A crimson portal opened.
Beneath a dark red sky, the entire world seemed to split open with a terrifying tear. Through the rift in the plane, a dreadful land was visible, filled with raging fire, toxic gas, frost, and hurricanes. It was a place mortal beings feared above all else, where even the most vicious cutthroats could not guarantee their survival. The portal connected directly to Baator, and as the dimensional gate gradually stabilized, countless fiendish creatures surged out from it: hellcats, hellhounds, imps, chain devils, nightmares, evil ghost beasts, barbazus, cornugons, incubi, gelugons, hamatulas, osyluths, pit fiends...
Asmodeus finally decided to invade the Material Plane.
In a single day, a duchy in the Material Plane was conquered, and then terrifying power left its scars upon the world. The entire land was tainted and transformed, turning into a harsh, hellish environment.
Hundreds of thousands of devils destroyed a kingdom in just one day, simultaneously pushing the battle lines to the domains of elves and dwarves.
This time, humanity was not the only one to suffer heavy damage. The southern Emerald Forest turned into a sea of fire, and of the more than one hundred thousand forest elves, less than thirty percent escaped to the Land of Dreams. The fortresses where dwarves hid among the mountains were breached, and powerful pit fiends put the homes of hill dwarves, gray dwarves, and mountain dwarves to the sword.
Faced with the terrifying threat of the devils, various races had no choice but to retreat and secure their rear.
At this time, very little time remained until the end of the Time of Troubles. None of the deities knew when the Time of Troubles would end; perhaps the terrifying torrent of energy would vanish tomorrow and they would return to their own domains, or