Nappendixia Campaign 3.0- Session 129 AD&D

 

Nappendixia Campaign Session Report

Session #-  129 Session Date-  5/1/26

Time Passed- 5 days

Roll Call-  Trotter- R1

Pylon- G F/T1

Ard- M/U1

Pentagon- C1

Primus- F1

Adventure Log-  The session begins with the domain builders- Godhard, Kenny, and Laurentis, taking a block of cavalry and archers south back to an area where they had found spider sign, hopeful to eliminate the threat from the land.  They position their troops into the area of webs, and find the area most densely covered, likely the lair.  Seeing how the lair is too tightly webbed to effectively use troops, Godhard sends an insect swarm into the lair, hoping to overwhelm or draw out the spiders.  After that dissipates, he then flamestrikes the area from above to be certain nothing survived.  He was right in using extreme tactics as they discovered among the burned debris the remains of Phase Spiders, very dangerous creatures who likely survived the insect swarm by staying out of phase, but were caught unaware by the flamestrike.  They find some coins and some jewelry, but the value of the jewelry is greatly reduced from the damage from the flamestrike.  Happy to be rid of the threat they return to Dawnbreak.  

Meanwhile the low level group heads back to the buried step pyramid dungeon to further explore.  Trotter had scouted the area a few times during downtime, and found the remnants of a few small camps of what were probably evil demihumans.  He relays this to the party and they take the information into the dungeon with them.  They carefully trigger the stone floor trap and rig it open and use that to get down to the next level.  They follow the door and halls east and south, following their previous route.  At the end of the hall they find a statue of a man wearing a mask and holding a lightning bolt. It appears to be gold but is just painted wood.  To their right there are also 2 doors, and they listen and enter, only to be encountered by 6 men wearing masks and wearing blue tunics and chainmail.  They look the party over and announce themselves as the Brotherhood of Gorm, strong Lawful fighters from the ancient hidden civilization of Cynadecia.  Their leader Kanadius, tells them of the waning of their civilization due to laziness and hedonism.  He also tells them of the evil force called Zargon and the influence of his cult.  He tells them that there are 3 factions still fighting to return Cynadecia to its former glory, themselves, the mages of Usimigaras and the warrior Maidens of Madura.  The factions are at odds and fight each other over how best to serve Cynadecia.  They are impressed with the party’s martial power, and ask them to help clear out the temple of some of the monsters that have moved in.  If they succeed they will be offered membership into the brotherhood.  They are given 3 warriors to assist them, and told of a room behind a secret door containing stirges, terrible blood sucking creatures.  The party agrees to assist, and are taken to the secret room.  Primus bravely blocks the open doorway with his shield, bearing the stirge charges, and Ard casts sleep into the room.  4 fall, but the remaining 3 spill out into the hallway and are slain in melee.  They find some gems among the stirges refuse, and move on to explore a portion of the temple where they encounter some mischievous sprites, avoid their pranks and get some info on the temple layout.  Ard also narrowly avoids stepping into a room whose floor is covered in green slime, and they make their way back to the brotherhood’s rooms pleased to have defeated the stirges.  They move through the brother’s rear quarters, finding another dead hobgoblin in the process, and see that their treasure room is guarded by killer bees.  Tempted but smart, they decide not to attempt to steal the treasure.  When they  join Kanadius, he offers to initiate them into the brotherhood.  Ard and Pylon elect to become lesser members, and are given a small gold necklace of the mask of Gorm.  Primus becomes a full member and after a hand washing ritual is given a blue tunic, Gorm mask, and lightning bolt tattoo.  He is also given a magic shortsword and told to honor Gorm’s ways.  They tell him of the demihuman camp they found outside the temple, and are told that they will be paid 20gp for any hobgoblins they can defeat.  Tired from the many hours of exploring and fighting, and gladdened by their new allies, they leave and head back to the cleric’s tower, and then on the Dawnbreak to sell their gems and hopefully procure some better armor.  

Session Notes-  It was fun to run a mini session for the upper level PCs before devoting most of the session to the new PCs.  It gives the domain builders some session time to get things done, but the focus is still on the level 1’s.  It’s been fun running a low level game inside the domain of existing PCs in the game.  Even though it’s mostly the same players, it’s nice to have that multi level structure all from PCs who actually earned their status in the game.  Open world, emergent play rules!

