After an uneventful night in the castle keep, the party wakes refreshed and ready for action. They make their way to the portal room and are soon standing ready in the portal circle. Malkior speaks the activation word... The outside world fades away as the portal effect takes hold. The blackness seems to last forever, until eventually you feel a sense of fundamental wrongness as a hellish red landscape begins to slowly come into view. Devils of all shapes and sizes caper around just outside the portal circle, shouting insults and dire promises of pain, and you begin to feel an oppressive heat. Just as it begins to feel completely real, there comes a mighty beam of light from above, scattering the devils and blinding you. You hear the rush of mighty wings, a cool breeze blows away the heat, and you once again feel the portal take hold. When your vision clears, you stand in a familiar place...just outside the mouth of a cave, looking out over grain fields. A path leads away from the cave, meeting a road in the distance. You all hear a voice, as if coming from far away: “The servant of my servant awaits your assistance within the earth. Save him, and be rewarded.” Everyone is suspicious after their first experience in this location! But without any better alternatives, they decide to investigate the cave and look for this "servant of my servant." They enter and Ulrik quickly spots a group of deep gnomes standing guard. The gnomes challenge the party in the name of their lord prince Domborcojh, so they claim to be here on the prince's orders and mention that they worked previously with Coboj. This doesn't completely convince the gnomes, but they do send one of their number to fetch Coboj. When Coboj arrives, he immediately recognizes the adventurers. An attempt to convince him that they are here to help is an utter failure...he remembers how they went against Domborcojh before! He attacks, calling the gnomes to join him. The party defends themselves, against not only Coboj and the gnomes, but also an earth elemental called from the rock itself. The battle is fierce, but eventually Coboj and the gnomes are defeated and the elemental is chipped apart. Pressing forward into the cave, the adventurers encounter several strange beasts who stand immobile near the cave walls. They stir and begin to approach when the party draws near. Malkior's deep knowledge of strange beings comes to the rescue, identifying these as Xorns, eaters of precious metals and jewels. Thinking quickly, they toss some gold into the far corner of the cave. The beasts go after the distraction and the party is able to pass safely, though the Xorn continue to follow slowly. Through a short tunnel, the cave widens into a large area which is covered in spider webs. Not wishing to be caught between spiders and Xorn, they push ahead. There is a narrow clear pathway down the middle, which Lariat and Jamna are able to easily navigate. But Malkior and Ulrik accidentally trip halfway through, disturbing two spiders who come down off their webs and attack! The mage belatedly remembers his flying broom and takes off, clearing the webs and throwing a fire bolt at the spiders. This misses, but sets the webs on fire, pulling the spiders away and allowing Ulrik to escape. The party quickly moves on, leaving the spiders and Xorn behind. A long, narrow passageway leads further into the cave. Jamna scouts ahead but fails to spot a trap on the floor, accidentally triggering rocks dropped from above. Everyone but the wizard takes some damage, but fortunately no one is seriously injured. At the end of the passage, they see a cage with four prisoners, and a group of guards. The party decides that there is no opportunity here for diplomacy, and moves forward to the attack! The battle initially goes well for the adventurers, as Lariat engages the enemy head-on, Malkior and Jamna provide fire support, and Ulrik overcomes the weak-minded guards with a holy command. But then there is a roar from one of the other guards, a half-red dragon, as he recognizes Lariat! Shouting vile insults, calling her a traitor and abandoner of clan, he throws caution to the wind and recklessly attacks, dealing devastating blows with a fiery magical axe. Lariat is momentarily overwhelmed, briefly losing consciousness, but the rest of the party is able to rally. They drive back the enemy, revive Lariat, and together the tide is turned and the guards defeated. A quick search finds the cage key on the belt of a guard, and Lariat takes the magical axe from the fallen half-red dragon warrior. The prisoners are released: three are simple farmers from the surrounding villages, but the fourth is Jardef, who introduces himself as "an armorer, servant of Chelnadatilar." Having found the servant spoken of by the mysterious voice, the party heads back to the entrance. Malkior uses gold pieces taken from the guards to distract the wealth-hungry beasts again, and they exit the cave without further incident. Leaving the cave behind, you escort Jardeth south along a familiar road. As you reach the forested section, the fields of Chelnadatilar’s domain come into view ahead. You hear the rush of mighty wings from above, but the trees hide their source from view. Moments later, you see Chelnadatilar standing on the road ahead. He motions you forward, but his attention is behind you. Looking back, you see that another powerful-looking older man stands on the road just outside the forest. You recognize him as the man who first plucked you from your daily life and set you on this course of events. As you move past Chelnadatilar, the other man disappears and you catch a glimpse of a sapphire-blue dragon flying away before the trees obscure your view. As you return to his town of Demast, Chelnadatilar explains how Domborcojh raided his lands and captured Jardeth. A dragon prince council session was called to discuss this matter, attended by all four of the princes. He had been getting nowhere with his complaint, but suddenly Domborcojh made excuses and left the meeting. Suspicious, Chelnadatilar did the same and followed, which is how the two dragon princes arrived at the forest at the same time. Having heard your story of the portal experience, the dragon prince recognizes the hand of Bahamut. Clearly the favor of the dragon god of justice is with you, having both shown you the involvement of the Red Wizards and saved you from being pulled into the hellscape of Avernus. Chelnadatilar also relays to you that the subject of the Cult of the Dragon was brought up at the dragon prince council. The leader of the dragon princes, Skalnaedyr, is a blue dragon and thus somewhat sympathetic to the cult. However, Skalnaedyr has spent many years ruling over human lands and is loath to give up his position even for the dragon goddess, so as of yet he has not openly supported the cult. The other princes, Domborcojh and the emerald dragon Astanalan, are thus far neutral on the subject. He will continue to try to convince them to take action against the cult. In thanks for the rescue of Jardeth, Chelnadatilar grants each party member a magical armor item of their choice (+1 bonus) and 200 gold. After an evening's rest, he will use his magic to continue their interrupted portal journey.