream, but we needed to get there first.

“Ina, is good to have goals, but need to move.” She picked up her pack she had placed on the ground after our exodus, and we started to head back towards the road. As we were traveling the long road to Rowanheath, I was taken unexpectedly by a Universal Alert. It completely occluded my vision, so I didn’t have a choice but to read it.

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Viridian Gate Online Universal Alert!

Notice: Traveler Grim Jack Shadowstrider, honorary member of the Ak-Hani clan, has founded the first traveler-owned faction in Viridian Gate Online! Any traveler opposed to the Viridian Empire may now request to join Grim Jack’s faction, the Crimson Alliance, bound to the Dokkalfar city of Yunnam, located deep in the heart of the Storme Marshes.

Notice: Joining the Crimson Alliance instantly lowers a player’s relationship with all Viridian-aligned factions to Unfriendly. Joining the Crimson Alliance instantly raises a player’s relationship with all Rebel-aligned factions to Friendly. Joining the Crimson Alliance entitles members to all Crimson Alliance Faction buffs.

Notice: Grim Jack Shadowstrider is now an exalted enemy of the Ever-Victorious Viridian Empire!

>>>

“What just happened?” Ina looked as confused as I was. There were a million questions running through my head.

“I think someone just made very big mistake.” What the hell is the Crimson Alliance, and why in the world would this Grim Jack Shadowstrider want to become an exalted enemy of the Viridian Empire?

“Well, the Viridian Empire is absolutely massive, and they’re pretty much the ruling force here in Eldgard. Whoever this Jack is,” Ina said over her shoulder, as we continued to walk towards Rowanheath. “He just made a very terrible enemy. The Viridian Empire is known as the ‘Ever-Victorious Empire’ for a reason.” I hung my head low as I continued to listen, knowing that things were about to get considerably more complicated than I was really willing to deal with. But this was a new world, a new life, and I needed to be ready to handle absolutely anything that it would throw at me. Hopefully, though, I wouldn’t be bound and threatened by an idiot with a pair of daggers again anytime soon.