Centrum Glacies Session 101: Violet’s Boon
Week 101 of the Dungeons and Dragons Campaign in Centrum Glacies continues as the party earns a boon from Archfey Violet.
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, psychological warfare, child abuse, and slavery.
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!!!
Trent asked Teztcal if he was able handle the elementals when the wall came down. The Dragon claimed he was more than capable of dealing with them. So the Druid, satisfied with his battle plan retreated away from the fight, ready to assist from the rear.
Obrom dropped the wall and Teztcal moved in to use his breath weapon. Unfortunately the dragon moved back after attacking, leaving the Bard and not him in danger. Obrom didn’t expect his companion to do that and so felt betrayed in that moment.
The Princess of the Seelie Fae got the entertainment she craved as all the monsters, no longer trapped, surged towards the one who had cast the force wall around them. All the elementals attacked Obrom at once. All of them with the intent to drown him.
Little did they realize he had Armor of Agathys active. And the defensive spell dealt ice damage to any monster that struck the caster. Water Elementals were vulnerable to such an attack. All but one were obliterated as their strategy backfired.
Obrom insulted the final monster. And like before, Violet found his jokes boring. She booed the Bard, growing annoyed at his silly attempts at comedy. The fact that these bad jokes finished off the final elemental were not lost on her.
More Enemies
But Violet wanted more action from the party. Even more violence was in her plans as she summoned several Owlbears not far from where the Elementals had just been erased. But Obrom’s quick thinking dealt with the even faster Owlbears who rushed the Dragon and almost took him out.
The Bard cast Hypnotic Pattern to lock the whole fight down, Teztcal included. Impressed with how things had turned out, Violet removed the rest of the monsters from this place and declared that the party had met her expectations.
Violet’s World
The archfey then took them to another pocket dimension. Her own as evident by it being that appeared as a field of flowers. And a specific flower dominated the landscape.
Now that they were in her pocket dimension, Violet asked them why they wanted her to free the memories of the Centaur child. Aside from her mother demanding them to do so of course.
Teztcal called the Centaur horses. And a good thing that none of them were nearby for him to insult. She was a bit confused as like the rest of the Feywild, she didn’t know what a horse was. Though unlike the Centaur themselves, it didn’t take Violet long to understand what a horse was.
Trent told her that they were sent to convince her to let the centaur go. And that it wasn’t via coercion from Queen Titania. The group genuinely wanted to help the Centaur as a way of making amends for their not so good encounter earlier.
Violet seemed to be at an impasse in that regard. She didn’t want to give the Centaur his memory back, or speak to her mother for that matter. But she did promise them a boon since she had backed off from her own end of the deal.
Boon
As for a boon, Violet was unable to remove Midnight’s sleeping curse, but at least in this realm where the Archfey could control everything, she could grant them one night of rest free from the other Archfey’s influence.
Trent seemed eager to accept, but Teztcal hadn’t agreed to anything. He was not willing to accept until he had more details. But Trent didn’t want to wait and risk missing a chance to get a proper rest. The druid asked Violet on the Dragon’s behalf about letting them sleep.
Violet remembered that Obrom didn’t bear Midnights Curse. As he had no issue when it came to sleep, she offered to have a conversation about a separate reward while his allies got some rest. Obrom declined to speak to her alone. He wanted to rest with the other two. It would do him no good to be exhausted when the others were well rested.
To Remove a Curse
Violet asked them what the Queen would think if they returned without solving the task she entrusted to them. And she knew far more about Titania being that this was her mother and all.
But she didn’t continue that conversation. As she still had a deal to uphold. One with Obrom. He asked for time to think while Violet turned to Trent to discuss their future with the Seelie Queen as well as further conversations about the Centaur.
The Druid wished to know if she could permanently get rid of the sleeping curse. Unfortunately Violet lacked that power. Only Midnight herself could allow the two to sleep once more.
Trent then asked a second question. He wanted to know if Violet could get them into the Unseelie Kingdom, making a visit to Queen Titania not needed. Violet unfortunately lacked the power to open it. Only the Queen herself could do so.
The Archfey let slip that Midnight was her friend. The one Fey friend around her age in fact. The same barrier was keeping them from seeing each other. Trent found this information helpful. Though he realized that talking to Queen Titania directly would be the best way to solve the problem.
Watchful Eye
She was not a fan of the idea as her mother intended to make her cure the centaur. Violet then stated something alarming. The Queen could see everything happening within her realm, including this conversation. And it was likely she wasn’t happy about this conversation at all.
Trent grew worried about being watched, but still told Violet the truth. He told her about how they needed to find their friend Jyona who was likely within the Unseelie Court. Teztcal agreed but still used number 1 in place of her name.
Violet understood how close the party was with Jyona. And their urgent need to reach the Unseelie Court by any means appealed to her anger at losing her friend Midnight. Yet she didn’t say anything else. As Queen Titania showed how she felt. The flowers in this place started to wilt and fade. The Seelie Queen was sending a warning.
Hidden Conversation
Violet had another matter to discuss with the group. And so she did something extreme. She cast a spell that she claimed could even block Titania’s magic and scrying. But it obviously would let her mother know she was hiding something from her.
With the ability to discuss openly and freely with the party, she went on to state someone is trying to harm the Seelie court. In fact she was convinced that the reason the Centaur antagonized her in the first place was because someone had put him up to it.
