Centrum Glacies Session 151: Unpaid Favor
Week 151 of the Dungeons and Dragons Campaign in Centrum Glacies continues as the party adds to their debt with another unpaid favor.
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 their tough fight against the Necromancer and his Bone Devil minions, the party decided to rest. And Teztcal saw an opportunity to deal with a problem. Still convinced that the Bard was a spy working for the Cult of Obsidian, he offered him a “drink”. Due to exhaustion, Obrom accepted while ignoring who was offering.
Teztcal had acquired a poison after killing the shopkeeper in Demon Town and had held onto it for this moment. Said poison ended up being a powerful disintegration agent. And if Obrom had not been a powerful warrior and in his Demon form, this likely would have been his end. Even with his incredible fortitude, the concoction caused him immense pain, nullified any rest for the day, and worst of all, caused heartburn unlike anything he had ever experienced
Trent confronted Teztcal about that action. The Druid threatened to attack him as if he ever did anything like that again. He was convinced now, more than ever that he, not Obrom was the spy. All of this in spite of the fact that Olanna who had no reason to lie, had pointed out that none of them served the Cult of Obsidian.
Jyona, who had been listening to all of this, asked a far more practical question. She asked Teztcal if he had any other “potions” like that he’d like to let the party know about.
“No.” He replied. And despite any evidence to the contrary, her trustworthiness got the better of her. She believed him.
Jak-Rath Appears
Seeing no way forward, and despite Teztcal’s best efforts to break down a barrier, the group was forced to leave the lava caves and return to the Cult of Obsidian Base up above. And a familiar and hated face was waiting for them up above: Jak-Rath. Or at least a projection of him.
Immediately Trent’s hostility bubbled to the surface. He screamed at the projection demanding that Jak-Rath come here himself. Naturally the Dark Elf refused. Instead the mad scientist asked them why they continued to ruin his experiments. They were unaccounted variables that muddled his results.
Trent points out that Jak-Rath was committing crimes against nature and that his actions were of the most evil sort. Something that caused the Dark Elf to sigh. He pointed out that Trent was raised to hate his kind and this his biases were clouding his thoughts. In fact the scientist claimed that good and evil themselves were just constructs that got in the way of objective thinking.
Trent refused to talk philosophy with his hated enemy. And so the mad scientist moved onto another topic. And a question he seemed to want an answer to in earnest. He wanted to know what had caused the party to stay their hand against the Cultists in this base. Why had they refused to kill their enemy?
Wraiths
Trent rebuffed his statement and his earlier claims about taught racism. He pointed out that he didn’t inherently hate Dark Elves that raise their weapons against him. And it was clear when they passed through earlier that those people had been forced to fight against their will.
Jak-Rath sighed again. He didn’t like Trent’s answer clearly. He pointed out once more that their interference had ruined the tests he was running here. But then a wicked thought crossed the scientist’s mind. He had another experiment to try and this time, the party would be part of the test properly. He mentioned something about the bodies being destroyed but that the souls of those Cultists remained. Muttering about how odd the very existence of a soul was, he faded away. And his visage vanished, Obrom’s brand, still capable of detecting nearby Undead glowed bright.
Wraiths attacked the party from several different angles. And given that the group was in confined spaces with walls that the spectral enemies had no issue passing through, they were in a bad situation. Even worse, they were tired from their last battle. Worst of all, one of those Wraiths was holding something that Obrom desired above all else. Due to the magical nature of both the Frozen Flame and the Wraith, the two could interact.
In the party’s frantic desire to obtain it, they threw caution to the wind. But they were ill prepared for this fight. They were horrible outnumbered, exhausted, and the terrain favored their enemies. They paid a heavy price for their arrogance as Jyona and Trent, their best bets of escaping this place both fell in battle and started fading away.
Escape
At this time, a voice that Obrom dreaded spoke in his head. “You made a mistake in coming here. And you will die unless I get you out of there.” Olanna stated. Not sure what other options they had, Obrom agreed to let her save them. He knew that he had just added an unpaid favor to their list. And this one to one of their most dangerous enemies.
Olanna told Obrom to think of a place of safety. And so he chose the nearby desert ruins where several allies waited. Olanna wasted no time in transporting him there, as well as the Teztcal and his other two unconscious companions. The three that were not trapped in their Demon forms shifted back to normal now that they were not near the volcano.
