Gaming Basement

 Finished my gaming cave

Nappendixia Campaign 2.0- session 97

 

Nappendixia Campaign Session Report

Session #-  97 Session Date- 11/22/24

Time Passed- 2 days (11/22, rest 11/23)

Roll Call-  Finnigan- T7

Rust- D7

Godhard- C7

2x Pal hench

Kenny- M/U7

Boyo- C6

Oops- M/U1

Almost- M/U0

Adventure Log-  The party again decides to attempt a delve into Chateau Amber, the mystical structure that has formed in the Iron Quarter.  They use the Trump card they were given by Steven Ambrose to begin in the Chateau’s central area, a large garden under a domed roof.  Upon teleporting into there via the card, the party finds themselves on a path that leads through the dense foliage of the Inner Gardens.  They proceed forward and are attacked by some aggressive trees posted on either side of the path, but quickly flee.  Moving on they hear some strange rustling in the woods and see some shadowy figures, but before they can decide what to do Finnigan spies a beautiful maiden and a unicorn asleep on the path up ahead.  He sneaks forward and awakens them with some calming lute music. They awaken and exchange pleasantries with the party but suddenly gather up their belongings, a chest overflowing with platinum, and speed ahead on the path.  Some coins spill out in their haste and the party takes them.  Around the next bend, the party encounters the unicorn and the girl again, but the girl suddenly transforms into a gold dragon and inquires if the party has any of her belongings?  They admit to taking the coins, and promptly give them back.  The gold dragon shows some disappointment with the party as does the unicorn, and they fly off, unwilling to offer the party any lore on the Gardens and its denizens.  A little further on, Finnigan sneaks forward again, only to encounter a billygoatman negotiate passage over a troll’s bridge by offering up Finnigan as replacement meal!  The troll agrees and allows him to cross, then moves forward to make a meal of Finnigan, who promptly runs back to the party.  The showdown with the party is largely finished with a fireball from Kenny, assisted by rounds of missile fire.   They char the troll and find its primitive lair under the bridge, finding some gold, some precious jewelry, and a protection scroll.  However, shortly after the fireball goes off, they hear a horn as if from a hunting horn and off in the distance they hear the charge of wild creatures.  They decide to make a stand at the bridge, where they receive a charge from 2 lupin on dire wolves and 2 rakasta on sabre toothed tigers.  The lupin are blinded and pinned down by a pyrotechnics and web spells, but the tigers leap wide and go around one side of the bridge where they can get past the elbow of the stream.  They charge into the side of the party and immediately cut down the 2 apprentice mages.  Right after that the leader of this Wild Hunt, lord Andre David Ambrose, who has been magically altered as a goatman creature comes out of the forest on the party's other flank and slams into the paladins riding an elk.  The rakasta and one of the tigers area slain, and Godhard manages to dispel the magic that transformed Prince Andre David, who is eternally grateful.  He rewards the party with his magic mace and a potion of animal control.  Then he shows them the rest of the attractions in the forest, and takes them to 2 doors that lead to the Chapel and East Wing, respectively. Each door is magically sealed, but in the jamb of each door is another magic trump card, one that will bring the party to either place in the chateau.  They are teleported out of the chateau, back into the Iron Quarter, where their original trump card disintegrates.  They store their 2 new cards someplace safe.   

Session Notes-  It was fun to run a little more Castle Amber, I just riffed on the module and made some stuff up on the fly.  Sometimes it's nice to run those old modules that have all the monster stats in the back, it just makes for a session that’s logistically a little easier to run- no book juggling.  With online play you definitely need a big workspace that works for your computer setup.  With session 100 nearing, I have a little something to challenge the party and make a good place for a short hiatus.  At some point the writing of session reports, though essential, does become a time sink, and it will be nice to take a break from them.  

