Centrum Glacies 2023 Session 47: Zrin
Week 47 in 2022 of this Dungeons and Dragons Campaign in Centrum Glacies continues as the group reaches the city of Zrin. A large and bustling place has plenty of danger hidden.
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 recently was incinerated in lava. But rather than die, they have been transformed into Demons. And every moment they have to resist a bloodlust that is trying to take hold.
!!!Final Trigger Warning!!!
Upon reaching Zrin, the party is greeted by Finare. As one of the Elven Captains of the Light of the Abyss, she was already informed that the group was coming to the city. Notably she informs them that while their military force has a presence in the city, Zrin has its own city guard that has proper jurisdiction.
Moving on to other matters, Finare explained the different zones of the city and told them that they should head to the Demon Quarter if they wanted to figure out how they might change themselves back. Warning that they should tread carefully around the city guards, she let them into Zrin. With one last caution statement, she told them it would be best to stay in the “Lower City” so long as they were Demons.
As the party entered Zrin, their path took them right to the part of the Lower City they needed to be: The Demon Quarter. Clearly their location since the entire place was filled to the brim of Demons. And of all ages too. Notably countless Demon children ran around, though with plenty of adult ones watching them carefully.
Demon Quarter:
The party was quick to notice that the Demons had their own guards and in turn the Zrin City Watch seemed low here. Especially since just out of the Demon Area, the number of Zrin soldiers increased significantly.
With their business being in the Demon Quarter, the party started asking questions. And they were sure that their Adventurer Pins were clearly visible. Turned out that the most knowledgeable person here was the Orphanage Matron.
Unfortunately, before the rest of the group could talk to her, Teztcal ventured there first. And he didn’t believe the creature made of shadows was the leader of this part of the city. Instead the Dragon turned Demon started reading people’s minds and focused on one specific child.
That child was actually mute and traumatized, but that didn’t stop Teztcal from getting insulted when he didn’t get a response. Even as the Matron asked him increasingly less politely to cut it out. Not listening to her, the Dragon Demon pulled out his sock puppet. He unintentionally entertained all the kids for a little bit, before going back to being a chaos gremlin with an overly inflated ego.
Malcom intervened to try and reduce the amount of damage that Teztcal could inflict both on these children and the groups reputation at large. Trent constantly tried to control Teztcal with telepathy to aid in this endeavor. Eventually the Dragon Demon grew bored and went back to the other side of the Demon District.
Maerwynn:
Malcolm finally got to the heart of the matter. First he introduced himself and got instant attention when the Matron realized he was a Mythril Adventurer. She introduced herself as Maerwynn Imp, though preferred that others ignored her last name. Perhaps she was embarrassed by it? He asked the Matron about how they might turn back to normal.
Expressing surprise that a Mythril Adventurer would not know the answer to this already, she made a request. Though initially he was suspicious, Malcolm understood that given her position, it was in her interest to see if she could get a future favor from a powerful person like him. At least what she asked in exchange for information wasn’t unreasonable.
Maerwynn asked him to deliver a love letter to someone who was at Lightsong Lake. She explained that this place was in the Eastern Jungle of Giants and not far from here. He didn’t want to pry too much about why a Mythril Adventurer was doing something like this, but the Dwarf did notice that despite her Demon form, she had a tattoo of a Mermaid on her foot. This was likely related to the love letter.
Meanwhile, Jyona started asking Demons in the Lower Quarter if they’ve seen a Blue Dragon Girl. And she got some answers to that question. Specifically, she was told several times that there was an orphanage that had a Blue Dragon Child. According to rumors at least. Excited by this information, she ran, not walked towards that end of Zrin
The rest of the party noticed that Jyona was running off on her own. And they gave chase not wanting to find out what might happen to her alone in this city none of knew at all.
Corrupt Guard:
As they left the Orphanage the party passed by some gruff looking guards. Noticing that several high ranking adventurers were passing by the Guardsman introduced himself. Rulf Mane by name it was clear that he was only feigning respect. Not to mention his eyes looked addled. His breath smelled heavily of booze. He wasn’t sober and his words next only indicated that he was far from trustworthy.
He was coming here to collect guard tithes. Apparently it cost the city watch money to protect these Demons. In other words, there was some sort of extortion going on here. And Malcolm wanted to know more, but he was smart enough not to pry directly.
Instead, the Mythril Adventurer double backed and briefly asked Maerwynn about the tithe. She sorrowfully admitted that this was from this specific guard. There was likely more, but since Rulf was approaching, their conversation was cut short. As he moved away, things sounded tense between the Matron and the Guard who stated his title of lieutenant, only showing more problems.
Hidden Love:
Once out of earshot, Malcolm asked one of the nearby demon guard to report further developments to him. Introducing himself as Iwan Mane, he reported how he personally cared for the Matron and the children she watched over.
Wanting to make sure he was trustworthy, Malcom read his mind. And he discovered an important truth. This Demon, formerly a human, was in love with a man. Yet he feared revealing this and so was pretending to be in love with the Matron. But this did indicate he was trustworthy.
Noting that everyone had treated him as a Mythril Adventurer with incredible respect, except for Rulf, Malcolm started to see what to expect around Zrin from the locals. But he didn’t have time to think much more as the party was now chasing after Jyona.
Sidetracked:
As they regrouped, Teztcal got sidetracked by a shopkeeper aid in the section next to the Demon Quarter in Lower Zrin. The rest of the party was relieved to not worry about him for a moment and followed Jyona.
Once inside, Teztcal met the head Shopkeeper, Trinoa. This Gnome very quickly determined that Teztcal was a mad idiot and acts patronizing in a way where Teztcal was none the wiser. She offered a book that might help him learn more, but in his arrogance, the Dragon Demon was convinced that such knowledge was beneath him.
Wrap Up:
There are many problems in Zrin. And to get the answers they seek, the party will have to learn to navigate this potentially dangerous city politically and geographically.