Treasure and XP-  Low level group- Monsters- 7x Stirges 308xp.  Treasure- 4x gems 16ppxp, 135sp, 40gp, Shortsword +1= 1747xp.  Total xp 2455/ 4PCs/Players= 491 per player.  Add % bonus if appropriate.

High level group- 4x Phase Spiders 3568xp.  Treasure- 6000cp, 11,000sp, 3000gp ruined jewelry= 3610xp= 7178xp/3 Players= 2393xp each.   Add % bonus if appropriate.

Graveyard-   Garrick Thislteflare- Triggered a trap and fell down the brass shaft in the hidden step pyramid.  (session 127) raised by the nearby cleric, indebted to 1500gp.  Alignment changed to NG.

Ard- Killed by Fire Beetles in the hidden step pyramid.  (session 127)  raised by the nearby cleric, indebted to 1500gp.

Nappendixia Campaign 3.0- Session 128 AD&D

 

Nappendixia Campaign Session Report

Session #-  128

Session Date-  4/24/26

Time Passed-  2 days (+3 days downtime to sell the dagger at Ft Dawnbreak.)

Roll Call-  Trotter- R1

Pylon- G F/T1

Ard- M/U1

Pentagon- C1

Adventure Log-  A new ranger adventurer arrives from the forest, noticing the new visitors to the nearby cleric’s tower.  On his way north, he passes near the swamp village and notices a group of 3 villagers heading north also in the direction of the cleric’s tower.  Trotter the ranger arrives and is greeted by Pylon and Ard, out patrolling the grounds.  They introduce themselves, only to find that the swamp villagers have also arrived and appear to seek parley, in their very rustic, uncouth ways.  They introduce themselves as the LeBeau family, and that their patriarch, Pappy LeBeau is feared dead out missing on a frog hunt.  They seek a brave party to find the frog that likely slew him and bring back his body, his family signet ring, and hopefully the body of the frog so it can be roasted.  Pylon is able to make good relations via his charm, and they agree to travel to the swamp village and offer aid.  The cleric introduces the party to Pentagon, a cleric acolyte who is to serve as the party’s envoy and medic when he is brought into the field.  They agree to take Pentagon frog hunting and head out.  The villagers escort them back to the village and from there they find the hunting trails and follow them through a maze of hedgerows and shrubs.  The ranger takes point to avoid any surprises, and leads them through the twisting trails when they arrive at a clearing half filled with ankle to knee deep water and mud.  Cautiously spying the area they notice three mounds start moving and each forms into a skeleton and moves forward to attack.  The sturdy skeletons take a while to dispatch, but they are eventually smashed after the party realizes their arrow attacks are of little effect.  The mage is quite effective with his staff and high strength.  Just as that combat ends the giant frog lurking nearby launches a sneak attack, but again the ranger has a sharp eye and surprise is avoided.  It lashes out at Ard right as he is trying to put it to sleep with his spell, ruining the cast.  Wrapped in the frog's tongue, they begin pulling against each other, and with Pentagon grabbing on to add weight, Ard is not pulled towards the gaping maw of the frog.  Just then Trotter reaches out and severs the tongue with his short sword.  More blows rain down and eventually the frog is taken down by a backstab from Pylon, who then uses his tailoring skill to try to open the frog’s body cavity.  There they find Pappy’s body and ring, along with a magic looking dagger.  On the skeletons' shattered bones they find a gold bracelet of value.  They improvise a litter and bring the frog and Pappy back to the village.  Here they feast on frog’s legs and the villager’s tell them to tell the nation building cleric Godhard that they would be agreeable to negotiations on joining his citizenry.  They also give the party a bag of 100 crudely crafted coins and allow them to keep the magic dagger as payment.  They decide to sell it for a higher profit rather than keep it.  They can make the deal at Fort Dawnbreak if they head back there after some rest.  They return to the cleric’s tower content on a successful adventure and on helping the villagers.  

Session Notes-  This was an impromptu session I offered because I was free, and we had a new player show up.  It’s always great to get new people entering the campaign, whether it be for a short or a long stay, regular or irregular.  We had a good time, it’s also great when a new player just fits right in seamlessly from the start.  I’m also enjoying the reset back to 1st level characters.  One player commented last night that it’s like a different game comparing low level play to mid/high level.  I’ll keep this brief as this was an unplanned session and therefore a shorter session report.  

