Plain Of Ulcers

After resting for a few days in the small clearing, the party begins to follow the lantern once more. Leaving the small bone forest, they find themselves on the other side of Occipitus from where they were before. The lantern points straight at the ominous giant skull in the middle of Occipitus.

A day worth of travel later, small pothole-sized pools of acidic liquid, that smells and looks like blood, begin to dot the landscape. As the party draws closer to the skull, the "ulcer" pools grow larger and deeper, some even act like geysers, spraying the liquid about.

The next day leads to more of the same, even larger "ulcers". These pools of liquid are very deep, roughly 50 feet in most cases, with several underwater tunnels connecting them. The solid land to walk on becomes more like several land bridges that cross the plain of "ulcers" about the skull.

As the day nears an end, and the group nears the skull, Snake picks out a black slithering shape move along a far-off pool. He can pick out the black scales, giving him a guess the creature might be some sort of snake or lizard. Snake verbally warns the rest of the group to be on their toes, which pays off when a large black shape comes hurtling out of one of the underwater tunnels in a ulcer pool. The shape unfolds its great black wings and unleashes a wave of acid from its giant maw...a black dragon is looking for its next meal!

Some of the group attempts to get out of the way, some move up into swinging range, and others stay back at a range to pepper it from a safe distance. The dragon backs up into the pool, seemingly immune to the acidic effect, and sinks back down into the blood-like fluid, swimming back through the tunnel it came from.

Snake, Chul, and Tiluk, the colorful winged serpent they rescued, move quick enough to keep up with the dragon as it swims from pool to pool through the network of tunnels that interconnects them. Modisto flies overhead, faster than the others, he is able to position himself ahead of the dragon and fling a volley of magic missiles into it.

The dragon reacts and shoots up out of the pool, pushing out its wings to gain flight and meet Modisto as it breathes another wave of acid. A burned Modisto cringes as claws and teeth reach him, but luckily his mirror image takes the brutal bite as the claws rip up the real Modisto. Snake reaches the pool where Modisto is quickly becoming a tasty snack, and shoots an arrow through the dragon's head. The dying dragon falls out of the air and splashes back into the pool below it.

Through some careful searching, the party finds what they believe to be the dragon's hoard, recovering a couple thousand pieces of gold, some large gems, and a magical mace. Deciding thats enough for one day, they take a long rest and continue traveling the last few hours to the base of the skull.

The beam of light from the lantern shifts to point into a pool at the front of the skull...directly at a tunnel under the pool that appears to lead under the skull. Next to the pool a raven-winged man lies on the ground, flat on its back. It struggles weakly against several iron spears that have pinned its wings to the ground, then lies still.

The man is nearly 8-foot-tall with a lithe frame. His long, feathery wings are jet black. Tattered robes cover very little of his body, but a mass of scars, welts, and rough black spiral tattoos cover almost every inch of skin. The wounds on his wings are streaming blood that seemingly has flecks of gold in it.

Salla and Tercival administer some healing to the creature, and the iron spears are removed from his wings. Helping him up, he thanks the party and introduces himself as Saureya. Saureya answers several questions...

Q: Who did this to you?
A: A rakshasa and his bodyguard - a giant. They're on their way inside the skull. Presumably they're trying to pass the Test, too.

Q: What's with the tattoos?
A: Admiarchus found it amusing to keep me around as a prisoner. He thought it would be amusing to torture me repeatedly and put these blasphemous sigils on my flesh.

Q: You know Kara'fen?
A: We met years ago at the Cathedral of Feathers. He was wondering why he couldn't enter the antechamber, much less get to one of the doors. So I told him: Adimarchus wanted to keep anyone born of the Lower Planes from becoming the next ruler of Occipitus. Adimarchus was always hopeful that this successor would be another fallen angel or someone formerly of the light.

Q: What do you know about the Test of the Smoking Eye?
A: I helped Adimarchus create it. He confided in me throughout its constructions; after all, I was exactly the kind of successor he wanted. I was able to introduce a flaw into the test...I always dreamed of rescue. The first two parts simply point you to the final part, the one that really matters. I suspect the rakshasa is exploiting that flaw.

