Faraz Malik

Faraz Malik presents himself to the world as a steadfast champion of truth, driven by an unrelenting desire to unravel mysteries and expose hidden threats. His persona is marked by an unwavering focus and a quiet gravitas—he is the kind of investigator who listens more than he speaks, methodically piecing together clues while carrying the weight of personal loss on his shoulders. Faraz's interactions are shaped by cautious trust, a deep empathy for those suffering, and a refusal to accept surface-level explanations, all colored by a skepticism born from betrayal and tragedy. In OCEAN terms, Faraz is high in openness (curious and insightful), moderately conscientious (organized and diligent), relatively low in extroversion (introverted and thoughtful), high in agreeableness (compassionate), and moderately high in neuroticism (anxious under pressure, haunted by guilt).

The core conflict begins in the local press office, a cramped yet resilient hub where Faraz has spent years reporting the truth. The office is cluttered with bulletin boards covered in news clippings, scattered notes, flickering emergency lanterns, and windows that now reveal a haunting view of an eerily empty street below. As the supernatural invasion begins, this once safe workplace becomes the center of resistance, information gathering, and the first battleground of Faraz’s struggle between investigation and protection.

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Maryam Town Press Office

The art style of this image is Photorealism. The image should not contain any text or characters. Depict a small, cluttered Pakistani press office at night, illuminated by a few dim emergency lanterns. The walls are papered with news clippings, maps, and crowded bulletin boards. An old wooden desk is scattered with notepads, a camera, and scattered reports. Outside the grimy windows, a dark street is barely visible, shrouded in supernatural mist and eerie, unnatural shadows, reflecting a sense of looming danger and isolation.

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Faraz must infiltrate the most dangerous areas of Maryam Town, risking his own safety to collect proof about the supernatural forces at play. He is challenged to uncover clues and artifacts guarded by both monsters and corrupted humans, each step threatening to expose those closest to him. As he pieces together the origin of the invasion, he must make tough choices about whom to trust with this information. The evidence he gathers becomes the key to understanding the enemy and the main leverage he holds against them. This milestone tests his resolve to expose the truth despite the risk it poses to his friends.

Recognizing he cannot face the invasion alone, Faraz must rally local survivors—including conflicted allies and wary rivals—into a cohesive team willing to defend each other. He navigates fractured alliances, building trust and negotiating fragile truces, all while carrying the guilt of past losses. These alliances must be strong enough to withstand attack and betrayal as supernatural threats intensify. Faraz must balance transparency with caution, sometimes withholding devastating secrets to safeguard his allies from further harm. This goal represents his struggle to keep people safe while still pursuing answers.

Armed with hard-won evidence and strengthened by the support of his allies, Faraz moves to publicly reveal the truth behind the invasion’s origins. He faces his greatest test: confronting both supernatural powers and human adversaries desperate to keep the secrets buried. To succeed, Faraz must risk everything, overcoming guilt and self-doubt to broadcast the facts to Maryam Town and beyond. This act forces him to reconcile the cost of knowledge with the responsibility to protect, shaping the outcome of the conflict. By exposing the hidden source, he offers hope of survival and a path toward reclaiming his community.

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A hot flask of strong spiced chai, commonly prepared by survivors to restore energy and alertness during cold, stressful nights. Drinking it provides a significant boost to stamina and helps combat fatigue.

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Spiced Chai Flask

A tightly-sealed pack of high-energy pulao, favored by survivors for restoring physical strength when rest is scarce. Consuming it provides a noticeable increase in stamina and helps Faraz stay alert.

Nutrient Pulao Pack

A small clay vial filled with dark, powdery ashes found in magically scorched ruins. Consuming it drastically saps physical energy and leaves a lingering sense of restlessness.

Cursed Ash Dregs

A brass locket containing a photo of Faraz’s mother. Holding it briefly restores courage and helps process difficult feelings, improving emotional resilience.

Worn Family Locket

An old audio cassette with a voice message from a lost friend. Listening to it invokes bittersweet memories, providing comfort and emotional support, boosting emotional resilience.

