The Order's return to Stormwind was quiet and without fanfare - in this case, just the way they could've hoped to return - but that didn't mean that their arrival didn't go unnoticed. The high offices wanted their reports, and their reports were duly given, raising a great many concerns about the activities of the Cult of the Damned both at home and abroad.
Kanrir Fulwhin, whose name had been spoken by the Cultists in Westguard Keep weeks prior, was not unknown to the officers of military intelligence. He had made quite a reputation for himself as a clumsy and hamfisted fool, leaving a constant trail behind him until just a week before the Order's return. Indeed, two days before the Order opened the Crypt of Arduran, the very same trail went cold; at the same time, various branches of the Cult of the Damned saw their activities shift, away from the curious graveyard searching and instead to a state of gradually-increasing readiness.
Something, or someone, had taken charge of the sections of the Cult dotted around the provinces of Westfall and Duskwood. No longer were the provincial forces making routine raids on safehouses, but instead they were finding empty barns and derelict farms, devoid of any Cult activity where their intelligence suggest there should have been plenty. Every move that the forces of Stormwind made, the Cult reacted to en masse, ever one step ahead of law and order.
Ardruan's spirit had spoken of a staff, buried in Tirisfal, that was bound to the soul of Kelmir, but while Tirisfal was vast and their information as to its whereabouts was scarce, the Order opted to vanquish the Cult, who, through Kanrir, was related to the dreadlord Diathonix. Thus they travelled to Westbrook Garrison, where months prior the Crusaders had stood trial at the behest of a demon, and collaborated with an agent of SI:7 by the name of Lucio. Highlighting a number of mines, caves and farmlands in Westfall that were now under the control of the Scourge and the Cult, they formulated a plan to crush two such pockets of resistance in a single evening.
It was tantamount to stirring the hornet's nest, and this they knew. As predicted, the mere sound of one cavern's entrance being collapsed and its inhabitants, living and unliving, being buried alive prompted the Cult to make preparations to flee the province. The next stronghold was barely given enough time to load their wagon with a very particular, very special payload before the Order descended upon them, sparing none.
While Kanrir was not present, the Order had come close to shortening their quest significantly; only by forgetting, in their haste, to search the wagon that the Cultists were loading outside the cave did they set themselves back, almost costing them - and others - dearly...
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