Treasure and XP-  Monsters- Troll 813xp, 2 Rakasta 96xp, Sabretoothed Tiger 910xp.  Treasure-  1000gp, 6 Jewelry 14,800xp, Silver key to Amber’s Dungeon, Scroll Prot from Devils, Mace +2. Potion animal control= 15,800xp= 17,619/5 PCs= 3524xp each, henchmen get 529xp each, add % bonus if appropriate.

Graveyard-  Lucky, Marathon, and Arthur- incinerated by a Falmestrike on the Bronco at the 1st Slime Cultist Battle.  (session 96)

Oops, Almost- killed by Rakasta and Sabretoothed Tigers in Chateau Amber’s Inner Garden (session 97)

Nappendixia Campaign 2.0- session 96

 Nappendixia Campaign Session Report

Session #-  96 Session Date-  10/25/24

Time Passed-  7 days (25th-30th, rest the 31st)

Roll Call-  Finnigan- T7

Rust- D6

Godhard- C7

2x P3 hench

Stigr- F6

Lucky- F3 hench

Pinstripe- F5

Arthur- M/U5

Elaine- F4 hench

Marathon- R1

Adventure Log-  The party arms up with their force from Bartertown to track down the slime cultists forward force and eliminate it.  They muster a force of 60 pikemen, 40 lt foot, 20 h foot, 40 crossbowmen, 20 shortbowmen, 20 lt cav, and 20 med cav and they load the party into the Bronco.  They track down the cultists on the 25th, and decide to mount a night raid and lightning bolt them while they camp with a stealth attack from the Bronco.  After thinking things through, they spend the day preparing some diffuse lighting sources to the front of the Bronco so it can be driven at night without its headlights on, thus reducing any potential accidents from driving blind.  They manage to prepare everything on the 26th and that night they cast silence and drive the vehicle into the cultist encampment and Arthur lightning bolt’s it and the Bronco peels away while Rust manages to get some recent precipitation to engage his call lightning spell and also pepper the cultists with bolts.  A number are taken down and it takes many call lightning strikes to get them to rally and back away from the hidden druid casting down lightning.  The next dayThe party tracks down the cultist force, nearly 200 cavalry to a depression in the badlands where the recent rains have made some ponding and a scrubby forest fans out on the party’s right flank.  Beyond that the two armies spy each other and begin positioning for battle.  Rust casts a hallucinatory forest sort of extending the amount of terrain on the party’s right, thus forcing the cultist cavalry to reposition and focus their attack around the false flora.  The party centers their force around the wide block of pikemen who set spears against a cavalry charge, supported by the light cav and archers.  The heavy cav are loaded into the trailer on the Bronco and the party charges forward to engage the cultist largest block of med cav.  They crash into them with the cattlechaser front end, but neglected to do anything about the windshield so 3 cav are taken out, but their bodies hurl inside the Bronco cab doing massive blunt force damage to the passengers inside, the first Nappendixian car accident just occurred.  The other party manages to whittle down that med cav and they rout, and the h foot deploy to aid the pikemen, who lose 40 of their number to a multi unit cav charge on their front, many on both sides perish, but other than the initial loss of the pikemen blocks, the party and their army manages to rout the entire cultist cavalry, save a unit of light can that escapes back towards the cultist domain.  Arthur and several others chase them down in the Bronco, but when they do engage them, the cultists manage to win initiative and get off a rather powerful spell- Flame strike, on the Bronco before Arthur can drive it in a bootlegger reverse.  Several in the party are killed including Arthur, and Lucky, and Marathon.  The Bronco as well is badly damaged as luckily the cultists seem not to pursue them.  The army rests and manages to recover the gear and horses for 40 cavalry, but no treasure is found, save a magic javelin thrown into the Bronco by the med cav leader.  They return to Bartertown thinking that maybe delving into the netherworld the experienced at Chateau Amber may be a way to get back their fallen comrades.  Nonetheless, they feel after routing the first force of slime cultist army, but wary of their high level spellcasters, they feel they can get the first few months of railroad construction without any interference from the cultists.  However they will still need to be dealt with as the construction nears the cultists' temple.  

