Centrum Glacies Session 121: Freeing the Witches
Week 120 of the Dungeons and Dragons Campaign in Centrum Glacies continues as the party tries to escape from an Orc Prison. But not before they free the Witches that got them into this situation.
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!!!
Trent and Jarar started bantering back and forth about being high and mighty. They both had clear issues with the others as well as the cultures that had shaped their respective views. The druid’s racism was obvious. But Jarrar also suffered from the same biases in reverse.
The Drow asked how Obrom got stuck with this group. The Bard had never met Jarrar before and this interested the Wizard. His interest didn’t last though. Jarrar wasn’t impressed with Obrom’s answer and concluded that it indeed makes sense the Bard is friends with the rest.
Eventually the party came across more sentries. Unlike several other areas, these ones were not in an out of the way room. Forced to fight, the group trusted that Jarrar would not try and harm them in the thick of battle.
More tension rose between Trent and Jarar as their clash continued. But it was the Druid who was responsible. His elemental spirit misfired and rather than damage their mutual enemy, the spell flew straight towards the Drow.
Jyona grew more and more tired of the infighting. And she struggled to figure out how to voice how she felt about this situation. On one hand, she understood why the two were enemies. But she saw it as illogical for them to try and settle bad blood here.
Marq
Beyond the statues, they came across another prison. And this time it wasn’t a current or former enemy inside. Instead, Marq, the young man they had met on a farm some time ago was inside. They remembered that he had wanted to become a Wizard. Trent was extra confused by this situation.
And so, he asked Marq how he had ended up there. He answered that he had been locked up because of his companions. After letting him out, the young man showed them his cell where his former “allies” had also been locked up.
All that remained of his potential teachers were piles of bones. All their flesh had rotted away. They had promised to teach the child magic. It was clear that they had been or still were Necromancers. The party didn’t discuss with Marq what implications that might have had for him.
After adding Marq to their ever growing group of party and dangerous criminals, they reached another prison cell. This one had several Demons and smaller but just as dangerous number of statues.
Dealing with Demons
Marq admitted that he had not learned anything from his teachers. He wanted to stay back, worried that he wouldn’t be anything more than a liability in battle.
Trent told him to stay back with Dalan. Naturally, Marq was apprehensive about staying near the Demon.The party had learned by now that citizens of the Abyssal Continent feared Demons. Obrom claimed that she was harmless. Unfortunately, Trent did not agree. The Druid immediately corrected him saying “Her kind” are not harmless.
Jyona once again sighed. She wanted to move past all these pointless prejudices. Obviously the conflict involving Demons was far more complex than simple good and evil. And that wasn’t just because the party was mostly Demons themselves.
The Demons spoke to the party as they entered the room before the cell. They called themselves Orthons and seemed seem more than a bit annoyed that the party had come here. The statues activated at their presence. But the group managed to convince the Demons to leave them alone so long as the party didn’t antagonize them.
Finding the Witches
Moving past the Demons, the party found one final jail cell. By process of elimination, they already knew who would be sitting there. And Persephine and Engelique didn’t seem too surprised that the group had already escaped. Just an offhanded comment asking how they had gotten there.
Trent bargained with the two. He tried to cut a deal with the two Witches before he let them out of their cell. But they didn’t buy it. Persephine pointed out that she was more than capable of getting out of here on her own but preferred his help. Seeing that he couldn’t squeeze anything out of them, he asked Violet to open their door.
As an even larger group, they moved past the Demons still clashing with the statues. And the group didn’t move to interfere with that fight. As they approached the exit, Persephine and Dalan both noted that the door was open. The Mythril Adventurer notably thought this was a problem. Especially after the party told her it had been closed before.
Dalan’s Horrifying Tale
Before they went past the door, Dalan, as promised told the party the dark truth of why she was in the cell. From a young age, she had been forced into sex work and made a slave. A few weeks prior, she had been gang raped while a few of the people assaulting her burned her skin with fire.
The party knew where this story was going, but they let her continue. She had transformed into a Succubus in the middle of this horrible situation and accidentally drained their bodies dry. Though she didn’t even know what she had done. Of course at the time, completely distraught given everything, she hadn’t even tried to resist arrest when an army of Orcs had appeared to take her to prison.
Persephine wasn’t convinced that this was the full story. She felt like Dalan was leaving out important details. Oddly enough Engelique took the Succubus’ side and stood with the opposite opinion of her best friend. Instead of arguing about it though, the two Witches brought up how using a frozen flame would serve well as a method to find out who was right.
