The Test of the Smoking Eye - Chapter 1
The Test of the Smoking Eye
The Test of the Smoking Eye – Chapter 1
OOC Notes:
Experience is 1000xp for 10th, and I didn’t see how much for 9th. That’s for those that lived.
This Week’s Adventure:
Sir Alek snarled “The baboons may wait for their empire to return, but I shall not, fiend!” and charged up the stairs.
Nabthateron looked merely amused, and smacked him casually to the side with a huge clawed hand. Sir Alek was thrown back against the wall with a spray of blood. With another hand, he made an absent gesture, and gravity wobbled and then released everyone in the stairway and we all floated towards the ceiling and bobbed there.
Astrid began using her halberd to pull her way closer to Nabthateron. She managed to pull herself just out of the magical field and fell to the ground with a clatter. Nabthateron swing at her as she fell, but he made too big a show of it and his stroke went high.
Everyone else took advantage of the casual pace Nabthateron set to cast whatever protective magic they could muster.
“You realize this is entirely futile, don’t you?” Nabthateron asked bemusedly.
In response, a pale green ray lanced up the stairs and struck him in the chest, visibly weakening him. He seemed irked by this but tried to play it off. “Ah, Maris. Your power has grown nicely. Tell me dear, do you crave more? More dark secrets to make you even more powerful? I can arrange it… for a price. Have you asked your master how he came by his power? Vortimax Weir found my offer promising – I can do much for you as well.”
Sir Alek used his divine power to heal himself, and just in time too. Nabthateron rolled his eyes and brought two hands over his head and smashed them down. As he did, a fel energy built up in them and smashed into the floor crashing out in waves. The energy made an impact on everyone but Alek and Glyph reeled the most from it.
Elizabeth finally worked her way out of the gravity field, with me pushing as best I could to help. She landed on her feet and swung at Nabthateron but her falchion clattered off a magical force protecting him. Bellsin tried to take advantage of the moment and jabbed at the demon, but he too was deflected.
Without turning, Nabthateron said “Ah, that would be Bellsin. You’ll find I’m more difficult to defeat than your Ekbiri demons.”
Nabthateron was easily dodging blows from Astrid and Elizabeth and reached over to snatch up Alek by the throat. “Ah poor Alek. It was so easy to convince the hags to delude you into doing my bidding. Now Redgorge will fall, and maybe even Cauldron will burn. Perhaps I’ll rally an army – you’ve re-engaged my curiosity.” And with a casual twist of his wrist, he snapped Alek’s neck and let his limp body fall to the floor.
He turned to the rest of us. “I could kill you, but it’s far more satisfying to watch you waste away and die. Perhaps I’ll come back and offer you an alternative. I’m sure one of you will consider accepting an offer of power. One of you can survive with Alek’s ring, assuming you kill the others to get it. Oh, Sir Alek had the right idea, but then your kind always do.”
“So you’re just going to toy with us and walk away?” Kris asked.
“Ah the man of gods. Yes, that’s just what I plan to do. Ah how Jenya will cry when you tell her how you failed to save him. Oh but that’s right, you’ll never see her again.”
Kris responded with a single holy word and a column of flame descended on the demon, but he just laughed even as he batted aside Elizabeth’s blade.
Bellsin tried a different tack and jabbed at Nabthateron with Alakast. One side of the demon’s mouth curled up in amusement. “My my, what do you plan to do with that boy?” and the demon turned the ancient weapon aside.
Maris managed to get her slowing spell to penetrate the demon’s defenses and he adopted a peeved expression. Bellsin tossed Alakast to Astrid who caught it even as she brought her halberd down in a fierce one-handed smash and struck true with a solid blow. Nabthateron, while wounded, was far from desperate.
“Impressive. You may have potential, if you survive. If you manage to escape, we’ll meet again, changeling.”
Nabthateron paused briefly, then continued. “They don’t even know, do they?” He smiled, and vanished in a swirl of flames.
There was a silence in the air as everyone braced for another attack. When it was clear it wouldn’t be coming, nobody quite knew what to do.
As Kris moved to examine Sir Alek, the body began glowing with a soft light. It floated up off the floor and light gushed out from the eyes and mouth and the body spoke with a voice of another.
“There is naught left for you in Cauldron to return to, heroes. If you return, you enter your own graves and bring doom on all you love. Trust the sign of the Smoking Eye if you wish to save them all.” The voice was that of the angel Nidrama.
“Weren’t we warned away from the eye before?” Glyph asked.
There was no response. Instead the body then gently floated to the floor and landed in a restful pose. Unfortunately he was still very dead.