Synced Memories Cassette

A torn, water-stained letter filled with angry accusations. Reading it intensifies Faraz’s sense of guilt, undermining his emotional resilience.

Rancid Guilty Letter

A hot, generously-spiced bowl of daal shared with an ally. Eating together nurtures trust and meaningful connection, strengthening human connection.

Shared Survivor Meal

A simple, woven thread bracelet given by a childhood friend. Wearing it reminds Faraz of his support network, greatly increasing his sense of human connection.

Old Friendship Bracelet

A moldy piece of traditional mithai, carelessly left to spoil. Consuming it triggers revulsion and isolation, harming Faraz’s sense of connection to others.

Rotten Festival Mithai

Faraz requires physical rest and stamina to maintain focus and agility during investigative work and survival situations.

Rest & Stamina

Faraz needs to process grief, fear, and guilt to remain mentally strong and avoid emotional burnout under constant stress and danger.

Emotional Resilience

Meaningful interactions and emotional support from allies help Faraz maintain his morale and overcome his sense of isolation.

Human Connection

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Once the heart of Maryam Town’s commerce, the Sultani Gate bazaar now stands warped by supernatural forces—abandoned, shadowed, and heavy with the lingering aura of the invasion’s first night. Tangled alleys wind through collapsed market stalls, flickering with unearthly light and echoing with distant, unnatural sounds. In this corrupted maze, every hidden relic or journal is fiercely guarded by the monstrous entities that now call these haunted ruins home.

The Shrouded Bazaar of Sultani Gate

The art style of the image is Photorealism. The image should not contain any text or characters. Depict a sprawling, abandoned open-air market at night, centered beneath an imposing Sultani Gate, its arches cracked and half-shrouded in swirling supernatural mist. Broken wooden stalls and upturned carts litter narrow, maze-like alleys, casting jagged shadows across rain-slick cobblestones. Street lanterns flicker with an eerie, bluish glow while strange runes, faintly illuminated, crawl over ruined shopfronts. Evidence of magical contamination appears as unnatural, glowing patches on the ground and walls, with distant silhouettes of grotesque creatures barely visible within the bazaaru2019s depths. The air is thick with a haunting sense of danger, and the encroaching darkness at the edges threatens to swallow the entire marketplace.

In this quest, Faraz must infiltrate the abandoned old bazaar at the heart of Maryam Town, rumored to be ground zero for the supernatural outbreak. Battling through darkness, supernatural threats, and corrupted humans, he hunts for clues—ancient runes, bloodstained journals, or a hidden artifact. The deeper he goes, the greater the risk of being discovered and leading monsters back to survivor hideouts. Success uncovers critical evidence about the invasion’s origins and offers leverage against the enemy. Failure not only means the loss of vital intel but could endanger Faraz’s friends as the creatures track his trail. Every decision tests his resolve to put truth above personal safety, and the quest’s outcome shapes the resistance’s future.

Echoes in the Old Bazaar

Returning to the half-destroyed press office, Faraz discovers encrypted messages and hidden riddles penned by an old friend who may have known too much. To reconstruct the truth, he must solve three challenging riddles, each built around the legacy of the newsroom and clues left in seemingly inconspicuous artifacts. Each riddle solved gets him closer to the forbidden evidence, but every error could trigger silent alarms, magic wards, or the suspicion of surviving staff—endangering allies and exposing crucial hideouts. A triumphant solution unearths damning proof about the enemy’s methods. Failure means the evidence is lost—or worse, used as bait for a deadly trap, amplifying Faraz’s inner conflict between risk and protection.

The Reporter’s Riddle

Once the bustling heart of Maryam Town’s local press, the atrium now serves as the uneasy meeting ground for fractured survivor factions. Sunlight filters through shattered skylights onto abandoned desks, makeshift barricades, and scattered remnants of urgent headlines. Tension hangs thick in the air, as allies and rivals alike gather here to debate, negotiate, and decide their collective fate.

