Moonshine That Can Kill You

THEBES, EGYPT

Civil wars occurred with regularity in Africa as baseball in the US, and today Thebes had become a rogue city state that had splintered with the greater Egyptian Government. A militia that calls itself OSIRIS had proclaimed Thebes an independent state, just as the rest of the country reels with unrest, mass unemployment and civil unrest. It attracted mercenaries and cutthroats all around, all wanting a cut of the plunder.

The letter was brief.

“Make your way to the Osiris bar in downtown. Keep this crystal on your person at all times.”

The bar was simply a refurbished two storey house with a crude sign ‘Osiris Bar’ hanging above the door. Drums of moonshine lined one side of the wall, behind the folding tables. All the tables and chairs were just cheap monoblock or scavenged from the fighting. It was noontime, but Osiris militia, human and metahuman mercenaries were heavily drinking while they waiting for Osiris officials to come and give orders.

To keep up morale, the local militia even has its own moonshine, a powerful, bright red beverage called Blood of Set, or ‘Red Doom’, or ‘Battle Booze’ even ‘Soldier’s Last Drink’. Given the area’s lack of viable distilleries, it’s brewed in petrol barrels, cut with industrial chemicals, and has developed a reputation for blinding or killing the ‘weak willed’. It’s even spiked with Meth for the cult’s soldiers before they go into battle, but the version being served is thankfully meth free. Osiris doesn’t need its soldiers killing each other during downtime after all.

There’s no menu for anyone coming into the drinking hole. You come in, you pay 3 US dollars or 5 Rifle bullets for a half liter bottle of Red Doom and a shot glass, and you’re left on your own. Seeing a patron fall dead was not unusual, and two bar staff simply ‘disposed’ of the body. Unless they screamed about going blind, then they’re just tossed out the front door. The bar had a colorful cast of characters, but the holder of the letter and the crystal would find one booth stand out even more than usual – two nuns and a priest in a cassock, a fourth empty seat awaiting someone.