The Lure of the Camonna Tong Content . You probably heard of the Camonna Tong . It ' s the name whispered in dark alleys as blood pools on the cobblestones , the signature on the ransom note left on a neighbor ' s bed . A shadow , a curse , a boil upon the arse of our society . And , though I ' m not proud to admit it , it ' s a part of my past . Now , I ' m not writing this for those of you already on the right side of the law . I ' m writing this for the ones who have already ventured off that moral path , those that walk the thin line between wrong and right . The ones with empty bellies and emptier coffers , who might see the Camonna Tong as a viable option . To you I say , keep reading . Sure , the Camonna Tong has stability . A steady stream of income is a hard thing to turn down , and they ' ve got structure to boot . They ' ll lure you in with the possibility of glory , of command , of rising through the ranks . And sure , what they do is far from legal . But if you ' re already leaning in that direction , wouldn ' t you rather be in good company ? It didn ' t take much sweet talking before I signed right up , and at first life was good . Extorting the rich flat - heads who had lorded above me all my life ? My pleasure ! A few robberies , a few break - ins ? Nothing I wasn ' t use to . And sure , we talked big about driving away the outlanders , of taking Vvardenfell back for the Dark Elves . But I ' ll be honest , nothing made me question what I was doing . Nothing , that is , until some Argonian seamstress got a little uppity . Oh , it was the talk of the town . Some scaled n ' wah had the gall to start up her own shop — and be successful with it to boot ! She was taking away good business from Dark Elves , that ' s what she was doing . Taking away gold from our mothers and sisters . So we did what the Camonna Tong does best . We made her pay . The kidnapping was easy . Yeah , her shop was doing well , but she was still an Argonian . I don ' t think we saw a single guard as we slipped into her house , not in that part of town . We tied her up and gagged her before she had a chance to cry for help , laughing like it was some big joke . Young hotheads who had too much to drink . I thought we were just going to scare her , set her straight , make her realize that she couldn ' t think herself better . I started to sober up when the beatings began . First a slap to her face , but that quickly turned to punches and kicks . They joked about how she could take it , how Argonian skin was so thick no one would even see the bruises . I can still hear her muffled cries along with their laughter . I just watched as the beatings became more intense , as blood started dribbling from her gagged mouth . I wasn ' t a stranger to violence , or truly opposed to it given my line of work . But there was something about tying up this old Argonian and beating her bloody , kicking her as she fell to the floor . My throat grew tight as I watched , motionless . No one seemed to notice my lack of enthusiasm , so enraptured in the righteous justice they gladly doled out . Someone pulled out a dagger and made the casual remark , " You know , it ' s pretty hard to sew without fingers . " Suddenly I was wide awake . I wish I could tell you that I stopped them . Said something clever , did something brave . But the truth is I walked out . I left that room , that town , that life . Not with my head held high , but broken , defeated , thinking of that poor Argonian ' s eyes , filled with terror . So different from my own , yet so alike . I don ' t know if they went through with it , if there ' s a fingerless beggar somewhere who sees my face in her nightmares . I don ' t think I ' ll ever try to find out . So next time you think of the Camonna Tong , of the glamor and the gold ? You think of how easy it is for your crooked morals to slip away entirely . How big talk and some drink can lead you down a darker path than you ever realized you were capable of . How easy it is to say nothing , and how much easier to just join along .