Night Parade

The Night Parade was a group of bizarre, nightmarish creatures that established small colonies in major cities across Faerûn.

Organization
The Night Parade on Toril was divided into cells, or "nests", the size of which could vary from a few dozen to a few thousand. Each cell was lead by one (or, more rarely, sometimes multiple) individual, who was addressed by Lord or Lady.

The Calimport cell in 1359 DR, was the largest cell and numbered around 6,000. It was led by Lord Sixx. After the Nightcleansing, only about 75 managed to survive by hiding in Calimport's undercity, and were subsequently led by The Naga, Master Khanar, Lady Seryx yr Tarub, and Nadim the Hound.

There were a further 162 in Athkatla, 249 in Iriaebor, 37 in Keltar, 96 in Myratma, 29 in Nimpeth, 1,462 in Sheirtalar, 22 in Teshburl, 6 in Westgate, and 9 in Urmlaspyr.

Activities
The only clear activity of the Night Parade was its abduction of human and demihuman infants, which they transformed into the next generation by way of a magical ceremony and raised as their own. These ceremonies involved a magical apparatus of great power, which was charged by lightning bolts, and also establishing a gate to the Night Paraders' homeplane (which also allowed more of their kin to enter the Material Plane at the same time).

However, as the Harpers sought to expose them for at least a decade after their exposure in 1359 DR, the Night Parade began to take significant losses and because of that began to seek Netherese ruins in hopes of recovering powerful artifacts with which to defend themselves.

In truth, the goal of the Night Paraders was to colonize Faerun so as to escape their horrific home, but because they could not reproduce while on the Material Plane, resorted to the abduction and transformation of infants.

Tactics
The Night Parade relied on stealth and cunning to avoid detection, although the Calimport cell prior to 1359 DR utilized the large-scale hypnotic abilities of one of its members to effectively act openly without being noticed.

Base of Operations
The Night Parade was native, after a fashion, to the Demiplane of Nightmares, but it had cells in a number of Faerunian cities.

Relationships
The Night Parade had no allies. They were enemies of the Harpers, who waged a war against the monsters.

History
The Night Parade was descended from an enclave of Netherese arcanists who emigrated from Toril in -681 DR to the Demiplane of Nightmares in order to study that place. While the original arcanists had magic to protect them from the environment, their descendents had neither the magic nor the knowledge and were transformed by the magic energies of that demiplane into a variety of mishapen, grotesque, and unique creatures.

In 1345 DR, the Night Parade stole, among others, the newborn daughter of Myrmeen Lhal, who was then living in Calimport with her then-husband Dak. 14 years later, in 1359 DR, Dak revealed to Myrmeen, who was by that time a Harper and the Lord of Arabel, that her daughter was not dead, but he had sold her.

Myrmeen and a group of fellow adventurers subsequently returned to Calimport and went looking for her daughter, and after several events ended up killing the one whose hypnosis protected that cell, leading to the Nightcleansing, which resulted in riots as the populace killed most of the monsters. Myrmeen then returned to Arabel and alerted other leaders in Faerun to the Night Parade's existence.

A year later, in 1360 DR, a squad of Night Paraders infiltrated Arabel with the goal of opening a gate to allow hundreds of their kind through in order to overthrow the Lord of Arabel. They were not only unsuccessful, but their attempt confirmed the threat they posed to cities across the land.

Members

 * Lord Zeal
 * Roderik

Appearances

 * Adventures
 * Dungeon #61, "Storm Season"
 * Novels
 * The Night Parade