“Well,” Kris said quietly, “I think I may be able to bring him back to life. Provided he’s willing. But it’s difficult and I don’t have the rather expensive diamond dust needed.”
“You can do that?” Astrid asked.
“I think I can, now, Phaulkon willing,” he said modestly.
Bellsin went out past the hole in the wall that had been obscured by Nabthateron’s towering presence. Beyond was a vast desert. There was nothing but sand in every direction as far as the eye could see. “Wherever we are, I don’t think it’s near Cauldron any more.”
“The mirror was probably a spellweaver transportation device and this may be all that’s left of the destination,” Glyph said.
“I can teleport now,” Maris said, “but I’m not sure where we are, and I don’t think I can take us all in any event, assuming we’re still even on our own plane.”
“I think we are,” said Glyph, consulting a small crystal. “But I couldn’t say where.”
“So we either take on the desert and die starving, or starve here and wait for Nabthateron to return?” Astrid said.
“Well, I’m not sure about that,” Elizabeth said. “Kris, you can say a prayer to make food or water, can’t you?”
“Oh sure, more than we’ll ever need,” he nodded.
“So contrary to Nabthateron’s thinking, we can eat, drink, leave, and perhaps even teleport. Either he was bluffing or we’re not nearly as helpless as he thinks we are,” she said.
“Some of both, I reckon,” Kris said. “I’m just glad he didn’t consider us dangerous enough to destroy – he could have done it easily.”
Everyone nodded silently with some glances going to the body of the fallen paladin.
We elected to rest first before proceeding. In the morning we would have message spells and divinations to help us chose a path. While people were settling in, Elizabeth said to Astrid “Perhaps Alakast knows something that might be helpful?”
Astrid shrugged and nodded, and knowing her meaning, reached for the staff and handed it to Elizabeth. As she did, Bellsin commented “I didn’t get a sense of a voice from it, just impressions.”
Elizabeth nodded but said “Hm, well I’ll try some different ways of asking. It can’t hurt.” Then frowned and added “I hope.”
When the others had settled and it was quiet, she sat and prepared. The staff was on the ground before her, and I hovered near her head. As before, when her hand got close to the staff, there was a discordant squealing noise like a shrieking, out-of-tune instrument. Unfazed she picked up the weapon gently but firmly and held it across her knees and closed her eyes, focusing on the noise.
She flicked a thought at me, and together we focused on the noise, altering it, sculpting it, moving within the tones. Tone by tone, we moved within the pattern, adjusting each in turn until a harmonious chorus began to form. With each new note aligned, the others became easier to bring together and soon there was a resonating, perfectly balanced musical flow. Then, with the alignment complete, we relaxed, and the music faded gently to silence and the staff was calmer.
Elizabeth reached out to it. Can you hear me? Alakast, weapon of old, I call you.
There was no response at first, and then only a muted whisper or grumble and then nothing.
Alakast! You are needed. she said, louder this time (if there was such a thing).
She raised an eyebrow at me, and I thought a moment. I’m sure a weapon of this nature does not respond casually. Something more resolute perhaps?
Alakast! she thought, adding a chorus of music to punctuate the call.
At first, there was only silence, but only seemingly. There was a quiet trace of sound and color – faint and distant. We followed it seeking the source. Together we began to understand.
It’s… I started.
asleep. she finished. Dormant. Waiting.
Together we explored more of the colors and sounds. Alakast was dormant after having been forgotten for so long. But even in what you might call its dreams were the keys – the rituals that would re-awaken it. It might have more of an identity then but for now it was asleep and even its old enemy did not awaken it. The exploration also revealed two distinct voices to the chorus – one deep and resonating – the sound of the Body. The other was light and precise – the sound of the Mind. The two aspects to the two heads of the staff combined into a harmonious whole.
Even asleep, it’s a potent weapon, I said, reminding her of what Glyph said.
I know – what will it be like when awake? she asked the obvious question.
It was the same question Astrid asked when Elizabeth woke her for her shift. “So what will it be like if we awaken it? Will it be too much? Or will someone try to take it from us? And when did it get so damn cold?!?”
Elizabeth shrugged. “Kris said that deserts can get very cold at night. It could be a problem if we try to leave here on foot. As for the rest, I have no idea. But I’ll sleep on it,” she smiled.
Or at least she’d sleep for a while. Part way through the next watch, the bell of Glyph’s alarm spell went off as several demons appeared in our midst.
They were tall and skinny, with blackish skin dripping with red slime. Their mouths were a mass of teeth, slavering and angry. Quick as a flash one snapped out at Bellsin wounding him.
