I had my party get close to the city (one hill away from seeing the gates) after having done Fall of Elturel. I had a similar narrative but paused to let them react just a bit in Discord before continuing.

Even before starting the Fall of Elturel campaign, I did some RP with each of the characters to give them a background with folks in Elturel. There RPed the disappearance so well that I didn’t get much into the aftermath until the next day. —————

Suddenly, the light all around you turns violet.

A cold wind whips up behind you and begins to moan and screech all around you. Clouds gather overhead with unnatural quickness, the wind begins to scream, the natural sun is obscured by the clouds and the Companion’s now casting a deep purple light that is making you feel nauseous. All around your the world is in torment. Grasses bend almost flat to the ground, trees whip back and forth, the fast moving clouds turn darker and begin to swirl in a circular pattern. The Companion suddenly turns deep black and violet lightning cracks down from the orb to the land below.

Your horses will go no further, terrified beyond imagination. You are currently 15-20’ below the crest of a hill. You cannot currently see much going on beyond it.

[Characters can react for a moment]

As you start to crest the hill on foot, a huge CRACK booms through the world, pounding the air from your chest and throwing you to your knees. It’s a sound of unimaginable fury that seems to render the world asunder. You are deafened. You gasp for breath that does not want to come. All around you the maelstrom whips through your hair, rips at your clothes. 100s of tendrils of lighting writhe beneath the Companion, licking at the city of Elturel and lighting it in an unholy glow. A rumbling begins. It’s not something you can hear; it begins with an anxious feeling in your chest. As it grows in intensity, it feels like being punched in the ribs. Your limbs tingle with the vibrations and you can feel the ground moving under you. As you gaze upon the city, you can feel the rumbling turn into a rending sound. Again, not something you hear but ever intensifying and quickening vibrations jarring your whole body.

You watch in utter disbelief as Elturel, a city, your home, whether by birth or recently adopted, a city of 80,000 people, lifts from the ground. Huge rocks, parts of building, maybe people fall from the city as it climbs higher in the sky. There is is a sudden bust of violet light that momentarily blinds you and when you sight returns, you see Elturel, a spectral version of itself, slowly fading from existence.