Alcander, Day 16+

I wonder at some of those who call themselves Paladins.

I accept that not all orders are like my own. For my order, wealth is foolishness. As Heracles himself needed only a stout club and the skin of a lion, so do we try to emulate this manliness.

For a warrior to demand superior gear is for his focus to deteriorate. Rather than focusing on becomming a superior warrior, a man focuses on the accumulation of newer and shinier armor, on a more powerful or more ornate blade, on a fine mount, instead of on the crucial business of becomming more worthy of one's god, of becomming a better warrior rather than simply a better equipped one.

Yet, whatever their reasons, the gods have seen fit to put me with a group of warriors who do not see this reason. They fret about the quality of their equipment, and seek enchanted blades that will do their fighting for them.

This would be hard enough to take by itself, but the lengths to which they take it! The mine which we explored, the place of evil that tempts the mind into horrible visions, where dwarves have gone mad and men have bricked themselves in, was not destroyed and was not left alone. It was sorted catalogued, systematically looted, and sold at the market.

It is unfathomable. We, mighty paladins, whose calling in life is to right wrongs, battle evil, and behave in all ways in a manly fashion, sitting at a stall in market, bargaining.

Of course, my companions claim that it is all logical, rational, that they need the best tools to fight evil. But they forget that the most powerful tool to fight evil is not a sword or armor. It is a paladin. That is why we are here.

Yet they continue, attempting to set a fair price for good works. It is pathetic, and I fear it may erode their training, their warriorly mindset, their willingness to do battle.

I fear that soon we will stop seeking enemies to fight at all. We shall go the way of Athens, and attempt to stop evil through investments and trade rather than by the rightful might of our just arms.

I pray to Heracles that their infection does not strike me. For there is evil afoot.