Centrum Glacies Session 105: The Path of Winter
Week 104 of the Dungeons and Dragons Campaign in Centrum Glacies continues as the party fights their way through the Unseelie Court to reach the Path of Winter.
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!!!
Within the Valley of Fall, the party clashed with several bug like Dark Elves. The creatures served Archfey Midnight. And they seemed to be trying to take down Gor-Venal specifically. Though the group didn’t know why.
After defeating this group of enemies, Midnight’s magic took them to another section of the Valley of Fall where even more enemies waited for them. And not just those insectoid Elves. This time the Centipede monsters were present.
The two monster groups were a lot more dangerous together than separate and they had a specific target in mind. The same one as before. Gor-Venal found himself under attack from all sides. And while he was a powerful combatant, even he couldn’t take all those hits in stride.
Eventually the damage was too great even for him. He fell to the ground and his eyes shut. And before he completely collapsed, he faded away. He had been Midnight’s target all along. In fact once the Monk was gone, the rest of the monsters left too. The way out of here was clear and the party encountered no more resistance.
A Time for Rest
But while there were no enemies, a different sort of monster was about to threaten the group sans Obrom: Exhaustion. Night was ending soon. Another day was coming and none of the group had rested.
There was only one way they could continue their way forward without being weaker. And that was to set up camp and force sleep via the potions Trent had bought back at the Elven Village. And so they set up a place to rest. The group hoped that Midnight would leave them alone long enough for them to recover.
As they settled down for some rest, they chatted about what they had seen in this place. Specifically Obrom asked the other two why Gor-Venal was here. Teztcal shrugs and said something about the Monk coming to the “Fee Wild” for a hat. Trent recalled that the Monk had come here after the Redcap incident on that farm.
And as they talked more, Trent thought of something awful. Midnight had attacked them in their dreams, but she hadn’t come after them to the same level of ferocity that she had the Monk. What did she intend to do to him?
A Meeting with Midnight
Obrom fell asleep normally without a potion. But that turned into a problem when he was transported once more to Midnight’s realm. The Archfey expressed surpise that he would willingly risk returning to her realm. But she made it clear that she had no intention of hurting him more.
He immediately went into a rant about Teztcal, calling the Dragon an idiot. He apologized for his outburst as Midnight gave him the stink eye. Those words had just bubbled to the surface. He had needed to “get that off his chest”
The Archfey had no interest in hearing about his complaints. So she threw the Bard out of her realm. Sending him into proper rest, he and the others recovered in relative peace despite being in the middle of the Unseelie Court.
The Path of Winter
The next day, the party reached the Path of Winter. Unlike every other area of the Feywild thus far, this place seemed almost empty of life. Snow fell and covered everything off the path and after their past experiences, they did not walk into the snow.
Unfortunately, there were plenty of things approaching them from that same snow. Trent heard howling from every direction around them. And whatever was making those noises was coming closer to them.
Teztcal decided to sit near the edge of the path and make a snowball or three. He remained completely oblivious to the threat gathering all around.
Obrom and Trent were not though. They heard footsteps in the snow and prepared for battle. They really did need to fight for every step in the Unseelie Court.
Teztcal eventually snapped out of it. Unfortunately not before he and the rest of the party were hit with several frost breath attacks from a large number of Winter Wolves. The Dragon called them all stupid dogs before joining the fight.
Cold Transformation
All the cold damage caused an item Jyona gave Trent a very long time ago to activate. It had been so long that the item had almost been discarded and forgotten. But after so long, this old relic of an even older time when Jyona had not been as experienced in crafting items cause the Druid to transform into a dinosaur.
Teztcal grew excited that dinosaurs kept popping up as the collar activated more than once. To the Dragon, dinosaurs were essentially Dragons themselves and so he thought that new friends kept appearing and vanishing.
The real cause of this dino phenonium was a lot less silly though. Trent kept getting hit with ice breath, putting him within an inch of his life. And then the item activated turning him into a dinosaur. And this happened several times. In fact only with Obrom’s help was he staying up at all. The monsters including a few Displacer Beasts all targeted the weakest and closest fighter which happened to be the Druid.
Dwindling Numbers
Teztcal meanwhile continued to kill the Winter Wolves and even ate a few. The Displacer Beasts though were a bit more illusive vanishing after their attacks. And these hit and run tactics spelled disaster for the party.
Not only were the creatures keeping the party in dire straits, but they were intelligent too. They realized that Obrom kept healing Trent. And they changed tactics. The Bard was a lot squishier than the Druid and he was quickly taken out of the fight. Meaning Trent was also in that same situation soon after.
Things were looking dire. Only Teztcal remained standing. And even with his breath attack he couldn’t repel all the enemies. In fact the cold air made it harder for him to fight than usual. And thus the Dragon was also defeated by the swarms of wolves and displacer beasts.
Wrap Up
The party was defeated in the cold snows of the Unseelie Court. But defeat does not mean death in the land of the Fey. An even worse fate awaits the party.