We Aren't In Cauldron Anymore

With a long break under their belts, the group returns to the mirror but finds that Tercival is no longer in the room. Looking closer at the mirror they can see a small image of Tercival slumped in despair in a small square chamber.

Morgan begins walking along the carved lines in the floor, from colored circle to colored circle. As he nears the mirror, an out-of-breath Tercival comes leaping out of the mirror. Tercival and Morgan do a double-take at each other, and Tercival says "They are coming, defend yourselves!" Backing away from the mirror, with his sword at the ready, two Morgan-sized human-shaped creatures step through the mirror. They appear to be walking mirrors, their skin smooth, reflective, and featureless. In each hand they wield a large jagged splinter of glass. Tercival yells not to look directly at them, so Modisto drops a darkness spell into the room. About this time, Salla uses a detection spell to discover that Tercival is giving off evil vibes.

Melee in the dark ensues, with Morgan smashing a couple of the creatures into bits who step through the mirror and into reach of his sword. However, he gets stabbed multiple times in the back with what feels like a sharp dagger. Jonl, Chul, and Snake finish off one or two more (they are not sure with the darkness) before they get to smashing apart Morgan's backstabbing buddy.

Cut and bleeding the group decides to rest again before messing any more with the mirror.

When they return to the room, they notice the mirror is actually more like a liquid pool then a solid surface. Morgan steps into the mirror and finds himself alone in a small-pentagon shaped room with a violet ambient light, each wall holds another colored mirror. He discovers that he can talk with the rest of the group, even though their voices sound distant and muffled to each other.

After some trial and error, Morgan manages to step through enough various colored mirrors to finally step out into a small stone chamber where Tercival sits slumped against a metal door. Tercival doesn't even register Morgan's arrival, his tear-stained face slumped down and his torn, bloody hands at his side.

Morgan dishes out some of his special medicine (boot camp instructor shouting) to get Tercival to at least talk to him. He finds out that Tercival was shown the mirror by the "silver-skinned archons" after he had drank from their chalice to gain their favor and strength. He first met the archons several months ago, before the Demonskar Ball. Visions of disaster in the horizon for Cauldron, led him to Vaprak's Voice where he encountered them for the first time. The vision told him that he must undertake the "Test of the Smoking Eye" to save Cauldron from the disaster.

During these talks, the rest of the group makes their way through the mirror and into the chamber with Tercival. It appears as if the mirror is a one way trip, so the group tackles the metal door. Morgan's great strength aided by a magical mace make quick work of bashing through the door.

Through the door is a larger chamber, in the middle stand four metal columns, and on the opposite wall an archway leading to what appears to be the outdoors, except that the outdoors glow a hellish red. Watching the metal columns, a small spark of electricity jumps around every couple of minutes.

One by one, the party crosses the room to the other side, timing their movement through the larger chamber in between sparks of electricity. On the other side of the room they are greeted to a sky made of flame, bathing everything in a reddish glow. Off in the distance looms a massive skull: a white monolith the size of a small mountain. Clouds of flame stream from the skull's eye socket and up into the sky. About a half-mile ahead stands a cluster of gently curving white pillars, almost as if giant rib bones had been stuck in the ground. Off to the sides, and surrounding the entire scene are steep mountains, whose tops seem to touch the fiery sky. It stretches around the entire horizon - as if standing inside a vast bowl with a fiery lid. The ground is spongy and wrinkled. It's more like skin than dirt.

As Tercival begins to cross the room there is a huge surge of electricity between the pillars followed by a loud crack and flash of lightning. Standing between the pillars is a creature as tall as a giant. Two of its four arms end with clawed hands, the other two with powerful pincers. Its doglike head is topped with horns, and its violet eyes are cold and dark. A loud barking voice fills the mind of everyone in the room, "Tercival must die! Peace is at an end!"

Like a man possessed, Tercival charges the monstrosity. Tercival's white shining sword carves into the creature, while its massive claws crush his steel-encased body. Tercival is soon tested to his limits and falls limp in the creature's claws. Snake jumps up and knocks Tercival loose from his claws, sending him and Tercival hurtling across the room.

Salla runs over and forces a potion of gaseous form down Alek's throat. The monster raises its claw in the air and draws out a glowing rune, barking out a sinister chant to match. Chul, Snake, Kreed, and Krylscar find themselves befuddled and confused as to where they are and what they are doing. Salla throws a silence spell on Morgan, which unfortunately for Morgan makes him the new target for the beast. Salla follows this up with a dispel magic on Snake, which dispels the magical confusion effect on his mind.

Morgan finally manages to get his hands on Alakast, and swings it down on the monster delivery a thundering blow that echoes through the chamber as chunks of flesh are blown off with the magically enhanced hit. But that is all the hits Morgan gets in as the creature traps him in its claws and crushes the consciousness out of him. He throws the limp body across the room near Modisto. Morgan's broken body stains the stone floor with blood as he is quickly fed a healing potion to keep him from dying to his injuries.

Salla casts a second silence spell, this time on Snake. Snake manages to move around the creature and grab Alakast from where Morgan fell. Snake gets two mighty blows in with the staff before the creature tears through him as well. Chul scoops up the staff, swinging it at the monster's knee. With Pelor smiling upon him, he drives the staff through the knee, exploding it out of the creature's leg.

The heavily wounded monster stumbles over to the gaseous form of Tercival. As he turns his back to the party, Morgan charges in pushing his sword through the monster's body, its tip bursting out of its stomach. The monster crashes to the ground, its body quickly catches flame and begins immolating itself.

The exhausted group relishes in their victory, high fives and shouts of joy are shared...