EliteCommander

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Daraza let out a long breath, uncertainty growing in her expression. "I...I don't want to just send a group of strangers after my friend. I mean, it's not like we're the closest of friends or anything, but I still don't want him to get hurt. But, I know he's probably not going to come back if he goes after that Dragon. It's been messing with the East Empire Company's trade, sinking ships, burning travelers along the coast. The Legion itself hasn't been able to deal with it, and they put a ten thousand gold bounty on its head for someone else to put it down. Cyrus isn't ready for that; I know he isn't. He was at least not stupid enough to try to kill it alone, but that team he joined still isn't equipped to deal with something like that. And even if they could, who knows what kind of people they are? I half expect one of them to put a knife in his back so they don't have to split the reward. I spent half the trip trying to talk him out of it."

There was a pause as Daraza thought, but with some reluctance, she finally continued. "If there's a chance you can get him to stop...I know where he went. The Dragon lives on an island off the coast of High Rock, near Daggerfall. He got on a ship and set sail not long after I left him in that village. It's not far at all to sail there from Sentinel, so you could be there in a day or two. I don't know exactly where he's staying, but it won't be hard to find where he's going. All the locals know which island to stay away from."

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Daraza gave a long sigh before mumbling to herself. "Knew all this would come back to bite him..." Running her hand down her worried face, she eventually focused back on the pack. "Alright, who'd he end up crossing? One of the bandit gangs? Red Masks? Desert Marauders? Or did he actually end up attacking the Thalmor like he was saying? Not that...most of you look much like Thalmor."

Meesei shook her head. "Cyrus has not upset anyone. At least, no one we know. We represent the Synod, and our interest lies in the weapon he has come to wield. We believe that he may not be aware of the fact that it is a cursed relic, and one that could be quite dangerous to him. We seek to find him so that we can purchase it from him, and bring the relic into safe-keeping."

As was common for the friends of Cyrus that they had spoken to, the Orc seemed to be suspicious, but unlike the others, she did not look to be surprised. She also did not look like she was going to demand for them to leave at any moment. “Not going to lie, that’s not easy to believe. The Synod, if you are Synod, has always just wanted power. The curse thing just sounds like an excuse, but…we can still talk. And only because, the way I see it, Cyrus is going to be dead no matter what, especially since he accepted that bounty to kill that dragon.”

Ahnasha raised her brow at Daraza. “Wait, so Cyrus actually accepted a bounty to go try and kill an actual living, breathing dragon?” She said both with near disbelief and dread. Collectively, Ahnasha, Meesei, and Lorag gave a mix of sighs and groans. It seemed that this Cyrus had started to buy into his own legend.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

"At the very least, you should probably only try that in places where ravens actually live." Ahnasha pointed out to Sabine. "Honestly, that Nord was right to be angry at her; it was stupid to think that we wouldn't catch on. She might underestimate us, or just be that overconfident."

"Possibly." Meesei commented, though there was little else for her to say on the matter. At this point, they had mostly just speculation about their foe, and would not likely be able to figure out much else from their inn room. It was probably best for them to just resume their search as soon as they were ready. "I believe we should go to the stables and see if the Orc has returned. Though first, I will return to the clan and ask the scholars to search for those notes. It should not take me too long to do so, and I would like to have them get to work sooner rather than later. Pack up our belongings in the meantime. We shall not be staying in this inn again."

---

It took only about half an hour for the pack to depart their inn. They were traveling fairly light, so they did not have too much to pack, and Meesei needed only to instruct the scholars in Blackreach to find the original notes, so she created a portal back to her room in the inn as soon as she could. Out of caution, she did take a magicka potion from Sabine to quickly restore her reserves, since at this point, they did not truly know when they could be attacked.

