[
  {
    "id": 705,
    "name": "16. Eventide's March",
    "level": 80,
    "story": 140,
    "goals": [
      {
        "active": "Assault Eventide's March and confront Queen Labris.",
        "complete": "I rendezvoused with General Nephus outside of Eventide's March, a sacred landmark that Queen Labris and her dwindling army were using as a base of operations. The general had taken great pains to remain neutral and felt that Peitha had forced him into a conflict that put a great number of innocent Kryptis lives at risk. Still, he realized they now had an unprecedented opportunity to remove Labris and her army from the field. Peitha had put him in a position to take advantage.\n\nNephus split our forces, sending Peitha, Arina, and Ramses to attack the queen's position from the flanks while he and I led a direct frontal assault. He hinted that he'd battled at Eventide's March in the past, and we watched as he masterfully employed varied tactics to clear our path to the queen.\n\nWe reached the cathedral-like walls of Eventide's March and regrouped with our allies, sweeping away Labris's last lines of defense. With nowhere left to run, the queen descended the grand stairs to make her stand. You'd never have known that she was outnumbered and backed into a corner with how regally she stood in defiance.\n\nShe claimed that Peitha would lead the Kryptis to extinction and that the rebellion leader did not have the willpower and conviction to govern her people. Silence hung in the air for a moment, then it was broken when Peitha simply laughed, shattering the queen's seemingly unshakeable façade.\n\nAfter exchanging barbs, Peitha looked to Nephus, who grimly ordered us forward to confront and execute the queen.\n\nLabris fought bravely. And lost. She seethed with rage, nearly on the brink of madness. But it was all for naught. Nephus ordered her death.\n\nBut Peitha had other plans.\n\nSeeing an opportunity to rally the Kryptis to her side with a show of force, Peitha stayed the queen's execution. It was time to show the people of Nayos that Peitha could win, that Labris and Eparch were not invincible. Peitha had a valuable asset in the weakened, tyrannical Labris. Now she just needed an audience...\n\n***"
      },
      {
        "active": "Draw an audience for Peitha's speech.",
        "complete": "As Peitha planned to haul the defeated Queen Labris to the Coliseum of the Midnight King and show the Kryptis the might of her rebellion, General Nephus quickly caught my attention. While he had reservations with Peitha's chosen course of action, he felt that it should be performed in front of the largest audience possible—that if this was going to be the plan, we should go all in.\n\nThe general sent me to find an elder Kryptis, Tecla the Venerable, back at the forward bivouac. She had knowledge of an array of beacons spread across Inner Nayos. These would serve as a call to the people of Inner Nayos, drawing them to the coliseum and giving Peitha a massive crowd to draw support from.\n\nI activated the beacons as quickly as I could while Peitha and our allies marched on Nyedra. With a massive crowd assembled and the defiant Queen Labris now a feeble captive, Peitha stood on the cusp of bringing the vast majority of the Kryptis people to her cause.\n\n***"
      },
      {
        "active": "Help Peitha address the Kryptis.",
        "complete": "As the throngs filed into the coliseum, Peitha called me to her side to witness her speech. I arrived just as she paraded the beaten queen before the assembled masses. The rebellious leader spoke with conviction—that not only can Eparch and his loyalists be defeated but that unlike the present monarchy, she is willing show mercy to the vanquished.\n\n\"Children of Nayos,\" she began, before calling attention to the defeated Queen Labris and Eparch's weakened army.\n\nThe Midnight King must've sensed the power of Peitha's position—felt her threat through the Veil and how she was turning the Kryptis against him. In that moment, a rift formed, and Eparch's calm, powerful voice filled the coliseum.\n\nThe king—an ancient, massive beast—stepped through, drawing all eyes to his terrifying form. Eparch hardly acknowledged Peitha's existence, asking the gathered crowd to speak if his upstart niece had truly won their trust.\n\nThe arena fell silent.\n\nEparch then turned his attention to the upstart rebel leader and his captive queen. Calm to this point, I could now hear the tightly restrained fury in his words. He made a single offer of negotiation: release Labris, and Tyria would be spared. Peitha would be allowed to live there in exile.\n\nWhether Peitha believed this offer to be in good faith is still unclear. What is clear is that Labris believed it. Even in her weakened state, she would not allow Peitha to use her as leverage to undermine all that she and Eparch had built.\n\nThe defiant queen sacrificed herself to her beloved king's cause, forcing the last of her essence into him as the rest of us looked on in horror.\n\nThe crowd erupted in chaos—some declaring allegiance to Peitha, some to Eparch. The rest fled in terror. Even the king was stunned by his queen's martyrdom. Roaring in fury, he vowed to devour all who opposed him and challenged any who stood with Peitha to bring the fight to him in the citadel of Zakiros.\n\nPeitha's scheme to inspire an army and overthrow the king was thrown into disarray. We were left with no choice but to fall back, regroup, and take stock of the aftermath of a disastrous day. Will Peitha's ragtag army be enough to invade Eparch's fortified citadel and challenge him in his full fury? Can we count on the Astral Ward? It remains to be seen whether the rebel upstart can overcome this misstep. I will help to the best of my ability, but I don't know if it will be enough to carry Peitha to victory."
      }
    ]
  }
]