Session Notes-  So we did it as a mass combat using 20:1 Ad&d combat rules, real simple.  I used my 2mm ancients minis and a document cam, most players were able to see the images, but we still kept it rather theater of the mind and basic, I just laid out 2 terrain pieces, but there was still room for tactics, they used the illusory terrain well and overall the battle took a good hour plus the pre battle sneak attack. In summation a good time was had by all.  

Treasure and XP-  500xp for each survivor participating in the 1st Slime Cultist Battle.  Henchmen get 75xp.  Plus the gear recovered from the routed cavalry and the magic javelin.

Graveyard-  Lucky, Marathon, and Arthur- incinerated by a Falmestrike on the Bronco at the 1st Slime Cultist Battle.  (session 96)

Nappendixia Campaign 2.0- session 95

Nappendixia Campaign Session Report Chapter 8

Nappendixia Campaign Session Report

Session #-  95 Session Date-  10/18/24

Time Passed- 4 days (10/18-20, rest 21st)

Roll Call-  Godhard- C7

2x P3 hench

Kenny- M/U6

Boyo- C5

Mayfly- M/U2 hench

Finnigan- T7

Rust- D6

Adventure Log-  During the downtime the party did some intel on the Slime cultists to the southeast.  They left the alliance with Papa at the end of the siege of his fortress as such-  Papa will use hsi vehicle and the wooden juggernaut and his scant remaining troops and will defend the far region of the railroad construction route.  (The party has recently decided to extend the short railroad that leads from Bartertown the the nearest Cubic Gate all the way to the location of Papas fort and the dismantled oil digging rig.  Only Papa knows how to reassemble the rig and the party wants to connect Bartertown to the source of gas out at Papa's ruined locale.  However, that route leads directly through The slime cultist's town and temple location.)  Godhard does 2 divinations on the areas, but gets very odd results and does not think the divinations worked correctly.  Kenny does several clairvoyances on the locations and observes the town and temple a few times, and does notice a large force of about 100 that would intercept any work crews that moved forward to construct the railroad.  They Decide to get the work crews ready to begin construction moving forward SE from Bartertown, and they decide to take the newly fully assembled Ford Bronco, fitted with an iron cowcatcher on the front to drive out the route and back and flush out any random encounters the workers may come across, they also thought they may get to spy on the cultist army in anticipation of engaging them next week.  With all of that worked out, Godhard proclaims that he can easily rout out the wights they found at the old hidden barrow a few weeks back, and they head out to the nearby location.  They wait on the nighttime feeding when 3 wights emerge to feast on a forest animal, but Godhard’s divine might churns them to unholy dust.  Surprised, they find no other wights inside the barrow, this coven consisted of only 3.  Their treasure was ample however and rather ancient.  The following day they head out the clear the work route.  Again at night they encounter some strange creatures-  glowing orbs of light darting around the twisted and half buried frames of old cars, the strange vehicles sticking up out of some kind of mud floodplain.  They engage it quite smartly- with protection from evil, and magic missiles, and mass missile fire proves mildly effective.  The party wittles down one of the wisps and the other surrenders of sorts, it leads them over to one of the vehicles and indicates towards its trunk. Finnigan uses his newly acquired power of ESP to talk to the wisp.  It offers to show them a strange place beneath this vehicle, and tells them that the wasps have been following some of their endeavors.  And they are aware of the railroad and would like to be left alone and kept off the side of the rails as a sort of weird attraction, a haunted locale of sorts.  The wisp offers up half of its treasure and access to this strange underground space.  The party agrees and descends through the vehicles trunk into a dirt passage that elbows off into an old train caboose, fitted out as a hidden rest area/living space.  The party found some strange technology that they saw of in the strange sci fi books they had found in the past.  They find a record player, VCR, speakers, and tuner and receiver.  They also are able to interface some of the technology from the destroyed but recovered android and realized it is a more futuristic version of the technology they have been finding littered around Nappensixia.  They find some records and VCR tapes they think they can learn from.  They take all of this and secure a camp a bit away from the wisps location.  The next day they look for the cultist army but see nothing and vow to return next week with a larger army, constructing a larger trailer that the Bronco can tow, and support from cavalry.  But in the meantime they have to rest and return to Bartertown.  The following day, on the way back they encounter a newly constructed Bugbear hovel, but quickly route it out with a fireball and an unsuccessful sneak attack from the forward group of bugbears.  Their treasure hoard is quite stout and it is recovered.  The party returns to Bartertown laden with several treasure scores.  

