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)

Nappendixia Campaign 2.0- session 92

 Nappendixia Campaign Session Report

Session #-  92 Session Date-  8/21/24

Time Passed-  3 days (8/21-22, rest 8/23)

Roll Call-  Harry- T6

Godhard- C7

2x P1 hench

Boyo- C3

Kenny- M/U5

Mayfly- M/U2 hench

Marathon- R1 hench

Rust- D4

Anjar- R1 hench

Stigr- F5

Lucky- F1 hench

10 Spearmen

Adventure Log-  The party lay sieged by Humungous and his marauder brigands for nearly 2 weeks.  During that time the Marauders  spend time sending out hunting parties and returning with various herd animals and roasting the meat over large open fires.  They begin slow, measured patrols around the fortress, forcing their gate closed but conserving energy and storing up for a siege.  The party within spends its time weighing all of its options- sneaking an advance party back through the gate to return with troops, using Papas troops to lead an attack against Humongous, and various sabotage missions that could stymie them.  Kenny also uses clairvoyance daily at various angles and heights to gather some intel.  He is able to get Humongous troop numbers and types, and the basic patrol routes they employ in the siege.  He gets a look at the main encampment where the leadership and camp followers set up, and he is able to view the ambush trench near the cubic gate and sees that it is empty of troops.  The decision is for Harry to sneak out that night and try to place caltrops under the tires of the Suburban when it is parked for rest.  He approaches under invisibility, and silence for most of his trip out to the vehicle.  Once the silence spell wears off however, he realizes he’s not being that silent in his approach.  He places the caltrops under 3 tires, and notices the sleeping driver looks exactly like the androids employed by the time traveling wizard Jagger, and also notices the weird scifi stun gun one of them had wielded previously.  Just then he is heard by the other guards camped near the Suburban, and he elects to run off, staying invisible and bolting into the night.  This triggers the guards to call out, and the android to activate the truck and wheel about to their yelling voices as they chase after the invisible runner.  One tire bursts from the spikes, and 2 others are damaged as they blindly chase Harry back to Papas fortress never getting a fix on him.  They do make a bit of a show in pulling out a spare tire and replacing the flat within view of the fort, then speed off to Humungous camp.  In response, a little while later, while the party discusses what to do next, one of the wood Juggernauts come s barreling down then badlands towards the fortress, and launches itself full speed into the trench/dry moat that surrounds Papas fort.  It lands half buried in the soft sand of the trench, spinning its tires as it digs deeper and more level with the lip of the trench.  Also 10 spearmen spring from the juggernauts structure and begin to attempt to assault the walls with ropes.  The party reacts and Kenny casts web on the assaulting troops at the wall while others leap the wall and rush into the juggernaut looking for other assaulters or possibly a means to control or shut it down.  They find a strange stone pedestal with rows of crystals inset into it.  Both Harry and Godhard identify it as somehow connected in power to the mechanisms used to train on the cubic gates.  Through various means they get some basic controls on how touching/moving the crystals operates the juggernaut.  They manage to manipulate it to a point where it sets unstuck from the sand and points in a direction where it could be accelerated down the trench and up and out of the slope, right towards the cubic gate.  In the upper loft of the juggernaut they find its treasure, piles of gold coins, thousands in number, and an amulet and 2 scrolls.  They leave it like that and climb back over the wall as Humongous and most of his troops approach and surround the fort, calling for their surrender and trying to intimidate the besieged.  The magic user with Humongous sights the upper platform of Papa’s fortress, a gangplank with lookouts and a ballista team.  The mage casts a Fireball spell and eliminates the decking, weapon, and the troops up there. Rust, patiently watching the clouds gather and a light rain begins falling, begins the lengthy process of casting call lightning, and launches the first bolt right at Humongous and his vehicle.  Zap!  Both are badly injured, as his troops react unsure what to do.  The party makes a break for it and despite the Suburban catching up to them and trying to pop off a few stun gun shots into the juggernaut, they stay buttoned up, load up all 20+ party members with as much gold and the magic items from the juggernaut and fire up the cubic gate for an arcane ride back to outside Bartertown.  They arrive back in Bartertown via the train the evening of the 22nd, and rest on the 23rd.  They manage to escape from the siege of Papagallos fortress and vow to gather aid and return to assist him.  

