Centrum Glacies Session 69: Copper Dragon
Week 69 Dungeons and Dragons Campaign in Centrum Glacies continues with the party still split up. Teztcal finds the Copper Dragon. Things don’t go as planned.
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.
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 was incinerated in lava. But rather than die, they were transformed into Demons. They might be free from these transformations for now, but only time will tell what this means for them.
!!!Final Trigger Warning!!!
Obrom tried to look down the well. The party intended to deal with the monster threat, but wanted to know what was waiting for them below. Unfortunately, he didn’t see anything. The Bard blamed it on the darkness obscuring his sight.
Trent was currently in the form of a Light Elemental and had a solution. He headed over to illuminate the well. With nothing revealed but water below, the group decided to get a closer look.
Party went down the well. They quickly found a problem. In fact said problem was likely the cause of the Elementals and Mephits.
The water had the same holy energy as the river. Just like in the cave with the Mermaids, the energy was causing issues and possible mutations.
More Mephits and Elementals emerged to ambush the party. And there were a lot of them. Not only did they from out of the water itself, but given they all emerged in a small area, it was highly likely that more would appear soon.
The party tried their best to fight them off. But there were a lot of Elementals, and the water all around them meant that plenty more would appear. This didn’t seem to be an easily winnable situation. Instead of being overwhelmed, the party was forced to retreat.
No Surrendering
Meanwhile, in the Dragon’s lair, Teztcal and Vitality fought against a Snake Demon and its enslaved soldiers. After Teztcal he destroyed all its allies, the Lamia called itself by the specific Demon it was and was willing to let them go. Naturally the deluded Dragon saw itself with an advantage and laughed at the creature.
Since Vitality and Teztcal both refused, the Demon tried to force an escape. It tried to charm person on Vitality.
But the Ranger had a strong will and the spell didn’t stick. Worse for the Lamia, now that the spell failed she was aware of the magic attack.
Teztcal destroyed the Lamia. And Vitality would have done the same if he hadn’t acted first. He laughed at the dead Demon declaring that it would melt to his shadow breath.
Vitality noticed his breath attack is not actually shadow magic. Once more she asked the Dragon if he was an idiot or insane. He ignored her comment about it and her questions.
Asking for Answers
Back at the well Jyona expended some speedy based resources to collect a sample of water. They would not surrender to these creatures, but with a sample, they might find a solution to purifying the well.
When she reached the bottom, The elementals are gone. She moved to gather water in a small enough bottle that neither a Mephit or Elemental could come out of it.
After a few seconds they start to emerge again. But Jyona had what she needed and used the same magic that had brought her down there to emerge above the well unharmed.
Jyona explained this phenomenon to the rest of the party upon getting back up out of the well. Any hints they could use to solve this riddle was welcome. Now that they had what we needed, they returned to Zrin to figure out their next move.
The Sphinx
Back in the Dragon’s cave, Teztcal and Vitality approached a statue that sat behind where the Lamia had once stood. The Dragon tried to move the statue and found it far too heavy to budge, much less move. But before he tried magic to accomplish what his strength could not, he was stopped by something strange.
It spoke and demanded “STOP! DO NOT TOUCH ME!” They realized it was alive. Vitality who knew a few things about magical monsters realized it was a Sphinx. A creature that asked riddles to those who drew too close.
Vitality figured out the Sphinx’s first riddle. The creature seemed impressed that two foolish creatures could figure out anything at all.
The Sphinx lets Teztcal know that he need not get every question correct, only that he needed to answer three. But if either of them failed too many times, the Sphinx would attack. Vitality grew worried. She seemed to know a few things about the Sphinx and how dangerous it might be.
Teztcal somehow answered the second riddle correctly despite everything including intelligence working against him. But only because he said his own name. The Sphinx informed the Dragon that the correct answer was ignorance. And that he was a living breathing example of the word.
Essentially Teztcal named himself as ignorant. Something that the Sphinx found hilarious.
As for the third riddle, the Sphinx grew so annoyed by Teztcal’s stupidity that it played itself and accidentally gave the answer away to Vitality. Turned out that the creature couldn’t handle raw stupidity in such amounts. Aggravated and wanting out of this situation, the Sphinx let them through.
Solving the Pollution Problem
Meanwhile, the rest of the party made it back to Zrin. Once there Jyona asked Trent if he knew more about the water.
He came to about the same conclusion as her. The holy river water had found its way into the well. This likely was enraging water spirts. They would need to remove the pollutant from the well to stop the problem.
Trent decided to ask the Light of the Abyss guards about the water. After all, they made use of the substance to ward the areas the Cult of Obsidian controlled and keep Demons from crossing from that side.
Unfortunately the rank and file soldiers didn’t know much about how the holy water worked. Their leaders were the ones who came up with the plan and implemented it. Finare who the party had met before was the leader of this specific battalion. She was occupied and meeting with Wurtu the leader of Zrin.