Treasure and XP-  Monsters-  3x Skeleton 141xp, Giant Frog 75xp= 141xp.  Treasure- Gold Bracer 150gp, 100x crude gold coins 100xp, Dagger +1 sold for 750gp/xp= 1000xp= 1141xp/4PCs= 285xp each.  Add % bonus if appropriate.  

Graveyard-   Garrick Thislteflare- Triggered a trap and fell down the brass shaft in the hidden step pyramid.  (session 127) raised by the nearby cleric, indebted to 1500gp.  Alignment changed to NG.

Ard- Killed by Fire Beetles in the hidden step pyramid.  (session 127)  raised by the nearby cleric, indebted to 1500gp.

Nappendixia Campaign 3.0- Session 127

 Nappendixia Campaign Session Report

Session #-  127

Session Date-  4/17/26

Time Passed-  5 days

Roll Call- Ard- M/U1

Pylon- GF/T1

Garrick Thistleflare- GF/T1

Primus- F1 

Adventure Log-  In recent weeks, fresh new adventurers have been attracted to Fort Dawnbreak, and Godhard has hired them on as explorers.  A fledgling mage, a pair of gnomish tailor fighter/thieves, and a former legionary acquaint themselves, gear up, and head out on a patrol with some light cav.  They plan to be escorted to High Priest Atagon’s tower and leave their horses there and then explore the nearby hidden step pyramid recently discovered by Godhard and party.  All goes well and they get to the location and negotiate down into the densely wooded depression the center of which births another mound of earth, mud, and vine covered leaf litter where the top 2 levels of a buried step pyramid can be seen barely exposed in a few places.  They find one side of the pyramid to have a stone ramp, and amble up it.  On their way to the top, they look down to see the body of a hobgoblin with an arrow shaft in its chest, the body is keeping open a secret door into the side of the stone ramp, likely an entrance into the structure.  They gather around and check the rotting body, move forward and find an empty arrow trap the creature had triggered, then turn the corner and push past a stone slab door into the top level revealing a big open room with 3 person sized brass shafts running floor to ceiling in the center of the room.  They start searching it and after a round start feeling nauseous and hear emitting gas.  Ard, being a swolcerer, begins trying to push back open the heavy stone slab door, while the 3 others each reach for a brass door on 3 brass tubes.  Pylon is struck with hidden darts, Primus triggers an already activated trap, and Garrick triggers the floorstone beneath his feet to swing open and he falls to the next level with a heavy thud, dying on the next level.  Ard pushed open the door, venting out the gas, and they climb down the untrapped brass shaft to retrieve Garrick’s body, only to be immediately beset by 3 Fire Beetles.  Ard is slain in the melee, but Primus puts his armor and life on the line and the beetles and smashed and their fire glands are extracted.  The 2 carry out the other 2 bodies, and fortunately are met in a few hours by the lt cav squad, dubious of their ability who remained nearby in case of emergency.  They get an escort back to Atagon’s tower, and surprisingly elect to get the 2 down adventurers raised.  Aragon checks their alignments, and must charge them the full price due to no Good aligned folks being in the party, however, no evil was detected so he spends 2 days raising the 2 fallen.  They return after resting for a day and the temple seems undisturbed from their last visit.  They move through a door and down a corridor past the room where they fought the beetles.  They explore 2 rooms, each small quarters for maybe a cleric.  They find a wooden holy symbol of a balance, a bed, writing, desk, and in the desk a crumpled note warning of something called Zargon.  In the second room they also come upon a scene of a large gecko eating its prey- a strange looking human in brightly colored robes, wearing a gold crusted bird mask.  They barely defeat the gecko, and retreat from the pyramid again to treat wounds, heal, and rest.  On the way out, they note that the brass tubes also go up into the interior of 3 brass statues with internal gears that make them move and eye holes to look out of.  Pylon elects to spend some downtime trying to figure out the gear mechanisms, and clear the statues of brush and vines to try to get a lookout spot.  

Session Notes-  Definitely fun to play with some 1st level PCs again, one d6 roll and it could be lights out.  I was surprised the guys elected to get their PCs raised instead of just rolling new characters, I think the debt may be a bigger deal than they think as I intend to use the training rules RAW and that is rather pricey.  We will see how the numbers flesh out.  