Session Notes-  I applauded the players this session, they are each doing things that drive the game now and the sessions are really just about me resolving any things they needed help resolving, or things they wanted resolved cooperatively, and then they tend to have a conversation of continuing/upcoming downtime plans, and also what type of adventuring goal they had for that evening.  I just respond to their interests and use the robust DMG to pretty much have an answer for everything.  It was another good xp haul for eh players, they are getting more savvy at tracking down treasure sources.  Also the Cleric is getting close to 8th which is when he attracts followers, so that will be another thing that will naturally generate play options. With this campaign approaching 100 sessions, and beginning chapter 8, I’m feeling like this should build to some thrilling climax on session 100, we shall see.

Treasure and XP-  Monsters-  3 Wights 2100xp, Will-o-Wisp 1632xp, 24 Bugbear 4392xp.  Treasure-  8000cp, Military Pick +1, 1900ep, 2000sp, 1000ep, 20 gems 6500gp/xp, 8000cp, 2000sp, 3000gp, 4 jewelry, stereo and VCR= 36,684xp/5 PCs = 7337xp each, henchmen get 1100each, add % bonus if applicable.

Graveyard-

Nappendixia Campaign 2.0- session 94

Nappendixia Campaign Session Report

Session #-  94 Session Date-  9/27/24

Time Passed-  3 days (9/27-28, rest 29th)

Roll Call- Kenny-  MU5 

Boyo- C5

Godhard- C7

2x P2 hench

Stigr- F5

Rust- D5

Finnigan- T6

30 Lt Foot

20 Bowmen

Adventure Log-  During downtime the completion of Kenny’s wizard tower is nearing completion.  While doing that he continues to monitor both Papadoo’s location and the siege with the Marauders, as well as scout the surrounding landscape around Bartertown.  While doing that he scrys a Barrow Mound lousy with Wights in the vicinity it had not been noticed before.  However he also scrys on Papadoo one day and he sees the aftermath of what must have been a huge battle, both sides have suffered heavy losses and there is a breach in Papa’s walls.  The party decides to mobilize its troops and mount a rescue.  They take footmen and bowmen and arrive at night after taking the rail to the Cubic Gate and waiting there to launch a night stealth attack.  They get there and are not noticed as some troops move into the abandoned wood juggernaut with the party.  Finnigan is able to figure out the controls and when he replaces the gem peg that Harry had removed, the point of Str he had lost was restored despite his far location.  With the troops in place, they assessed their opponents.  Humungous was noticeably absent, but There were still a stone juggernaut, a wood juggernaut that was closest to them, and the android driving the Suburban was skirmishing at Papa’s walls.  Kenny casts invisibility 10” and the party stealths forward, using the chime of opening on the secret hatch of the wood juggernaut.  They stealth inside and eliminate the surprised troops inside.  Finnigan stays behind to pilot the other Wood juggernaut.  It appears to be a tank battle, as Kenny casts a fireball on the 20 troops that were positioned with the stone juggernaut, and the combat consisting of tank assaults continued.  Thankfully the party had signaled Papa who emerged with his own vehicle and kept the Android at bay until the 2 wood juggernauts could smash the stone one, not before losing a wood juggernaut outright, and seriously damaging the other.   The party was victorious, but battered and the treasure in the stine juggernaut was great, the biggest haul they had ever netted.  They are victorious with Papa but cautious that Humungous may come back with more troops.  They elect to leave behind the wood juggernaut to guard Papa’s base as he re-secures his oil pumping mechanism.  Finnigan, after taking out the stone juggernaut tried to smash the androids vehicle in a way to capture/incapacitate it, but he drove too hard and smashed the machine man to pieces.  The stun gun however was recovered.  Rust speculates on how the gates may connect to other realms of reality, and gets confirmation of his theories.  They rest from the battle and wait the 24 hours until they can transport back to Bartertown, upon arriving there, they rest and several seek out training and plans for the spending of newly acquired funds begins.  End of Ch. 7

