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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Altalazar" data-source="post: 2817027" data-attributes="member: 939">Book VIII    Cordozo – Chapter Fifty-Six – Six hours, five statues, four demons, three rounds, tuustarr, and one weird guy    After I received my cure from the powerful psion named Poseidon, my companions and I went around this interesting town of Cauldron and explored, shopped, and looked for answers.  We didn’t find many until we happened upon a park by the water.  Arranged in a circle there were five statues, one of which looked particularly familiar to me.  Upon close inspection, I read its base, where it said “Poseidon, a true defender of Cauldron – We not only owe you our lives but the lives of our children and their children.  May Spellmasion’s smile always be with you.”  The other four statues all said the same thing, except they were of four different individuals.  Tuustarr, Sushi, Kerrick, and Yukiko filled out the names of the other four.      So, this Poseidon apparently was one of a band of heroes who somehow saved this town-in-a-volcano.  Interesting.  Nice to see another psion be recognized for something.  He certainly helped me when I needed it, and he didn’t even charge me anything for it.  I wondered if I would get billed later, but thus far, I have heard nothing.      As we stood around pondering the statues, Marcus spied someone in the trees by the side of the clearing.  He brought this to our attention and we approached what could only be described as a being of angelic beauty, in the non-metaphorical, she had a white visage, wings, and feathers-sense of the words.  But she also appeared wounded, and she was glowing less than she would have liked.  Her name was Nidrama, and I earnestly hoped she wasn’t royalty, because the last thing we need is a Nidrama Queen.      Marcus parlayed with her while I listened carefully, checking for signs of subterfuge.  I have learned not to trust anyone we meet, and the more they look like a supremely lawful and good being of the lawful and good outer planes, the more I suspect the creature is truly evil and out to stab us in the back while we sleep.  But perhaps I should be less cynical.  Maybe if she looked like an evil demon, I’d be more apt to trust her.  Her conversation did not allay my suspicions.      She carefully described her origins, and the origins of this family artifact she had, an heirloom that she has held in her family for over one thousand years, gathered by her brother as the spoils of a majestic war between good and evil, powerful in magic though it has never functioned.  Never, that is, until the day before, which by one of the greater non-coincidences of our experience was the exact time we arrived in Cauldron and Marcus’ hand began to glow.  And yes, the stone she held now glowed, for the first time she could remember.  Aside from this happy conjunction, she could not tell Marcus why this was so, either with her stone or his palm.  I did sense she was not telling us the whole truth about something, but then, I already knew that was coming.  I decided to ask her an important, burning question, perhaps the most important question ever asked of one of her kind, from her Celestial realm.  I stepped up to her, cleared my throat, and in an even, steady voice asked her, “so tell me, on this majestic plane of pure good that you dwell on – do you have any lawyers?”  She looked at me strangely, then answered that they had no need of them.  Ah, so this was her deception.  For I know that everyone says that lawyers are a bane, or evil – everyone says that, that is, until they need one.  I pointed out to her that a plane of good was where they would be needed most of all.  “After all,” I said, “when one has a disagreement, friendly though it may begin, the evil, destructive way to solve it is through war.  The civilized and good way to solve it is with lawyers.”  The angel appeared dubious, but then, they always are.  Our conversation was cut short when she turned back to Marcus and Marcus asked to see the stone.  As soon as his glowing palm touched the glowing stone, there was a flash and we found ourselves somewhere, well, still there.  Looking around, I saw four individuals standing in the clearing who looked vaguely familiar.  Then it hit me.  The statues.  They looked just like those statues.  Statues right… uh, where were they?  No more statues.  I decided to ask them two very pressing questions.“Is this that Celestial place?” and “does anybody here need a lawyer?”  I noticed the light of recognition in the eyes of the one who looked like the Tuustarr statue.  “That’s an odd question to ask,” she said, “I’ve only ever known one person to ask that question.”  Then I probed the surface of her mind, and found Morwen there.  I quickly found that Sushi was Ee, Kerrick was Marcus, Yukiko was Krynyn, and that meant Poseidon was me.  Oddly enough, that was what made the most sense of all.      I looked around at them all and explained the situation.  Then I said, “this is what we psions like to call a mind f@@@,” only I said it somewhat less politely.      Looking around the area, I noticed that not only were the statues gone, but that the whole city looked different.  The big hole in the center filled with water was gone and the houses that had been in ruins around it were fully intact, as were the streets between them.  We appeared to be in the same place, only in a different time.  Given the surroundings, the lack of the statues, and who we appeared to look like, I surmised we were in the past.  Strangely, I looked like myself to myself, including everything I had with me.  But when I offered my business card to Morwen / Tuustarr, she did not see it.  Marcus held up his mace and I saw a staff.  He asked me what I saw.  