Feeding Faiyum was a virtual representation of one of Bayek's genetic memories, relived by Layla Hassan through the Portable Animus HR-8.
Description[]
A stonemason and his wife are terrified after hearing hideous screams coming from beneath the temple. She asks Bayek to investigate.
Dialogue[]
After helping the Phylakitai of Karanis, Epigonos, to solve a murder in the temple and prevent that of the High Priest, Bayek encountered an Egyptian woman outside the temple desiring to speak with him.
- Woman: Neb! Please! I must speak with you!
I saw you with the Phylakitai of Karanis. Are you a protector? - Bayek: I am. Is there something wrong?
- Woman: Please, we need your help. Yesterday my husband witnessed something... frightening. Soldiers dragged a poor man beneath the temple. Then he heard screams! We're already hungry because there's no grain. Now I'm terrified the soldiers will take my husband. We don't know who we can trust, not even the Phylakitai.
- Bayek: Let me talk to your husband. Where can I find him?
- Woman: He's a stonemason working near the temple. Please be careful. The soldiers mustn't see you talk to him!
Bayek speaking to the stonemason
Bayek found the stonemason working at the walls of the town.
- Bayek: Stonemason, your wife has been to see me.
- Stonemason: Shhh! How die you get up here? By Amun, that woman interferes. I told her, "What can we do?" Just act normal. Yeah, that's it. Stay normal.
- Bayek: Calm yourself! She said you saw soldiers take someone below the temple.
- Stonemason: Yes. No! Yes. Okay, it's true. It wasn't the first time, but yesterday was different. There were screams that would wake the gods themselves! So many screams!
Now please, just leave me alone before someone sees you. Just act normal. (Humming and whistling)
The stonemason resumed his work while Bayek headed down to the entrance below the temple.
- Bayek: Some people just should not whistle.
Bayek finding the entrance
Bayek arrived at the entrance.
- Bayek: This looks like the place the Stonemason told me about.
He encountered several soldiers and eliminated them. He discovered a room with patches of blood on the ground and bags of grain all around.
- Bayek: By Amun! What has been done here?
He examined the ground.
- Bayek: Blood, and a lot of it. That must explain the screams.
On the shelf, he examined a bag of grain.
- Bayek: That is a lot of grain when most people do not have enough. This looks like a temporary storage area. Are they moving grain?
He discovered a papyrus written by an individual known as the Butcher.
Message from the Butcher
- Your payment is in the usual place beneath bathing Sobek.
There can be no disappointing the Crocodile. Take the farmer's arm. Tell him next time someone refuses it will be their head.
—Butcher
- Bayek: Someone called the Butcher is strong-arming farmers. I need to find him. I should follow this trail of loot. A bathing Sobek. Bathing... must be in water. A Sobek in water... hmmm...
Bayek followed the clues to the Sunken Temple of Pnepheros, located west of Karanis.
- Bayek: There's a Sobek ruin not far from here. The Butcher's loot could be nearby.
As he left Karanis, he passed by a demonstration at the back entrance of the temple.
- Man: They take our gods and turn them into abominations. Serapis!? Half Greek, half Egyptian, all whore of Alexandria!
Those lying Greeks are working us to death, tearing down our own temples! This is what their culture means! The death of Egypt and Egyptians!
And who does all this work to build Greece on top of Egypt? Egyptians of course! Last week our brother Metjen died while working on the temple. His wife just gave birth to their first son!
Bayek soon rode out and found the ruins. He approached the it and discovered a group of guards keeping watch.
- Bayek: Those are guards. This must be the place. The "Bathing Sobek" should be close.
Bayek finding a chest with the payment
As he crept closer, he overheard two guards talking to each other.
- Greek Soldier 1: He was asking for it. We can't have these sand-rat Egyptians getting brave. Now hurry! This shipment goes to Dromos' holy corridor tomorrow.
- Greek Soldier 2: I've never taken a man's arm before. Did you see how clean the cut was? Right through the bone. That's talent.
- Greek Soldier 1: Haha! Gods, did he scream. Not one farmer will have the guts to resist now.
