Centrum Glacies Session 51: Saving Demon Town
Week 51 in 2022 of this Dungeons and Dragons Campaign in Centrum Glacies continues with saving Demon Town.
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!!!
Rather than fight the party, the remaining Druids of Cleansing decided to kill as many of the innocent children as possible. Unfortunately, saving Demon Town was now the party’s priority if they wanted aid. And that meant killing these Druids as fast as possible.
Trent has a lot of reservations fighting these Druids initially. But watching them cut down children, even Demon ones without any pause or hesitation made it clear which side he wanted to be on in this fight. So even if it meant fighting his own order, he chose saving Demon Town.
Although many of the children tragically were slain in the fight, a few were spared a grim fate. And in doing so, the party had removed the final Druids of Cleansing that threatened Demon Town.
Demon Town Saved
Talked to Margarette Erinyes the leader of Demon Town. She let the party know that she saw the irony of having the same last name as the Demon form she had taken. With her was Frida Barlgura. Luckily the woman had not taken the form of the Demon she had the last name of. Instead she was a flighty woman in a Succubus body.
The party asked the two what had happened. From what they could tell, Demon town was pretty well guarded. Yet these Druids had gotten in, prompting their party of several Platinum Ranks and a delusional Dragon into saving Demon Town.
Turned out it was a tragedy leading to another. Not all of those who turned into Demons could handle their transformations. One such citizen had suicidal tendencies and had allowed the Druids in willingly with the hope that they would kill him and everyone else.
Chasing the Druids
With one mystery solved, the party asked the pair about the second and more pressing one. What had the Druids stolen? And why did the party need it to turn back? Margret told them that the item was a pure cold object that could suppress the heat in their body. This suppression is what would turn them back.
With their path clear, they left the chapel and ventured into the city that they had had a major hand in saving. Trent was more and more convinced that saving Demon Town was the right call as he saw what were otherwise normal people going about their days. They would always be traumatized by the near genocide, but they also had to deal with looking like monsters at all times.
On the way out of Demon Town, the party spoke once more to Natu. First he explained that he lacked a last name because he had originally been an Elf and the last naming was a Human custom. Second and more importantly, he revealed that he was a Dark Elf and had been formerly in the Cult of Obsidian. He must have been a powerful Dark Elf to become a Pit Fiend post transformation. Natu refused to elaborate on that.
He did tell them another important piece of information though. He believed that the reason the Arch Druid took the frozen flame is because the very existence of such an object was an affront to the entire Circle of Cleansing. For that reason, the party not only needed to get the item, but might be able to use it to avoid future tragedy.
Finding the Druids
With that out of the way, the party left Demon Town and returned to the Jungle of Giants. Near where they had first entered this region, they knew that the Druids kept some sort of camp. Naturally Teztcal was the first to come up with an idea on how to find their enemies.
Not one for subtlety, he started setting the forest ablaze. Or at least he tried to. Turned out that a forest protected by Druids was actually fairly resistant to destruction.
And it worked. The Druids summoned or at least had preemptively called upon some Shambling Mounds to attack any foolish enough to get close to the Circle of Cleansing Encampment.