Cathedral Of Feathers

Kara'fen makes his way through the crowded forest of chalk-white "bones" jutting from the ground. Sight is restricted, and Kara'fen makes several stops to regain his bearings. Jonl is able to easily climb up the bone protrusions and view the surrounding forest.

After spending a night in the woods, the group approaches the edge of the Demon Fields and the beginning of the celestial rubble they must cross to the Cathedral of Feathers. A roaring scream of pain is heard through the woods, in the direction of the celestial rubble. Jonl climbs up to witness a scene taking place a short distance away, at the edge of the celestial rubble ahead.

A muscular humanoid with the features of a lion is being tortured by a squat humanoid creature whose skin drapes over it like it were melting off the bone. Overseeing the torture is a large toadish creature with clawed hands and a gaping maw of razor-sharp teeth. Several more of the smaller creatures with draping skin are in the vicinity. Obvious signs of a recent fight are visible, especially long red claw marks on the giant toad creature. Jonl knows from the group's talks with Kara'fen that the smaller creatures are called Dretch, and the larger toadish creature is a Hezrou.

After Jonl reports his findings, the group decides to charge into the fray while the creatures are wounded. Snake leads the charge, brightening the battlefield with his shield and blinding several of the dretch. As the skirmish begins, the dretch begin to unleash vile smelling gas that incapacitates those unfortunate enough to breathe in a lungful of the nasty substance. Jonl unties the lion-man and witnesses the terrible wounds of his torture, several fingers and toes have been cut off, a sort of "de-clawing" they interrupted.

The battle is over relatively quickly as the wounded creatures fall. The lion-man introduces himself as Leoness and thanks the group for saving him from further torture. He leads the party to his lair inside the celestial rubble where they can safely rest and tend to their wounds. On the way, Leoness answers several questions about his origins, his current situation in Occipitus, and his knowledge of the test of the smoking eye.

After spending a peaceful night in the dark (in comparison to attempting to sleep in the bright red light above), the group departs from Leoness. He offers them a parting gift, a cold iron spear from Celestia, a weapon to aid them on the test and their travels.

Picking their way through the mounds of rubble, the group arrives at the ruins of a once mighty cathedral. Only the first floor of the cathedral remains intact, the upper floors having long ago crumbled and fallen. Jonl scouts it out, climbing up on the roof to look through large gaping holes in the ceiling.

Jonl finds that the cathedral floor is broken up into an entry hall, a large main sanctuary, and two smaller side chambers. In the entry hall he finds two creatures with the body of a giant spider and the upper torso of an elf, and a large open-faced pit in front of the stone doors to the outside. One of the side rooms contains massive amounts of debris. Jonl can hear a feminine giggle from the sanctuary, but chooses not to risk taking a look.

After Jonl returns, Morgan decides to go knock on the stone doors, but no one answers. Disappointed that the Abyss isn't as homely and welcoming as he imagined, Snake and Morgan force open the doors. The room appears empty, except for some rubble, with no pit or strange creatures in sight. Prodding about the room, they discover that their is indeed a pit in the room, covered by some sort of illusion to appear as part of the floor.

A second set of stone doors separates the entry chamber from the main sanctuary, which are opened to reveal the rubble-filled sanctuary. At the far end is a statue depicting an obscenely fat biped with the head of a ram. Sitting on the statue's shoulder is a scantily clad, seductive lady with large leathery wings on her back.

As the group enters the room, a streak of lightning crackles across the entry chamber from the fingertips of one of the elf-spider abominations, its body slowly becoming visible, floating eerily in the air with no obvious support. The spider creature follows up with a wall of webs that Salla gets stuck in.

As the portion of the party in the entry chamber comes under attack, the few members of the group in the sanctuary are charged by a large creature with the lower torso of a snake and a more human-like torso. The creature is covered in bright fiery red scales wielding a long fiery spear. The winged seductress emits a giggle and flies along behind the large snake creature. As it approaches it points its flaming spear at the doorway and a wall of fire erupts between the rooms splitting the party in two. Snake charges at the creature, while Morgan unloads frozen bolts into it.

In the entry chamber, the second elven spider has made its appearance with a lightning bolt and web. A few more minor spells are slung as the group flees from the heat generating wall of flame, followed quickly by the elven spider's deaths.

Jonl ends up hiding on the rooftop from the winged seductress as she attempts to lull him out into her waiting arms.

Salla gets brave, and leaps through the wall of fire, wishing the pain would stop as he lands on the other side. The large snake creature puts up a decent fight, but falls from the concentrated attacks of Snake and Morgan. The winged seducer, tired of Jonl's games, approaches Salla. Morgan steps in behind her, and with a single swing of Alakast he drives the staff through the back and out the chest of the demon, killing her instantly.

Kara'fen recommends the group rest up in the cathedral. As the days pass, the group finds things to do, like mess with the second side room, which is some sort of old celestial library. But the books have taken a life of their own and assault any intruder. The group gathers some samples of the books to take. During their time resting they also experience the cathedral's namesake. On occasion, for a short burst of time, the cathedral is whole once again, feathers float in the air, heavenly music plays, and the windows show a green, blissful scene of the wild.

After a few days of rest, the group descends the stairs in the back of the sanctuary, minus Kara'fen who is unable to physically proceed to the test. At the bottom of the stairs they find a square room with a single door to the side. Sitting at an oak desk in the center of the room is a withered, desecrated corpse covered in a strange mix of funeral wrappings and golden filigree armor. The corpse lifts both hands showing their empty, then speaks: "Adimarchus, Most Potent Ruler of Occipitus bids you welcome to the Test of the Smoking Eye. If you are here, then Occipitus lies fallow, without a strong hand to guide its development. Know then that you are a pretender to Adimarchus's throne. If you are worthy, step forward and undertake the Test of Judgment." One withered hand points to the door. "Go through the door, slay the occupant behind it."

The door leads to a chamber containing a series of wooden platforms that form a network of bridges, seemingly connected by fine webbing. A door is at the far end of he chamber. The ceiling is thirty feet above, and the a spike-covered floor is thirty feet below.

An invisible Modisto flies to the other end of the chamber and back to check things out, and manages to not get eaten. Still not desiring to fight something on the wooden platforms, Salla beings to detect evil around the room, pinpointed a single aura in the dark. Snake begins to fire flaming arrows in the direction that Salla directs, and they catch glimpses of some giant spider creature skittering about the ceiling. Jonl beings to fire arrows in the platforms with light spells upon them, to illuminate the area in a more persistent fashion. This seems to cause a reaction as Salla's next detect shows the evil aura directly in front of the group. From under the platforms a giant hideous spider with razor-sharp claws on its legs lurches upward and at the group.

A front line is formed and melee is had. For many members of the group, their weapons prove useless, unable to penetrate the supernatural carapace. With a tight formation those who can hurt the creature slowly bring it down.