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==
All creatures of the Night Parade were unique. Some resembled humanoids, while others were grotesque mockeries of living creatures. Many had different supernatural abilities, like regeneration, corrosive touch, weather control or transmutation of matter. At least a third of them had shapeshifting powers akin to doppelgangers, capable of mingling into humanoid societies.
===Notable Members===
; Calimport Cell (pre-Nightcleansing)
All notable members of Calimport cell died during the events of the Nightcleansing.
*Lord Sixx, Calimport cell's leader with sets of six eyes all across his body, able to defeat his enemies in the mindscape using his Eyes of Domination.
*Imperator Zeal, a red-haired man with the ability to conjure fire, first of the Inextinguishables.
*Tamara the Weaver, Imperator Zeal's wife and a sister of Myrmeen Lhal, capable of transforming into a spiderlike monstrosity.
*Vizier Bellophat, an obese creature with egg-shaped eyes and large jaws on its belly. Its body stretched into dozens of musical instruments made from tendons and muscle, like harps, lutes and flutes. The instruments were used to hypnotize all of Calimport's populace during the Festival of Renewal.
*Magistrate Dymas, Lord of the Dance, a red-skinned flayed man able to cause vertigo in its victims with his dancelike movements.
*Pieraccinni, a living portal to the Night Parade's home realm with fake memories and personality. Disguised as a local merchant of arms and men in a place called the "Gentleman's Hall".
*Roderik, one of the Inextinguishables, a featureless man whose body seemed to exude darkness, able to use snaking shadows to inflict lethal wounds.
*Alden McGregor, a lupine-headed humanoid capable of blood-tracking Night Parade's victims, unaware of his true nature for most of his human life.
===Other creatures===
Many creatures of the Night Parade were rather bizarre. Some examples encountered by the Harpers were the following:
*"Dragonfly-children", a species of small flying monsters with segmented black-and-gold bodies, colorless butterfly wings and dozens of tiny arms with sharp talons. Their heads were of lovely children, with red catlike eyes and sharp teeth behind pouting lips.
*An huge red-and-purple-veined flower with a gelatinous wormlike trunk and thick starfish-like tentacles at the base. Stalks ending in human heads emerged from the trunk, some alive, others dead on shriveled necks, ready to fall into the mass below. Black eggs were growing in pulsating sacs of flesh on its body, from which the dragonflies hatched to guard the Night Parade's nest.
*A pale man made from living wax, capable of turning matter into liquid, glass, steel or porcelain.
*A ball-like creature sewn from bloody battlefield corpses, moving on four arms, its head drooping from the cage of limbs.
*A woman with oversized arms hanging to the floor and tiny hands growing everywhere, including her eye sockets.
==Appendix==
===Appearances===
===References===
Category:Organizations in the Demiplane of Nightmares
Category:Organizations in Calimport
Category:Evil organizations
Category:Organizations in Calimshan
Category:Organizations in the Lands of Intrigue
Category:Organizations in West Faerûn
Category:Organizations in Faerûn
Category:Organizations on Toril