Hint about the Final test dream

The clang of steel on steel and the rage of battle-spells awaken you from your slumber.  But were you really sleeping?  You pick yourself up off the ground and peer through pain-glazed eyes at your surroundings.  You appear to be in some large room and the walls are made of chalk…a soft earthen substance that appears to be similar to bone.  Walls curve upwards and eventually become the ceiling some feet above you.  From the center of the room is a small opening, which you recognize as the eye socket of the skull you’re in.

The Skull of Occipitus, 507^th layer of the Abyss.

From that center opening—in midair—gushes a blinding red light that rushes outward and upward, eventually spreading to fill the sky with the fiery clouds above.  The origin of the gushing light isn’t immediately obvious—it’s as if the plasma is being vented from a rip in the fabric of the plane itself. 

Memory blasts back to you like a crashing tidal wave.  Battle.  Betrayal.  Your allies and friends!  You look around you again and find your allies battling for their lives.  One battles some undead-monstrosity in gilded, golden plate mail.  Another lies on the ground near you, babbling incoherently to himself.  You can see another friend near you as well, slowly picking himself up off of the ground, a smoking hole in his side, from the same blast of magical lightning that threw you to the floor. 

As you pick yourself up off of the ground, the words of the proctor echo in your mind.  “…sacrifice an ally to the plasma, and Occipitus is yours.”  You can’t possibly do that.  Not now, not after all you and your friends have been through. 

You stare in frustration at the fiery column billowing up in front of you.  There has to be another way!, you scream to yourself.

And then you see the eyes.  Beautiful, silver glowing eyes stare at you from behind the column of flame.  You recognize this glare as something you’ve seen before, but in a different form.  These eyes also promise a wealth of knowledge and power, but it seems to be constrained.  Perhaps not constrained, but patient.  Understanding. 

Forgiving.

As you stare into these holy eyes you know that this being—if it is really a being—knows your true sins and regrets.  Your falsehoods and betrayals.  Your true desires and hopes.  Your destiny.  Words reverberate in your mind.

Sacrifice is not always evil, [character name].  Many of us have had to sacrifice what we hold most dear.  Even our very lives.

As the words echo in your mind, you stare back at the column of flame.  The eyes are gone, and the din of battle returns. 

And suddenly, as if you had the knowledge all along, you stand up and face the column of demonic flame.  All fear is gone, replaced only with determination.

You know what you have to do.

Occipitus is Alive dream

                You are sitting in the throne chamber of the Occipitus skull, working on an item for one of the group when you feel the hair on the back of your neck rise.  You feel that you are being watched.

                Looking around, you see no one.  You search for scrying sensors, and find none.  Turning back to your work, the feeling does not return for a while.  But when it does, you start to wander around.

                You walk the interior of the skull, trying to find the source of your unease.  You enter the chamber of the Smoking Eye, only to realize that an actual properly-sized eyeball is already here.  It turns and looks at you. 

                Frightened, you run and find Sigmund, and convince him to teleport you and the rest of the group away from here.  You arrive on the plain of flesh, and can see the skull from here.  The eyes are filled with flame, and the flesh is crawling back onto the skull.  Casting Fly, you take a better look.  You see that the skull starts to rise, pulling the flesh to it like a cloak being lifted from the floor.   You point and scream that Occipitus is awakening.

                Turning toward your friends, you are struck with horror as you see their flesh dissolving into the ground.  They flail in anguish as they slowly sink into the flesh being pulled toward the skull.  You fly as fast as you can away.

                But you are grabbed by a mass of flesh.  Feeling like an insect grabbed by a large human, you are caught by the demon’s hand.  The flesh is bubbling on the skull, and the smiling teeth shine with a reddish glow.  It squeezes you, crushing you with its immense strength.  Your shattered ribs puncture your lungs and other organs.  Bleeding profusely, the last thing you see before you black out is the opened mouth, savoring the moment before you are dropped in.