The Broken Newsroom Atrium

The art style of the image is Photorealism. The image should not contain any text or characters. The setting is a devastated newsroom atrium in a South Asian town. Shards of skylight glass cast angled sunlight onto upturned desks, battered office chairs, and piles of yellowed newspapers strewn across a dusty tile floor. Makeshift barricades fashioned from filing cabinets and broken doors block the entrances, while old press banners hang askew from cracked plaster walls. Sparse greenery peeks through fissures, and in the shadows, stacks of abandoned typewriters and community bulletins hint at recent turmoil. The air conveys a sense of tense anticipationu2014a place where broken trust and fragile alliances are negotiated, illuminated by stark natural light contrasting with deep, uneasy shadows.

Maryam Town’s survivors are splintered into factions—each with their secrets and traumas. As Faraz, you must navigate heated exchanges and painful histories between ex-rival journalists and streetwise lookouts. Guide conversations carefully, weigh honesty against discretion, and choose moments to reveal or withhold sensitive truths. Earning trust requires unraveling lies, addressing grievances, and proving you can protect everyone’s interests. Succeed, and you forge a powerful alliance able to weather the coming horrors. Fail, and individual grudges will erupt, leading to desertions, betrayal, and exposed safehouses.

Bridging Old Wounds

Forming a team is only the first step; ensuring each member can be trusted is a challenge of its own. Using a social game of 'two truths and a lie,' you, as Faraz, must unearth the deeper motives, veiled fears, and buried loyalties among your allies. Carefully ask probing questions and analyze reactions to root out deception or wavering resolve. Success means identifying who is truly loyal and who poses risk to the alliance. Failure will let hidden dangers fester within your ranks, leading to betrayal or sabotage when the next supernatural threat emerges.

Shadows of Trust

Hidden deep beneath the shattered arches of Sultani Gate, the Relay Vault is a lonely underground chamber once pulsing with arcane transmissions. Now scarred by supernatural corruption and desperate battles, it hosts the sole magical device capable of broadcasting across Maryam Town. Shadows shift across broken relays, and every echo in the gloom might signal either salvation or betrayal.

The Relay Vault Beneath Sultani Gate

The art style of the image is Photorealism. The image should not contain any text or characters. Depict a subterranean vault beneath crumbling, monumental stone arches, blending ancient South Asian architectural motifs with signs of recent destruction. The chamber is dimly lit by eerie blue and green lights pulsing from broken, rune-inscribed machines and shattered magical relays. Jagged stone, twisted rebar, and puddles of water scar the ground, while faint, unnatural mists swirl in shadowy corners. The air is heavy with both dust and a supernatural glow, highlighting stains on cracked tile floors and scorched wall carvings. At the far end, a large, archaic broadcasting device sits surrounded by tangled cables, half-consumed by magical corrosion, with the remnants of desperate barricadesu2014abandoned gear, torn satchels, and broken radio partsu2014scattered throughout the claustrophobic space.

As preparations for the ultimate confrontation come together, Faraz must lead a tense infiltration into the heart of the corrupted Shrouded Bazaar to reach an ancient magical relay—hidden beneath the crumbling market arches. Guarded by both supernatural creatures and humans corrupted by bargains with dark forces, this relay is the only way to override the enemy’s silencing effects and reveal the truth to all of Maryam Town. Faraz faces the challenge of decoding magical wards under extreme pressure, all while evading detection and deciding in moments whom to trust with his presence. If successful, his broadcast exposes the origins of the invasion and rallies the fractured survivors to a final stand. Should he fail, not only will the evidence be destroyed, but those closest to Faraz may be captured or killed in the inevitable fallout. Every decision—between speed and caution, confrontation or silence—carries consequences that affect the entire town.

The Last Broadcast

With enemy agents closing in and the risk of sabotage at its peak, Faraz suspects someone within his inner circle is compromising their plans to reveal the truth. Before he can safely distribute the evidence and launch the broadcast, he must confront key allies and rivals in the Maryam Town press office in a social game of two truths and a lie. By carefully listening to each response, weighing past actions, and discerning subtle tells, Faraz must unmask the traitor and secure the trustworthiness of his remaining allies. Failure to correctly judge motives risks betrayal at the most crucial moment, potentially resulting in the evidence’s destruction and undermining the final transmission. Success ensures a united front in the resistance’s most desperate hour and gives Faraz the confidence to act—regardless of the personal cost.

