Centrum Glacies 2022 Session 34: Unspeakable Sin
Week 34 in 2022 of this Dungeons and Dragons Campaign in Centrum Glacies horrified the party. They saw just a taste of the unspeakable sin their enemies are willing to commit.
Like my other campaign, I’m turning this one into a book series. However I’m still working on that project. Give it some time.
Anyway, just like my other campaign, there is a whole lot going on and I don’t want to elaborate on every moving piece in the story. You can see the whole thing once the book series starts hitting virtual and real shelves.
!!!Trigger Warning!!!
This story deals with a cruel world with some horrific twists. So far, this campaign has featured: Animals getting killed, Genocide, lots of body horror, evil cults, brainwashing, torture.
Most recently one of the party members had an eye gouged out and lost an arm. Not exactly the way it happens in Berserk, but that might have been the inspiration for it. The group at large is currently succumbing to magical wounds that appear to be turning them into Demons.
!!!Final Trigger Warning!!!
The party fought horrific monsters created by Jak-Rath one of the Cult of Obsidian Leaders. This unspeakable sin included children tormented until they were reduced to masses of flesh, animals with a mishmash of body parts, dolls stitched from several corpses, and Flesh Golems. There was a clear theme here.
But whatever these creatures might have been before, destroying them was a mercy now. Only an unspeakable sin could have been committed to create such horrors. And Jak-Rath looked on as the party slaughtered his creations. Almost as if he was assessing their worth and effectiveness.
Still the party destroyed them, and was greatly moved to make an example of the mad scientist that hand created them. But Jak-Rath continued to talk to them as if giving them a debrief after an experiment. Which of course was exactly how the insane Dark Elf saw this.
When the party questioned what would drive him to commit such unspeakable sin, he retorted that there was nothing sinful with elevating everything to a higher state of consciousness. Naturally the party did not agree. And he fled after laughing at the group over their willingness to use violence over rational thought.
Extremely shaken after this encounter, the party left the forest in earnest. They wanted to be far from this place and never return if possible.
Beyond the crystal forest the party found a swamp. Likely a result of the Abyssal Continent’s massive shift northwards, the entire place was more water than forest now. But they were not the only ones here.
Into the Swamp:
At the entrance, they ran into Alin, one of the other Platinum Adventurers. Luckily she didn’t wish to fight the party. Instead, she had come here to hunt a dangerous Demon. Apparently there was a powerful monster that had almost killed another Platinum Rank.
As a paladin, Alin stated it was her purpose to rid wicked creatures from the land. But there were two problems. One, she kept asking the party what they were doing here. A question they could not answer. The second and much more pressing issue was that they learned relatively fast who this Demon she was hunting might be.
While the group talked with the Platinum Adventurer, they dodged several walls of the plauge. And it was clear that the insects might have some sort of sentience. After all, they were herding the group into the deepest part of the swamp and away from the edge near the desert. A destination for the party. And a spot of safety for Alin who had no interest being this deep.
None of the party was surprised then when a screaming Demon materialized out of thin air in the deepest part of the swamp. Faxina was back and neither Zinbella or Faustus was present. Was Alin up to the challenge of fighting arguably the most dangerous creature the party had ever encountered? And without any method of calming the Demon’s unstoppable rage?
Just like every other encounter with Faxina, she wasn’t alone. This time hordes of Demons appeared from beneath the swamp water. Their eyes were empty and didn’t reflect light. Just how potent was her mind control powers?
Wrap Up:
The group thought Jak-Rath and his unspeakable sin was the worst they would find in the woods. A shame that they were mistaken.