When they arrived, Teztcal accused Obrom of being a spy again. How else had they escaped that place unharmed? Of course the Dragon was also upset because his ego ensured that he saw fleeing from a fight as the most cowardly of acts.
Kisara upon seeing her teacher wounded ran over to Jyona. The Artificer would have been so proud of her student if not for the fact that she was unconscious. Nimdrar, their Dark Elf friend, heard the commotion and came over as well. He stabilized Trent as Kisara did the same for Jyona.
Awakening
The Bard and Dragon kept arguing with each other. Both of course accused the other of being a traitor and a danger to the rest of the party. And of course both ignored the fact that neither of them were affiliated with the Cult of Obsidian.
Areuh asked Obrom what happened, knowing that dragon was an unreliable narrator. Oddly enough, Teztcal interjected and accurately depicted the sequence of events leading up to the state the party was in. he also correctly concluded that Obrom was the reason they were teleported out.
Teztcal moved over to Jyona and grabbed one of her healing potions. He poured it down her throat causing her to wake up with a jolt. She only needed a moment to get her bearings, but remained quiet as she tried to figure out what was going on around her.
Areuh advised the party that they needed to avoid going back into that volcano base for the time being. It was clear that springing Jak-Rath’s trap a second time might result in their deaths. Or worse where that one was concerned.
Once Trent woke up, and looked just as confused as Jyona had when she opened her eyes, they all turned to Obrom for answers. The Bard didn’t want to tell the truth given where they were and so he claimed that an unknown benefactor had helped them.
Naming the Witch
Teztcal didn’t believe anything that Obrom said. And deciding that he wouldn’t be able to get it out of him otherwise, the Dragon cast Charm Person to get more information from the bard. Failing to resist the spell, the bard whispered that it was Olanna helping. Clearly he didn’t want that information to be blurted out, even in his enchanted state.
“Who is Olanna” the Dragon blurted out very loudly. This action was partially why Obrom had tried to reman so quiet. But there was no helping it now. The entire city knew that the Psychic Vampire had helped them now.
Trent tried his best to feign ignorance as the makeshift town was filled with escaped Cultists and others who fear them. And anyone from the Cult of Obsidian knew of Olanna the powerful Witch who was one of their leaders. But glares were the worst he experienced. No one here thought the party was their enemy.
No one save Teztcal of course. He once again proclaimed Obrom was a spy for the cult. His newest argument involved whatever deal he had made with the witch. This among other things ignored the fact that the Bard had made no such deal. That didn’t mean the party wouldn’t owe an unpaid favor later though.
A Talk with Jarrar
Jarrar, hearing this conversation approached the party. His demeanor towards the party wasn’t completely unpleasant like it usually had been. A sure sign that his time away from the Cult of Obsidian had helped soften his personality. In fact, he genuinely asked questions about what they experienced and what Jak’rath was experimenting with. He wasn’t surprised at all that the mad scientist was using Necromancy. Only that Olanna, who was considered the most proficient at it, had allowed him to encroach on her territory.
As the party was preparing to rest, the topic of an older clash between party and himself came up. Trent was still bitter after all this time, knowing that he and Jyona had been framed for a crime that they hadn’t committed that in turn had taken them half way across the world
Jarrar laughed when he heard Trent’s words. And then said something that struck the Druid into silence. “You never asked the Guild what that was about?”
Jarrar told them the truth. It was the prince’s own family who contracted the guild to kill him. The guild in turn used the party as scapegoats. There was more going on here than Jarrar said, but Trent and Jyona decided they would be asking the Guild about what had happened. And soon.
Areuh gave the group, Jarrar included a pep talk. Clearly their stress was high after everything they had been through. The Music Teacher and current voice of reason told them that they accomplished a lot even if it seemed like they failed. He promised that as they turned this place into a proper place for learning, that buildings and not the rundown shacks currently here would dot the landscape.
That night, the group divvied up all the loot they had found in the Cult Volcano. They had found plenty to make use of. And a couple arguments were had over whether Obrom who had run away from the others was entitled to any of it. Jyona schemed to give him some resources when a certain Dragon was not paying attention.
Wrap Up
Without the Frozen Flame, Obrom remains a Demon. And there is a wedding that he needs to attend soon. Will him being a Demon complicate matters?