This is what my party will ask. Alek/Nidrama told them their foes in Cauldron are too powerful and they should seek the Smoking Eye. After they get the Smoking Eye, they will inevitably ask how it actually helps and why they bothered to get it. They gained a few levels and one of them has a relatively minor buff that doesn't seem to have anything to do with Cauldron. And why should they go back to Cauldron, a city full of powerful enemies, to twiddle their thumbs and be sitting ducks? They still don't have much of an idea of who the Cagewrights are.

If they have been properly motivated they should return to Cauldron to get to the bottom of what is going on. They may not know what the Smoking Eye has to do with anything at this stage but they should want to find out. There is evil afoot and must be rooted out and all that nonsense.

My group is entering the skull on Occipitus now and will be learning the history of Adimarchus from Sureya as soon as they receive the smoking eye. This will not tell them anything about the Cagwrights or the current events in the city but it will fill in a lot of the gaps. They will begin to see the bigger picture and how their actions are shaping the face of the region.

Your players do have to neutralize a Lich Cleric if Vecna, God of secrets. Who knows what information may lie in the stacks of books the lich has? Secrets about the Cagewrights perhaps? Hidden knowledge of Adimarcus, of the Spellweavers, of Cauldron?

At this this point, that secret information could flat out tell what the plan of the Cagewrights is, but not who they are. It will still be up to the party to find and thwart them. Knowing that somewhere in Cauldron (and surrounding areas), there plots an evil group intent on destroying the world as we know it and only the heroes can stop the madness...

Well, you get the idea. Just my 2cp.

Thanks -- those are good ideas. I can have Kaurophon reveal more information to them as well. My group tends to overlook clues, preferring to explode things first, ask questions later.

One of the characters has the Carcerian sign (unbeknown to him). It might be more in character for Kaurophon to keep the meaning of this secret for use in the future, but for the sake of the story, I think I'll have him explain that instead.

One of my party has the carcerian sign also and they only discovered that she did as they were leaving for Occipitus. They finally gained access to permanence and Kaurophon's player decided to put see invisible permanent and noticed the mark on her face. They haven't figure out what it means yet though, now that they have finished the test, have heard tell of 'the carcerian sign' but don't know what it means yet.

The motivation for Kaurophon's player is to attain enough power to be able to affect the fabric of the plane. The other characters don't want to rule Occipitus and are willing to let him have it. His life ambition was to gain the smoking eye and now that he has it he new mission is to gain power so he can exert his will over the plane. Perhaps you could use this motivation for your players.