Just to keep him sharp, I said, “a mace,” but then quickly admitted it looked rather like a staff.  Marcus seemed somewhat perturbed by the whole situation, but we didn’t get into that until later.  Which was probably wise, considering the two large, leathery demons that attacked us just at that moment.      When I say two demons, I want to be clear, that there were really four demons, but we didn’t see the other two until a moment later, when they attacked us from the other side.      Krynyn waved his holy symbol, said a prayer, and then he was four times as large, and at least twice as scary as the might of his god flowed through him.  He didn’t seem to make much of an impression on the demon.  Certainly, he didn’t make as big an impression as the demon made in his skull when it ripped a few chunks of flesh out of his body.  I sent a few balls of fire at the two demons in front of us, but it did not seem to do much to them.  Neither did Morwen’s staff.  I started to wonder if things were looking grim.  The second pair of demons answered that question for me.      Then, we heard from the other side of the clearing, “I’m here to help!  Die demons!”  And this short man appeared wearing robes.  I hoped he would be of assistance, even as I also wondered just when this one was going to betray us and slit our throats in our sleep.  I really have to work on that cynicism thing.  But given that he sent a cone of cold against two of the demons (just after Marcus immolated them with divine flames from above), I decided to worry about his betrayal at a later time.  When I noticed myself surrounded by demons that could probably each singly rip me in half and swallow me whole, I thought I’d be feeling a whole lot safer somewhere else.  Mush as is often the case with one with such powers of the mind as I, the thought became action and I was standing right behind our new “savior.”  I introduced myself before hiding behind him.  “Hi, I’m Cordozo.  Do you need a lawyer?”      My companions and I did what we could, but not a single demon dropped from our efforts.  Then our new betrayer, I mean, friend, stepped forward and held forth a scroll and screamed “begone, foul demons!” and the demons all vanished.  I never will understand magic.  Thinking something and having it happen is one thing.  Having to read all those funny symbols and play with various dead animal parts to make something happen seems a good way to catch some sort of incurable disease.  Cordozo – Chapter Fifty-Seven – A test of courage – or gullibility Our new companion with the hooded cloak and the gnarled staff introduced himself as Kaurophan.  He said he was sent by the powers of the Smoking Eye to take us to the outer plan of Occipotus to pass the test of the Smoking Eye, so we can somehow change the whole plane toward good, rather than toward evil, as apparently others want to do.  First, I had to clear the air.  “You said Occipotus, right, not Occulus?”  “Occipotus,” he said, and I breathed a sigh of relief.  Optimistically, then, I raised my hand again and asked him about this test.  “Is it a written exam,” I asked.  His look was all the answer I needed.  He did say he knew it had three parts and that he had already tried and failed the first part, something involving fighting a large spider.  Either that or fighting another creature, of which he could tell us nothing.  Marcus being Marcus then had to spend rather a long time trying to explain to this hooded fellow that we weren’t who we seemed to be, that he didn’t want to proceed under false pretenses, that he was to be referred to as Marcus, because, as Marcus said, “That’s who I am.”  I started to think he was having an identity crisis.  Really, I only worried that the visages we had were those of people who had some bad debts to settle or something equally ambush, worthy.  I eyed the surrounding park for signs of impending ambush.  Kaurophan did say that other demons were trying the test, one a Succubus, one a Rhakasha.  Wonderful.  I hoped they weren’t as tough as the four we just not-killed.  Marcus was eager to shift to this plane to try and get to the test ahead of the evil ones.  I thought it would be wiser to rest and heal first, a sentiment which was backed up when Morwen chimed in with her strong desire to leave immediately.  Kaurophan said only he knew where the test was, so we could leave the next day if we wished.  That finally convinced Marcus.  I did also suggest that we be fully ready to go in case the strange plane of the test did not leave many chances to sleep or pray.  Next we needed to find a place to stay the night.  I suggested we find where our visage-counterparts stayed and stay at their places.  Surely, such heroes-to-be of Cauldron wouldn’t begrudge us staying the night in their homes for the cause of good.  But while that may not have been too much to ask of them, it was definitely too much to ask of Marcus.  He would hear nothing of it and instead led us to the temple of Pelor for the night.  There, we found the most nervous priest I’ve ever seen in my life.  I looked for the ambush, but then saw from his eyes that he thought we were the ambush.  It didn’t help matters when Marcus, of course, had to explain to him who we really were.  I thought he would soil his armor right then and there, but Marcus assured him of our “goodness” and finally he seemed more relieved to have someone to stay with him than spending the night alone.  He did seem young for a head priest.  Marcus did not appreciate my help in the matter of explanations.  I tried to assure the priest that we were as good as the ones we replaced, or in fact, even better.  Marcus thought that too presumptuous.  I tried to explain to him that if this was what his god intended, we must be better than them, otherwise, why would Pelor put us in their shoes for this task rather than them?  