Centrum Glacies Session Interlude Session 152.5: Fungal Zombies
Week 152.5 featured an interlude for the Dungeons and Dragons Campaign in Centrum Glacies continues. Zinbella uses her fearsome power to create new Fungal Zombies
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!!!
Separated from the rest of the party Zinbella brought Trent to her spore circle. He was on guard initially since the Psychic Vampire had appeared suddenly to whisk him away. Still, it didn’t take him long to figure out what she wanted. After all, despite being a dangerous Platinum Adventurer, she was a Druid and an Arch Druid at that.
And so she asked him about his choice to invade Jak-Rath’s desert base. While she agreed that attacking Jak-Rath was something any rational Druid supported, the way they had gone about it put everyone in more danger. Zinbella pointed out that she had been observing the party and knew of all the Wraiths that had been unleashed in that place. And Jak-Rath didn’t need such powerful minions under his control.
But Zinbella was not the only Psychic Vampire watching Trent. In fact she was watching her “child” too. Olanna interrupted their conversation to point out that they both were acting foolishly. And in Zinbella’s case, her minor acts of rebellion were adorable if not completely pointless.
Trent tried his best to ignore her. To that end, he even tried his best to make his mind blank. If she would reach into his mind for a reaction, then the Cult of Obsidian Leader would find nothing.
Lectures
Olanna lectured Zinbella for her behavior and rebellious streak. And this conversation was so fascinating to Trent that it broke his concentration. At least on a subconscious level. Which she was more than happy to point out to him. In fact she found his attempts to make his mind blank just as adorable as her child’s own to resist her goals.
She also scoffed at his attempts to ignore her given that she was in both his conscious and subconscious mind. And given her power as a borderline reality warping telepath, there was little he could do to keep her out of his head, or to prevent her from fully understanding his goals and motives.
But Olanna hadn’t simply appeared to torment the two. She instructed them to clean up a mistake they had both made. Despite being a Cult of Obsidian Leader in her own right, she was just as eager for Jak-Rath to be rid of his Wraith army. In fact she offered to help them. There were a lot of enemies there, and even as powerful as the two were, they couldn’t take on all the Wraith’s alone.
Returning the the Base
Zinbella and Trent arrived at the base, immediately shifting into their Demon Forms due to the extreme heat. Trent hadn’t forgotten that his temporary ally’s monstrous form turned her into a literal spore cloud. And he knew that the Spore Druid hadn’t revealed all that her Demon form was capable of.
But as the two methodically worked their way through the base, they found it clear of enemies. No Wraiths attacked them as they moved through the narrow halls, despite plenty of chances to do so. They found no signs of life at all in fact, friendly or hostile, until they reached the center of the lair. And not Wraiths. A Giant Salamander and an Efreeti greeted them. Trent immediately attacked.
But a two on two fight was horrifically slanted in the Druid’s favor. Zinbella used her spore power to kill the Salamander from the inside. Meanwhile Trent summoned a plague of magical insects to harm the Efreeti. The Salamander, even as a spore Zombie posed little threat to its former companion. But Zinbella had other plans for that one.
She used her incorporeal nature to invade this foe just like the Salamander. And for theatrical flair, cast sunbeam from within it. This type of searing heat was not something its flame body could resist. And the combined effort of the two Druids left all enemies dead, and Zinbella with two Spore Zombies.
Mission Accomplished?
Olanna’s loyal Psychic Vampires appeared. Trent had wondered when they would show up. The four of them informed the two Druids that the base was now clear. In fact they had come here soon after Trent had left and had destroyed the Wraiths even before Olanna had asked for their help. While it was hard to trust these four, there was no reason for them or their master to lie.
Instead, Zinbella transported herself and Trent back to her Druid Circle. All the while, Trent wondered why the two had gone at all. The lessor Psychic Vampire pointed out that Olanna was simply messing with them and demonstrating her power. But the Human Druid didn’t think it was that simple at all.
Zinbella lamented that her new servants wouldn’t last long and decided to find a use for them. She claimed that she had some problems to deal with. And now that she was armed with the tools needed, she was back to her scheming ways. A good thing Trent wasn’t her enemy.
In fact, as he prepared to leave, Trent mentioned that she had proven herself an ally. Something that made the Druid Psychic Vampire scoff. She reminded him that they were in an alliance of convince. They would be enemies again one day. He didn’t believe her words for a moment.
Wrap Up
Instead, he left the Spore Circle eager to find more ways to hinder Jak-Rath. That was of course once he caught up to the rest of the party. A tall order since he was closer to the High Elf Village than Zrin.