Tough As Dirt #35

Tough as Dirt listened as Druvigan the Bargainer, former Listener and combatant in the Battle of Broken Dawn, gave a speech to the assembled Dawn Chasers about freeing their comrades from the cruelty of the Everbleed in the town above them.

• The group then rained hell down upon the Dawn Chasers. The battle was short lived as Druvigan and a handful of surviving soldiers surrendered to Tough as Dirt.

  • While the group decided what to do with the surrendered Dawn Chasers, including parading them through the vampire filled town of Venture Ridge, the soldiers decided to try their luck with the rocks below the cliff of the cave, jumping to freedom.

    • However, only Druvigan managed to make the jump, as Gideon, embracing a streak of power and righteous indignation, burned the remaining soldiers attempting to flee. Druvigan's body seemingly did not survive the fall.

With the Dawn Chasers destroyed, and the final remnants of the once mighty order ostensibly gone forever, Tough as Dirt went and found Valia in Venture Ridge, reporting on what they'd done.

• A celebration commenced, and over the course of the next couple days, Gideon worked with Valia on an alternative for the Everbleed, which was quickly losing its efficacy with Lexxia gone.

• On the eve of Kreene's return to Venture Ridge to taken back command of the city, Jasmine finally showed up and killed Valia right in front of Ricco, who had been hoping for some alone time with the handsome vampire.

  • Ricco told Jasmine that the Blade of Ir'Palin was meant to come to him, so Jasmine handed it over, her job of destroying the leadership of Venture Ridge now accomplished.

    • Jasmine had forgotten about the final head of the town, however, Vanissa, who had asked the group to help her escape when they first arrived.

With Kreene gone, Lexxia missing, and Valia dead, Vanissa took over control of the town and the group learned the original plan when the Everbleed ran out was to destroy the cloud cover over the town and embrace death rather than feed on innocent people.

• However, with Vanissa now in charge, she claimed the plan was now to move with the cloud to Crooked Post in order to feed more heartily on those citizens there.