In the few seconds it took Alice to complete the summoning spell, a nasty-tempered fiendish pony the same color as the razor grass came running over a hill to meet her.  She was able to quickly clamber on as it barely slowed, and while she wasn’t much higher up riding the pony than standing up, it did carry her faster than her own legs could.  The terror birds were closing on the party quickly, but became distracted trying to chase down the pony, leaving them vulnerable to Tamarie’s enchanting music.  As they stumbled to a fascinated stupor, the others were able to club them down, disrupting their pack attack and making them scatter individually, leaving their leader dead.<br/><br/>With limited supplies, Faunra and Renilda quickly went about butchering the large bird, efficiently cleaning the meat and edible parts, at least as far as it resembled mortal poultry.  There were some redundant organs that only seemed made to contain more bile and hatred, and exposing the heart to air made it spontaneously combust.  While surprising, it made easy kindling to cook meat.  The long journey and drugged refreshments had begun to take its toll on the group, but fresh game full of unique abyss-fed vitamins and nutrients had a fortifying effect, bracing them to better acclimate to the profane environment.<br/><br/>As the others passed around the golden ring, they all examined it closely, looking for identifying writing, symbols, or auras.  In the end Kievanna handed it back to Alice with a shrug, “It’s magic alright, but I don’t know what, exactly.  It seems minor enough to be a generic gold ring, but seeing how that’s an intact knucklebone in your lunch, it’s probably protective.  Not enough to stop you from getting eaten, obviously, but it’s something.”<br/><br/>Packing up what leftover food they could carry, the group continued their escape to the twisted forest.  The hike was still difficult under the hot red sun, and when it set (wherever that might be), the night was still hot, but now with vast stretches of alien darkness surrounding them.  The women managed a kind of camp, trying to get some rest as they took shifts watching for gnolls or other predators.  The elves’ meditative trances were haunted by visions of sex and gnolls, as well as disturbingly arousing foreign memories of unidentified demons inflicting exquisite erotic tortures upon them.  Alice would come to in a sweat, taking a few moments to gather her bearings, the other elves in fitful trances, alternating between grimacing and rubbing themselves over.  “Sweet dreams, darling?” Allizsah smirked, wagging her eyebrows.  Jhessail patted Alice on the shoulder, “It’s okay, we dealt with the same thing coming off the demon seed the gnolls constantly fed us.  While I don’t miss the erotic nightmares, sometimes I remember a few good ideas to try.  We can compare notes later!  Oh, and I had another look at that ring—it looks like your friend was right, it’s a minor ring of protection, not remarkable, but better than nothing.”<br/><br/>Besides rough dreams and trances, morning came without incident, supporting the thought that the gnolls relied on the harsh environment to corral their slaves, or at least they were too lazy to go wrangling them without making it a sport.  Their successful defense against the terror birds also hopefully warded off any beasts seeing them as easy pickings, only having to focus on finding some drinkable water while avoiding being lacerated by the razorgrass that surrounded brackish pools.<br/><br/>After two more long days of marching across the alien savanna, they had approached what appeared to be a logging camp.  Near the hard edge of the forest, an industrial-sized bite had been taken out of the treeline, making room for a camp of huts, mills, and a palisade to stop any wandering man-eating beasts.  From the size of it, one would expect it to be teeming with workers and other inhabitants, noticeable even from a distance.  Instead, the group heard no sounds of work or even life, and saw only one little plume of smoke, rather than many billows one would expect from an extensive working camp.<br/><br/>“This is strange.  I had expected to make a choice between negotiating with a camp of potentially evil mortals, or avoiding it altogether, but it appears abandoned, or at least nearly so,” Tamarie mused, pointing at the one smokeline suggesting life inside.  “In this case, maybe we aught to investigate and find what supplies we can get, and see who is there…”<br/><br/>“Sure, if they’ve all killed each other, any stragglers will be easy pickings,” Allizsah smirked, ready to scavenge whatever they could.<br/><br/>[Abyssal planar traits: normal gravity, normal time, normal magic, mildly chaos-aligned, mildly evil-aligned (-2 Cha checks to Lawful or Good characters, -4 to Lawful Good)]<br/><div class="spoiler_container"><div class="spoiler_header" onclick="hideSecond (this);" role="button">OOC</div><div class="spoiler_body">Tamarie and Jhessail had been fatigued by the harsh conditions and journey, but the fresh game helps them recover, as well as Faunra and Alice who had been fatigued by the initial gnoll enslavement.<br/>Spellcraft DC 20, nobody rolled over 16 the first day, Jhessail makes a breakthrough the next day, identifying a <em>Ring of Protection +1</em><br/>Two days passed, Alice, Tamarie, Faunra, and Kieyanna make two saves vs addiction, Fort DC 20 (cure with three consecutive saves).<br/>  Tamarie: 21, 18, one success, then failed and started over.<br/>  Faunra: 19, 23, failed, then started her first success.<br/>  Kieyanna: 9, 5, isn't even fighting the addiction that much.</div></div>