Centrum Glacies Session 118: Jailbreak
Week 118 of the Dungeons and Dragons Campaign in Centrum Glacies continues as the party escapes from the mines only to be captured and trigger a jailbreak.
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!!!
Through attrition and perseverance, the party eventually destroyed the rock monster. But they were tired and out of resources. And with seemingly no easy way out, the group deliberated how to escape this deep mine. Teztcal suggested that he and Kisara could fly them out. And the two loaded the party sans Obrom onto their backs to do just that.
But before the Dragons could implement their plan, The Orcs finally showed up. They appeared out of nowhere and revealed they had been present and invisible all along. They had more of those dangerous unnamed weapons pointed at the party and demanded to know why the group was trespassing here.
Trent and Jyona tried to use different arguments and explanations to excuse their trespass. But even before the Orcs responded, they knew their arguments fell on deaf ears. The orcs activated yet another mysterious device. This time it released some sort of soundwave knocked everyone out. Everyone except Teztcal that was.
Somehow the Dragon resisted the effects of the sound weapon. But that was also a problem for him. As Teztcal did what Teztcal did best. He ran his mouth and dug himself into a figurative and literal hole. He tempted fate by declaring that he would not be taken by the Orcs.
The Orcs were happy to oblige his request. They teleported everyone but the idiot dragon away. He was trapped all alone in a cave filled with dangerous material. And there was no clear way out.
Captured and Split
The party was split once again. When they awoke, they felt refreshed and rested. There was just one problem. They were trapped in a jail cell. And the door was made of a material that none of them recognized. More Orc technology no doubt.
Kisara accused Obrom of doing something to her “father”. Naturally he had nothing to do with the current situation and was just as dumbfounded by her accusation. The Bard failed to diffuse her, but Trent found another way to break the tension. Not sure what else to do and feeling frustrated, he vented some anger by throwing his spear at the door.
It disintegrated on touch and he had no more to spare. But his actions had been far from useless. Violet had been watching what happened and she had come to an interesting conclusion. The magic that had destroyed the spear was similar to a magic she had used before. The door would vaporize anyone or anything that was from this world. But Violet and Midnight were alien to this planet and the barrier would have no effect on them.
To prove her theory she floated over to the door. Jyona was worried about her safety, but Violet was confident in how the barrier worked. She effortlessly and safely floated through the barrier. But turned around almost immediately because she heard people coming.
A Meeting with Friends
Some familiar faces came to the door and asked the party to come to the barrier so they could talk properly and face to face.
Yotul the Orc Matron of the Zerruz Inn was the visitor and she had brought her son Urubark who had joined the Adventurers Guild in the same tests as Trent and Jyona in a time seemingly long ago. Yotul did the talking and explained the situation they were in. They had really fucked up by being in that mine. But her next words changed the entire conversation. She hinted that if they should escape, nothing bad would happen to them. This weird sign of good faith was the last she shared before the two left.
Jyona naturally needed it spelled out for her. She hadn’t noticed the Orc’s words or their meaning and just took it at face value. And she above the rest feared the Orcs. She also pointed out that despite them all being captured, the Orcs had not taken their weapons or armor.
Jailbreak
Violet and Midnight flew through the door again and opened it from the other side for the party. The rest didn’t see an issue with leaving the cell and Jyona reluctantly followed. She didn’t want to be left behind. Especially when they didn’t know where they were.
Still, even though the party had left their cell, they were cautious about what they might find here. The Orc Matron had pointed out that other escaped prisoners roamed the halls. And the group knew from past experiences that dangerous criminals likely had been locked up in a place like this. The chance of those people being hostile was quite high.
Obrom and Trent asked Jyona about her Golem’s decision making. It grabbed her away from another door when she got curious. And this wasn’t the first or second time that it had acted against what she wished. Jyona revealed she was frustrated that it kept acting of its own accord. And worse, she had no idea why.
The only conclusion she could come to was that she needed to take it apart and put it back together to fix whatever was going on. Jyona asked Kisara if she would like to join her in the rebuild once they escaped this place. and the Dragon’s eyes widened in glee.
Signs of Conflict
As they went on through the halls, the artificer pointed out that since the Orcs stated they had also caught the two Witches, they might have separated their artifacts from them. Even though they had left the party’s gear alone, that did not mean they had done the same for those two. The two Laws of Magic were significantly more dangerous than anything the group carried on them.
Eventually the party reached an open room with several sentry statues similar to the ones in the Mine they had just been arrested in. This room had other occupants too. Hounds that smelled heavily of fire and a Demonic looking woman with bat wings. At first the group feared that it was Faxina. But it wasn’t her after all.
Everyone but Jyona was taking the attack first, ask questions later approach. She voiced her discontent multiple times as they continued attacking. That included when the Demon cried out in alarm and asked why they were attacking her. This ultimately forced Jyona into the fight. She wanted to at protect the Demon remembering that all of them had once been Human at some point.
Differences in Threat
The hellhounds might have been something else at some point too. But at this point they appeared to be mindless in their aggression. It was a matter of self defense as far as killing the creatures. And said monsters had no issue attacking the Demon Girl or the statues.
Jyona got the idea to try and deactivate the sentries to keep from damaging the Orc’s property further. She quickly searched a the machine and found a console. There were four buttons: Red, Blue, Green and Black. She didn’t know what they did and feared that the only way to find out was to pick one and press it. And so she selected the Black button. The statue seemed to be spinning slower and its reaction time seemed to be reduced as well.
Digging Himself Out
Meanwhile Teztcal was still trapped in the mineshaft. He didn’t let that stop him from escaping though. He continued digging aggressively to get out and even dared to use his breath attack to try clearing a path faster. Physics decided that this would cause a cave in. But Teztcal was quite adept at dodging falling rocks at this point and made use of the now large hole to try escaping.
Wrap Up
Once again the party is split. And its clear that as usual they are caught up in events much bigger than them. What will happen when they reunite this time?