But Marcus did not appreciate my lawyer’s logic, and when he seemed ready to smite me with a Pelorian poking-naughty-finger-of-death, I let it go and went to bed.  Cordozo – Chapter Fifty-Eight – Just Plane Gross, again, but at least no phlegm The next morning, we met the gnarly one at the clearing and he plane shifted us to Occipotus.  Instantly, I did not like it.  Red sky.  Large skull.  Pillars of fire.  Ground that feels like flesh.  A great feeling of unease amongst my companions.  I did not like it at all.  But at least there was no phlegm.  I looked expectantly at Kaurophan for him to attack us.  He didn’t.  Maybe he was really the angel we saw earlier.  Yeah, that makes it more likely he’ll try and kill us.  Everyone knows angels are purest of good.  So the angel must want us dead.  I’m pretty sure from my legal research that the line between cynical and paranoid must be a subtle one.  I vowed to myself to look up the distinction in the library when I had the chance.  We began to walk toward the testing site, which apparently was three days walk away.  So much for not being able to rest.  Apparently when one waves around scrolls and dead animal parts to go to a plane, one can’t pick the exact destination.  I would think it would be more precise than that.  I decided to think more upon that later, and pushed it to the back of my mind.  After two days walking, we got up one morning and came upon a rather ugly looking thing that Kaurophan announced was a “grey slaad.”  “Salad,” I asked.  “No, slaad,” he said.  It looked really tough and seemed to crackle with a tremendous amount of magical energy.  We all buffed up and got ready for the fight of our life.  The fighting ones made great displays of prowess with their weapons as they rushed in for the kill.  Mighty combat was joined.  The fight was on!  Only I just did not feel like fighting anyone, so I just reached into its mind, deep down to its very core, and locked it off.  Then I sat down on the ground and began to file my fingernails while the grey thing just stood there and drooled while my companions slowly beat the slaad out of it.  Then we picked the corpse clean and proceeded on our merry way.Cordozo – Chapter Fifty-Nine – Feathers – that’s like the angel’s wings – I smell a trapWe finally reached our destination, something called the Citadel of Feathers.  We walked around the building, but could only see one way in, two solid and huge stone doors at the top of some steps.  Krynyn, Morwen, and Marcus all tried mightily to open those doors, but they would not budge.  Finally, after much divine magic, making them all stronger and Krynyn much larger, they managed to barely force those huge doors open while I watched.  Peering inside, we saw nothing, despite Krynyn’s earlier warning that he sensed two evil creatures somewhere beyond.  Morwen boldly stepped forward into the foyer and then down into a hidden pit beneath an illusory floor.  I looked around for the ambush.  Krynyn boldly stepped forward, rope in hand, to pull up Morwen from the pit below.I looked around for the ambush.Marcus boldly stepped forward, to the other side of the pit.I looked around for the ambush.Kaurophon boldly stepped forward, to the right of Krynyn.I looked around for the ambush.They all started to work on getting Morwen out of the pit.I again kept standing, off the steps, outside of the building, and looked around for the ambush.Cordozo – Chapter Sixty – The AmbushSure enough, as soon as they were mucking about with that rope, they were ambushed.  From above, magical webs shot down and caught them all in a sticky embrace.  I quickly lost sight of most of them through the thick, fibrous strands.  Then I saw a flash of light as a lightning bolt came down from the roof of the structure.  I saw it rather clearly because it came straight at me, nearly killing me where I stood.  But I was ready for them and quickly shot back two large globes of cold.  I saw two spider-like things on the roof.  I briefly wondered if they were the guardians for the first part of the test, but somehow I imagined there being only one spider, only larger, and behind a door we got to choose.  My little balls of cold did little to the spiders.  Kaurophan did something more helpful when he dispelled the webs.  I watched him for signs of backstabbing or evil.  None so far.  Unfortunately, I still made a good target, so when three missiles of force flew down from above, I was literally at death’s door, or nearly so, and did what a good lawyer always does when outclassed on the briefs.  I played dead.  Not that it was much of a stretch at that particular time.  It seemed to work, because they turned their attention inward, attacking my companions in the building through their nice murder-hole in the roof.  Another web appeared, but not before one of my companions sent one of the spiders to its maker.  From my place on the ground, I quietly concentrated, and sought out the mind of the one remaining.  I quickly found it, then, as I did for the first time oh so long ago in that dank crypt, I crushed it with my mind.  The spider fell limp. I was fortunate that my companion, Marcus, healed me as I lay there “dead,” the prayers of his god Pelor heard even across the distance from the building to my prime parcel of ground beyond the steps outside.  I wondered if Pelor was special in that regard, because Krynyn always had to touch me to heal me.  Such are the mysterious of the priesthoods.  At least they don’t usually have to wave around dead animal parts to make their magic.  My companions waited for the webs to dissipate, or rather, they were going to until Krynyn just lit them up with a flame and they burned away, charring them all.  They then searched the corpses and pocketed the spiders’ possessions.  Ahead of us lay yet another set of doors, and probably another ambush.  I hope it isn’t more demons.  