To the Surface, the Long Way Round

As Kromal was being taken by the devil, the rest of the group set in pursuit. Unfortunately for them, the devil took flight through a bizarre portal, that was closing when they tried to rush through it. Alas, Dashawn, Kevin and Stelmaris were not able to make it.

The remainder, Alruna, Arthur and Meicoril were forced to quickly adapt to the vastly different, almost dreamlike circumstances. If dreams of intense humid heath in a blasted venusian landscape are your thing, at least, otherwise perhaps nightmarisch circumstances might be more accurate. Initial guesses pointed to the elemental plane of fire.  Alruna and Arthur managed to catch up with Kromal and the devil, thanks to some arcane support, while Meicoril was distracted by a sort of demonic ritual, where a circle of demons were led in procession by a women, clad in yellow robes. The monstrous visage however at times seemed to flicker away, giving way for a blonde version of Tara. Tara herself managed to gain just enough control of herself to warn Meicoril away.

In the meanwhile, Alruna and Arthur managed to harm the devil enough that he was forced to let go of Kromal. With first Meicoril and then Tara rejoining the group slightly later on, a strange river and tree, seemingly showing places from around the planes above. The combination of Arthurs patron Excalibur finally being able to communicate more clearly with Arthur, and Tara’s studies led to the conclusion that their initial hypothesis was flawed: they were actually in the Abyss (or maybe the nine hells.) Excalibur also revealed that its imprisonment was part of the deal Lyuna made with the Frost Father at the end of the great war.

Unfortunately, at that point they were attacked by a wandering demon. Fortunately the demon was in the process of being bound, and with some arcane knowledge shared between Arthur and Tara, and a little bit of luck the party barely manages to hitch a hike with the demon, as it was called to the Prime Material.

They arrived in a damp cellar, surrounded by people scared of where the party came from. They had summoned a demon with the help of an elven arcanist of the nearby Dorei Verde, because they needed help. A strange disease had come over them, after some of them had seen gigantic humans (over 20 ft tall). The disease caused what seemed like blood shedding and memory loss, furthermore the disease had a magical component. Though the magical component could be destroyed by a simple dispel magic, the disease was too widespread to efficiently just dispel all instances. Especially since the disease was spread by blood contact. Given that the giant humans seemed infected with the disease as well, and a crazed demon isn’t really the most reliable source of protection from magical diseases, the group agreed to help the village, and set out to find the cause, and hopefully, a cure.

The surrounding forest (Cliar Grove) seemed completely affected by the diseases, from the birds to pretty much all living creatures within. With some care though, the party reached a clearance that brought a view on the forest and valley where the village was alike, and now had to plan out there next move, finally seeing the blue sky of the Dragonlands once again.