Session Notes-  This was the biggest treasure haul of the campaign, it was a long time coming, the party has been grinding for some time.  It’s good to have a big change at this time.  Now they are interested in constructing some things and doing some spell research.  They want to use their funds to construct a railroad to Papa’s and help secure his base and the rail line.  I asked them to sketch out their longterm plan and this os what they sent me today-  

The Plan Phase 1 1) Have Papadaux guard the construction crew as it returns to the gas well over six months and then have the train be used to have guards and ship construction materials to his area to make it truly secure. Pitch Bartertown and Papa paying half to get the strategic gas and Papa being able to build his fort in an otherwise undefensible position. We pay half and get gas at cost for our car and expand civilization. We also offer to kill the Slime Cult in the way. Cost 60000 GP and Six Months (technically 180*90 percent days 162 days and 54000 gold..... with the slide rule).

2) Use some of the gold to reinforce a wooden wall for the Iron Quarter to keep our share of the power sharing arrangement with the slide rule freed from the wizard's tower which will be done in two weeks. (Cost X and Time X) 3) Use the parts found on the Bronco and the ones we already have to fix up the Bronco to give us reliable transportation that can likely be driven in and out of the gate while troops secure the gate. (Cost X and Time Two Weeks) Phase 2 (Speculative) 4) Once the working railroad to Papa's place is done, give Hartford a tour and have them pay for half of a railroad (Group pays 1/3rd while other leaders of Barter town pay for 2/3s of one half the cost) to vastly increase both trade and troops to reinforce the rail network. 5) We seek a Quarry and build a rail network to it to reduce the cost to build a stone wall for Barter Town and the Iron Quarter. 6) Clear out the Vampires in the Library so that once we have 4 party members at level 7 we train for the wild gates and start exploring other world.

It’s cool to get more player content in these session reports, I will be trying to get more things like this in future session reports.  

Treasure and XP-  Treasure-  7000gp, 20,000pp, 15 gems 7750xp, 10,000gp, potions- polymorph self, ESP, Longevity= 126,950/ 6PC= 21,158xp each.  Henchmen get 3174xp each.  Add % bonus if appropriate.  You also recover the stun gun from the android.  It has 18 charges left.

Graveyard-  Anjar-  lost as an apparition in the dining hall of Chateau Amber (session 93)

Nappendixia Campaign 2.0- session 93

 

Nappendixia Campaign Session Report

Session #-  93 Session Date-  9/13/24

Time Passed-  2 days (9/13, rest 9/14)

