Centrum Glacies Session 139: Confusion
Week 139 of the Dungeons and Dragons Campaign in Centrum Glacies continues as the party fights a Psychic Vampire that feeds on confusion.
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!!!
As the last Intellect Devourer was slain, the party felt satisfied thinking they had outwitted the Psychic Vampire. But they were wrong. She pointed out that fear is strongest when it strikes at an unexpected moment. Which in turn triggered gas to flood the room. Specifically gas that caused the group horrific revulsion. While it didn’t fear everyone, enough of the group plenty of them seemed sufficient to feed the Psychic Vampire, who withdrew.
The maze that had the party trapped shifted once more. And with a new set of terrain to deal with. At least this time they had not been split up by walls. Yet they had only dealt with one Psychic Vampire. There were three more here not counting Olanna their Queen.
The Second Psychic Vampire
One of those three spoke to the group. She pointed out that her ally was boring and lacked imagination. Feeding on fear was a simple matter. So she sought something far more complex and in her words, hilarious. She claimed that soon the party would be dazed and confused.
With her power, the Psychic Vampire summoned Wraiths. No indication whether they even were Wraiths or some manifestation of the party’s minds. Whatever the case, they didn’t behave like Wraiths. Instead the creatures blasted the party with Confusion Spells. And plenty of them landed, leaving more than half the group in a daze.
Those who were hit by the Confusion spell were also rewarded with the Psychic Vampire cackling in their heads. Only adding to the madness spreading by those Wraiths. Those of the group who could function tried their best to chase after the monsters. Made more difficult by the dungeon changing shape and allowing the monsters to use the walls as escape routes.
Yet one of the group was completely unaffected by the Confusion spells. Jyona, thanks to innate Magic immunity due to her Demon Form was able to completely ignore these monsters as well as the Psychic Vampire commanding them. But these Wraiths were more intelligent than normal Undead. They moved away from her and targeted the others.
The dungeon shifted again, only making this clash more annoying. Not really deadly as the Psychic Vampire seemed content to let the group flail about. They were in no danger save for if their addled minds shifted to anger and tricked them to attack each other.
Still, this was just a drawn out game of cruelty. Eventually the party defeated the Wraiths. And like the first, this second Psychic Vampire was satisfied enough to withdraw. Funny enough, she even let the party get a glimpse of her before she disappeared.
The Third Psychic Vampire
Before the dungeon shifted again, the third Psychic Vampire appeared. This one introduced himself as Pelleas. He mentioned that the others only wanted to feed on negative emotions. He found this boring and even more unimaginative. In contrast, he wanted to feed on excitement. Instead of summoning illusions, he called forth a floating greatsword. He intended to fight the party himself.
Unfortunately, this enemy wasn’t just a Psychic Vampire. He was a Paladin too. Problematic since three of the five members of the party were in their Demon Forms. Creatures that Paladin Orders existed to destroy. The Psychic Vampire targeted Jyona first. And her form was not immune to his holy powers.
Still it was one of him against five powerful combatants. As they were no longer afraid or confused, the number advantage was not in his favor. But that didn’t seem to be what he wanted anyway. In fact, upon being defeated once, he declared that he was having way too much fun for this to end. Using the strange power of this place, he simply reverted back to how he had been at the start of the fight for a second round of combat.
This time, the party was far weaker than before. And he managed to beat Jyona down to an inch of her life. And left Kisara dangerously close to that as well. But he didn’t want to spread any anger. Pelleas seemed to know that putting the young Dragon in a near death state would anger Teztcal.
After a second round of battle. And several more transformations in the terrain that the party fought him in, the Psychic Vampire smiled. He was satisfied with this battle. Pelleas had gathered plenty of energy from the fight. His part in this was done. And so he vanished just like the other two before him.
The Fourth Psychic Vampire
The terrain shifted again. And the last of the four Psychic Vampires reached out to the party. Unlike the others, she had no intention of telling them what she had in store. The element of surprise suited her just fine and soon enough things grew dangerous.
The maze had been hazy before. But in that moment a deep fog almost thick enough to obstruct vision covered everything. But what was worse was what appeared in the fog. Olanna had claimed that she had prepared this battlefield to frighten them when they had first arrived. And yet the creature they had feared might come for them was now standing among them. Four spirits that had been the minions of Hasheem or perhaps extensions of it drew knives and moved towards the group at superhuman speed.
Trent quickly attacked one of the creatures. His Demon form was capable of hurting the monster. But then again, Olanna had claimed that nothing here was real. Despite that, even as the assassin faded away, a face appeared on the faceless monster: Trent’s. Meanwhile Jyona cast another one into another plane, specifically the ruined Feywild. And while it earned the group a few moments with one less enemy, the creature returned quickly.
The next time that the maze shifted, Jyona was knocked out of a wall and once again near deaths door. Only this time, a dangerous assassin was advancing on her. Meanwhile, one of the Hasheem spirits did not get harmed by the shifting wall. Instead the space warped around it. And only properly closed once the monster was outside of it.
Wrap Up
Trapped in a maze of illusions and being tormented by cruel creatures, what does it mean that they can summon even manifestations of the one of the deadliest monsters the party has ever faced. And is Olanna telling the truth when she claims that nothing in this place is real?