As at least one stroke of luck for the day, the estimate they had for when the Orc would return seemed to be accurate. Asking around the stables as they had been for the last week, someone finally mentioned that an Orc carriage driver had stabled her horses. Although, it was somewhat harder to actually find the Orc herself. There were several who worked in the stables that knew her, and confirmed that the Orc was, in fact, Daraza, but it took about half an hour and a bribe of ten gold coins to get someone willing to go to Daraza's home in the city and bring her out to them.

The pack was waiting out in the stables, taking the chance to visit Leaps while they could. Most stable hands were wary around the giant reptile, so they did need to come out occasionally to interact with him. It took roughly another fifteen minutes of waiting before an Orc woman came walking into the stable. She did not seem like she was dressed as a traveler, as she was not wearing the usual desert robes and instead wore a simple pair of light brown breeches and a matching cloth shirt. However, it was possible that she did not intend to leave the city so soon after returning. "So, I hear you've been askin' around for me. That true?" She asked.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Lorag was skulking in the corner, arms crossed in silence. He had a blank, emotionless stare, but it did not take much to guess what he was thinking. "Not the man I knew. He was a committed soldier; a true legionnaire if I ever saw one. Protectin' the innocent, serving the people, he lived all of that. 'Course, this might not be the man I knew. If he is the same, the he don't know; if he does know, then I don't know him anymore. Either way, we can always just kill 'em all."

"That is an option, and not one we should discount." Meesei remarked. "We should not stake too much on the idea of changing their minds. I am not opposed to trying, but we should not take too much of a risk in doing so. I can get those notes, the originals. They have been filed away, though I imagine it might take some time for the scholars to dig them out of storage. We made copies to send to our own scholars, so the originals have little actual use to us anymore. If we are lucky, he might recognize the handwriting, or even just the cover. But, that would require some luck that we should not rely upon."

"We will need to find out where they are in the city." Kaleeth pointed out. "And...well, we still need to go check to see if that Orc has come back, don't we? It's getting very close to time for her to return. I wouldn't be surprised if she's already back right now."

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Meesei nodded in agreement. "Indeed, it may be easier to discredit Vile's intentions than to prove ours. But, it still shall not be easy. The possibilities which I see are that either Do'rhajul knows of Vile's plans and is simply intending to keep his men loyal through his lies, or Do'rhajul himself has been tricked. It is impossible to say which is true at this point, though for Do'rhajul to be unaware would require that Vile's scholars in his Elsweyr fortress were hiding the fact that they were spreading lycanthropy, in addition to researching their poison. It would be difficult, but not impossible."

"If he is being tricked, then how could we prove that if he doesn't believe anything we say?" Kaleeth commented. "We learned all of this through our own experience and our spies, and I guess some help from that Thalmor. But, we can't just show them those documents he stole, even if we did still have them, and they'd have no way of knowing they were real anyway."

Meesei hummed a moment, leaning back in her chair. "That is true. I am not sure how we could prove that Vile's zealots have been hunting Talos worshipers. We have seen it firsthand, but it is not as if we can convince Do'rhajul to go searching for them to prove it to himself. If we knew enough about his experiences to point out some kind of inconsistency between what he has witnessed, and what he has been told, then we might possibly be able to convince him with words alone. But, we do not have that much detail about his life. We will need actual, physical evidence. We first learned of the gas by experiencing it firsthand, and while any who are magically inclined in Do'rhajul's could observe the gas taking a soul, that would require demonstrating it on a live lycan. We learned of their plan to spread lycanthropy through our attack on their fortress, and the notes we stole from their scholars' laboratory. If Do'rhajul is truly unaware, then that laboratory was likely being operated by one of Vile's loyal zealots."

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

"It is an entirely different form of magic to what most of us use." Meesei commented. "The witches of Glenmoril practice magic as old as the Breton race itself. It does not surprise me that they are the group in Tamriel most proficient with shapeshifting magic, considering that they are also the closest to Hircine. Regardless, it is nothing I could accomplish, not without extensive training. This also means that the Breton, that zealot Arinette, it at least as well-trained and dangerous as Sabine. We should not underestimate her. You saw how she spoke to Do'rhajul, how...demanding she was with her supposed leader. Do'rhajul commands them, but he may not be the only one pulling the strings."

