Ben “Dare Devil” Rifkin

Name: Ben Rifkin
Character Name: Dare Devil
Shard: Atlantic

While most players in Ultima Online at least attempted to follow a virtuous path at one point or another, Ben Rifkin was a self-proclaimed bad guy. Having spent quality time as a Player Killer, a thief, and looter, Rifkin built a reputation for himself on the Atlantic server as a certified troublemaker. And he wouldn’t have it any other way.

On a day like any other, Rifkin heard from his friend Mark—who played under the guise “Deathknight”—that he’d come across a player’s corpse near the Shrine of Sacrifice. From the body, Mark had looted a set of recall runes. After curiously following one, he found himself inside another player’s home. And if what Mark said was true, this house was packed to the gills with a precious bounty.

Rifkin, filled with glee at his pal’s tall tale, had to see it for himself.

“This house was brimming with loot, and we knew pretty much right away that there was no doubt it belonged to a duper or a cheater,” Rifkin said. “You could rationalize some of it: ten suits of hardened plate? Sure, maybe he really found all that. But the real kicker was 4,000 diamonds. They were pretty worthless, because you could only sell, like, 10 or so to vendors at a time, and who has time for that?”

Rifkin and his pals knew immediately what they had to do: they would find the homeowner and let him know of the breach in his security.

I’m kidding, of course. They robbed the house.

The plundered treasure was moved to Rifkin’s large brick house, and added to the spoils left over from his days as a merciless Player Killer. The home served as a halfway house for Rifkin and his buddies whenever they needed a place to stash their gold, or a safe place to log out of the game.

But while Mark was celebrated for finding the fated rune, the honeymoon period abruptly ended when he went chasing after a neighbor and died. Suddenly, Rifkin’s angry neighbors were in possession of a key to his own treasure-filled house.

“This did not go well for us,” Rifkin laughed.

Read more of Ben Rifkin’s story in Braving Britannia: Tales of Melancholy, Malice, and Peril in Ultima Online!