Centrum Glacies Session 109: Completing Commissions
Week 109 of the Dungeons and Dragons Campaign in Centrum Glacies continues as the party finally is rewarded for completing commissions.
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.
Most recently, the party helped cause a complete planetary genocide. Save a few survivors, no one remains from that world. They are still grappling with this unfathomable loss of life and their role in making it happen. It is clear that their suffering is far from over. They can only hope they don’t cause untold pain to an even more untold more.
!!!Final Trigger Warning!!!
After another rest and a chance to recuperate, the party turned in the Unicorn Horn Quest. They were rewarded with plenty of gold to spend and knew that Adriel would grant them another reward when they met with her. Teztcal did not get any reward though. After all, he wasn’t part of the guild.
Obrom ignored Teztcal’s newest tantrum. Instead, he checked the quest board to see what new commissions the group could take on now that they had a only 2 active commissions. He saw one that caught his eye immediately. It involved a mine of great interest to him. But the quest was marked as Platinum. And he was only Gold Ranked.
Teztcal was still furious at not being included as far as gold. “Quest giver!?” He demanded of the bartenders. “Where is my gold?”
He was told that he had worked for free. This would need to be a lesson to not do that moving forward. Teztcal grew only more furious at this very good advice. Trent echoed this statement and agreed with the sentiment. Jyona however, much more altruistic than her allied disapproved.
A good thing then that Jyona had something to give the Dragon. She gave Teztcal two sets of magical claws. But especially given his violent nature, she had some reservations about granting him such valuable and powerful weapons.
Accepting a Commission
Obrom ignored the rest of the room. He was still fixated on the commission. That mine was an important part of his past. So important in fact, that a certain witch had cast a spell on him to never talk about it. A witch that happened to telepathically reach out to him at that very moment. Engelique confirmed his suspicions that she and Persephine intended for the group to take the quest on.
Obrom then tried to accept the commission. But he was stopped by the Guild Bartenders. This mission was for Platinum Ranked and above only. He was only Gold. So he turned to Trent and Jyona and begged them to accept this quest. It was vital to him that they did.
Trent decided to trust him and accept it. Unlike Teztcal, it was clear that Obrom was not an Obsidian Spy. But this meant that with very little time for rest, the party was going into great danger again.
Creating a Commission
Jyona got an idea as the conversation over the mine winded down. She asked the Bartenders, if she could create a commission of her own. They said as a Platinum Adventurer she absolutely could. And so, she provided to commission the guild with quite a bit of gold to gather information on Apephe. Trent came over and immediately matched the amount as well. The bartenders assured the two that the Guild would match that same amount. Hence there was now a 2000 Gold commission to find her whereabouts.
Kisara listened to their conversation as they gave the bartenders a describption of the young Dragon. She was around the same as relatively speaking. And she grew excited about this until she found out what sort of Dragon Apephe was. Her joy turned to disgust. Turned out that White and Blue Dragons hated each other on an instinctual level.
Despite being a Dragon himself, Teztcal was confused by her reaction. He cared far more that Apephe was a Dragon at all. Her race didn’t matter to him. So he convinced his daughter to put aside her feelings and help him find this friend of his “allies”
The Importance of Flowers
With all that squared away, the party next headed to Wurthu to turn in the flower. After all their work in the Feywild, it was nice to finally be completing several quests.
They handed over the flower, but not before Jyona plucked a single seed from it. She felt it wouldn’t be right for them to hand over the last physical piece of the Feywild. Certainly not in front of several of the only surviving Fae, without trying to preserve a piece of it. All of that, Jyona hid from the others.
Teztcal asked Wurthu about Apephe. But he had not heard about that Blue Dragon. The others knew this already hence the commission in the first place, but Teztcal had never been the smartest Dragon. That aside, Wurthu thanked them for the flower and told them that they had done the City of Zrin a great service this day.
He needed some time to purify the water, but he told the party with confidence that he would contact them again soon and update them on the results. And an additional reward to add to what the Adventurers Guild would be giving them.
Growing Up
Before going to meet with Adriel at the Underwheel Headquarters, the party decided to check on the orphanage. They knocked and entered quickly after being ushered in. And after making sure that none of the soldiers in the barracks that occupied this same building, the group spoke to Anithren.
The first thing the matron asked was where Mini-me was. Teztcal motioned to Kisara as she groaned. Kisara reminded them that she hated that name. When the matron looked stunned by this revelation, Teztcal only made her more uncomfortable by saying that “The spiderman aged her.”
Anithren shooed the orphans away and once she had, the woman had a request. She asks Teztcal and the rest of the group to avoid saying anything more in front of the children about Kisara. They were excited to see the baby dragon return and now they never will.
The matron is a little taken aback that Kisara was a girl. She assumed, wrongfully that the Dragon had been a boy. So had Teztcal hence why he had given her that old name. But the conversation was cut short as the party was shoed out of the orphanage. Anithren said she would prepare the kids for the truth. She told them to come back in a few days.
The Underwheel
With that task completed, the party headed to the the other side of the city where the base of operations for the Underwheel sat. This was the most unsavory part of town, at least as far as they knew so the group prepared. Teztcal would have known there was worse if such things mattered to him. The group approached the entrance and explained that they needed to speak to Adriel.
They were allowed in, but they did not go unnoticed. There was a lot of tension in the air as they passed through. And even though the rest of the group hadn’t been part of his misadventures, given Teztcal’s previous actions with the thugs in the area they all watched him carefully.
Unfortunately, after all the tense walking, the group found out that Adriel had not yet returned to Zrin. With no further business here, and not wanting to remain in a den of criminals much longer, the party decided to move on.
