Centrum Glacies Session 103: Klevor
Week 103 of the Dungeons and Dragons Campaign in Centrum Glacies continues as the main party finally encounters Klevor, Archfey of the Redcaps.
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.
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!!!
The party sans Teztcal defeat the Revenant. Though it managed to run right past everyone and right to Obrom, it failed to kill him or snatch the coin that had caused it to hunt him. As it faded away with an outstretched claw towards the Bard, it declared that “they would return.”
Trent asked Obrom what that thing was. He stated that he had no idea. The Bard had never been attacked by a monster like that before. It clearly was Undead since his brand had glowed in response to it. But he managed to hide the fact that it was the coin that had summoned the creature.
Teztcal wanted to kill him before he summoned even more monsters. But Trent stopped the Dragon. He said that Teztcal would be the first on his list to kill if he tried to do so. Not to mention he still found the Dragon much more suspicious.
Gor-Venal stated that maybe they should try getting along given their situation. They were in the Unseelie Court after all and there would be more hostile Fey finding them soon.
Explaining the Brand
Trent and Teztcal moved ahead, but waited for the other two before proceeding. Obrom instead took Gor-Venal aside to explain his brand to him. It was only fair that he know what was going on with the curse.
The monk immediately asked how he got the brand. So Obrom told him the full truth. He had been a wandering Bard who had run into the Cult of Obsidian, specifically Jak-Rath their cruel scientist who had put the curse on him for some twisted experiment.
Gor-Venal was a Platinum Adventurer who had spent some time on the Abyssal Continent. And so he was not surprised in the slightest that the Dark Elf Scientist was involved. He even remarked that the line of people who had a bone to pick with Jak-Rath was so long that Obrom had better get in line fast before the monster was dealt with.
Dangers of Removal
The bard then told him about the Archfey Violet and her attempt to remove the brand. It had caused her immense pain to even try to make it fade. He took it further and showed to Gor-Venal how dangerous the curse was. Obrom explained how even Queen Titania feared what would have happened if it had been removed.
Obrom had additional concerns about removing the curse. The Queen had indicated that the curse was holding back something even worse. But the Bard didn’t know certain secrets that the rest of the party did, such as the fact that Gor-Venal was hiding his own Demon powers. And so he didn’t tell the Monk about the connection.
After filling Gor-Venal in, the two followed the rest of the party. And after they took a moment to catch their breath, they proceeded deeper into the Unseelie part of the Feywild.
To the Fields of Fall
Their journey took them to the Fields of Fall. A narrow pathway took them across a valley with falling leaves. And none of them could see the bottom of the ravine. Gor-Venal appreciated the view. He took some time to quietly contemplate and recover. This was probably one of their last chances to rest.
Teztcal walked over to Obrom and toyed with the idea of pushing him into the pit of falling leaves. But as he carefully looked down and didn’t see the bottom, he struck the idea from his mind. While the Bard annoyed him, it wasn’t to the point of committing murder.
The party cautiously moved forward along the path. They had painful memories of what had happened the last time they had walked down a road with abandon. Yet this time there was no trap or alternative path they were forced down.
Trent took some time to appreciate the foliage. He enjoyed the spectacle of a valley filled with nature running a natural course. Even if the presentation of it was completely alien to him.
Gor-Venal snapped to attention and halted the party. He warned them that they were being watched. This of course didn’t surprise the party. His next words did though: “He’s coming! Look out!”
Klevor Attacks
Teztcal was in the front and quickly dodged back as a large blade swung where his neck had been moments earlier. The one who swung that weapon was a large Redcap looking Fae. Even before he introduced himself, the party knew who it was. Klevor was finally confronting them directly.
In a voice that sang of cruelty, he proclaimed to have been looking forward to meeting them all. After all, they had slighted against him by attacking his soldiers.
Teztcal ignored the dangerous implications and made a bold declaration of his own: “So you’ve heard of me!”
Klevor smirked and made a declaration of his own. “Ah Yes. The Great God Dragon that isn’t.”
