The Shackled City, Day 20 (2007-02-16, 6:30 PM), Chapter 6: The Test of the Smoking Eye

Players (Characters)
Scott (Rain)
Jeremy (Grokk)
Catherine (Amber)
Tony (Roland)
Rachel (Horkina)
DM: Tom (Garlen)

Over the course of the next few days, the political situation in Cauldron calmed quite a bit. Many of the mercenaries were sent back home, and the rest were trained to be more disciplined. The tax collectors mostly had to find new jobs, though the government retained a few for future use.

Amber called the group to meet on the outskirts of town, along with a few local clerics and many of the common people. There, on the northern slope of Cauldron, was a brand new temple to Ehlonna, constructed while the party was out on their last adventure. Amber introduced James, the cleric who would run the Quiet Grove's day-to-day operations. After a couple of brief speeches, it was time for food, music, and dancing. The party lasted for most of the day, but eventually the guests either went back to Cauldron or rested in the grass.

As the party began heading back to Cauldron, five Babau stepped around the corner and began to attack. The party quickly dispatched them with the help of a mysterious sorcerer who fired magic missiles into the fray. This sorcerer introduced himself as Kaurophon, and said that he'd just arrived from Occipitus, a part of Celestia that had fallen into the Abyss. Occipitus' ruler, a demon prince named Adimarchus, vanished about fifty years ago. He'd set up a test called the "test of the smoking eye" to determine who would rule the plane after him. Kaurophon said that some rival groups, including a succubus-led group and a rakshasa-led group, were already working on the test, but the Rubble Rousers were obviously destined to rule the plane because of the words of "the prophet". He was obviously referring to Alek Tercival's message after Nabthatoron was slain.

The party agreed to go along, so Kaurophon planeshifted the whole group to Occipitus. The plane was a large bowl-shaped area about 300 miles across with a massive skull-shaped mountain in the center. The sky was filled with unholy fire, and Kaurophon warned not to get too close to it. As the party headed to the north toward part 1 of the test, it became apparent the plane was covered with Rubble. Horkina remarked that "we were totally meant to rule such a plane." As the party crossed the vast flats on horseback thanks to Roland, the encountered a pair of fiendish dire lions that fell quickly to the party's superior strength. A few miles later they encountered a Hezrou, whose awful stench made several party members keel over vomiting. Amber's cast of Mass Align Weapons gave the party the edge they needed to cut through the demon's skin. Shortly thereafter, in the middle of an area dotted with strange chalky columns that looked almost like giant ribs, the party encountered a group of three vrocks. They too went down quite quickly.

Soon, the party reached the Cathedral of Feathers. This massive cathedral was obviously originally Celestial in origin. Rain popped the front door open and the party was attacked by a pair of spider-like creatures called Driders, which began firing lightning from the ceiling. Rain and Garlen spider-climbed up to meet them, and a few quick stabs finished them off. When they had both died, a pit in the middle of the floor disappeared -- it had been an illusion.

The party stepped through the next pair of doors into the cathedral's massive main sanctuary. A massive statue of Orcas stood where there had no doubt been an altar before. Suddenly a woman stepped out from behind a buttress and tried to grab and kiss Roland. He pushed her away, screaming "hell no, get off me", and the party slaughtered the succubus within seconds. Suddenly a fireball landed in the middle of the group, dropped by a salamander who stood near the statue some 300 feet away. Garlen, Rain, Grokk, and Horkina set off running while Roland stepped to the side to take cover. Amber and Redtail flew to the opposite side, and then Kaurophon used dimension door to move closer to the enemy. It dropped another fireball on the group running across the cathedral floor, and Kaurophon responded with a cone of cold. Soon Garlen tumbled behind it, but it laid into him with a spear, dropping him to the ground. The salamander's tail narrowly missed the unconscious halfling. Kaurophon fired another cone of cold, taking care to avoid Garlen, and Grokk and Horkina used their axes to finally drop the beast. Amber brought Garlen back to his feet with several healing spells.

By this point it became apparent the cathedral still had some Celestial influence in it. Every few minutes, it would appear to be intact, with the view out the windows showing Celestia instead of Occipitus, and the air would fill with floating feathers. This would only last for a few seconds, and then the cathedral would return to normal. The party defaced the statue of Orcas and then searched two rooms off to the side. One room, a meditation chamber, held numerous small treasures buried in rubble. Another room held several books, floating in a circle in midair. The party decided to leave the books where they were and sleep in the other room, inside a stone dome produced from one of Amber's spells.