entering/exiting descent act 9 causing crash

i was leaving descent to enter vastiri desert on a dervish/minion build. the game crashed. i logged back in twice on the same character trying to enter descent creating a new instance. game crashed both times. i tried on other characters and crashed then as well.

i was able to enter blood aqueducts and other towns.

this was all in phrecia league.

That could just be down to corruption of a small number of game asset files.

Does the issue persist after following the first 2 steps of Troubleshooting your Path of Exile client?