I don’t know what a Succubus or a Rhakasha is, but if they are nasty, evil types, I sincerely hoped they weren’t behind those doors.  Somehow, I knew I was going to be disappointed.  I thought it was a good time to rest.  I just had to find out if I’d garner any agreement.  In my mind, I knew Morwen’s answer already.  Maybe if we rest here now, Kaurophan can finally get it over with and backstab us.  The tension sometimes is just unbearable.  Time would tell.  Cordozo – Chapter Sixty-One – We rest – I digAfter our bout with the spiders, I was eager to rest.  Not so much to replenish my mind, but because I wanted to know what this Kaurophan was thinking, deep down in his innermost thoughts.  As usual, Morwen protested any attempt to rest, as did, in fact, Kaurophan.  She also protested my suggestion we sleep outside, but I had no intention of sleeping underneath the murder holes in that ceiling, especially when we did not know what was inside those other doors.  Fortunately, Ee was on my side, “He good fighter with him head.  Let him rest.”  And so, out on the rubble of the plains, but in sight of the entrance to the building, we rested.  I took third watch, but secretly stayed awake.  I kept my eye on Kaurophan until he was sound asleep, and then I reached out the tendrils of my mind and went deep down into his.  I could sense he was hiding something.  He had no plan to attack us, but I sensed he may make a plan in the future.  He also seemed only interested in us as a means for him to pass the tests and take over the plane.  Perhaps that was not so nefarious, since he did not seem evil, but then most of my clients didn’t “seem” evil either, but I knew half of them were cut-throats.  I will have to watch him closely.  And I vowed to myself that I would examine the minds of all of our adventuring clients as closely.  I have had quite enough of clients who use sleep wands on my back in the middle of combat, of other clients who intend to use us to bring a great evil from the future (though he fortunately was killed before we had to deal with his madness), and clients who appear out of nowhere to whisk us off to other planes to take some undefined “test” that apparently interests the vilest demons in existence.  I think even the “good” clients often have hidden intentions, intentions they keep from their surface thoughts, requiring me to dig deeper.  Oh, how I long for minds with the sweet, simple simplicity of Ee, or the pure-as-snow innocence of Marcus.  From Kaurophan’s mind, I also saw glimpses of other planes he had visited, creatures fair and foul, and I suddenly gained insight into the workings of planes and beings far removed from my books and court rooms.  But I would need time to sort all of the images and knowledge out.  In the end, I did not probe too deep in Kaurophan’s mind, not wanting to wake him up and let him know I was probing him.  He seemed to sleep peacefully through the rest of the night.  Or rather, until it was my turn to watch, and I had quite an eyeful.  Cordozo – Chapter Sixty-Two – My turn – My watch – My oh myMorwen woke me and I stood up, stretched, and looked around.  The plane looked no different.  It was still red and putrid.  There was still rubble all around us.  There was still a ruined building to our left.  And then there was the half-naked woman with the large, leathery wings standing by the building and smiling at me.  And my, isn’t that red lightning pretty.  Ok, let me back up.  She was beckoning to me to come over to her.  She certainly looked good, though the leathery wings rather gave away that she was a demon.  Well, at least she had the decency to be upfront about it.  Looked like a nice trap to me.  I smiled back and made come-hither gestures to her in return.  She made a ‘shhhh’ sign with her fingers and her sensuous, pouting, demon lips and I ‘shhh’d’ back to her and motioned her forward.  In the meanwhile, I silently mindlinked with all of my sleeping companions and told them that there was a naked demon woman standing by the building, and they should ready themselves silently for combat, waiting for word from me to strike.  She was now walking slowly toward me, coyly motioning me forward.  Shy psion that I was, I kept motioning her to come toward me, updating my companions with her forward progress.  When she was about sixty feet away, I felt her mind reach out toward mine and try and wrap it in a sensual, yet ultimately cold embrace.  But her feminine-demon wiles could not penetrate the fibers of my mind.  I smiled at her in response and then waved to her good-bye.  “NOW!” I shouted in my mind to my companions, and they all sprang into action.  Cordozo – Chapter Sixty-Three – We fight – I explode  Morwen lept to her feet, rolling across the rubble, pulling her bow from behind her, an arrow from beneath her, and as she ended her roll, she already had an arrow nocked – an arrow she fired true at the demon woman.  The arrow struck her in her skull, but then bounced off, not seeming to penetrate her tender demonhide flesh.  Krynyn lept to his feet, his holy symbol already grasped in his palm, quiet prayers of power moving past his determined lips.  “Feel my holy wrath, foul demon!” he shouted as an anti-demon storm appeared in mid air, raining down holy pain upon her demon form.  As its holy droplets penetrated her skin, I felt her mind go slack.  I boldly stepped forward, reached my mind out to hers, and channeling all of my energy through my brain and into hers, I felt a power surge through me I had never felt before.  It grew and grew in power with each step I took toward her, until I could feel the spinal fluid within her brain bubbling and boiling within her.  With a last gasp, I let go of her bran, just as the fluid built up to critical levels.  I had to avert my eyes as her entire skull then exploded in a massive burst of demonflesh, demonbrains, and demonskull fragments, creating a circle of demon blood soaked ground surrounding her now headless corpse.  “Yes!”  I shouted over the mindlink.  “Be-gone foul demon!  Or rather, be-head!”Ee moved next, rather peeved at my display.  “Me want kill her!”  “Don’t worry Ee, my friend,” I said, “I’m sure there are more demons to kill around here.”  In a vote of confirmation of my words, a circular curtain of fire sprung up from the ground, surrounding us all with its scorching flames.  Instinctively, my mind threw up a curtain of its own, protecting my body from the harsh elements.  It seemed the plane around me continues to awaken powers within me I never knew I had.  The flames obscured the surroundings from view, making it impossible to discern where they came from. Ee, presuming the flames came from the building, charged boldly forth through the curtain of fire, taking it in stride.  He had come a long way from his fear of torches.  I also stepped through the fire, my mind still sheathing my body from the elements, keeping most of the heat of the flames at bay.  But when I stepped through, I was still unable to see our presumably demonic foe.  But wait – there he was, just to the right of the building.  But then my vision was gone as it was obscured by yet another curtain of flame, this time in a larger circle around us, cutting through the still-extant ring behind me.  This was just going to be one of those combats.Behind me, I heard through the mindlink, “Stand back,” and then “Follow me!  Hole behind you!” from Morwen.  Apparently she used her ring to blast a cone of cold through the rear of the wall of flames, making an opening for my companions to escape.  I jumped through the second ring of fire and headed toward them, figuring it would be best to keep myself nearby my allies.  This turned out to make us a nice target. Ee, meanwhile, ran all the way into the building before I could slip into his mind my vision of where the demon creature with the red and black scales was standing, “the demon is fifty feet to the right of the building, Ee,” I shouted to him through the link.  Ee heard my words and headed back out in his direction.  Cordozo – Chapter Sixty-Four – Some necks are too big to snap We all moved toward the Salamander, some of us faster than others.  Ee was the first to arrive, bruised, battered, and burned from his previous travails, he charged forward and sliced him with his axe.  I sent a few globes of cold into him as Ee sliced him up.  The Salamander must have been desperate, because he grabbed Ee in a tight embrace, burning him with his flaming aura, and shouted to all of us to stop approaching him or “I’ll snap his neck.”  Not one of us even paused.  I communicated to the others, via the mindlink, “Ee’s neck is too thick to snap.”  My companions were all equally unimpressed.  Kaurophan sent a few magic missiles into the Salamander.  I tried to crush its brain, but my mind could not find purchase in its slippery lizardy mind.  Krynyn arrived just in time to heal Ee.  We were prepared for one final assault against the Salamander when a final volley of missiles of magic from Kaurophan finished him off.  “That’ll teach those demons to try and take one of us hostage,” I thought to myself.I walked back over to the headless corpse of the Succubus.  Succubus.  That name now had meaning for me that it did not before.  My mind flooded with imagery and knowledge gleaned from my probe of Kaurophan.  A Succubus and a Salamander.  Somehow, it all made sense.  Looking down at the headless corpse, I marveled at the circular splash of brains, blood, and spinal fluid sprayed out on the ground.  “Only a four foot radius,” I said out loud.  “How disappointing!”  She carried a magic spear.  Her companion carried a magic long spear of his own.  We then returned to our former discussion on the merits of resting locations.         Cordozo – Chapter Sixty-Five – We rest, Kaurophan notices the obvious     Morwen decided again to argue old ground, suggesting we sleep the remainder of the night inside the building rather than out on the rubbled plain.  I pointed out to her that the Succubus and Salamander seemed to come from the building, but to no avail.  I pointed out that on the plane, it would be difficult for someone to sneak up on us without us seeing them a long way off, to no avail.      We fought like this, with various other parties throwing in their own views on the relative merits of our sleeping position when Kaurophan interrupted.  “I thought the Noble Strangers (the nomenclature by which our current visages were known) were much more coherent as a group,” he said.  I turned and answered for Marcus, before he could open his mouth, “We’re NOT the noble strangers!”  I looked over at Marcus and nodded, hoping he was satisfied once and for all about setting that record straight.  Then I went to sleep.     Cordozo – Chapter Sixty-Six – We enter the Citadel of Feathers – And those books smart    Inside, the inner doors, we found the citadel in ruins, rubble strewn everywhere.  A statue in the far end of a large, fat, ugly demon looked back at us as we stared down the ruined central hall.  Orcus.  That statue was of Orcus, a demon worshipped as a god.  Again, I found my mind probe with Kaurophan useful.  If only it told me when he’d be betraying us.  I’ll have to save that for next time.      With lots of mostly fruitless searching, we found some items of marginal value, including a gold cup set with sapphires I found that I figured was worth at least 2,500 pieces of gold.  I thought it would look quite nice on my mantle.      We also found a staircase behind the statue, but before we went down, Morwen wanted to check out the other two doors in this room.  She opened a door.  In all my days as a lawyer, I had heard of barristers hitting the books, but never had I heard them hit back as hard as when they struck Morwen’s skull, nine books in all.  