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[i]Unknown location, 14th Sun's Height, 2E600...[/i]

It was a dark and dismal room residing in a claustrophobic old dungeon that had held prisoners once upon a time but had fallen out of use as the eras marched on, like many other things in the world. Thick and damp stones dominated, seemingly drinking the light of the sparse torch sconces; it was as if the walls themselves were so starved that they would consume everything that dared approached. For the current occupants that might have very well been a literal sentiment.

Chained to the wall were an assortment of prisoners, keep only slightly lucid from some sort of concoction burning slowly in a large pair of censers in the room, the pungent incense making the victims only semi-aware of their surroundings and one of their number being dragged into the adjacent chamber, only offering the most modest of protestations against the red and black robed mage, their features concealed beneath a hood that seemed to completely shadow their face such was the darkness and lack of lighting in the room, and the prisoner was dragged out of sight. A few moments later, a blood curdling scream filled the oppressive chambers followed by a flash of purple light and deafening silence. Footsteps and a door opening and closing followed, their jailor leaving the prisoners to their own hazy thoughts for a few moments while he disappeared into sections unknown.

From within the sacrificial chamber, an unknown figure steps out of the shadows, footsteps light as soft leather boots tread across the cobblestone with some authority. The figure was clad in blue-grey ferofungus armour over leathers, a wooden staff in hand as he approached the victim, gazing upon the now quite dead Imperial’s wide-eyed visage through the narrow vertical slits that circled his helm. With a clinical eye, he paid close attention to the new hole in the chest cavity of the victim and the figure grunted. 

“Pity.” 

The door chamber opened once more and the jailor returned, a notepad in hand and a collection jar. He looked up and noticed the armoured figure standing in the middle of the chamber, staff resting on the floor in a clutched ashen hand. The jailor drew his own blade and his fingers cracked with electricity. “Identify yourself!”

“You really must do a better job masking these sorts of places; they reek of death and Daedric magic.” the figure replied as if speaking to an undisciplined pupil. “Today is most auspicious, however; I’ve always seemed to discover these lairs after they are cleansed, and here I am having caught you in the act. Sloppy work, although I admit to finding it intriguing, albeit unabidable.” 

With a flash, lightning was unleashed towards the armoured figure, who reacted swiftly and a cast ward with his staff absorbed the spell while his fingers illuminated with a dark purple aura, a scamp appearing in the room that immediately lunged at the figure and started grappling with the jailor, trying to bite at the exposed flesh. As the man struggled with the scamp, the intruder worked another spell, a ghastly pale blue illuminating the chamber. With a sharp jab of his staff, the jailor was knocked backwards towards the corpse of his victim, whose arms suddenly grabbed onto the jailor, who was currently having his flesh torn by a scamp that had peeled apart his robes and meager protective armour. 

“No, stop, stop!” he pleaded, struggling in vain. The dead Imperial’s hands clutched at the jailor’s throat and the intruder whistled, the scamp releasing the jailor, albeit reluctantly, and hopping onto the floor with a hiss. 

The jailor’s eyes went wide as his hand clutched over the fingers digging into his throat, crushing his windpipe as furious brown eyes stared ruefully at the jailor, whose feet kicked out and ineffectively stopped along with his gurgles of protestation. The undead Imperial continued his assault towards his killer long after he stopped moving until the intruder reached out and suddenly jerked his hand back, tendrils of wispy blue energy coming back as tendrils towards his balled fist, illuminating his hand for a moment. Both bodies laid still. 

The intruder gestured to the scamp, who dragged the jailor off of the dead Imperial by the ankles and dropped him close to his master, who knelt down and produced a key from the man’s belt. Walking to the other chamber with the prisoners, he quickly extinguished the censer and produced a vial from a pouch on his belt, shaking it vigorously as he uncorked it and walked in a row along the prisoners, holding the vial beneath their noses and letting the aerosol reagent enter their airways. Within a few moments, the haze was beginning to lift from the prisoners and satisfied with his work studied the faces of the prisoners. 

“You seem to retain some basic manner of comprehension and lucidity. You’ll do.” he said to a wood elf with short hair and auspicious facial markings. He unlatched her bindings before pressing the key into her hand. “Unbind your compatriots, will you?” he said, the request seemingly a minor annoyance for him as he had other more pressing thoughts to attend to.

He headed back to the side chamber before pausing, as if remembering a crucial item. “Ah, yes. When you all regain your senses, try not to kill one another, hm? Your frivolous war has left quite a bit of bad blood between you people and I find petty squabbles tiresome. Your belongings are in an adjacent chamber… someone appeared to be cataloguing it. You are free to go as you please, it matters not to me. But if you wish for some… illumination of the circumstances that brought you all here, I believe I may be of some service to you.” 

And with that, the mysterious figure disappeared back into the ritual chamber. The scamp peered curiously through the doorframe before disappearing to follow his master.