Centrum Glacies Session 85: Escape Plan
Week 85 Dungeons and Dragons Campaign in Centrum Glacies continues with the party trapped in a dangerous jungle. The party finally has an escape plan to get out of there.
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, 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!!!
After taking a long rest Trent and the druids began their ritual. It was clear to all that such Magic would attract the Lich and basically all the Undead in the Jungle. But this was their only escape plan so they all committed to their roles.
The Druids had to concentrate completely on the ritual. This left them completely defenseless. They had to ignore all else while casting the spell that would destroy the Lich. Everyone else would need to defend them.
The rest of the party set up around the inside of the barrier to pick off Undead. And the moment the Druids started their ritual, monsters started to swarm the barrier, trying to break it down and reach everyone inside.
Defending the Ritual
Unfortunately, the sheer number of Undead were stressing the barrier to its limit. Cracks formed in the shield. It wouldn’t hold much longer.
The escape plan was threatened by the fact that as the barrier weakened, the Undead were bolstered by more and more. Their numbers swelled as the defenders and Druids had no way to get reinforcements.
Necrotic elementals showed up to assist the Undead. As if the shield cracking due to the prior attacks was not bad enough. But the Elementals announced that the Blight was coming. And the Lich decided to reach out the party and the soldiers alike to try and break their wills.
All these attacks, both physically and mentally, eventually succeeded. The barrier shattered and the Undead swarmed past and into the Druids grove. The Necrotic Elementals moved even faster and started killing the closest soldiers.
The Grove Grows Dark
Darkness flooded into the grove. The barrier had been providing enough light to keep both the Lich’s influence and the toxic spores in the air away. But now both filled the empty space in earnest.
The Light of the Abyss mages summoned cold flames that cast light but not heat. This protected them from the darkness spores. But it also didn’t summon the bloodsucking moths.
The party did not want to be overwhelmed by the Undead coming in on all sides. So they each retreated back towards the middle where the Druid Ritual cast a light. All except Teztcal of course who instead flew in and out of battle doing Dragon things. Also the Enchanted Golem went out into the darkness. The spores had no effect on it allow it to safely cut down Undead.
As the monsters reached the middle and closed in on where the Druids were, the light aura damaged and slowed the monsters. At least the Druids were not completely defenseless. But they couldn’t fight back in any other way.
As the ritual continued, the light spread out beyond the Druids and slowly took back the Druid Grove. This further impeded all the monsters serving the Blight Lich while buying more time for the Druids to complete their work.
But outside the barrier, things were not so good. Not only were Light of the Abyss soldiers who died turning into zombies due to the spores. But those taken out by the wraiths were also turning into Specters. Soon, the enemy had massively increased as only the light in the middle remained a safe zone.
Wrap Up
But things got even worse as the Blight Lich, in a new body joined the fight. The ritual needed to complete quickly or the Lich would kill them all.