Within a day of our heroes’ returned to Aia, word reached town that the mysterious and malevolent forces tormenting nearby communities and trade routes around the Dawn’s Hope settlement in the prior weeks had apparently brought their full force to bear on the settlement itself. With the exception of a small handful of survivors who made their escape under the cover of darkness, all of the men, women, and children of the Dawn’s Hope settlement were reported as missing or dead.
The great spectacle of the local military response to these reports came swiftly. Confronted by clear evidence of this threat—which had previously been assumed by some to be too close to the City of Twilight to be credible—, Aia’s Red Rangers, Knights of the Blood Oath, Knights of the Sun; guardsmen of the People’s Militia, and contingents from prominent mercenary guilds all quickly dispatched forces into the nearby foothills to the southwest.
In a few short days, the hidden camp of the goblin warparty was discovered and utterly overwhelmed. Well known for both vicious trap-making and extensive slave trading practices, the band of goblins apparently had enough time to relocate and hide any prisoners before being dispatched. To date, no other survivors have been recovered.
Within the following weeks, the controversy surrounding the tragedy at Dawn’s Hope reached new levels as it was learned that the recently widowed Lady Anaria Honalight of the Noble House of Honalight, along with all of her five children, were named among those missing or dead. The House of Honalight maintains a substantial reward for information relating to their missing family members to this very day, but the attentions of the noble House have since turned away from rescue, and towards infrequent but open criticism of the priests of Aia’s House of Tsohl.
While the military powers associated with the Red Citadel never publicly condemned the venerable Temple of the Sun’s mishandling of the rescue of the Dawn’s Hope settlement, a connection between the Church of Tsohl and this tragedy is common knowledge. Public outrage has calmed, but the Massacre at Dawn’s Hope has forever tarnished the public opinion of Aia’s oldest local church.
Three years have now passed since the Massacre at Dawn’s Hope. Where known among humans, anyone directly associated with the failed rescue of the Dawn’s Hope settlement has felt the dark weight of curiosity, superstition, gossip, and distrust.
All too slowly, memories fade.