Q: Why are you here?
A: I was waiting for you. After all these years, I had a mild curiosity about the people who were going to pass the Test of the Smoking Eye. Now that curiosity is satisfied.

Q: What's the third test?
A: I'm not telling. The rakshasa tried to force the same information from me. He failed. I'll say this - knowing in advance what the test is won't help you prepare in any meaningful way. You could succeed. You could fail. You could turn your back on the whole idea. I'm not going to meddle in your fate. My own fate is trouble enough.

Q: What happens if we pass the test?
A: The very fabric of Occipitus's reality is yours to command - you do know how to control an entire layer of the Abyss, don't you? No? Well, I'd humbly suggest a line of academic inquiry, then. Like every other part of the Abyss, Occipitus responds to power, and the more powerful you are, the more Occipitus will bend to your will.

Q: Any advice?
A: I'd catch that rakshasa, unless you want to grow whiskers when he recreates Occipitus in his image.

Tiluk talks with Saureya, and decides to join with him, leaving the party, but not before thanking them for their aid. Saureya leaves with Tiluk, leaving the party to swim through the submerged tunnel and the acidic waters.

The swim is short, and the tunnel leads upwards and out of the fluid. The large circular tunnel continues, heading upwards and switching back on itself to the right every 100 feet or so.

Jonl leads the way, and after several switch backs he hears voices around the upcoming turn. Sneaking up to the corner, he peers around to see a humanoid tiger leaning against the wall of the tunnel having a discussion with a giant. The tiger man carries a metal lamp that emits a beam of light up the tunnel. The giant has red hair and black skin, is covered in blackened plate and wields a gigantic sword.

The rest of the party hears Jonl's report and a plan of attack is agreed upon. Modisto leads the attack by trying out his new ability to summon a storm of ice...which proves quite effective, layering the tunnel in a slippery sheet of ice. Jonl shoots a silence arrow into the rakshasa. Chul leads the charge with a stunning attack against the giant, that actually works!

The raksasha pulls the arrow out of himself and snaps it into two, throwing both pieces down the tunnel. Snake manages to bat the silenced piece of arrow back at the creature, and a game of keep the raksasha in the silence begins..meanwhile Chul continues to pull off stunning attacks against a giant...

The first of several waves begins to makes it way up the tunnel. Like a constricting throat, the tunnel tightens up its length, creating a wave effect on the floor, and causing several of the party to fall. Morgan and Salla end up having the worst trouble with this, finding themselves being swept past the battle as they ride wave after wave down the tunnel.

While the giant remains stunned from Chul's attack, the rest of the party attacks it with everything they have, finally bringing the giant down after it gets one swing of its sword off on Chul. The rakshasa, out of the silence now that the arrow has been carried down the tunnel by the waves, turns invisible and begins to move back down the tunnel. It doesn't make it very far before it is knocked down by a wave, and Snake feels it tumble up against him. The concentrated firepower of the group quickly finishes it.

Continuing to move along the now constantly flailing tunnel, it leads to a throne room, where an ape-like creature made of clay wanders about smashing its fists into the walls and floors. A quick melee is had with a magically enhanced Snake drawing the rage of the creature.

Thoughts of rest are had...

Plain Of Cysts

The single illuminated door at the other end of the web-filled chamber is opened, and the group enters a smaller chamber decorated with small tin bird cages hanging from chains of various heights throughout the room. At the other end of the chamber, next to a door, is a bird-like humanoid standing up inside a circle of silver dust.

The creature begs the party to release it from its prison, the ring of silver dust. It explains it fell to the Abyss with the chunk of Celestia. It was placed in this room ages ago by Ardimachus shortly after the fall, for what purpose it does not know. The party decides to sleep on the decision and leaves the creature trapped in the small circle of dust. After a long rest, they attempt to test if the creature can read the books they found in the library above, and are satisfied enough with the result to push aside a small amount of dust setting the creature free. With mixed emotions of shock, fear, and glee, the creature flees from the party and its prison.

