#Drawlloween #Inktober 14 - Bat

The darkness between settlements may be dangerous in the Darkhive, but in the largest towns there are criminal cabals, organised gangs, and systematized corruption that require a special breed of law enforcement.

In the town of Ar-khem, there has been a particular prevalence of mutants and psychopaths who have taken over the criminal activities for recent generations. Ar-Khem is one of the few towns with a presence on two levels of the hive, it has an overworld where things look generally idyllic, if a bit neglected and sometimes a bit surreal; and an underworld where things are always dark, foggy, and dangerous. The police of Ar-Khem are corrupt, the politicians are dirty, and the guilds barely manage to maintain a safe appearance for the regular traders to whom the town is a vital port of call.

Adventurous individuals who hear tales of the heroes of far off lands sometimes come to Ar-Khem to put right the criminal activities, most fail dismally.

A single family have started putting right the balance of law and crime. They have modelled themselves on the pages of a pictorial book scavenged from a ship that crashed on the outer shell of the hive several decades ago.

They call themselves the "Family of the Bat", they confront psychopathic and mutant criminals with cunning, knowledge, technology and honour. They may not drive custom vehicles, and the use of guns isn't really an issue for them (gun's hardly exist in the hive because there is not regular method to produce the propellants/explosives for bullets). The family adopts individuals with a sense of justice, and who have lost someone to one of the criminals of Ar-Khem. Typically the individual is trained up and given a personal duty to take care of the person responsible for their loss, but once that individual has been taken out of the picture, the "Batwoman" may renounce her membership of the family, continue in the family to train a new generation, or move to another town to help spread justice for the people of the Darkhive. At any one time, there are typically half a dozen members of the "Family of the Bat" in Ar-Khem, a dozen others helping lawkeepers to maintain the peace in nearby towns, and maybe a dozen who have spread their services further afield. Members of the "Family of the Bat" prefer to work alone, but will ally for short periods with anyone who wants to see justice done.    

Crime in Ar-Khem hasn't been completely neutralised, but it is at least manageable now.

(Come on...seriously, you've seen my profile picture on the various social medias. You didn't think I'd go this way on this illustration?)

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