The Valley of Ends

Del will follow Onyx’s lead

I would say follow the tentacles, we are looking for Mindflayers and Oblexes, so with Onyx l8mited knowledge about tentacle faces, that seams to be a lead as good as anyone.

Glancing down into the tunnel and seeing it slant after a short sheer drop, Sabastian flies into the tunnels but find it just goes down for a while at the angle. The party, with some reservation, hop, jump, climb down the hole and start venturing into the tunnel leading down. The party gets some distance down, only a rush of air is the warning before the tentacle wall comes back a few tentacles grab onto Sabastian and start dragged the wing cat back however, the rest continue down the tunnel at the party as they turn to run but they find no escape points or hiding spot along the route before they're grabbed by  the walls of tentacles and almost effortless dragged down the hole.

The spellcasters struggle to attempt to cast spells and use innate ability to escape but find the arcane and divine energy almost drained away. For the party as a whole, they feel also feel their own energy being drained away as they struggle to break free or even even free against the exhaustion setting in. The last party member to retaining consciousness see the end, a  massive black unnaturally round stone, that many tentacles seem to have emerged from and is dragging the party into.

Many of the parties is violently awaken as they hit the ground hard, After a moment, they feel their energy, both physical and magical, returns to them, They open their eyes and see a dark landscape before them. Immediate next to them is a dark forest like all he color was drained from it leaving shades of gray. The sky show it's lit by what appear like light but its just a light shade of gray. Like the trees there is no color in the color, just more shade of gray. Looking at the sky shows the strange elements, what seems like floating islands in the sky in the distance and after a moment, they noted the forest around them doesn't extent pass 90ft from them. Just dark cloud like void beyond that point.

What does the party do?

Cythriel will try to see if she can find any landmarks around.

14 (This is just a d20, you can add whatever modifier/proficiency I have for the necessary skill).

Or don’t because it’s a shit roll either way

Del attempts to discern any illusions, or if they truly left the tunnel and black stone they were dragged to

investigation 10 

“If anyone has a burning interest to go check some of these other floating rocks, I can get a couple of us to fly. Or I can attempt a banishment to send us back to our home plane? That would likely not be the Valley though...”

Del without moving too much, kneels down and starts investigating the immediate area and find it's not an illusion but solid ground and trees. Furthermore, Del is disconnected from Peach when he starts to connect.

Cythriel tries to look for land marks but sess nothing beside what seems like floating islands in the distance. 

Resfaen curses and then uses her Divine Sense to see if anything is nearby as she also then looks with her eyes. "This might be a mistake." as she also activate her axe to privde as much light as she can in the area to help everyone look around.

Perception: 19

(Sabastian went the opposite direction, away from the way the party was going, I wanted him to seek out what the tentacle-thing was going towards when we first found it. Not sure what that means for this, but I assume Sabastian is not down here with us.)

Gotch casts detect magic as a ritual.

Resfaen ignites her axe and luminated the area but no color is added. The axe causes the area around them to become a lighter gray. Resfaen notices the "islands' are actually moving but the island seem to morph as they move through the sky. 

Sabastian I believe was sent back to looking for alternatiuve route then went down the hhole the tentacale from with the party behind. It was grabbed and pulled into whatever the party is.

Gotch sits down as he prepares his ritual casting of Detect magic. (Can't see through Sabastian's senses while doing this)

Salys will start investigating the nearby ground and plants, looking to see if it appears normal, or if it is, for example, random substance formed from aether or some such.

Investigation+guidance: 27+2

(Overkill)

Salys looks around before he starts carefully expanding the search. He keeps an eye on the edge of the horizon as he moves when he sees it and takes a moment to double check but he sees it better as he gets 40ft out from the group. As he moved, more forested land reveals itself around himself as he moves, keeping within 60ft of him. Beyond the 60ft, is the strange cloudy void.

(If this is confusing I can try to expand on it)

Salys carefully continues moving forward and after some distance looks back to find a cloud void gap between him and the rest of the party but he's aware he safely walked through what is now a cloudy void.

Gotch finishes his detect magic ritual as Salys moves away and become isolated on his own 'island'. Looking around, he see the same gray landscape but notices flickering evocation color coming from what seem to be the sun or source of light in this world. 

Beyond the party's areas, there are about 10 other 'moving' islands in the distance, all moving in different directions and paths.

Salys returns to the others and reports his findings, "I'm relatively confident we're not on the material plane anymore. Beyond that, I've no idea where we are or how to leave."

"I am growing to hate this place more and more. Shall we just pick a random direction to move and go with it?" Looking around and picking a random floating island that looks interesting, "I suggest we go that way."

Perception: 19

Onyx simply observes for now.

Do i see any form of life beside us at the moment? Does this area look like a shadow version of the forrest we were just in?

Perception: 17

“Any ideas what could be going on here? Is this an illusion, a different plane of existence or is this the eteral plane or however it is called?”

I do have two torches left, i light one of them, just to see what effect the fire will have.

With a sigh Gotch moves to follow the others.

Much like Resfaen and her radiant axe, the lit torch causes the area around them to turn a lighter shade of gray. Onyx hops in place and comes down like normal, lack of gravity is one of many features of the Ethereal plane. 

Resfaen looks around the mysterious area as Salys attempt to figure out this strange plane. Salys is quick to point out the idea the island may be other individuals or something creating the island like them.

Focusing in on them, Resfaen observes the 4 nearest islands. 

• A house or building island
• a moving island that split apart before reforming once a while
• Unmoving island made of a cluster of small islands upon prolonged obersveration
• Another moving island but this one remains a solid island as it moves

Cythriel follows behind the rest of the party. "How likely is it that something is waiting for us here?"

“If each island is some kind of life form, then i would assume that the one in the house is one of the srongest. We shoul be able to find a good bit information there.” Onyx theorieses.