The Natural Disasters #17: Night's Dawn

General Summary

The Natural Disaster's ride. They make it to Elturel and hire a ferry to ford the river and ride for Fort Morninglord. Looking at the gargantuan tendril in the sky, the group look down to spot an absolutely massive dome that rises hundreds of fight into the air over the fort and a couple camps a few hundred feet outside of it.
Approaching the camp, four figures approach. Claire, Syllin, Eleanor, and oddly, Jex are all at the camp that approach them. They are happy to see the group all arrive and greet them warmly. They then explain that the other camp is that of the Follows of Tyr and they refuse to corroborate, especially with Jex who they see as abandoning the teachings by allowing the nation to impede upon unadulterated order.
At this point, Bear and Nix sneak into the dome while the others go to the Tyr camp to speak to them.
Bear and Nix walk through the dead land under the dome, finding a watch tower with ten spawn of darkness covering it, but they also see feral vampiric creatures in tattered but fanciful garb roaming around. They follow these two groups, one led by a man named Bertrum and the other by a man named Marius. They follow these two as they walk and see a large wall connected with a stone tower that had multiple archers patrolling upon it, and they watch as the two creatures break off from each other and head back towards the eastern way they came from.
Nix follows Marius and sees how this powerful vampiric knight has some sort of anger or simply sadistic tendencies in his outlash towards animals with which has horde can feed upon. Marius on the other hand-who Bear is now trailing- trods along glumly before meeting with an orcish vampire named Lorkith and his bestial followers. 
Meanwhile, back at the followers of Tyr, the combined efforts of Hope being a figure of Elturguard and Ariel's past allows them to convince the followers of Tyr to await the orders of their allied camp. They then return to camp where they have previously spoken with all the troops that came to aid this assault on the fort. Things were all working out as something came through the dome.
An orcish vampire catches flame outside of the dome, and Bear jumps out as it jumps back in. Within the dome, Bear had been smelt by Lorkith, but watched as Bertrum promised him it was nothing. He attempted to sneak away, but eventually, Lorkith sensed him and rushed at him. Bear managed to trick him into jumping out of the dome but failed in slaying him, and now the whole party, Claire, and Syllin were right outside of the dome.
Bear, forgetting that the creatures in the dome can see outside of it, cheekily sticks his head back in, and Lorkith grabs him by the throat and pulls him in. The others rush in to rescue him, but he is behind a horde of vampiric beings, and Bear is almost killed. However, with holy units entering and Hellriders riding in to fight, they manage to save Bear from certain death. The battle wages, with four of the vampire spawn falling but at the same time, a Hellrider and his mount are also slain before the group retreats before reinforcements arrive for either side.
Then, the group all return to the rushing aid of other soldiers. They meet with them and begin plotting a strategy before the darkness of the dome can expand upon them. Claire and Eleanor begin their prayer of battle by strategizing along with the party on what to do and Jex remains to make sure order is brought. In the end, they decide to form two armies, led by Jex and Eleanor respectively to draw attention while a smaller unit with Syllin, Claire, a few soldiers, and the party to rush for the center of the darkness. 
With the Red Knight's prayer complete, the group ingratiate themselves with their troops. Eleanor speaks to the units in speech and they cheer and drink. Then, the group joins them, and Nix speaks to Eleanor trying to befriend her, but Eleanor misinterprets the young person as flirting with her and acts slightly uncomfortable. The awkward situation is broken as Hope gives a speech to the troops as well. With that done, the soldiers break into song, singing about the "Daughter of the Sea." 
The party join in, playing music and singing while Hope takes Claire's hand to dance. As the song swelled and Hope knew that it was possibly all of their last days alive, she leans in to kiss Claire, and Claire kisses her back with light shining upon them, a sky full of stars, and a darkened dome beckoning towards the whole camp. With this beautiful scene of camaraderie before a difficult fight, everyone found their rest with sentries keeping an eye out. As everyone awoke, they got read to put their strategy into action.

Character(s) interacted with

Claire, the Young Priest
Eleanor, The General
Jex, The Arbiter
Syllin, The Winged Girl
The Bloodborn

Report Date

01 May 2021