Fortunately, she quickly closed the door as she saw a few hundred other books swirling about the air inside.        The other door led to more items of interest, but mostly items of junk.      Kaurophan again seemed rather impatient for us to move forward.  He was not happy when we stopped to rest and now he’s not happy from our pause to loot.  Presumably, if there are other demons here behind us, they’ll have to come by this way, so we’ll spot them.  I’d rather fight them here anyway, than in the middle of some damn test.      Our pause complete, we turned toward the stairwell, and contemplated what lay beneath our feet.  Perhaps the first part of the test lay down below.  I looked at Kaurophan expectantly.      Cordozo – Chapter Sixty-Seven – One statue down, unfortunately one more to go (later) – and books…    Morwen, badly bruised and beaten from her experience with the flying books, got down on her knees in front of Krynyn and asked for healing.  I heard in the minds of some of my companions around me, who shall remain nameless (for that is protected by attorney-client privilege), impure thoughts related to that position that I shall not repeat here.  Needless to say, Krynyn acquiesced to her healing request and she was looking much less bruised than she was before she took up speed reading.      I picked up the single book that flew outside of the room and landed at our feet.  It appeared to be a treatise on the celestial religion.  I figured it was worth around five pieces of gold.  Apparently, that was enough for Morwen to drop it into one of her many merchandise storage bags.  She then declared that she wanted to see about the rest of the books.  I suggested it was an unwise idea.  However, she was determined, so I took cover behind some rubble and watched as she attempted to disarm whatever mechanism of magic triggered her previous literary assault.  She declared success and opened the door as I dove for further cover.  When her book-battered corpse did not appear in the doorway, I decided to take a look for myself.  Perhaps some books in there would enlighten me further about planar lore.  I was not entirely disappointed.      Inside the ancient library, I found hundreds of books, mostly floating around, but some on the shelves as well.  Skimming through the musty volumes, I found 21 more books of marginal worth, much like the one I perused in the outer hall.  But three of the books, three were special.  They were ancient texts on celestial religions long since vanished, that would likely catch a thousand pieces of gold each to the shrewd collector.  I began to see more uses for the obscure planar knowledge that my mind probe of Kaurophan had granted me.  It also made me wonder just why he knew so much about subjects so obscure even to the loremasters of the planes.      Once we had finished our ancient book tour, we returned to the hall and headed toward the staircase down.  As we passed the statue of Orcus, Morwen took that opportunity to  knock it over onto its face, smashing it with a bit of rubble from the dirty floor.  As we descended, Krynyn commented that the construction of the stairs did not seem to match that of the Citadel itself.  But he could not discern if it was older or newer in construction.      Strangely, Kaurophan was unable to step off of the stairs, even if “helped” by E trying to carry him into the room.  He said he couldn’t go because he had already failed the first test.  Morwen was especially suspicious of him at this point, as was I.  I had a few questions for him, but I put them down for after the test.      Cordozo – Chapter Sixty-Eight – Examination part One – The Test of Judgment     The roughly-hewn stairs led down to a roughly-hewn room filled with the scent of cloves, spice, and even cinnamon.  All in an attempt to hide the rather putrid smell of the corpse wrapped in cloth funeral wrappings sitting behind a large oak desk that smiled when we entered.  Or was it just a case of it lacking any lips.  I did not inquire further into that tiny curiosity.      I noticed a large metal door on both the north and south walls of the room, to either side of the corpse-proctor’s desk.  Then the speech began.      In a soft, sand-papery voice, rasping with supernatural breath, the desiccated corpse spoke, “Adimcarcus, most potent ruler of Occipitus, welcomes you to the test of the Smoking Eye.  Know, then, that you are a pretender to his throne.  If you are worthy, step forward and take the Test of Judgment.”      He then pointed to each door, and indicated that the north door was Thanthnak, the Beblith, and beyond the other door was Halalia, an Avorial Guardian.  From my newfound library of planar knowledge, I determined that a beblith was a rather nasty extra-planar spider, while the avorial was actually a good aligned creature reminiscent of a bird-man.  Visions of myself cocooned in spider silk over an abyss while a giant spider sucked my brains out for a snack compelled me to go with door number two.  E agreed to go with me that way, but Morwen and Krynyn seemed determined to fight the evil spider.  They were afraid they’d have to kill a good-aligned creature to pass.  While I had no such fears, I again hoped for the exam to be written.  I figured a good creature would be more open to negotiations.  Perhaps if we assured the creature that we had the best of intentions, he could give us a “pass” and no one need have their brains sucked out.  Plus, Morwen was all for the spider, so I knew I had made the right choice.      Simultaneously, Morwen and I opened our respective doors.  I saw a room; she saw a large spider moving down toward her, ready to suck her brains out.  She closed her door and I went through mine.      Inside was a room filled with tiny birdcages and, in the far end, inside a silver circle, was Halalia.  