The party decided to rest until she is available. And they chose to rest at the Adventurer’s Guild since the last time they slept at the inn, they had been attacked by ghosts.
Tigers or Kittens
When they arrived, they found Adrenne playing with the cats in the adventurer’s guild. The panthers had started warming up to her, but were still on edge. She was a Vampire after all, and the animals could sense something off about her.
When she noticed the group come in, she asked how the commission was going. When Trent answered that they were having trouble completing it, she scolded them. They hadn’t looked to see who had posted the commission in the first place. Turned out Wurtu himself had asked for help with the well. It was likely he knew more about the situation.
After the Vampire left, the Tigers felt more at ease. As Trent’s friends, he hadn’t snuggled with them in a while. And the depowered Druid decided to fix that quick. Accepted still by thee creatures helped set his mind at ease.
With nothing else to do, the party decided to call it a night. They had some plans on how to move forward now and would focus all their efforts after a good night’s sleep.
Copper Dragon
Back in the Copper Dragon’s lair Teztcal and Vitality took a short rest. The Sphinx was likely guarding the way to the Dragon and the two wanted to be ready for what would happen next.
As they moved past where the Sphinx had been, the two were overwhelmed by giggling fits. There was nothing to even laugh at. But this had to mean the Copper Dragon was close. A few more steps in and the master of the cave finally showed themselves.
The Copper Dragon was baffled they got past the Sphinx. Teztcal ignored the insult, or perhaps was too foolish to notice it was one. Instead, he asked the Copper Dragon to join him in world domination. Or at least to help him take over the Abyssal Continent.
The Copper Dragon calls out all of Teztcal’s god grandeur. The Dragon has no interest in any of this. And wants to be left alone.
Vitality spoke to the Copper Dragon trying to figure out why it was attacking the nearby woods. She in draconic. Something that went right over Teztcal’s head.
Vitality did not get an answer to her original question. And so asked the dragon why it is attacking the outskirts of Zrin. But that answer prompted only more confusion
The Copper Dragon stated that it had done no such thing. In fact they had been in his cave this whole time.
It asked her who had commissioned her to hunt the Copper Dragon down. Turned out, she also failed to read who wrote the commission. This did not bode well. And she offered to return to Zrin to try and figure out the answer.
Teztcal meanwhile remained oblivious to the rest of this conversation. He tried using deflection for the sake of feeling morally and physically superior to an older and wiser Dragon.
Monsters and Clowns
The Copper Dragon asked for them to go see who commissioned his death. Hopefully this was all a misunderstanding. But the Dragon wanted to be absolutely sure that it didn’t have a dangerous enemy.
Unfortunately laughter filled the cave and it wasn’t coming from the Copper Dragon or the two invaders. Which meant a fourth person. But who could it have been.
The Clown-Like Creature who had appeared in the Cult of Obsidian Base was the source of the laughter. Teztcal didn’t remember him, and Vitality had no idea who he was, or the sheer danger he posed. He talked a bit about how the Copper Dragon hadn’t invaded yet, but would soon enough.
After a bit more laughter, the Monster Clown cast a powerful spell on the Copper Dragon. One that caused such an extreme amount of heat that Teztcal could feel it on his skin. It almost made him transform into his Demon form.
Demon Dragon
The Copper Dragon did transform. And even Teztcal was taken aback by the sudden changes. Vitality was rendered awestruck. She had faced Demons before, but never watched a Dragon turn into one.
The now Demon Dragon started chanting “Die….die….die.” And it made good on that promise as the Clown faded away. Its part in this tragedy was already complete.
The Copper Dragon Demon used its breath attack to slow Teztcal Vitality and her Bear. They had no way to escape now. And their attacks had no effect on the transformed monster. Not a good situation to be in.
Even as it transformed into a monster, this place was still the Copper Dragon’s lair. And it still had complete control over the environment. The ground around Teztcal and Vitality turned to mud. And their slowed bodies worked against them.
Sinking Feeling
Teztcal and the bear had no way to escape and started getting pulled into quicksand. Vitality managed to fight against the environment, but she could only keep that up for so long.
The bear realized it would die if it stayed in this fight. Using some Magic Teztcal didn’t understand, out it shrank itself into Vitality’s pack. This left two combatants against an invincible Demon Dragon
The former Copper Dragon saw that Vitality was not caught in the mud and moved to kill her first. She managed to survive by the skin of her teeth, but it only took a few seconds for the Dragon to leave her a bleeding mess.
She fell unconscious leaving only Teztcal. Turning its attention towards him, the floor of the cave became filled with spiked brambles. Not only was he now stuck in mud, but trying to free himself would prove dangerous if not fatal.
The mud got Teztcal first. He was unable to fight back or escape. He watched Vitality sink into that same mud before the world grew dark for him too.
Wrap Up
Things are not looking good. The party is split and Teztcal has no way of reaching them.