Those words infuriated Teztcal. Without even thinking he went with his biggest attack and tried Dragon breath against the Archfey. Klevor ignored the attack. Like Midnight he was far too powerful for them to harm directly.
Klevor properly introduced himself. Once more he told them he was upset at the party’s actions. Specifically he was the one who was most harmed by their attack on the Redcaps. He was their leader after all.
Insults and Violence
Teztcal asked what a Redcap is. Klevor was taken aback by the dragon’s stupidity. He was speaking to the Archfey of that species after all. The Dragon ignored Klevor’s insults as he went on to ask him if he was missing a hat.
Klevor had kept a mask of serenity when he had first appeared. But with this flurry of insults he gritted his teeth and clenched his fists. “Oh, it’s an angry hat!” Teztcal proclaimed. Very unwise as Klevor decided to choose violence.
The Archfey pulled them all into his pocket dimension. Isolated and with no chance of escape, Klevor called upon several Redcaps lurking in this small plane to kill them all.
Trent saw the enemy numbers and decided it would be best to split them up. He cast a spike growth between the party and a large number of the Redcaps. The Druid didn’t bother to try and catch Klevor himself in that spell since he understood already it would have been futile.
Obrom meanwhile realized that they were in another extremely dangerous situation. It was time to try out his boon for the first time. And he learned almost immediately that he had not worded his request with care. He did see five seconds into the future constantly. But not just for himself. And the information his brain was trying to process was overwhelming.
Klevor smiled at the spike growth. Trent noticed and grew worried. The Archfey raised his hand which triggered some sort of spell. The entire area turned blood red while he began to glow the a sickly blood red color.
Bloodlust
Teztcal and Gor-Venal focused on the redcaps outside of the spike growth. But they were in for a rude awakening as far as how the Redcaps interacted with the spell
The redcaps within the spikes purposefully walked through them and become bloodied. And as they did, it became clear what Klevor had done. They did not slow down or even seem bothered by the spikes impaling them and drawing blood. In fact they seemed to revel in it as the blood caused them to enrage and run much faster.
The bloodied Redcaps charged all the way through the spikes. One of them sped towards Teztcal and kicked him with its metal boot. The strike was powerful enough to knock Teztcal prone. It then proceeded to swing at the disadvantaged dragon several times.
Another charged at Trent but failed to knock him down. The battle was violent and bloody. In fact Obrom noticed that they were all starting to get wounds and were covered in blood. Most of it not their own.
So Obrom cast a spell of healing. The wounds closed up instantly and he had all the confirmation he needed that he had averted a disaster given how their enemies reacted to blood. Klevor was annoyed. The healing prevented a more drawn out battle and as an Archfey of bloodshed it was what he desired above all else.
Secret Talks
After they cleared out all the Redcaps, Klevor was not angry. In fact he congratulated on their victory. That was before he cast a spell and made everything go dark. Had he killed them after all?
But he didn’t kill them. Instead he spoke to the party while Queen Mab wasn’t watching them since she thought they are all dead. In that moment of stealth, Klevor went on to request that the party kill Queen Mab. His Queen.
He had an explanation for why. He told the party that Jyona had a similar mission tasked by Queen Mab to kill Queen Titania. Making everything more complicated, Klevor revealed that he and Puck were scheming together. They had a wager between which group would kill a Queen first.
Escaped
Klevor vanished and returned the party to where they had been before they were transported into his pocket dimension. They needed to be out of there before Queen Mab returned her gaze to them and saw that she was being deceived by one of the others of her court.
The party believed that Jyona was being put up to killing Queen Titania over something. The fact that it mirrored their own situation was frightening but they knew who the manipulators were at least.
But before they could talk about it at length, Gor-Venal stops them. Queen Mab was likely watching them and it didn’t seem wise to talk about their plans and everything they knew right in front of her.
Wrap Up
The party continued onward taking in the beauty of the Valley of Fall. They were certain things were to grow much uglier soon.