He said he had been imprisoned for centuries.  Ok, there’s a good negotiation position to begin from.    Morwen freed him from his circle with a brush of her blade on the silver powder on the floor.  I then readied my lawyer’s briefs for negotiations on our part.  My primary goal was to get him to tell the test proctor that we “passed” his part of the test.  He claimed to deny knowing anything about any test or proctor.  Slick opening move for negotiations.  When we were finished, he did agree he was grateful for our helping him, but he seemed perturbed by something Morwen had said, and he was unwilling to do more than offer us some healing and then be on his way.      We then left the room through the far door and found ourselves in another chamber, one covered with frescoes of demons and devils in epic combat.    Cordozo – Chapter Sixty-Nine – We passed the bar – and all we got was this stupid lantern    As we stepped into the room, the proctor of death appeared again and offered his congratulations.  He offered a little advice, telling us to deal with rivals first and enemies second.  It made me think back on our “friend” Kaurophan.  He then said the lantern was for the next test, the Test of Resolve, and then he vanished.  I guess we are on the honor system for this exam.      Standing upon a dais was a large metal lantern on a chain that shone a beam of light in only a single direction.  I picked it up and spun it around.  It pointed right back out of the door we originated from.  We followed it all the way out of the cathedral.  It was unanimously decided that I would carry it, since, as E adroitly observed, “he fight good with head.  Give him lantern.”      We met up again with Kaurophan, who seemed to be keeping quite a distance from Halalia.  Krynyn confirmed what we long suspected, that he was one evil bastard, so I informed him that, to continue on to the second test with us, he’d have to pass a test of our own making involving my brain in his head.  He backed up, then ran and disappeared as soon as he heard that “suggestion.”  I knew it.  Another evil employer trying to get us to help him take over some plane or summon some evil god.  And people think lawyers are bad.  I know better.  And lawyers will ALWAYS win a Test of Judgment.  And if not, we can always appeal a judgment.      We stepped outside and began the long walk in the direction of the lantern’s light toward our destination.      Cordozo – Chapter Seventy – Even on an outer plane, it seems, there is a penalty for loitering.      Boldly, we strode forth, for many hours walking on the strangely flesh-like ground of the plane.  We turned a bend and came upon a strange feathered creature that my library of planar knowledge told me was a coutl.  He spoke to us in our minds, something I think we are all used to by now.  I was certainly interested in comparing notes on what powers his mind gives him and how he manages to control it all.  Unfortunately, as we became lost in conversation, we stopped walking, and found ourselves back at the Citadel of Feathers.  Damn test.  It didn’t take much for us to reason that stopping our forward motion ended the test of our resolve.      Five swear words and seven hours later, we returned to where the coutl was sitting on a rock.  It again asked us, “do you really think you can pass the test?”  and this time, we said “yes” and kept on walking.  We also offered to help him leave the plane, in exchange for his assistance.  He agreed, and walked with us.  And so onward we traveled.      Cordozo – Chapter Seventy-One – Something stinks, and it isn’t E after a long combat.      We seemed to be nearing our probable destination when we came upon a large, fat, ugly, and apparently very smelly demon of the abyss.  My inter-cranial planar library spat out a reference to a Hezrou demon, and I also managed to recall that it had no particular vulnerabilities to various forms of energy.  Thus, cold, it would be.      I immediately sent forth a ball of cold against its fat form, making sure to take a few steps forward as I did so to maintain our forward motion.  Sadly, it would not be enough, requiring drastic action.  But now I am getting ahead of myself.      E then boldly charged forward, nearly reaching its wretched demon form.  Then the demon stepped toward E, and immediately E started retching and vomiting as he was overcome with a nausea I could feel myself through my mindlink with E.  E stood there, helpless, soon joined by Morwen, equally nauseated.  And joined by no one else, because at that moment, myself, the coutl, Marcus, and Krynyn were all teleported back to the beginning yet again.  Apparently, a few steps were not enough.      And now E and Morwen were alone and helpless against a rather nasty demon from the abyss.  Something needed to be done.    Cordozo – Chapter Seventy-Two – Drastic action as I perform drastic mental reshuffling.      As I stood there gazing out on the vast plain ahead of us, wondering if our companions left behind were still alive, I reached my mind out and tried to will us all to where we were.  But my power failed – it was simply too far to go, by about forty miles.  I could almost feel it, but I simply could not manage it.  Finally, the seed of an idea sprung forth.  I rushed to Marcus’ bag and pulled out the orb that allows one to change one’s past destiny.  I knew it would be a major change, perhaps changing who I was, forever, but I simply could not let my companions die on this horrid plane.  So I did what lawyers do best when dealing with an unwanted judgment – I appealed and amended my brief.      I felt myself drawn inward, reliving past experiences over many months, and reliving them again, only making different choices than before.  I felt powers spring forth into my mind that I knew I never had before even as other powers, long familiar, faded away to dim memories.  