Noob here. Cannot get from Cilant Lis to the Gilded Vale. The South portal from CL does not allow me to pass - something I did wrong like maybe taking flesh from the guys powering up the machine in CL? Do I need to scrap this char and restart? Please help. 

You've got to go through Valewood to get there.

I was confusing there too, there should be a portal on one of the edges of the map

Thanks, Ferg. Figured it out after a bit. It's not too intuitive but after thinking about it ... Duh just go to the next village!