Roll Call-  Godhard- C7

Stigr- F5

Lucky- F1 hench

Finnigan- T6

Rust- D4

Anjar- R3

Adventure Log-  Throughout the day on the 13th, as you walk around the Iron Quarter, you hear the faint sounds of eerie music. You are not sure if it is in your head, descending from above, or percolating up from the ground.  That evening a massive chateau unearths itself in the Iron Quarter!  Fortunately it is not near the part the party has recently renovated, which is looking quite nice.  The Chateau is of an old French style, and before the party can fully respond to its presence, a wall of fog begins to form around, it begins to densen and they hear the voice of Stephen Amber, a powerful mage. Somehow they know and hear this.  It tells them to jump quickly through the fog and enter his West Wing.  If they can make it through the West Wing, he promises knowledge of some of the magic working of the chateau and a chance at treasure and greatness.  The party does not hesitate to jump through and land at the foyer of the ornate chateau, in front of the West staircase entrance, much smaller than the main entrance.  They assemble in the first room only to be surprised by 5 living statues which are dispatched by magic and melee.  They move on to meet a strange fellow named Jean-Louis Amber, he trains fighters and has a prize boxer to gamble with.  Stigr takes up the challenge and 10,000gp is on the line.  Both fighters fight well but as Stigr is about to KO his opponent, a brutish construct called a magen, Jean louis jumps into the ring with 2 cronies to ambush things.  However, 8 glowing eyeballs each hovering above a chair at the ringside begin glaring at Jean Louis and he withdraws, but not before humbly surrendering his magic chainmail due to Rust’s heat metal spell.  He remains true to his bet and pays the 10K upon Stigr’s close victory.  They move on to the next room, where Jean Louis tells them they may eat a meal and also gamble with their fate.  Permanent effects, good and bad, can be gained by eating.  They enter to a room of ghostly apparitions being seated for a fancy dinner, there are places named for the party and they sit in their seats and begin being served food, all the food and patrons in the hall are apparitions except for the party.  The food they are served seems real, they eat upon much of it wine, meat, bread, and gain many quite powerful results.  Some party members become resistant to poison, some to starvation, some gain some limited ESP.  A few gain some hit points and ability points, and a few are lost.  Of note, Stigr is fully healed by some magic wine, but is then nearly poisoned to death by some other food, only to be saved by Rust’s neutralize poison.  Godhard gains a fast metabolism, having to eat twice as much as normal.  Many in the party gain the weekly ESP, a quite useful power.  They move on to parley with some Rakasta who they say are led by another prince of Amber, King Richard Amber the Lion Hearted.  They see the Rakasta’s treasure but avoid investigating it.  The party then encounters a magic and massive hall of mirrors that blinds them when they cast a light spell, while blinded , a pack of were creatures comes rushing down the long hall, but the party manages to feel their way to the exit out of the West Wing’s Great Hall and into a central gardens of sorts in the chateau. They begin to survey the foliage, but they again speak with Stephen Amber’s disembodied voice in their heads, get a few more clues and questions answered, and then get a magic trump card that will transport them back to the Gardens inside Chateau Amber should they wish to explore more, or attempt to recover Anjar, who was lost as an apparition in the dining hall when he failed a save.  

Session Notes-  It was Friday the 13th and I wanted to do something appropriate, but not something real scary or gory, just a little creepy.  I had picked up a copy of X2 Castle Amber this summer at a huge flea market I go to yearly.  I wanted to plop it right in their part of Bartertown then sort of do a one shot introducing the location and letting them play around without overly railroading them.  It was well received, and I was able to work in some of the Amber books into the campaign, just subtly introducing the concept of trump cards, plus that way if they choose not to interact with it anymore the doors of the chateau just remain sealed and it doesn’t have to be an overly managed thing that has to impact the game world.  Is it railroady, maybe a little, but really just for one session, and all in inspiration to the date.  We had fun, I had fun reading some old school flavor text, we all had a good time.  That’s how I like to include modules into my game and  a little introspection on how it went this most recent time I’ve tried it.  

Treasure and XP-  Monsters- 5 living crystal statues 175xp, 1 magen 50xp. Treasure- 10,000gp, Chainmail +2= 10,225xp/ 4PCs= 2556xp each. Stigr gets 2173xp, Lucky gets 383 xp. Add % bonus if appropriate.

Graveyard-  Anjar-  lost as an apparition in the dining hall of Chateau Amber (session 93)