Centrum Glacies Session 155: Nine Days Part 2
Week 155 of the Dungeons and Dragons Campaign in Centrum Glacies continues as the party finally take a chance to relax over the course of 9 days. This part two if their mini vacation.
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!!!
Jyona tried to infiltrate the brothel. She had a well thought out plan that involved shapeshifting into a soldier. Unfortunately, besides the Madame, there was something Jyona never could have planned for. There was another Rakshasa guarding the entrance and it read her mind forcing the Half-Elf to admit her real reason for coming here.
The Madame explained that unless she was on official Guild Business, even a Platinum Adventurer could not simply come in here to interrogate her customers. It would look bad for business among other things given what happened in this place. Frustrated, Jyona left the brothel ready to hatch another plan to sneak in.
The next day, Trent went to speak to Wurthu. He wanted to know if there were any strange happenings going on. The Orc sighed admitting that there were strange things happening every day in Zrin. Trent didn’t have anything specific enough and so turned their talk to the guild. Wurthu admitted that he was not allowed to watch the happenings in the Guild Hall.
Wurthu did have something to tell the Druid though. He informed Trent that Jyona went to poke around the brothel in the Lower City. Which was something that both found way out of character for her.
Answers
Worried about what might have made her do something like that, Trent decided to go find the half-elf. Perhaps there was something he didn’t know about Jyona. Or perhaps something was bothering her. The only way to know for sure was to find her and ask directly.
He meet up with Jyona in the guild hall. She wasn’t surprised that he was worried about her. She wasn’t even shocked that he had found out about her adventure the night before. What did upset him was what she told him.
The artificer informed him about the shake downs at the Demon Orphanage. Knowing that there were even more corrupt guards in Zrin exploiting horrible situations for personal gain enraged the Druid. The two decided to team up and infiltrate the brothel again. Trent was ready to knock some serious sense into some of the soldiers in this city.
But before the two could do anything, Violet spoke some sense into them. She pointed out that there was a good chance that this brothel was much more dangerous than they thought. After all, why did such a place have such extreme security measures? Most likely the Vampires that hid in this city were lurking there. It would be best not to antagonize them. Especially right before the wedding.
A New Plan
Jyona decided to scry the guard captain. Maybe he wasn’t at the brothel. If he was elsewhere, then it would be easier as a Platinum Adventurer to confront him. Unfortunately, he was absolutely in the brothel. And Jyona’s mental eyes saw things that such an innocent and pure soul had no business seeing.
An extremely flustered half elf tried her best to try and explain what she saw. Not wanting to go into the brothel anymore, she convinced Trent that their best course of action would be to stake out the place and wait for the Guard Captain to emerge. Trent transformed into a small bird, eager to start.
Outside of Teztcal’s lair, the two Dragons had finished with their morbid display. And they wanted to add more to it. And so they decided that they would fly out into the jungle to find more bandits to kill. Before they went anywhere, the pair sensed telepathic intrusion. Which the two easily blocked with their rings of mind shielding.
Frustrated, the Sphinx which had been the one that had been trying to reach them, appeared in person outside the cave. It had something important to tell the pair. Turned out that the Sphinx had been the one that had summoned the bandits to the cave. It was watching Teztcal now that he was its new master and had created the situation so that the two Dragons could blow off steam.
Into the Barracks
Back in Zrin, Trent and Jyona spent much of the day watching the brothel entrance from up high as to avoid arousing suspicion. Their patience was eventually rewarded. Looking disheveled, but recognizable, Rulf the Guard Captain emerged from the den of sin. And the two prepared to follow him.
But he was flanked by several soldiers. And the two didn’t want to have an open confrontation in the middle of Zrin. So Jyona cast invisibility on herself and Trent. They followed the soldiers away from the brothel. And then were forced to enter a place even more dangerous for them to be in than that place: The Guard Barracks.
They successfully sneaked in. Turned out the barracks was less defended than the brothel. Even then, the two were sneaking around trained soldiers. There are a few close calls as the two snuck around the mess hall and avoided not only soldiers, but several barmaids that also seemed to be exotic dancers.
Eventually Rulf left the room and Jyona, who had been hiding in one of the halls quickly moved to the wall to let him go by. He went to talk to head guard captain. Jyona got as close as she could, realizing that there was a scrying eye in the room. Her name was Amelia and she scolded him for shaking down the orphanage.