Shadows in the Newsroom

Faraz wears a fitted, charcoal-grey shalwar kameez made from durable, weathered cotton, layered beneath a rugged, midnight-blue utility jacket with reinforced stitching, cargo pockets, and faint scuff marks from past encounters. His outfit is accented by a faded olive scarf wrapped snugly around his neck for dust and concealment, complemented by a leather crossbody satchel brimming with notepads, maps, and a compact camera. Black, water-resistant boots, fingerless gloves, and a thin silver chain—a rare memento tucked beneath his shirt—complete the ensemble, balancing local practicality with resilient survival style, while the utilitarian fit allows him agile movement through the sinister, transformed worlds of Maryam Town.

Battle-Ready Investigative Attire

Faraz dons a shadow-black, moisture-wicking kurta layered under a charcoal kevlar vest, the fabric slightly frayed at the seams but reinforced with ballistic panels and quick-release buckles for rapid movement and protection. Over this, he slips on a lightweight, slate-grey rain cloak with a hood, weather-resistant and streaked with mud, which obscures his outline while traversing supernatural mists; a tactical web belt holds smoke bombs, a hand-crank flashlight, and lockpicks. Heavy, reinforced combat boots caked with dust, digital wristwatch, and a battered press ID badge clipped to his belt round out the ensemble, paired with an emergency radio earbud and his signature thin silver chain tucked under his shirt.

Night Recon Survival Gear

For covert operations, Faraz wears a deep olive-green, fitted kurta with rugged, double-stitched elbows and a matte-black zip-up field vest over it, both showing faded stains from chemical exposure; thin, impact-resistant grey cargo trousers allow agility and have hidden knife pockets. His hands are covered by slim, touchscreen-compatible gloves, and his head is wrapped in a charcoal keffiyeh for concealment, with a pair of polarized anti-glare sunglasses resting on his forehead for navigating between crumbling ruins and sudden magical glare. Durable, scuffed grey walking shoes, a canvas utility belt pouch for evidence vials, and his ever-present leather satchel complete the look, subtly blending Faraz into both crowds and shadowed alleyways.

Urban Stealth Investigation Set

The art style of this map is Photorealism. The map is seen zoomed out and from directly above with terrain clearly visible. The world sprawls with a labyrinth of dense urban streets, worn concrete rooftops, and clustered courtyards, flanked by lush farmlands and patches of shadow-laden forests. Jagged, desolate ruins mar certain city blocksu2014testaments to battles with monstrous invadersu2014while scorched, corrupted landscapes pulse with unnatural colors, hinting at zones thick with magical contamination. Sinuous canals and dusty market roads twist through the environment, connecting small enclaves of survivorsu2019 barricaded shelters and the haunting silhouette of a press office that stands at the townu2019s heart. Enormous, unnatural fissures cleave the earth at the townu2019s fringes, from which supernatural creatures seem to seep, their influence visibly warping the terrain. Amidst the overgrown cemetery, tangled markets, and eerie playgrounds, visible faint auras and shifting shadows hint at the lurking presence of bosses and unseen guardians.

Born and raised in the heart of Maryam Town, Faraz learned to navigate its lively markets and narrow alleyways from a young age. As a journalist, he gained respect for standing up against crime and injustice, often putting himself at odds with local authorities and criminal gangs. Faraz's mother vanished when he was a teenager under mysterious circumstances, fueling his obsession with uncovering the unseen forces at play in his hometown. When the monsters appeared, he was among the first to piece together clues that hinted at a magical source behind the invasion. Driven by memories of his mother's disappearance and his responsibility to his community, Faraz is determined to uncover the origin of the supernatural threat, even if it means braving the darkest corners of Maryam Town alone.

Faraz Malik

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