Shortly afterwards, Meesei finished writing down everything she could remember about the people she had seen in the market. It would be useful information to give to their agents. "Fendros is right; it would be safest not to sleep anywhere near here. But, if we do wish to attempt to make any of them doubt their cause, I feel we will need to do more than simply speak to them. It is possible that we could have given them some doubts today, but ultimately, anything we simply say may be written off as lies or manipulation. And Arinette shall certainly be doing everything she can to calm their worries. To have any chance of converting any of them, we would need a way to prove our words."

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Meesei held her arm close to herself, being sure to keep it stable for Sabine. "You did well, thank you." She said softly before turning her attention back to the rest of the pack. "We should find somewhere private to discuss this. I feel we have some decisions to make."

The pack paused their discussion as they cautiously made their way back to the inn. It would be wise for them to find a different place to stay, if they had to remain in Sentinel any longer, but they would at least need to gather their belongings before moving from the inn. They kept a sharp eye out for anyone that might have been following them, in the event that there were more members of Do'rhajul's team than had been present in the market. Meesei drew some eyes carrying a raven on her arm, but otherwise they were able to get through the streets without issue.

Once back in the inn, Meesei was quick to gather everyone in her room and lock the door behind them. The room was too small to hold everyone comfortably, but at the moment, the need to make a plan quickly superseded any desire for comfort. Meesei grabbed a parchment and quill from her bag, sat down at the small, sole table in the room, and started to write out the descriptions of each of Ro'rhajul's team from memory as quickly as she could before that memory started to fade.

"So...I don't think we should stick around here long. No telling what they might be able to do now that they know where we are." Ahnasha commented.

"Agreed." Meesei responded. "But we still need to make a plan of dealing with them more long-term. With them being this close, I doubt we will escape them for long. At least, not while still tracking our quarry. It would be easy enough to return home, but abandoning, or even delaying our mission is not an option. That said, they did not seem to be as united as I had expected. It may be that Vile is not supporting Do'rhajul with the loyalists he needed, so he may have needed to look elsewhere for specialists. Or perhaps they did not have loyalists with the skills he required. In any event, their loyalties may be a point of weakness for them."

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

The Breton woman remained just as firm and angered in her speech. "As I said, this is pointless. Try to follow us if you like, dogs, but you shall not find a place to attack us in this city."

It seemed that the Breton woman was eager to get the General's team away from the pack. If Meesei was being optimistic, she would think that the Breton was perhaps afraid of what they had to say to her allies. If they were not operating on the truth, then exposing that truth to them could end up affecting their allegiances. Do'rhajul stared down Fendros for a good few seconds with an immutable, unreadable expression before giving a grunt and a quick motion towards his men before he started to walk away from the pack.

If there was any questions as to which of the bystanders were associated with the General, they were answered quickly. There was little they could do to hide themselves while following the Cathay-raht away from them. In addition to the Breton, twin Orcs, and Nord they had already identified, there was another Nord and Breton, both male, a Redguard woman, and an Argonian man. Seeing them now would help greatly in identifying threats in the future. With luck, there would be no more of them to worry about aside from those they could see.

Meesei looked quickly to the members of her pack closest to her. "It is too risky to follow. They may involve the guard if they can frame it as harassment. Just stay alert, and remember their faces."

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Do'rhajul briefly eyed the crowds of the market. "I know not what 'cult' you are referencing, but it seems you do not either. Infecting people? Killing Talos worshipers? Our people have done nothing of the sort. Do you think me so daft that you can convince me I am committing your crimes? My sole purpose is to punish the one who destroyed my life, and the lives of so many others. The one whose will you perpetuate, and the one who is threatening Tamriel with his curse."