Astrid was always a bit petulant when her watch was disturbed, and the first demon learned that first-hand. Her halberd came nearly full circle before finding its mark, and one of the creatures’ head was smashed in from the blow. Before it could fall to the ground, its body disappeared in a wisp of smoke.
Elizabeth got to her feet, and as it happened Alakast was the handy weapon. She brought the staff around in a sharp swing and the weapon flared with white fire. It smashed into one of the demons and burned him, and it leapt away. Maris was able to finish it with a spell and it too vanished.
The third one didn’t fare much better as Grinder drove it into the girls.
“Nabthateron being testy?” Astrid asked rhetorically.
The rest of the night was tense but without further attacks. In the morning after prayers, Kris spoke a blessing that would preserve Sir Alek’s body until something more lasting could be done. He was just raising the question of how best to query the gods on our next direction when there was a loud tapping outside.
“Hello? May I approach?” a voice called.
The Blue Tygers looked at each other quizzically, wondering who would be out there. “Sure,” Astrid replied.
A human wearing a long robe appeared cautiously before the hole in the wall. The tabard he wore bore the symbol of the Smoking Eye. The hood obscured most of his face but the grayish hands that held his staff ended in rough nails. Once it seemed he wouldn’t be attacked immediately, he carefully entered. “I did not wish to alarm you, which is why I announced myself.”
“And you are?” Elizabeth asked.
“My name is Kaurophon,” he said.
“Well, then, good morning,” Elizabeth said, struggling to find something to say. “We’re surprised to see anyone given that it seemed we were in a very large and very empty desert.”
“You are in a large and empty desert,” Kaurophon said. “I estimate you are a thousand miles from Cauldron.”
Everyone stiffened slightly. “And how do you know we came from Cauldron?” Elizabeth asked.
“I’ve been aware of you for some time now, Miss Cartwright. When I saw you make your attempt to defeat Nabthateron, or at least thwart him, I hoped you would not come to an unfortunate end as I need your help.”
“Our help?” Maris asked.
“Yes, you see I seek your help to travel to the plane of Occipitus. It would be a great victory for the forces of good – to cleanse it from evil.”
Most of the group simply stared at Kaurophon blankly. Glyph said “Occipitus is the site of a battle between good and evil. It is in the Abyss, but a part of Celestia was ripped free and dropped there. It was ruled by the Archangel Adamarcus. While in the Abyss, it is both good and evil.”
Maris and Kris nodded in understanding. Astrid and Elizabeth continued to stare blankly.
Kaurophon nodded. “I need your help to pass the test of the Smoking Eye.”
“And what exactly is the Smoking Eye?” Maris asked.
“The Smoking Eye is the test that one must pass. It was created by the former ruler of that plane. He disappeared years ago. Whomever passes the test of the Smoking Eye becomes the new rightful ruler of Occipitus. The test has three parts, each hidden on the plane. The location of one part is revealed by the previous one. I stumbled upon the first part by accident but I am not powerful enough to pass it myself. The prophet suggested that you could help. I heard his words and came here.”
“What words, and what prophet?” Kris asked.
“I do not know the prophet, but the words were ‘There is naught left for you in Cauldron to return to, heroes. If you return, you enter your own graves and bring doom on all you love. Trust the sign of the Smoking Eye if you wish to save them all.’ And thus I came to seek you out.” Kaurophon added “I know this is much to believe. I am willing to submit to whatever divinations you wish to verify my intent, however I should tell you that your spells may reveal that I am partly of demon blood. I tell you this so you will not be alarmed.”
Kris asked the next obvious question. “How would we get there?”
“If you agree, I can take us there. And I have scrolls that will allow you to return. You may examine them,” he said, handing over a pair of scroll cases.
Elizabeth knew no divinations but tried a test of her own. “And what if we say no?”
Kaurophon shrugged. “I am aware of the unrest in Cauldron and Redgorge. The architects behind this are the Cagewrights. They are behind a great deal that troubles your lands. I believe their true motives are even more sinister. I have done a great deal of research into the nature of Occipitus, and this drew me to the Cagewright’s attention. They asked me to join and I did for a time, to further my own goals. I soon realized they were all mad and left them to their lunacies. I was not trusted enough to learn their true goals however. I believe that what troubles Cauldron is linked to Occipitus. I suspect that the Cagewrights approached me because they do not want Occipitus to be taken by the forces of good. But if you chose to refuse me, there is little I can do.”
This was a suitable answer to Elizabeth – something with a more sinister motive might have been inclined to threaten or plead.
“But isn’t the Abyss a very dangerous place to go? Can’t the very air kill you?” Elizabeth asked.