Continuing on, the party enters a chamber split by a raised platform on one half where a iron lantern sits. Splitting the room in half are floating red sigils. Employing a "mage hand", Modisto grabs the lantern from the other end of the room, and brings it to himself. After a bit of experimenting, Morgan picks up the lantern by the metal rod attached to it with a chain, and a beam of light leaps out and points to the door out of the chamber. Following it, they party is led back out to the guardian of the test who claims they have passed the Test of Judgment and the lantern will take them to the next test.

Up the stairs and out of the cathedral they find that the beam of light points past the cathedral and through more of the celestial rubble. A discussion is had in regards to discarding Kara'fen, much to his annoyance, but in the end he stays and the group finds themselves leaning on him as their guide on the journey again. They party rests in the cathedral before departing and while they remain unmolested, Salla and Chul share a cryptic vision during their sleep.

Travelling once again, Kara'fen leads the party through the landscape, avoiding several obstacles and making good travel time. They travel for five days, and on the fifth day they arrive at the Plain of Cysts. The plain is covered with hundreds of large (man-sized and bigger) cyst-like protrusions from the ground itself. Kara'fen explains that a large host of Celestia fell here and died. Occipitus wants to absorb their dead bodies, and each cyst is home to a dead Celestian, a grave of sorts while Occipitus attempts to deal with the foreign food it wants to consume.

The lantern begins to point in odd directions, the beam of light turning a full 90 degrees in seemingly random directions as they follow it through the plain. Stopping at a cyst that Modisto has detected magical auras inside of, the lamp flashes brightly and half the party finds themselves back outside of the plain. The transported half catches up with the other and they continue through the plain, this time intent on not stopping and not disturbing the cysts.

As they slowly twist and turn their way through the plain following the noncommittal light, they wander too close to a pack of large winged drakes with unfortunate venomous stingers. The drakes flock to the party, and while Morgan continues moving with the lamp, the rest deal with the drakes. In the end, the only complication is a paralyzed Snake, which Chul picks up and carries with him as the group continues to follow Morgan and the lamp.

More disorderly traversing leads them past a cyst where they can see a brightly colored snake inside, and, by chance, a twitch of life! Salla and Tercival check it out while everyone else follows their beaming guide. They easily cut open the cyst, its film-like exterior parted with a stroke of a blade, and find buried inside the jelly-like goo, a large snake with rainbow feathered wings. Several cuts and bruises cover its body, and as they wipe the goo away the wounds begin to seep blood. Salla and Tercival ply their trades as best they can, dumping all of their various prayers of healing upon the creature. It awakens with a sudden reaction of confusion and hostility. They manage to soothe the creature's concerns and after explaining to it where it is and how it got there, the creature follows them while discussing the questions of its new home.

While Salla keeps busy talking with the serpent's voice in his head, Jonl hears a woman giving orders several cysts away from the moving group. Modisto and himself investigate, to find a woman and three men having just torn open a cyst, ripping the head off of its occupant, a dead angelic creature. As they watch the grave robbers, the lamp turns direction again and begins leading the rest of the group directly toward the desecrated site. Jonl decides to start things off with a bang and tosses the rest of the golden orbs on the necklace they found at the woman and men, engulfing them in fire. The burned men each drink a vial, disappearing from sight, while the woman begins to make prayers to her god, which Modisto recognizes as prayers to Wee Jas.

Snake is given the ability to see invisible objects, but it doesnt help Chul who gets ambushed by two invisible assailants. While Snake takes care of the third, the rest of the group quickly takes down the two on Chul, the intense burning they suffered has left them severely weakened. Meanwhile, Jonl attempts to attack the woman from behind, but she turns the tables and uses magic to hold Jonl in place. A flying Modisto shoots missiles of arcane energy at her, and she retaliates by attempting to dispel the spell keeping him aloft, luckily she fails and Modisto avoids a gory fall. By this time, Snake has made his way to the priestess and his swords quickly determine her fate.

Quickly looting the bodies, and picking up the corpse of the woman, they continue following the lamp. Without any warning, the lamp flashes again and the entire group finds themselves in a clearing in the middle of a thick forest of bone. Standing on the edge of the clearing is another armored and wrapped walking corpse which congratulates the party on passing the Test of Resolve and directs them to follow the lamp to the next test.