Trent asked why she didn’t just interrogate Centaur rather than taking his memories away. Violet was taken aback by that question. She hadn’t thought to do that.
Embarrassed, she agreed to go speak to her mother. Now that the party understood what was really at stake, they intended to help her see this through.
To Grant a Boon
Violet once again turned to Obrom about the boon he was promised. He turned to the party and made some hand gestures to try and see if they were ok with him removing his curse. Teztcal didn’t catch on and asked Obrom if he had lost his mind.
Trent however understood and nodded his approval. The Bard whispered his thanks to the Druid. Teztcal didn’t understand any of this and was left confused as ever.
The Bard then asked Violet to remove the curse from his hand. She asked him where it came from and if he was absolutely sure. She warned that removing curses was nasty business. But he understood this. Obrom wiped some sweat from his brow and said “Do it.”
A Dire Curse
The brand started glowing. And Teztcal of all people had an uneasy feeling about this. “Wait, you’re going to summon more zombies. Please! Stop!” Obrom was surprised that Teztcal was being polite to him of all people and it gave him pause. But he told Violet to continue regardless.
Violet continued to inspect the brand with her Fey magic. But Teztcal was extremely worried about this. And in an act that would have been unthinkable for him, he turned to Trent for backup. Seeing Teztcal this rattled made Trent worry too. He started to see how removing this curse could lead to something horrible.
As if the universe itself agreed with Teztcal, Violet stopped her spell and added her own input. She mentioned that her magical scan had detected something horrible about the curse. Specifically his brand was keeping some dark magic away. And that the power locked away matched what was happening to curse the soil in the Unseelie Court.
Obrom realizing that something horrible was at play right now, decided against continuing. Teztcal and Trent were both relieved. Meanwhile, Violet was very visibly shaken by the experience. She questioned him further about it. She told the group to leave nothing out.
Explanations
The party described Jak-Rath to her. They explained how he was a deranged and immoral Dark Elf that tortured and experimented on innocent people. Trent even explained how he was committing crimes against nature itself.
Violet agreed that Jak-Rath sounded like a horrible and cruel person. Still, she then found the brand to be odd. If such a wicked sort had put that on Obrom, then why was it protecting him from dark power. And then her eyes turned dark as she regarded the other two. In a rather ominous voice, she pointed out that they had already been corrupted by this same power.
Violet even went so far as to explain that the brand was actually be a boon in itself. Removing it actually seemed a worse idea than simply leaving it alone. Instead, Violet offers Obrom a chance to get another boon from her.
A Better Boon
Instead he asked about de-aging him and returning his youth. She stated that this was not beyond her power. But that it would cost him some memories of his later years. Time was not easily altered and it would take some potent magic to do such a thing.
Obrom decided against losing memories. Instead he asked if he could have his eyes enchanted with something he considered miraculous. But it turned out something that was well within Violet’s power. He asked if he could gain the ability to see a few moments into the future. The group kept being attacked by powerful foes and being able to outplay them in such a way appealed to the Bard.
She granted the bard this boon. Although what he didn’t think about was the vague way he described the boon. Given what else had happened in the Feywild, there was a strong possibility that this boon wasn’t completely what he had in mind.
Back to the Seelie Castle
Violet let the magic fade blocking them from her mother’s gaze, and Queen Titania was once more free to watch them. Knowing that the Queen would be eager to know what had been discussed outside of her eye, Violet resigned herself to going home. The group agreed to go with her for moral support.
With Violet’s power, the group was quickly transported back to the Seelie Castle. And as soon as the soldiers saw that Violet had returned, they demanded the entire group meet with the Queen immediately.
Queen Titania immediately ran to Violet and gave her a welcoming hug. The princess cringed. She was not happy to be back.
Puck who was present, was impressed that the party succeeded in bringing her back. He had assumed they would fail and need the Queen’s help. Obrom something was off about what he was asking. And so he asked Puck if he was listening in on their adventurer.
Puck shook his head. The Archfey was powerful, but he wasn’t capable of watching an entire realm like the Queen did. As for what had happened with them and Violet, that was something only Titania knew. Obrom intended to think about that conversation later.
The Queen’s Task
Queen Titania finished her time with her daughter and looked back towards the party. She once again stated that the centaur is to be freed. But she then moved on to the topic of the brand. She hadn’t seen everything, but she had taken in enough information to know that it was wise not to remove it.
She then looked to Trent and Teztcal specifically. The Queen asked curious but also on guard why they had a power similar to the one corrupting the Feywild. But then her expression changed. She seemed to have some idea and told the group she had a task for them to fulfill.
Queen Titania stated she knows the Unseelie are in dire need of food. She was certain they would be sending someone to steal from the Seelie. In fact, Titania even suspected there was a high possibility that Jyona herself might be the one to commit the theft.
Trent asked if there’s any way the Unseelie could be altering her mind. The Queen said that there was a high chance of this being true. Worried, Trent asked if there was a way she could be saved.
The Queen smiled. This was exactly what she wanted. Titania stated that there was one way they could save the Unseelie,. This would also free Jyona from mind control. And of course it would rid them of the dreamless curse.
Teztcal blurted out “Oh, you want us to use our demon powers to kill the Unseelie Queen!” Titania was impressed with how smart the dragon was in answering correctly.
Wrap Up
The other two however are left wondering what they have gotten themselves into. And are left worried that Jyona might be their enemy very soon.