Kaurophon shrugged. “It is not so dangerous as you might believe, due to its dual nature. Though it is far from safe. At the center of Occipitus is an enormous half-buried skull. The flame from the unburied eye shoots skyward.” He pointed towards the design on his tabard. “As for the test, it was named by he who created it – the Demon Lord Adamarcus.”
“Wait, didn’t you just say he was an Archangel?” Elizabeth asked Glyph.
“Indeed he did,” Kaurophon said.
“So he was contaminated?” Glyph asked.
“I am not sure,” Kaurophon replied. Research has never revealed that and I have heard conflicting tales. But I must ask you – if we are to leave we should do so soon before others find the first test.”
The Blue Tygers gathered together. Kris spoke first. “I’m game to try. Beats being here.” Ever ready to go where the wind was blowing, that one.
Glyph and Maris were equally interested. The girls were more hesitant. “I’m not sure I’m ready to believe this creature so easily. We know nothing of him or his motives,” Elizabeth said.
“Nidrama did say to follow the sign of the smoking eye though – that should count for something,” Maris pointed out.
“True, but that could be a fake, and that source is also… questionable,” Elizabeth said.
“Well, Kris prepared some divinations, so we can at least consult with the gods,” Astrid said. “And we should send the message to Jenya regardless.”
Everyone nodded at that. First the message to Jenya was sent.
Found Alek. Toyed with by Nabthateron. Alek dead. Nabthateron wants Redgorge destroyed. Cauldron in danger too. May be going off plane to Smoking Eye.
Her reply came back, though not what we might have hoped for.
Alek dead?? Was he controlled? Have body? Will do sending to you. I can revert challenge and stop siege. Nabthateron alive? What is he planning…
A few minutes later, the sending from Jenya came.
… to do? Secure Sir Alek’s relics if you can. Might be able to return him to life. Trust your judgment in all things. Do what you think best.
“If she can call off the siege, it might keep Redgorge safe for a time,” Glyph said.
“We can hope,” Maris said, obviously worried about her family.
“I’m not sure we could stop a siege on a whole town anyway,” Bellsin observed.
“Honestly, I think at this point maybe we can,” Astrid said.
We composed our reply then sent it.
Alek tricked by hags, was maddened. Reposed body, have relics and Alakast. Stop challenge and siege! Nabthateron’s goals unclear.
Next, Kris focused on the offer to go to Occipitus and asked Phaulkon for guidance. Before long there was a whisper on the wind.
A trap lies in your future, but beyond the trap lies your destiny and Cauldron’s salvation.
“Not exactly reassuring,” Elizabeth said. “And not exactly a helpful answer either. Of course there will be a trap *somewhere* in the future.”
“But this is clearly where our destiny lies,” Glyph said.
“Clearly? I’m not sure it’s clear at all. It’s clear as mud to me,” Elizabeth said, frustrated. “We’re talking about going to the Abyss here. THE ABYSS! I think that, just by itself, deserves a little consideration.”
I took a look around. Kris was ready to go because it was there. Glyph and Maris were fascinated by the notion of going to another plane. Bellsin was ready to go, but I couldn’t tell why. He’s somewhat harder to read. Elizabeth felt like they were all ignoring the not-insignificant dangers.
And I had to agree with her. They’re not seeing, I thought.
Of course not. Why else would they be ready to follow someone who showed up this morning? was her reply.
Nidrama did suggest it was a good course of action though. And so did the prayer I mentioned.
The prayer gives me more hope – the rest is equally suspect. It makes more sense for us to return to Cauldron.
I agree, I thought. We are being manipulated into going elsewhere.
Elizabeth clearly could not think of a lot of reasons to go. And certainly it was a lot easier to think of reasons to go to Cauldron rather than Occipitus.
“I’m in,” Astrid said finally.
Elizabeth just looked at her, and Astrid just shrugged in reply.
So either we wait here for Nabthateron alone or we go to the Abyss? I asked.
Elizabeth gave up. Staying here was no option at all.
“Prepare yourselves,” Kaurophon said.
He held up his staff which began glowing brightly. We were all suddenly pulled in an impossible direction and we phased into the ethereal (I learned later) and then into the astral. This was both comfortable and familiar and needed no introduction. From there things got warmer and the smell got sickly sweet. Then abruptly we arrived – the color of the landscape changed and an oppression started tugging on my mind. The sky was made of flames and bathed everything in a red glow. In the distance we could see the half-buried skull – the size of a small mountain – with the pillar of flame shooting upward. A half mile ahead was a clearing with a set of gently curving white pillars rising from the ground like a half-buried ribcage. The ground itself was spongy and soft and wrinkled, like flesh more than dirt.
“Welcome to Occipitus.”