- Greek Soldier 2: If they knew the Butcher they wouldn't ever consider it. He was lucky it wasn't his head. Few cross the Butcher and live.
- Greek Soldier 1: We shouldn't even be talking of it. If word got back to him we'd get in trouble. Best just get on with our work.
With Senu's help, Bayek located the payment in the temple. He dove into the water and swam towards the submerged part of the ruins. He discovered a chest engraved with a depiction of Soknopaiou Nesos.
- Bayek: There's an engraving on the chest depicting Soknopaiou. That is a village West of here. The coins are in bags normally used to store grain. Did this come from a storehouse?
Bayek resurfaced and rode a boat to the village. He explored the village and found a storehouse heavily guarded by soldiers.
Bayek finding a guarded storehouse
- Bayek: That is a lot of guards for a simple storehouse. This must be the place. I have to get past them if I want answers.
He eliminated the guards and made his way inwards.
- Bayek: The Butcher will be nearby. What are these goons hiding?
As he ventured in further, Bayek overheard a conversation between guards.
- Soldier 1: I heard they took his arm at the Butcher's order. I guess we are common thugs now, not soldiers.
- Soldier 2: Shh, keep your voice down!
- Soldier 1: (Shit!) This is not what I joined the army for.
- Soldier 2: It is what puts grain on your table. You are here now. When the Butcher says jump, we jump. That is how it is. Now shut-up before someone hears us.
Bayek finding loads of stolen grain
Bayek eliminated the guards and investigated the place. He found a mountain of grain sacks in the room.
- Bayek: This is where they're hiding all the grain. Taken straight from the tables of Faiyum families. Damn these greedy neket iadet. I should look around.
Bayek found several ledgers on a table.
- Bayek: Ledger entries showing payments for grain. The Butcher is not paying the farmers even enough to live. I need to find information on where he is.
On the opposite side, he examined the numerous bags of grain.
- Bayek: More grain. The poor are starving while the rich fill their storehouses. This has to stop. I should keep looking around.
He found a papyrus on another table.
Urgent message from the Butcher
- Store the grain as usual. Shipment is going out next week, so make certain everything is ready. Bring the final tally to my upstairs office at the villa, where I'm stuck fixing your mistakes. Any more errors and it's your head.
- Bayek: Ah, this is it. The Butcher is in the villa nearby. It is time this Butcher and I had a talk.
Bayek found an entrance to the villa through the storehouse. He climbed up the ladder to the villa.
- Bayek: A palatial villa. Built on the backs of Faiyum's farmers, no doubt.
He overhead the butcher ordering and berating his subordinate.
- Butcher: Once the shipment arrives, leave immediately. We can thank those fanatical Wadjet cultists in Karanis for taking the attention off us.
- Greek Soldier: All this grain. Shouldn't we leave some for the farmers?
- Butcher: Shut your mouth and do your job. That grain is what pays for your beer and women. Or did you think they like you because you're a soldier?
Bayek made his way up to the Butcher's office, where he found two of the soldiers with him as bodyguards.
- Butcher: Ah, here's the vlaka who's been messing with my business. We were just discussing you.
- Bayek: You've been stealing grain from Faiyum... starving people for profit.
- Butcher: You're not from Faiyum, are you? Your speech reeks of the countryside.
- Bayek: That grain belongs on Egyptian tables.
- Butcher: You naive backwater malakia. I take orders from above. If not me, someone else will do this. This is business. People pay what they owe, or I take it. It's not personal. I give you a choice now. Leave me alone and live, or die here.
Bayek threatening the Butcher
- Bayek: Others thought they way you do. Then they murdered my son. Everything is personal, you filthy neket iadet.
The Butcher waved for his men to attack.
- Bayek: It ends here!
- Butcher: Guards! Take care of this!
Bayek fought the Butcher and his bodyguards, successfully killing them.
- Bayek: May the Hidden One greet you. The Lord of the Duat awaits.
Outcome[]
Bayek discovered the culprit that has been stealing from the farmers of Faiyum and eliminated him.
Gallery[]