In my haste out of concern for the ongoing battle with my friends, I did not spend much time learning just what my new powers were, beyond focusing on a single one of importance – a power beyond the one I found before, a power to travel long distances with but a thought.  A power to return to the site of the battle and save my companions from what seemed to be certain death.      With newfound determination, I grasped the hands of the large coutl and of Krynyn, and willed us all back to a spot 100 feet shy of our last location.  I wanted to leave plenty of room to keep moving forward on the plane of battle.  I left Marcus behind only because I could not carry his weight, but I would return to him at the earliest time I could.      The situation was dire, as I had thought.  Morwen and E were puking their guts out as the beast slashed them and covered them with its evil enchantments.  But the tide changed with our arrival.  Then we had four people puking or stunned instead of two.  I kept moving forward, at least thirty short paces every time I sent forth the power of my mind against the beast.  I sent balls of cold, boiled his cerebral fluid, and I even sent him insulting mental imagery, but to no avail.  And, to my horror, I discovered my lantern-lit path would take me right by the beast, subjecting me to its foul odor and its razor sharp claws.      As I braced myself for the inevitable rending of my flesh to the bones and probable death, I moved past the beast, only to feel a gentle breeze over the back of my neck instead of the stinging of its claws.  Somehow, one of the powers of my mind deflected the beast from striking true, and spared my life as I moved quickly by its hulking form.  I could feel new powers of protection surging through me.  Maybe this was not my fated time to die.      My companions also chose this moment to rally, holding their breaths to stave off the foul odor as they rended our foe into strips of demon flesh.  The demon then transformed itself into a cloud of gas and began to make its escape through the air above the fleshy plain.  I filed my final motion, ending his motions and closing his case.  I sent forth a stream of fire through the cloud, watching with satisfaction as the flames burned away his essence.  His body then reformed in mid-air and came crashing to the ground, forming a fleshy, leathery crater in the strange soil of the plane.      Morwen and Krynyn made quick work of his corpse, divesting him of his wealth (his stink having made him filthy-rich).  I idly wondered just what a demon from the abyss was doing carrying around a rolled up painting of a snooty aristocrat.  But at least it had great value to a collector.          Cordozo – Chapter Seventy-Three – The path gets tricky – and lonely out in front        After nine hours of travel on the plains, we found ourselves in the midst of a strange-looking place.  There were tons of broken weapons, armor, and bones covering a vast field filled with large egg-like objects attached to the leathery ground.  And the path continued right through it, in a strange, twisting path that seemed to have no rhyme nor reason, save assuring that we would spend a very long time walking through this area.      Almost immediately, Morwen spotted something inside one of the large eggs.  It turned out to be yet another coutl, this time one that was badly wounded and unconscious.  Krynyn healed him up as best he could, but he still did not awaken.  Our other coutl companion took it upon himself to carry this new-found “friend” and we continued on the path.      Not long after, we found yet another “egg” filled with something that caught our attention – this time something shiny.  A large golden bastard sword, a cloak, and some bracers were found within its disgusting leathery insides.  Of course, while they were looting, I kept on walking forward, getting further and further away from my companions, even as I ended up walking almost backwards down the twisting, lantern-lit path.      Then the next surprise reared its extremely ugly head.  A large creature with many legs and evil, glowing eyes.  I only caught a glimpse of it as I continued to move forward on the path, by myself, and further away from my companions.  There is a good reason I usually stand well behind (and between) my better-armed and armored companions.  I’m a rather soft and easy meal for most bests.  I felt my level of anxiety increase with each step further from my companions.  My anxiety almost seemed to take a solid form, as it slipped forth from my mind, and I began to feel as if my anxiety was now enshrouding me in a shimmering shell of some sort.  I did not know what to make of it, but I decided it felt warm and cozy and I relished its embrace.      In the meanwhile, my companions did battle with this long-legged beast, in an epic battle that I mostly ignored as I followed the path.  When I finally turned back, I discovered that we had another statue to deal with, a statue that looked remarkably like E.  That worried me greatly, until I remembered that Marcus had that stone that allowed one to use the power of the mind to bend the very nature of reality.  If memory served, that stone would function in a matter of days.  There were only two problems, then.  One, was how would we get to the end of this path without E to fight for us, and two, how would we survive out in this infernal plane for another week, waiting for that power to blossom.      I looked at the path ahead of me, and fervently wished for the end to appear.  Either that, or for at least one of my companions to join me where I had traveled, far away from their position.  I felt my anxiety shell tighten around me.  Now if only I had a power that could manifest a large, cozy security blanket, I would be set for the challenges ahead.</blockquote>

Verification