Looming ominously amidst the south-eastern Pash, the battlements of the Tide stood silent. For months, the fell outcrops of the shattered valley lingered upon the minds of the realm, heralding little bar the incessant thrumming from their depths, and the choking miasma that bled from the sundered earth beneath.

On the advice of the Supreme Commanders War Priest, small contingents of adventurers stood vigil over the locale in a loose rotation, watching for any signs of change in the murky vapour which roiled about the area in great plumes. A palpable sense of unease pervaded the senses of all those who breathed in those fell mists, wicking away their constitution and sapping their strength.

As the furor surrounding the rush for the splinters of Deus climbed towards its fever pitch, the fog lurked ever onwards, its lurid tendrils slowly inching along the valley floor, unseen and unnoticed.

And then, with a great stirring from the earth beneath, it rose.

The Tide surged out from the battlements in a terrible wave, spilling throughout the Pash and out onto the rivers of Sapience, snaring all that it touched in its malicious haze. Adventurers stood on and watched in horror as their shadows flickered and dispersed into the amaranthine depths, giving rise to horrors from the deep in their wake.

Darkness swirled and snarled about the throats of those unlucky enough to be caught in the surge, as masses of twisted shadows emerged from within. Towering, green-skinned ogres materialised out of the mist beside colossal war beetles, and entire regiments of hobgoblin soldiers.

With a thundering cry to the late Mother of Dragons, many of the Greater Dragons of Sapience shed their lesser forms and rose to meet the encroaching darkness, charging headlong into the fight for the realm.

And so, it had begun.

Encore had become the song of the ebon tide.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Summary: Known as the Tide, a creeping vapour has taken over Sapience, its dark coils spawn monsters, the front line of the Tsol'teth invasion.

Penned by My hand on the 17th of Chronos, in the year 725 AF.