Centrum Glacies 2023 Session 43: Demon Jarrar
Week 43 in 2022 of this Dungeons and Dragons Campaign in Centrum Glacies continues with the party finally confronting Demon Jarrar.
Like my other campaign, I’m turning this one into a book series. You can check out the first one here.
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 in the book series.
!!!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!!!
Jarrar was far from defeated. Instead, he transformed into a massive fire Demon. And he was burning Felflame too. The entire room intensified in temperature and the party started to melt as their skin started to burn.
Not wanting to die after coming this far, the party through everything they possibly could at Demon Jarrar to try and avert a cruel and torched fate. What a horrible turn after they had come here to defeat rather than kill him.
Adrenne, their Vampire ally fought off the remaining Cultists. The rest of the group had their hands full with Demon Jarrar and they couldn’t handle additional enemies. But the Vampire also enjoyed her role in this battle. She had shown nothing for contempt for Dark Elves since the group had first met her. And in turn, those same Dark Elves feared her.
In fact, those Cult of Obsidian members feared the Vampire so much, that they willingly fled towards Demon Jarrar. A monster who’s very presence melted the followers of flame. Turned out they were not safe from Felfire either. Their sacrifices didn’t power up the Demon or anything of the sort. The Dark Elves simply chose suicide over dealing with the Vampire.
Fiery Situation:
Meanwhile, Demon Jarrar tried to kill Teztcal first. Whether it was that a Dragon was the biggest threat, or the Dark Elf simply found his delusional antics annoying was unknown. But something else made it clear as their personal clash continued, independent of the others. Teztcal had incredible luck.
Even with superior power and an aura of fire that burned everyone around him, the Dark Elf turned Demon couldn’t hit the Dragon. And Demon Jarrar grew more furious the longer that this went on.
His anger reached a point where the unthinkable was happening. He, a superior Demon and leader of the Cult of Obsideon was on his backfoot by this pathetic group? A party that had earned their titles without any real work? Who did they think they were?
In his fury, Demon Jarrar stomped on the ground over and over. The Dragon mocked him for having a temper tantrum. The Dark Elf rebutted that the lava Trent had helped redirect earlier was coming this way. And they would all die from it.
Rushing to beat the lava, the group, Malcolm at the forefront tried to slay this Demon. They didn’t have time to try and save him anymore. But it was truly when the unthinkable happened that Demon Jarrar revealed the full extent of his plan.
Turned out that when he was about to be destroyed, his Demon form exploded. In these cramped quarters, there was no avoiding this attack. And just as quickly as they had the advantage, the party was all reduced to unconscious soon to be corpses. Had Demon Jarrar accomplished what his Dark Elf form could not?
Adrenne Flees:
Before the lava fully streamed in, Adrenne looked around the room as the sole person who could still move. Did she leave her friends here to die to save her own skin? Jarrar, no longer in Demon form asked her this very question. Muttering about how she didn’t know how to make such a choice, she noticed one thing that gave her hope.
Jyona had a ring that saved her from death. Turns out that it had deflected the explosion just enough that she was still conscious. The vampire felt a bit better about fleeing now. there was still a chance, slim as it might be that the group might get through this.
She whispered to Jyona that if they got through this to return to the Orcs where she would have help waiting for them. Fully changing to mist, Adrenne cast her reservations aside and fled the Cult of Obsidian Base.
Moments after she left, Jyona tried one last attempt at saving Jarrar. This all despite the fact that he kept trying to kill them all. Or worse. But he laughed at her newest attempt. It didn’t matter to him. After all, moments later lava flooded the room.
Transformation:
But that lava didn’t kill the party. Every time they had come in contact with heat prior to this encounter, their bodies had slowly grown more monstrous. And being completely submerged in liquid hotter than fire itself only completed what those other battles had started.
Jarrar transformed back into his fire Demon form. But the rest of the party followed suit. And they were all pissed. Four very pissed off Demons against one extremely frightened one.
Naturally, they turned the tables on Demon Jarrar with their new powers and forms. The fires burned that much less and the lava was nothing more than hot water to them now. At long last they could have revenge on this Dark Elf that had flaunted superiority at every turn.
This time, they got him. Even exploding a second time did little to stop the four Demons. They resisted fire after all. Even Felfire at this point. The battle ended with Jarrar on his deathbed and four angry Demons debating how to finish him off.
Escape:
Well, one of those angry Demons was less angry than the others. And she had no intention of killing Jarrar. Even if logic dictated that they stop his breath. Jyona instead used one of the new spells her Demon form afforded. Teleporting the Dark Elf away, she saved him from whatever grim fate her companions had in store.
Teztcal and Trent grew upset with her, but only for a moment. They had dealt with him, at least for now. So now they needed to get out of this lava filled maze and figure out what to do next.
The problem was, that the way out of the volcano was blocked. The lava flows had closed all the other entrances. Perhaps this was the defense mechanism that Zinbella had mentioned when she had showed Trent the underground caves. Which gave him an idea.
Yes the way they had come in was blocked, but the way below was open. So with being the only one among them who even knew about the caves, Trent led the rest of the party deeper underground and into tunnels filled with lava and who knew what else.
Wrap Up:
The party are all Demons now. What will that mean for them going forward? Can they maintain their sanity? Or turn feral like so many of the monsters they faced along the way?