Session Notes-  It was good to resolve the siege this week, the players decided against a big mass combat vs Humongous and instead opted to flee due largely to the circumstances presented to them.  I had sort of the quick and dirty retaliatory plan of Humongous responding to the damaged vehicle by trying to bury the wood juggernaut across the trench, making a primitive bridge across the trench and allowing other vehicles and horses to cross the trench and assault the fortress walls proper.  They thwarted the plot pretty handily and made it back to a more stable downtime location.  I was able to run the session with almost zero prep.  All I did was respond to some of the players' downtime planning with a basic drawing of the layout of the fortress and surrounding land, and a list of the troop types spotted and a map of their basic patrol patterns.  That was enough to get the party talking about potential plans, and the session proceeded from there with the party acting out its various plans.  I had a particularly busy week work wise with getting and starting a new job, so it was good to be rehearsed at running sessions with zero prep, making it an easy challenge.  

Treasure and XP-  Monsters- 5 Brigands 75xp. Treasure- 10,000gp/xp, Amulet vs Crystal Ball and ESP, 2 scrolls 0xp (no xp for magic in B/X) B/X treasure table was used = 10,075xp/ divided by 4 Players= 2519xp each. Each player can distribute the xp as they wish among PCs and hench who were present at Papagallos. add % bonus if appropriate.

Graveyard-

Nappendixia Campaign 2.0- session 91

 

Begin Chapter 7

Nappendixia Campaign Session Report

Session #-  91 Session Date-  8/7/24

Time Passed-  2 days (8/7, rest 8/8)

Roll Call-  Harry- T6

Godhard- C7

2x P1 hench

Boyo- C3

Kenny- M/U5

Mayfly- M/U2 hench

Marathon- R1 hench

Rust- D4

Anjar- R1 hench

Stigr- F5

Lucky- F1 hench

10 Spearmen

Adventure Log-  The party has been recovering in Bartertown from their extended expedition to the Wizard’s Tower.  Finnigan and Mayfly train to their next level, while Godhard cannot find a trainer for his paladin henchmen.  He considers taking them back to Lancebrass via the nearest cubic gate but that route is untested.  He remembers that a paladin was assisting Papagallo, and asks Kenny to use Clairvoyance to see if his fortress is still under siege.  He overlooks the area from above Papagallo’s fort and the nearby cubic gate and there are no Marauders seen and the fort seems in good condition and active with a population.  They also finalize their project to construct a ramp so that cavalry can be brought up onto the cubic gate platforms for transport.  They come up with a wooden design that can be carried with a few wagons or be transported on the train.  They pay for the work and it will be ready in a week.  Meanwhile Rust inquires about the strange transformation at North Station, the building and nearby land seems to have transformed into a dark spooky castle as if a different reality has evidenced the area.  He recalls all of his cubic gate training and theorizes that it is possible that the reality of another world has bled through from the cubic gate and training technology at the top of North station.  He is unsure if it is something that will retreat to its own reality on its own, or if the possibility that the change will persist or even grow.  The group decides to arm up with a very large party, equip themselves for whatever threats may be in the spooky castle, and also to drop off Godhard and the paladins at Papagallo’s to hopefully train with the Paladin there.  There they can also check on his ongoing war with the Marauders.  In addition to the massive party they plan to bring 10 spearmen and Lucky, the newly trained fighter henchman.  They take the train on the morning of the 7th and arrive at the Cubic Gate at noon.  They fire up the gate and make their first destination to Papagallos, planning on resting there a day and the bulk of the party heading to North Station the next day.  Arriving at the gate situated ⅛ of a mile from Papagallo’s fort they spy the walls and begin disembarking from the platform.  They notice several guards manning the walls trying to signal to them in an excited manner.  They look opposite the fortress, and notice a trench that has been dug into the ground, at its end it grades lightly up to ground level.  From the wide trench over 20 light cav emerge and make a bead towards the party, who is all on foot.  6 cav peel off and head towards a large rocky outcropping.  The cav is mostly light cav armed with lt crossbows, but 3 better armed sergeant types also ride with them.  The party begins fleeing trying to effect a fighting retreat but knowing they can’t outrun the cav.  Kenny is injured by a volley of arrows but responds the following round with an effective magic missile as a few others lob ranged attacks.  Kenny’s next spell is disrupted when he is injured by a second arrow, but Boyo heals some of his wounds.  The sergeants charge into melee with the party and 2 are cut down by Godhard and his Paladins, while Harry takes out one of the lt cav crossbowmen.  The final sergeant rallies his troops back, right as the 6 who broke away come into view with the rest of the Marauders who had been hiding behind the rocky outcropping.  Many of Humongous' cav and footmen charge forward, accompanied by 2 cars, 2 wood juggernauts, and 2 stone juggernauts.  All roll forward fearsomely across the badlands, the party makes a break for the fortress.  They realize they will not make it, but Kenny desperately casts Haste out of the spellbook he found on the recovered horses from the fallen.  They overload the hasted horses, Harry clutches his stone of diminution and jumps in a saddlebag.  They get within 300 feet from the fortress, when a vehicle comes out from the gate, it is Papagallo himself, the vehicle speeds to meet the party, the faster ones running, the slower ones clinging to the hasted horses.  Papa begins casting and a 60 foot expanse of blades erupts between the party and the Marauders.  More party members clutch the sides of Papas car and the whole crew high tails it back to the fortress, just as the Marauders arrive at the gates, despite the Blade Barrier, and several shots from the ballistas.  A blast from the flamethrower mounted atop the walls keeps them back.  Inside the walls they reconnect with Papa.  He tells them about the trench the Marauders began digging to lay ambush on anyone arriving by the cubic gate.  He tells them they number about 150 plus the vehicles and the juggernauts.  The Humongous has a magic user and several fighter sergeants aiding him.  Papas troops number about 100 with some chariots and a car, and 2 ballista and a flamethrower.  He also shows the party how he has finished building the drill and pump, and he can now pump a liquid energy source from the ground that can power the cars and do many other things.  They take a look at the working car, and get a sense of what they need to find to complete building their Ford Bronco.  They realize that they are under siege, and there will be no expedition to North Station until they can overcome the Marauders that currently have them penned in.  They consider several plans, including sending a stealth team back through the gate to rally some reinforcements, and some plans to sabotage the marauders' vehicles.  They are unsure how to approach the juggernauts however.  They must spend some time planning and laying out their plan, overcoming the Marauders will not be easy.  

