I thought others might appreciate the situation my group found themselves in at the end of Chapter 6.
Note that this post is loaded with spoilers.
First a lengthy background: I had an easy time introducing Kaurophon to my party, to exactly the right level of trust/distrust, because I worked his intro in a pretty specialized way. They waded through the first two parts of the Test of the Smoking Eye with ease, but things got a little dicey when Vorkaire (the black dragon) showed up. The party ended up running away, and made it to the base of the skull alive, but a little worse for the wear.
After chatting with Saureya (sp), the angel out front and learning there was a rakshasa and a fire giant in front of them, the sorcerer and fighter refused to go ahead until they could stop and rest. Despite my attempting to convey a sense of urgency, they refused to budge. So, of course, they split the party and sent the rogue ahead to scout.
Okay, so... the party is supposed to catch up with the rakshasa and giant as they're resting... which they did. But the ultra stealthy rogue just watched and waited. Eventually, I had to have them them move on and trigger the clay golum fight, which the rogue also just sat and watched... so, that triggered the lich fight... which the rogue /also/ watched from the shadows. I had the giant beat the golum, but had the lich kill him and had the rakshasa teleport away. The rogue didn't see exactly what happened, he just knew the giant got killed and the rakshasa was gone.
The party decided to forge ahead at that point figuring that the rakshasa and fire giant had simply failed the last portion of the test, and they they might be able to mop up whatever it was before it had a chance to regroup.
Turns out they ran headlong into the lich without realizing what they were up against, and decided to try and bulldoze through it's room when they saw their "Lantern of Guidance" was pointing to the opposite door. I decided the lich was only trying to protect it's interest in the "Nexus of Evil," (big bad artifact in that particular room) so when it realized the party was simply "moving past" it was going to be willing to let them move past... but of course, the paladin didn't know that and tried to "hold it off." Alas, he fell victim to a "Slay Living" spell and died (marking only the second death in my campaign). In the end, the party made it out of the lich's chamber and into the eye socket, where I decided the lich would not pursue them... at least for now (it having other interests).
The important part is that the party had reached the final part of the test almost completely drained of resources - including Kaurophon. Now, he already knew the object of the final test (at least, in my world he did), but the previous battles had him drained to the point where he knew he simply couldn't take the remaining characters in combat. So, he decided to talk them into it.
After over-analyzing the proctor's instructions for the final test, he has them convinced that self-sacrifice might be the correct solution to the test - but that he wasn't willing to try it himself. So, he proposed a solution: after describing himself as a man of means, he promised to pay for the resurrection of the fallen paladin, as well as that of any one person willing to leap into the burning plasma to test the "self-sacrifice" solution.
So, the fighter decides to take him up on the offer. He took off all of his armor and equipment, wrote a note to the cleric that said "Sell my gear and give the profits plus the ressurection money to the children" (he's become the unofficial guardian of Cauldron's orphanage) and leapt into the fire.
That's the cliffhanger I ended my game on the other night.
Now, here's my conundrum - what happens now?
Kaurophon believes that the fighter's act will grant him (Kaurophon) the Smoking Eye, because he knows that self-sacrifice is not the correct answer, and he's willingly allowing someone to die due to his withholding the truth. It's an evil act, basically murder, because he also has no intention of paying for anyone's resurrection (another lie he's told).
Unfortunately, what no one (Kaurophon included) knows is there's a twist to the test: self sacrifice is not technically the answer, but the Gods themselves are prepared to intervene one-time-only and protect a single good creature who sacrifices himself, so that he would be granted the template and potentially restore part of Occipitus to the light.
So - who gets the Smoking Eye? I'm going to give it to the fighter, who (after a brief, but private, conversation with his God (or an agent thereof) in the afterlife) will magically re-appear alive, unharmed, and with the Smoking Eye. Kaurophon will be dumbfounded, lacking the Smoking Eye, and still unprepared to forcefully throw someone in. At this point, he'll either leap into the flames himself (now assuming that that actually is the correct answer), or the party (most notably the fighter who knows he'd die) will have to stop him from doing so and have him make good on his offer to resurrect the paladin first.
It'll be really interesting to see what happens next, but I think I'm going to have to get a side-quest together for a couple of reasons. First, the party didn't defeat the dragon outside the skull, they didn't fight the rakshasa or fire giant, they didn't fight the golum, and they didn't defeat the lich... so, they're lacking on XP in a big way (they're just shy of 10th level at this point). Second, they going to need to go on some sort of quest to get their paladin back.
It's a very interesting situation, and not one I could have predicted. Comments? Suggestions?
