Even though The Underduke now had plenty of new territory to expand into, they party decided to open up his options further by investigating the area of extreme cold. They rigged up some space suits to deal with the cold. Jeb made a moderately inspiring speech to the people nearby about the importance of helping one another to survive the dome, then the party charged in.
Eventually the party came upon an ice castle, and therein met the Demon Bal’Urel whom the party had released from imprisonment in session 14, and Ronnina had sold her soul to in Session 20.
The party attempted to negotiate first for Ronnina’s soul, which Bal’Urel had no interest in giving up. It’s rare for a soul to go out and make something of itself after its been sold. Hers is a valuable one, and Bal’Urel already has plans for how they’ll use it.
More importantly, the party offered all the souls aboard their space ship to Bal’Urel if he would agree to leave this area so it could be defrosted and lived in by humans. Bal’Urel agreed, and the party returned as heroes to everyone but Jaylin the Ice Vendor who lost her best source of produce.
With this significant expansion of territory for the Underduke, he proposed the party meet with Duke Dayvos, one of the Dukes of the Dome. Dayvos is a fairly minor figure, but agreed to do what he could to help the conspiracy on the condition that he be allowed to lead the first group of colonists off of Mars. The party agreed to this.
He also suggested the party might increase his usefulness as an ally by weakening some of his political enemies, enabling him to wield greater influence in the DotD congress.