A Nighttime Patrol, A Hell Revealed

General Summary

Utilizing the daytime to begin your investigation in earnest, Aratheo, you begin with the missing cattle-eyes. Heading to the outskirts of town you make your way to the livestock coral, a meagre place lined with pens that house the limited amount of livestock. In such close proximity to the oasis, you can see why Ankhet is such a bustling town, the propensity for life to flourish followed by some mortal ingenuity has resulted in irrigation ditches that help grow the flora needed to sustain the cattle. Making your way into the building adjacent to the coral you find is a butchers, run by a large portly, balding human of middling age. He reveals that he was presented with a proposition for eyes, some shady looking folks that asked him to save any eyes that came from butchering the cattle. He admits that these items were usually cast-offs and disposed of so it would have been good business, however, suspecting it to be something to do with “ ’em murders ‘at be ‘appenin’ ” he tried to price them out, not wanting to start a conflict.
He was successful and they left, however it was only later when he went to check on the livestock that he realised that “ol’ Betsie” was laying there “dead as a doornail”, missing both her eyes in a grizzly display.
Riding Solaris through the night-time landscape of Ankhet, bringing forth your righteous and unwavering zeal to combat those that would prey upon the innocent, spear blazing as a warning to all those who would engage in villainy. You encounter a few would-be muggers and miscreants during your patrols, dispersing them with a flourish of your radiant polearm, astride a resplendent Solaris who rears and matches your own war-cries with his own. Just when the crusade to hunt the tyranny of devils seems all for naught, a scream of a young female reverberates through the night, as though calling you, beckoning you to rescue her. With due haste you spur Solaris into action and race down the amalgamation of maze-like alleys, kicking over debris in your wake before eventually rounding a bend and coming face to face with not one, but two hound-like entities.
They prowl over the fallen body of a women, initial glance, matching the description of the previous victims. Charging headlong into the fray to vanquish the fiends that take lives so callously, the pair of hounds, flame burning beneath their charcoal exterior, thrumming with each heartbeat, one missing an eye and baring scarring across the nape of its gullet. Ignis thrums with energy, recognising a previously fought foe, the ribbon of radiant energy pulsing as it wraps around your disease marked forearm. Solaris’ hooves kick up sand that hangs in the air for a moment as the two hellhounds bound and then leap in your direction, Ignis has already left your hand before you registered the thought, whistling through the air, leaving a golden trail in its wake that stands out like a luminous ribbon on an ebony background. Ignis finds it’s mark, impaling one of the hounds, knocking it through the air and onto its haunches as it snaps at the spear, trying to break it off before you return Ignis to hand once more. Solaris rears and in a dextrous move belying his nature he switches onto his front haunches, 180 turn and with all the kinetic energy built up from the movement, kicks back at the second hellhound who whimpers as a sickening crack echoes in the alley.
The fiendish duo prowl, side-to-side, sniffing the air around them, drinking in your scent, with a sneer they begin to dematerialize, before fading into nothingness and leaving the alleyway deserted, save for a crusader, resplendent astride his magnificent steed… And the body of a young girl, whom he was too late to save.

Report Date

23 Mar 2021