Algonn¶
"This place is watched, even if they can't enter, they could trap us here if they discover us … so lets just focus on digging and get out of here before they do, shall we?" — Algonn, in the memory of the warrior Orrhen (S338)
Algonn was a wizard of the White Fire who led a small secret party into the Demonlands to recover something buried in a warded ruin, and died there when the wards failed. "Algonn had a good reputation", and his three handpicked companions trusted his magic to bring them home. None of them came back as themselves: their bodies were taken as hosts by newly risen demons, and Algonn's head became a demon's flesh anchor.
The expedition¶
The party came "riding through a storm on a large wooden ship." Aboard, Algonn opened "a white envelope sealed with a white fire symbol", which disintegrated "into white vapor" once read, and told the ranger Jaren that only a small party would go ashore and that "the success of this mission relied on speed and stealth." They pulled a rowboat ashore and his magic kept them "silent and invisible", so that "they walked past demons only a 100 yards away that were completely oblivious to their presence"; he hid their camp in some small ruins under an illusion. The ship would wait about two days.
At a site of "ancient marble ruins" he set the others to dig for "a reddish crystal in a steel box covered with runes", wanted "for safekeeping." He told them "wards protected this place from demons, that they couldn't enter it." A "huge magma infernal" with "cracked stone skin" crossed the wards regardless and leapt into the ruin with a pack of hellhounds circling outside. Algonn's "white burning fire seemed to peel stone and magma off the demon", but it "bowled over the wizard, showering him with fiery magma and crushing him against the wall." A last burst of "white-hot energy" brought an arch down on the demon and pinned it. His companions carried him back to the camp, where "the wizard's energy expired before he did" and the illusion over the camp failed. A demonic boar was already bearing down on them.
Afterwards¶
Algonn's head and Gyrden's were kept by the demon Kosh'Tuul as flesh anchors, bodily remains that yield the bond a possessing demon needs. What the demons who took the party's bodies did next is told in the Demonlands Mini Campaign.
Gap
No source says what the reddish crystal was, who sent the sealed orders, whether the ruin is the one where Drazannak lies buried, or what the magma infernal was.
Jaren¶
A ranger, the party's lookout, who first sighted the magma infernal and loosed demonsbane arrows that "couldn't pierce his rocky skin." He had taken the work for the pay, which would let him move "his wife and two kids to the mainland … maybe a nice stead in northern Dalmar by the Silverleaf forest", where he might work as a hunter or gamewarden. He thought "stepping foot in the Demonlands without an army was pretty much suicide." It was Jaren who directed the retreat; at the camp, judging the others "dead weight", he was looking for "a good time to slip away" when the boar came. A demon of the campaign possessed him.
Orrhen¶
A warrior, eager for the mission and hoping that "if he impressed the wizard, Algonn, he might be able to help him become an auxiliary with the White Fire." He "seemed confident that he was a much better fighter than either of the other two." When the infernal came he backed away, "realizing that this foe was beyond your skill or equipment", and carried the wounded wizard from the ruin with Gyrden. A demon of the campaign possessed him.
Gyrden¶
A warrior, the third of the handpicked men, who asked the questions: what the crystal was for, whether the demons would find them, and "why didn't we camp here then?" He helped carry Algonn from the ruin. His head, like Algonn's, was kept as a flesh anchor.