Last Ditch Effort
Jyona and Trent who had crept over to listen as well, were glad that not all the soldiers in Zrin were corrupt. Unfortunately, Rulf was unscrupulous too. He denied her accusations declaring that she has no proof of any of these crimes. She mentioned that the Orcs passed these accusations onto him. Rulf showed he was racist too, but asking if the Orc’s opinions even meant anything.
Feeling like he had scored some sort of victory against his boss, he moved to leave. Unfortunately, Jyona was still in the hall. And this time, he bumped right into her as she tried to move out of the way. As he started screaming that there was something invisible right by him the half-elf sprang into action. She grappled him and used her Blink Dagger to drag him away.
His screams put the guards on high alert. If Trent had not been a small bird, he wouldn’t have been able to sneak out of the barracks. But he made it out without any issue.
Jyona however, was not a small bird. And now that she had acted, was no longer invisible either. In fact, the screaming Rulf was attracting the attention of many more soldiers who had stopped their patrols and were coming to investigate. Not knowing what else to do, Jyona shifted into her Demon Form and teleported them both into the Ethereal Plane. This was the only place she could think of that wouldn’t kill them both.
Unfortunately, she had miscalculated that little tidbit. Creatures of the Ethereal Plane did not like intruders. And the monster that attacked them as the two plus Midnight appeared happened to be a Dragon. The only positive to this situation was that Midnight appeared in the Ethereal Plane in her original form.
Farmers
Back at Teztcal’s cave lair, the Sphinx summoned several more people for the two Dragons to slaughter. It told the two as several unarmed farmers appeared, that they did not need to feel bad about killing them. These people were all criminals form the past who were going to die n the next few moments, regardless of how it happened. These unarmed combatants quickly fell to Dragon ice, and claws.
Teztcal in his infinite wisdom believed that farmers were now trying to attack his land. All despite the Sphinx explaining where these enemies had come from. He had flown over a farm as the two had traveled from Zrin. And not knowing where other farmers might be, he decided that the ones living here had sent assassins to his cave. The Sphinx didn’t even have time to correct him as the two left to confront the obviously innocent people who lived on that farm.
As they approach the farm, the farmers, who the rest of the party had helped with the Redcap problem before the Feywild had been destroyed, showed no fear. But they still prepared for trouble. Any rational person would do so in this situation.
The two dragons landed in the middle of the field. And the farmer couple, who had clearly dealt with Dragons before, asked “What two great Dragons, especially a White and Gold, needed from them.” It was an odd pairing after all.
Teztcal threw one of the prisoner corpses at them and asked why they had tried to attack his lair. Obviously they had not, but these were Dragons and so Karina tried her best to deescalate the situation carefully. Bruce whispered to her that he has counter measures ready if the dragons misbehave.
Teztcal demanded some berries as tribute. It was the first thing he saw and thus the first thing he wanted. The farmers saw no issue with this and let him take them. As soon as the two Dragons were far out of earshot or view, Bruce and Karina snickered since Teztcal had taken unripe berries.
More Decorating
The Dragons content with what they had done, returned to their lair. Teztcal decided to smear the berries across the lair entrance to make it look like the soldiers hanging outside the entrance had been beaten bloody. Another move to keep people away. Kisara then froze the “bloodstains” to keep them permanently. A perfect display in this corner of the Jungle of Giants.
They reentered the lair to speak with the Sphinx. Once they had its attention, Teztcal claimed the blood and corpses will keep others away. Kisara was more intelligent in her Human form so she brought up the Hydra. Teztcal decided to tell the Sphinx about his intentions to have one guard the lair.
The Sphinx immediately asked how the Dragons intended to control something as dangerous and normally not tamable like a Hydra. Teztcal claimed that “That Man” will help. When the Sphinx asked who “That Man” was, Teztcal didn’t know his name and admitted that he was just “That man.”
Teztcal didn’t answer the question. Instead he went on to give the Sphinx the order to guard his treasure. He entered deeper into the lair and dumped a majority of his gold into it. Pleased with himself, The Dragon was willing to ask others how they were feeling.
The Sphinx only wanted one thing: The answer to its earlier question. It did not want a Hydra to run around the lair and pose a danger to everyone. Once again Teztcal answered “That Human”
The sphinx demanded to see this Human since Teztcal couldn’t describe him at all. Once again, Kisara bailed him out. She realized that all it would take to get “That Human” over to the cave would be to go to the wedding and ask him afterwards.
Wrap Up
Two days have gone by with each member of the group spending it differently. Some are in mortal danger while others are causing danger. But what might they find themselves doing with seven more days before the wedding?