The Geas
Trent questioned Obrom’s over eagerness for this commission. There was something strange about the fact that he had jumped at the chance. Especially given he was a Gold Ranked Adventurer. Then again, the Bard had kept several secrets. The brand being only one of them.
As she watched this conversation unfold, Jyona noticed something odd, whenever Obrom looked like he was about to answer a question. For a brief moment, magic would appear in his eye. But she recognized it immediately. This was Geas Magic. And the work of a specific Witch who had used the exact same spell on Trent and Jyona a long time ago.
The Witches
Trent and Jyona mentioned how they hated being caught up in her web. And how they were tired of dancing to her and Persephine’s strings. Almost as if they had been heard, the two witches appeared in the flesh. And they had been listening as the Mythril Adventurer of the two pointed out that the group had been dancing to her strings from the start. She fingered the Law of Silence that she still had in her possession thanks to the party.
Teztcal cut them off and proved he was still bitter about not being paid for the other Guild Commissions. Persephine seeing an opportunity to wrap the Dragon around her finger promised him one. Engelique however mentioned that he would still not be joining the Guild. Not when he was so unpredictable.
Obrom was the next to initiate conversation. He asked the witches to remove the spell on his mind. Engelique mentioned that the party would be seeing the truth he was hiding soon enough. Even still, she refused to drop the geas. Wouldn’t want to spoil the surprise now would they?
Trent wondered what he had gotten himself into yet again. Nothing was ever simple with Engelique. And the fact that Persephine was here made things only more likely to spiral out of control. But still, he had accepted this commission. And that meant that they headed towards the mine underneath Zrin. The more they explored this city, the more there was to find.
The Mine
As they entered the mine, it was clear that this wasn’t a simple place of work. The workers were all in rags with some looking like they had not left in a long time. Obrom explained that this place was a prison. A prison that he had been a prisoner of in the past. As he continued finally revealing a few secrets from his past, Jyona and Trent listen intently.
Teztcal joked prior that he must have been a slave here. In a way he was spot on. But none of those joked mattered when Obrom explained his dark history with this place. And that history linked him to a couple other Adventurers that the party had met in the past
Obrom admitted and he seemed ashamed as he spoke, that he had sold out his companion. In exchange for their imprisonment, he had walked free. With the veiled warning to speak nothing about what he had discovered. And in turn Persephine admitted that the Geas had been an extra measure to protect the world from the secrets they were about to see.
Engelique softened Obrom’s guilt slightly and pointed out a fact that Obrom had omitted. It wasn’t entirely his fault. He was innocent of the actual crime in fact which had gotten the others shackled to the Orc city, on house arrest in all but name. Yet Obrom was only guilty by association. Valois specifically had been the real criminal. And the other three going along with whatever he had done had been what separated Obrom from them.
Making Preperations
With their discussion finished, Engelique pointed out a hole that would take them deeper into the mine. Originally Obrom had ilegally come to this place. And when he and the other four had been caught, they had blown a hole in the ground that they had used to escape.
Persophine gave them an opportunity to prepare. She warned them that something dangerous was below and once they entered it would take a while before they could return. A few such as Obrom were ready to go right then and there. Others not so much.
Specifically, Jyona wanted a day more of rest so she could repair her Animated Armor and have it battle ready. She and the others then took a day around Zrin for themselves. Jyona specifically used some of the downtime teaching Midnight and Violet about their world. Specifically from the viewpoint of a scholar. The two former Archfey took in every word. Trent however slept, even with all the information being exchanged nearby.
Radiation
The next day, the group with Engelique and Persephine with them returned to the mine. This time, they traveled down the hole with some magic slowing their fall. They went down quite far. Enough that they couldn’t hear the miners above when they landed. But that didn’t matter. Not when the party was surrounded by crackling waste making noises they had never heard. And the air was much warmer here too.
The fey began to cough. Whatever this stuff was, it seemed extremely harmful to Midnight and Violet. Trent did not want them to suffer given everything else that had happened to them recently. So he requested that they shrink as small as they could. And once that size, enter the adventure’s packs to stay safe from whatever was in this mine. They agreed and followed his directions almost immediately.
As the party traveled through this eerie place, Engelique talked a little about what this stuff was. And more importantly, what the Orcs knew about it. Allegedly, the Orcs called this stuff “radioactive”. And Persephine added that long-term exposure was fatal. Even being nearby it as they were would cause harm to them. They needed to pass through this place fast.
Beyond the crackling noises the group passed through while feeling weaker with each step. And yet they were not near wherever the two Witches intended to go. This mine itself led to a second one filled with even more of the radioactive stuff. And the heat here was starting to grow unbearable.
Abberations
Persephine stated that she intended to help against what was coming. After all this was a dangerous area and she had been the reason they came. Still, she needed to know for certain that they were ready to fight as Platinum Adventuerers. After all, the party needed to defeat Mortina, a powerful enemy even stronger that Persephine herself. And so she instructed that the party lead the way.
As they traveled even deeper, the group heard an otherworldly cry. Even through all their adventures, nothing like this sound. The source of the sound made themselves known. And their shapes were just as alien as the screams. The best Jyona could figure was that these were Aberrations. Creatures that were beyond their understanding.
Not wanting to know what such a creature was capable of, Obrom cast a spell of binding on one of them. But even though he managed to snare it in place, the monster returned his action for an attack of its own. Almost like a living void, it pulled Obrom towards it.
Wrap Up
The party is now facing more horrifying monsters beyond their comprehension. And the only pattern they can find is that there is not a pattern to these encounters.