When travelling near evil...

It is a well know fact among planewalking bloods that magic can and will fail sometimes when you are planewalking. In some places it happens a lot, in others it only happens in freak accidents. This adventure is a result of a plane shift / teleport spell or something similar that went awry. The pc´s use plane-traveling magic and arrive in the abyss.

"This place seems peaceful and friendly. I guess we're safe."-Haddram Grok, a complete idiot-

-Not in Kansas anymore- The place they enter seems absolutely beautiful, peaceful and restive. It will remind cutters who have been there of mt. Celestia, except for a few insignificant details. First of all no plane-shifting works, magical or otherwise, except portals. Secondly, all spells cast to detect evil or their position in the multiverse simply don't work. The true name of this place is Fantasia, the 678th layer of the Abyss, previously uncatalogued by Guvners or anyone mortal. The entry point of the pc´s is a burg named Deocide. Its ruler, a horrible glabrezu by the name of Propagandos (When he meets the pc´s for the first time, he calls himself the Marketing Supervisor), notifies their arrival immediately. He means to make sure they never leave. None of the inhabitants of this layer look their part. They are all beautiful, humanoid or animal, in a sugar sweet utopia sort of way (trust a tanar´ri to overdo things). The city streets are laid with marble and beautiful white towers spiral up to dizzying heights. And the whole thing is a tanar'ri joke. Extremely evil people who considered themselves good and just, but were instead selfish and horrible, come here when they die. It is a place of delusion, of denial.

-Not welcome-

Every person they meet is mockingly twisting the ideals of goodness and law: A man cheerfully killing his happy workers for being lazy, an institution that turns old people into sausages for the rest of the population ("In this way, they too can contribute to our society!"), a correctional salon, where people that look wrong can be set straight ("Long hair, brown eyes, 15% fat....tsk, tsk, tsk. This will never do...") and so forth. Everywhere is propaganda ("Come to Deocide for relaxation." "Obey the good and just laws of the supreme Marketing Supervisor." "Have YOU got the correct look? Make sure you go to the correcting salon for adjustment."). Beauty is only skin deep and the horror apparent to anyone with half a brain. The pc´s are bound to ask questions, even protest or directly intervene. Every time they do, the 'people' react to them as if they were doing something wrong. They'll learn among other things, that Deocide is 'a citizen republic' with no ruler, but the Marketing Supervisor makes most of the 'policy decisions'. Eventually, if they aren't careful, they will bring the entire population against them. Their only chance is to discover where they truly are and, more importantly, how in the abyss they can get out of there.

There is only one portal in the whole city, a one-way portal to the Layer of Infinite Portals, and it is located in Propagandos' home. At first glance, the portal looks like a copy of a statue known as 'the triumph of spirit' by a famous celestial artist, depicting a group of people helping each other reach an apple higher than any one of them can reach. However, this statue, when scrutinized, shows them crawling on top of each other, pulling each other down, selfishly struggling to get the apple for themselves. The portal is activated by touching the apple with bare hands. It will only transport one person at the time: the one touching the apple.

-Escape from paradise-

While wandering the streets of Deocide, the pc´s run into a man named Jarkon. Jarkon is a human planewalker, who like them ended up in Fantasia by accident. Now, five years later, he has completely lost his mind. He is absolutely convinced that Deocide is his personal hell, where he will be punished forever for some minor transgression. He knows of the portal but by the time he discovered it he had already resigned himself to his 'punishment'. Now he doesn't want to leave anymore. The arrival of the pc´s makes him doubt his convictions. He gibbers about a way out, mentioning the Marketing Supervisor's home and 'the triumph of spirit'. If the pc´s decide to leave (and they should) the 'citizens' of Deocide start showing their true self. Everywhere they look they see tanar´ri, running crazedly towards them, happily chasing them all the way to Propagandos' home and killing them if they catch them.

-Conclusion-

If Jarkon is going with them, the pc´s should be able to outrun most of the tanar´ri, since he knows the streets of the city quite well. When they reach the portal, Propagandos will attack them. The pc´s should know that staying to fight him is suicide, since the rest of his subjects will arrive in the matter of rounds. And since only one of them can pass through the portal at a time, this fight could be made very interesting. Eventually, the pc´s will probably reach the first layer of the Abyss. They are by no means safe yet but experienced planewalkers won't have serious trouble getting home, now that plane-shifting is possible again. If Propagandos survived he will seek revenge for the indignities the pc´s caused him, especially if they managed to hurt him a lot. Inspired by Kadyia Randall