Thursday night was a bit of a thriller. While two gangs decided to fight it out in Mage Quarter, leading to what allegedly was a self-detonated explosion claiming the lives of two people then The King’s Footmen, AKA, Golf Company was busy in Old Town, where a killer had hung a dead (retired, according to our sources) guard from a lamppost. But before we get too deep into that then we need a bit of a background for what is going on, as this was only the latest from the criminal we have decided to name “The Revenge Killer”.
The person behind the grisly killing of the guard is also connected to a series of bombing incidents. At least two bombs were placed in the vicinity of Golf Unit’s guard station in Old Town, and shortly after this the Cathedral had to be closed while the guards had to check it for bombs as rumours had it more bombs had been placed inside the holy building. Luckily this turned out to not be the case, and so far, the only people targeted by this dangerous individual seems to be guards, and people closely associated with them, but it did not prevent a few churchgoers from panicking slightly.
One of them, a young devout human woman was quite shocked.
“I can’t believe it! What crazy person would try to bomb the Cathedral! A place of peace and tranquillity!” she told me just as a Ren’dorei walked up to us to add his perspective on the situation:
“I don’t go there much, with the whole Light thing being a tad uncomfortable for me, but even if I am no friend of the Light then it seems a bit much to bomb the place!” he said as I was observing the guards who had closed of the entrance in tandem with a paladin from one of the holy orders who operate out of the Cathedral.
Luckily the state of alert was soon called off as no bomb was actually found.
The two bombs in the area around Golf Company’s guardhouse was less fake however, and only due to vigilant and brave guards was the situation diffused – pun intended – and as far as we have been able to find, then no one was injured. Who is behind it is still up in the air, but I did walk past a couple of people in Old Town who seemed aware of the presence of the bombs. They were adamantly debating amongst themselves whether they should warn the guards or not. Luckily the guards did not need the information, or it could have turned grim.
The dead guard
After the two bombings, the next the guards heard of The Revenge Killer was Thursday night while the gang war was going on in Mage District. I was alerted to it by a bird. Well, a man who had shape changed into a bird and landed outside our office and told me there was a guard hanging from a lamppost in Old Town. Finding this far more interesting than whatever was going on in Mage District I decided to head over.
I won’t go into the details of the grotesque scene in front of my eyes, the guard hanging from the lamppost. But it was clear he had died in either great agony or pure terror. A marking was carved into his forehead, but I could not see the details from the distance. Some sort of cleansing ritual was performed after the guard was brought down from the suspended position, perhaps to deal with some sort of lingering magic. I asked the senior officer at the scene for a statement, and after they finished cleaning up, Lieutenant Parker took me to their guardhouse for a quick little Q and A session.
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Lieutenant Parker:
"So, mister Lester, what did you wish to inquire about?"
H. Lester:
"Well the dead guy. Guard uniform, was he one of yours?"
Lieutenant Parker:
"Not one of Golf Company, no."
I later learned that he was apparently a retired guard.
H. Lester:
"Hung? before or after death?"
Lieutenant Parker:
"After. Or right before, hard to tell straight away. But it was not of his own doing, that is for sure."
H. Lester:
"Any connection to existing cases?"
Lieutenant Parker:
"One. Though I cannot disclose much more than that. But rest assured, as of now the attacks have been targetted towards the Guard or affiliates of the Guard."
Lieutenant Parker:
"As in, the people who work closely with us."
H. Lester:
"So civilians don't need to worry?"
Lieutenant Parker:
"Not at the moment, no. It was stated in another note left by the perpetrator that the bomb left in the Cathedral was a dud, not meant to go off at all and merely a diversion."
Lieutenant Parker:
"The only one that was meant to go off, and did, was the one placed right next to this building."
H. Lester:
"So bombs and bomb threats and now a dead guard. Any idea to a motive?"
Lieutenant Parker:
"In this city? We've had guards killed before for various motives, usually it is the regular case of people not knowing what it is we do and how we operate."
Lieutenant Parker:
"Though I can tell you that this case, specifically, the motive is revenge. It appears as if Golf Company, or a unit before us, prioritised another case over another which lead to the death of a woman. Not a case I am familiar with, however. So I do not believe it was Golf Company, though people rarely distinguish the differences or care for that matter. We prioritise matters differently at any point of the day."
With an overworked guard force, and a tight budget and civilians who has very little respect for the guards, or their work then it is no surprise difficult choices must be made at times and that not all cases can be worked with all the resources they require. In the last weeks I have seen a lot of people complaining about the guards, under the assumption that my critical articles mean I hate all guards and is just looking for an excuse to pile on more hate. That is not the case. I respect most guards, and I think they do have a horrible job that I would hate to do myself and I think that the citizens far too often make their job more difficult than it has to be. I’ll badger them for them for corruption, incompetence, and straight up unlawful actions, but I am not going to hound them for small mistakes or for making a bad call in a stressful situation. Unless there is a pattern. It does make me wonder if paperwork from previous guard companies still exists, if so, it should cut down the suspect pool to look through old case files. And if that is not the case, then perhaps paperwork should be kept in a more centralised location, so it is not lost when guard companies are changed.
We will try to follow the case and keep you updated on the progress.