Session Notes-  So it looks like Ch. 7 will start with the party under siege.  I’ve noticed lately that the time passed in-session is getting much shorter, 2-3 days instead of 8+ days in former sessions.  This is largely due to them using the cubic gates for travel, and avoiding having to chart travel times and roll through all the potential random encounters.  This is giving them more time for downtime activities, and is also allowing them to access different features of the map using the railroad and the cubic gates for travel instead of overland travel.  They can be more direct in their decisions in game and make better use of session time.  Our sessions are on the shorter side, and the freedom to get to a destination without the time sink of managing random encounters gives them more time per session to maximize their goals.  Not to say I don’t enjoy random encounters, or fail to see their importance, the majority of this cqmpaign’s content has come from random tables and encounters.  It is however nice that the player’s now have the option to avoid that area of the game some sessions.  It was starting to feel a little stale, plotting travel and rolling and managing random encounters at the beginning and end of every session.  The gates also bring their own surprises, the party never knows who or what will be waiting on the other side, as well as the fact that they haven’t been to all of the gate locations, adding more problems to the mix.  For example when they got to the wizard’s tower the gate was not working correctly and they were obligated to solve the problem before they could use it to get back home.  There’s definitely still more surprises and adventures connected to the gates.  I’m enjoying that the party is into using them, they were motivated to get their characters trained to use them, and their plans are starting to involve the railroad and gates to maximize their safe travel options.  They are limited however by the fact that the gates are fixed, and don’t grant accessibility to every location on the map.  They still haven’t found an easy route back to Lancebrass for example.  The campaign is at a more Advanced level, they have teased out a lot of advantage from the game world and are now approaching new situations with a higher level of analysis, always trying to get the best advantage on a situation.  It’s funny though, because  the real giant windfalls of treasure still seem to be from those random treasure rolls, which can come up during a random encounter just as easily in conjunction with a well thought out plan.  It’s been a while since they have hit some high value jewelry, that column seems to have the most potential for huge xp dumps.  Not that the game is lacking xp-wise.  The players in the 2-4th level range are advancing pretty regularly, those 5 and over are taking longer as it should.  We have one 7th level PC, I’m interested to see how long it takes him to get to 8.  The same is true with magic items, they are starting to both show up more frequently, and be better distributed and used by the party.  I always thought they were a little neglectful of using their magic items, now they are more mindful.  Summer is coming to a close for me, and although I did not pull off something big like last summer’s Escape From Bree-Yark, but we did get 2 special sessions of OD&D with Chainmail which was fun and took a bit of prep for me.  One of our players has decided to try a patronage, so that has been fun to start and see what kind of surprises it will add to the campaign.  We are also dipping our toes back into Marvel Super HeBros next week as one of the players is running a 1 shot.  I’m looking forward to being a player in that next week.  After that we will go to an every other week format as we approach session 100!  I’ve definitely never participated in a 100 session campaign before, and look forward to hitting that milestone.  

Treasure and XP-  Monsters-  F3 140xp, F3 112xp, F0 15xp.  Treasure-  400gp, Cloak of Elvenkind 1000xp=  1667xp/ 6 PCs= 278xp each minus the # of hench shares.  Henchmen get 42xp each.  Add % bonus if appropriate.

Graveyard-

20mm Spanish Civil War Nationalists from Irregular Miniatures