The Demon didn’t understand what they were discussing, but Persephine, who didn’t miss the chance to be cruel, informed Dalan that what she described would be an excruciating ordeal that she was likely to not survive. Of the party, only Trent had been awake to experience that reverse transformation back to Human.
Teztcal’s Noisy Entrance
At the same time, Teztcal arrived at Zerruz with the intent to follow Wurthu’s request. But he did things in his own way. In this case, by screaming “HELLO!!???”
Naturally, the Orcs more than familiar with the deranged Dragon by now. So several of the soldiers approached him asking what he wanted this time. He stated he has a message for whoever is in charge. The orcs directed him to the inn. It was clear that they didn’t want to deal with him.
Yotul quickly came to investigate why Teztcal had appeared with a bunch of noise in her inn. She was even more surprised that he had a message for her. Once she read it, she first showed shock, and then sighed. “Come with me,” she instructed the Dragon.
Meetings
She lead him down a hidden staircase in the inn to a room where he saw several more people. Mostly individuals that Trent and Jyona would have recognized. But Teztcal did not. Those people included three Orcs: Urubark, Borba, and one Dwarf: Siobhan, a companion of the party at the very start of the adventure.
Once Teztcal had gotten his bearings, he turned to Yotul, waiting for her to say anything. Yotul explained that she expected the rest of his party and several more figures with them to arrive at any moment. Before Teztcal could ask how she knew this, the Orc stated that she had just opened the exit door from the prison.
Teztcal remained quiet which put Yotul off. She asked him if something was wrong. Teztcal said nothing was wrong. However, there was a reason he remained quiet. The Dragon was focused on listening in on a conversation between the Dwarf lady and one of the Orcs. Especially since the conversation was about Jyona, Trent, and Jarrar. That last one seemed to shock the Dwarf and it was clear that she hated the Drow.
Teztcal tried his best not to give away that he was listening. But failed miserably as the two turned his way to signal that they would not let him listen in further.
Execution
Right on time, the rest of the party showed up at the other end of the hallway. A see through door made of an unknown material separated them from where Teztcal stood. And countless armed guards stood all over the room.
Yotul told the party to stay back while she opened the door. They obliged and they learned quickly why she had told them to stand back. The Orc ended up catching the Doppelganger who had thought they could escape from this place while invisible.
Yotel nodded to Borba who she called daughter. The Platinum Ranked Orc fired a single shot from the very weapon she had threatened the party with in the past. She brutally executed the Doppelganger on the spot. An important display of the Orcs power that everyone present would not soon forget.
Dangerous Escapee
For a second time, Yotul stated she was opening the doors. And once more she asked the party to stay back. This time, it was Faxina who had been lurking invisible. She looked around the room, noticing her invisibility had been removed. She looked like she was trying to cast some sort of spell, but whatever she attempted failed. Instead she moved to flee the room.
And the Orcs let her pass. A few of the soldiers offered words of disgust as she left, but Yotel said something about letting the “Tribeswoman go”.
Finally on the third opening of the door, the party was allowed to leave. Kisara ran to Teztcal who looked releaved. He asked her a question and she had an answer. “Did the human do anything to you?”
“The human insulted me and tried to kill me!” She answered.
“I see. I know someone who isn’t invited to the lair.” He added. Obrom looked their way for a moment, but only for that moment.
Debriefing
Yotul ignored the Dragons and approached the rest of them. She debriefed them and let them know that Wurthu had used the Platinum Adventurers to lure the Doppelganger out of her cell so they could kill it.
On the other hand, she stated that letting Faxina out was a serious and potentially fatal mistake. Now that she was free, they couldn’t really do much to bring her back here. The Orc then glared their way and told them in a hushed tone that they needed to do everything in their power not to antagonize her. This made it clear that Faxina was even more dangerous than they had assumed.
The Orc noticed that the two witches had not followed them out of the prison. The party didn’t know why they hadn’t followed. It seemed like a silly choice to make.
Jyona meanwhile couldn’t contain herself any longer. She needed to satisfy her curiosity about the Orc weapons. So the Half Elf reached out, but pulled her hand back. She repeated this a few times, at war with herself.
The Orcs noticed this behavior. The one whose weapon she had been reaching for pointed it right at her face and commanded that she stop at once. Or else…
Not wanting to start a fight with them, the party quickly left this place and proceeded back to the inn. Teztcal and Kisara followed them.
Wrap Up
At long last the party has escaped from the Orc’s prison. But their adventure released several dangerous criminals. How will their actions affect their goals down the road?