Meesei actually found herself confused by what Do'rhajul was saying, almost all of it was obviously and provably false based on the information that each of them knew the other had available to them. Just on this conversation alone, Do'rhajul would be able to tell that her pack had discerned Vile's true purpose and learned what his cultists had been doing. It seemed pointless to not only try to deny it, but claim that it was Hircine's doing when there was no one else present for him to persuade. Unless, of course, there actually was. The Nord had made it clear that Do'rhajul's team was not entirely united. He could have been trying to convince his own team that their cause was a righteous one. It was even possible that Do'rhajul himself was in the dark on Vile's true goals, though it did seem hard to believe that they could keep their goals secret from their highest-ranking general. However, it was not quite impossible.

Lorag had his glare firmly on the general from the moment they saw him. He was seething in anger, which only grew stronger as their conversation continued, but it was also mixed with disbelief at what he was hearing. "What have you become, Do'rhajul? You used to be the best commander I'd ever seen, and the only one I'd have chosen to serve under. Now look at you; you sound like some kind of puppet!"

"So, it is really you." Do'rhajul said, letting out a sigh as he looked to Lorag. "I had hoped the reports were false. That I was mistaken in what I saw all those years ago. You had your life ripped away just as I did, and yet instead of fighting it, instead of trying to claim back what you had earned, you became a dog to your new master. You were a promising soldier, Lorag, but you were corrupted like so many others. There is still a chance, you know. To reclaim what time you have left for yourself. There is a...solution, a cure. I have seen it work myself. Work with me, fulfill your duties, and it can be yours. Any of you could be saved from your current path. I may not completely agree with the one whom employs my services, but he will fulfill the bargains he makes. And in this case, his desires happen to align with the interests of Tamriel."

Lorag grunted. "I think you've got it mixed up on which of us has been corrupted."

"Indeed." Meesei added, focusing her attention on the Nord and twin Orcs. "Has your general told you of how it was your master, not us, who started the war? Or of all the families his people have slaughtered, and how their souls were harvested? Or how it was your master that spread the so-called 'curse' for all those years? Do you know your master's true goals, and why they are now killing innocent Talos worshipers? Has he given you any actual proof of anything he has told you, or have you just been taking him at his word?"

"Enough!" A female voice sounded out nearby. From the alley that Sabine had been watching, a Breton woman emerged. She was dressed in local-styled robes, but clearly matched the description of the zealot that had been described to them. Out of all of Do'rhajul's team, she was the most likely to be a completely loyal servant of Vile. She marched up to the group nearby and took her place next to Do'rhajul. "Why are we still listening to this drivel? It is clearly pointless. These monsters are as deceptive as they are dangerous. We may not be able to act here and now, but know that your days are numbered, beasts. Now, let us leave this place. And watch the raven on that roof; it is her."

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Do'rhajul grunted. "I think you shall not resist saying your words regardless of what you do."

Meesei doubted that anything her or her pack could say would influence Do'rhajul's thinking. However, drawing out a conversation might give her time to pay attention to any bystanders to watch their reactions, and determine which of them might have a vested interest in the conversation.

"We have learned much about you over the years, Do'rhajul. We have learned that you are just as much of a victim in this as the rest of us. You have been lied to; tricked into serving a master that intends to bring an end to anything you may care about. You joined this war because of your desire to fight...my kind, yes? Your master plans to destroy the Tamriel we know; we are the ones trying to protect it." Meesei asserted, all the while paying attention to the reactions of anyone nearby.

Sabine may have noticed that the other raven gave a particular reaction to Meesei's last statement. It fluttered its wings, then flew down and retreated into a narrow alleyway, from which a soft violet glow started to emanate.

Predictably, Do'rhajul was not swayed by an as-of-yet unsubstantiated claim. "Is that the greatest lie you could produce? I expected more. Perhaps it is your master that has lied to you? Or do you truly think that spreading your vile curse will 'help' Tamriel?"