I have been running SCAP for almsot 18 months now, and my group is almost finished with the Test of the Smoking Eye. One part of the plot still escapes me. Why was Alex's dying wish to have the party seek the sign of the smoking eye? Other than a hook to move the party in the direction of Occipitus does having a party member with the template serve any story line purpose later down the road?
One of the reasons for the characters needing the Sign of the Smoking Eye is that only someone with the Sign can break open the cage that holds Adimarchus in "Asylum" so that the group can destroy him and stop his madness from infecting the material plane and constantly re-creating powerful evil creatures and sending them rampaging through Cauldron. A character with the Sign also has significant advantages in the battle against Adimarchus. Of course, if you don't want to include that little nugget, then you can always just change the requirement for opening the cage. As for it being Alek's dying wish... I actually think the book mentions that the voice isn't his own. I'm not sure if this is written in the HC anywhere, but I've read ideas that the voice speaking this advice is actually Nidrama, the Movanic Deva, trying to spur the PCs in the direction of claiming Occipitus and putting an end to Adimarchus.
I've read ideas that the voice speaking this advice is actually Nidrama, the Movanic Deva, trying to spur the PCs in the direction of claiming Occipitus and putting an end to Adimarchus.
Yup, it's her.
Its always a woman behind things in the end,isnt it :P
Cold Steel, what did you replace Test of the Smoking Eye with?
Um... yeah... the party I'm DMing is at about the same spot, except Alek just died, and we're about to move on to the next adventure.
I have a kind of a tangential question. The thing is, the party cleric wants to bring him (Alek) back to life. Does this mess anything up? What happens? Should I just have Alek not really remember this quote/his prophecies? Is he kind of nutty? I've got some time to figure this out, but if there's an obvoius answer I'm missing, please help me to it.
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Cold Steel, what did you replace Test of the Smoking Eye with?
I did'nt. I took the lazy way out and the starry mirror exit 50 miles from cauldron instead 500. after using a sending spell to Jenya , the party barely made to Redgorge and challenge Tereson Skellrang to a duel in place of Alek. With Skellerang's death and pressure from the other noble houses of cauldron, Vhalantru had no choice (for now)but recall his troops. After the pcs return to cauldron,Vhalantru ordered the temple of Azuth(Wee Jass)to assassinate the pcs,kicking off the Secrets of the soul pillars adventure.
Um... yeah... the party I'm DMing is at about the same spot, except Alek just died, and we're about to move on to the next adventure.
I have a kind of a tangential question. The thing is, the party cleric wants to bring him (Alek) back to life. Does this mess anything up? What happens? Should I just have Alek not really remember this quote/his prophecies? Is he kind of nutty? I've got some time to figure this out, but if there's an obvoius answer I'm missing, please help me to it.
It doesn't really mess anything but Alek is nearly mad, really sad and broken for all the torments he had since he was young, lost of his nobility, fighting along the path of righteousness only to be duped by Hags and lost in a maze.
If he comes back he will have forgotten a lots of the last events; I think that it's a way to tell the players:"That"s your fight now, I have done so much, I reached the end of my quest", and to show them that nobody has to be brought back to life if he doesn't want.
It doesn't really mess anything but Alek is nearly mad, really sad and broken for all the torments he had since he was young, lost of his nobility, fighting along the path of righteousness only to be duped by Hags and lost in a maze.
If he comes back he will have forgotten a lots of the last events; I think that it's a way to tell the players:"That"s your fight now, I have done so much, I reached the end of my quest", and to show them that nobody has to be brought back to life if he doesn't want.
Yeah. But the PCs are in the middle of the desert, so they'll probably end up trying to drag Alek along. Just having the resurrect or raise dead not work would feel kind of lame. I think I'll just have him be an unenthusiastic, dejected follower, mad or whatever, and play it by ear.
As far as the Test of the Smoking Eye, it seems you could run the campaign fine without it, and just let everyone be able to destroy the cages. I mean, what would happen if the "Smoking Eye" character got zapped by disintegration or something? Do they lose the campaign? ...I dunno.
I much prefer it when the players work really hard on something without thinking it through, only to have it turn to ash right before their eyes. If the PCs are silly enough to drag a corpse through the desert, then I think it's poetic justice for the resurrection not to work. There really seems no reason for Alex to want to return to life.
And as for the Smoking Eye, I think the cage that binds Adimarchus should be EXTREMELY difficult to destroy. We are talking about 20th lvl PCs by this point, attempting to unbind a demon prince afterall. The idea of a chaotic evil creature and a lawful good creature both attacking the cage at the same time is always fun...
Well, last night my party had a very nice conversation with Saryea (cant remember how to spell that name), and than got there ass handed to them by the fire giant. They did so well against the fire giant in demonscar, and against the black dragon on the plain of ulcers, but this guy kicked there butt. The look of shock on the faces of everyone when the big bad fighter went down to neg 7 from a full attack w/ one crit was priceless, no visa necessary. He then cleaved into the other fighter and crit him. In the end there was one character death, and two others below zero. It was a good night for the DM.
My group just finished test of the smoking eye.
They just walzed over the Fire Giant. The Rakshasa just had enough time to turn invisible and move away. The clay golem was tough to hit, but didn't do much damage. The party did spend a fair amount of resources to take it out, though.
Then came Myrtuk, the Lich. I thought that encounter would prove to be pretty deadly for the party. boy was I wrong... The lich cast 1 summon monster before the party wizard cast an evard's black tentacles. And presto, no more summoning lich. It was pretty awfull. Fortunately, the preperational buff's made sure it had a decent strength score, but the oposed grapple checks where murder. In the end, the lich managed only two summon monsters before durning to dust.
They figured out Kaurophon was up to no good, and made sure he wasn't able to complete the test himself. The party cleric cast an augury on whether it was a good idea to step into the plasma stream herself and got a weal. And then... the entire party stept into the flame at the same time! In the end, I decided the cleric would be the one to get the smoking eye template, while the rest would perish in the plasma gusher.
and that's where we ended the session. Pretty intense, but a satisfactory finale to this part of the AP.
Yeah. But the PCs are in the middle of the desert, so they'll probably end up trying to drag Alek along. Just having the resurrect or raise dead not work would feel kind of lame.
Raise Dead is one of the few spells that I force the players to come up with the material component for. If my group decided they wanted to raise Alek my first response would be "Ok, you got your 5,000 GP worth of diamonds ready?". In my group the answer would easily be "no" but had they had the diamonds, it would really tough for them to rationalize using them on a crazy paladin rather than saving them for somebody in the party.
I also found it was a hard sell to get my party, who tends to have a mercenary attitude in general, to join a mysterious stranger for a romp on the outer planes. I had Kaurophon point out that they were 500 miles from anywhere, in the middle of the desert, and they were running low on supplies. I kinda felt like I was railroading them, but when the situation was put in perspective for them, the choice was easy.