Treasure and XP-  Monsters- 3x Fire Beetles 32xpea., Gecko 145xp. Treasure- gold bird mask- 80xp= 321xp/4 PCs= 80xp each. Add % bonus if applicable.

Graveyard-  Garrick Thislteflare- Triggered a trap and fell down the brass shaft in the hidden step pyramid.  (session 127) raised by the nearby cleric, indebted to 1500gp.  Alignment changed to NG.

Ard- Killed by Fire Beetles in the hidden step pyramid.  (session 127)  raised by the nearby cleric, indebted to 1500gp.

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Nappendixia Campaign 3.0- Session 126

 

Nappendixia Campaign Session Report

Session #-  126 Session Date-  4/3/26

Time Passed-  7 days

Roll Call-  Godhard- C10

2x P5 hench

Harry- T9

Laurentis- C9

20 Lt Cav

Adventure Log-  The calm at Fort Dawnbreak is disturbed when gnomish scouts approach the camp and tell them of an approaching army of gnolls heading right for their camp.  However, a gnomish army of 300 is chasing them down and Godhard offers 100 men as support to meet the gnolls outside camp and hold them until the gnomes can arrive to help end the threat.  Harry unsuccessfully tries to use his charm to further improve relations, but comes out of the negotiations with a new gnome thief henchman.  The following day, the army is readied outside Dawnbreak and the gnolls break against this anvil as the hammer of 300 gnomish picks surround the gnolls and they are routed.  Relative safety returns, and the generals leave the battlefield to rest and prepare for an exploratory party to head out and reveal new hexes in Godhard’s domain.  After resting and provisioning on the 4th they head out to the hunting village led by the Obad Hai cleric, and then on to the gnomes they discovered south of there, hoping to link the 2 groups of gnomes together and create an alliance.  They make their way to the rustic gnome village in the hills, and parley goes well, but they have no new information to share.  They are happy to know of the other clan of gnomes and wish to meet them.  Harry also does some digging as to what kinds of goods could he potentially make a profit from if he procured it for the gnomes.  The next day they stumble across a hidden castle filled with brigands, likely the rest of the force they had just recently dispatched in the caves south of Dawnbreak.  They retreat quickly and no brigands give chase, noting the place on the map.  They then move northeast to explore the hexes beyond the brigands former cave complex, and stay with the old cleric in the tower they met previously.  After resting, they encounter a group of aggressive stags protecting their herd, but seeing them from a distance keep a wide berth and avoid getting charged.  Searching in a misty depression behind the old cleric’s tower they discover a hidden hollow, amongst the dense brush there they find the tip of a step pyramid jutting from the crumbling earth and twisted shrubs.  They find a secret door gaining access to the inner chambers, and decide this is a job for future adventurers, perhaps Godhard can acquire some newly minted adventurers to explore this hidden complex some time in the future.  Nearby they come across a small dirty village nestled amongst some swampland.  The villagers are cold but neutral to their relations.  They continue revealing hexes in Godhard’s NE corner, and on the 7th parley with a powerful Ki-Rin hiding out in a sandy spot amongst the terrain.  He is taken by the LG nature of most of the party and offers to grant one favor should they need it.  After another day of exploring and mapping, nothing of note is found, but the entire NE of Godhard’s area is mapped.  They head back home and arrive on the 8th, and rest on the 9th.  

Session Notes-  It was a cool session, we ended up running the gnome/gnoll battle at the 1:100 scale.  Godhard put 100 of his troops on the line and the gnolls took many swings at them, had any landed and slain the 1 human fighter in the combat, all 100 of his troops would have perished.  It was fun quicky way to roll out a mass combat and still have some significant stakes in the game.  The part where the guys find the pyramid step dungeon entrance was actually a city of 60,000 we rolled out from the random terrain table.  In rationalizing why there has been no indication of a city of 60,000 all this time, I suggested and they agreed that it’s actually a hidden underground city that will have to be revealed by dungeon exploration that eventually leads to the underground city.  This is in perfect alignment with module B4 the Lost City, a module I have been hoping to drop into the campaign at some point.  The players were interested in the idea of restarting the game with some fresh new 1st level characters, and B4 is a great start for new PCs.  We agreed to start that in our next session, so expect some new 1st level guys next report.  Above is a map Godhard made of the hexes revealed this session.  

This would be a great time for new people to join in, so if you are interested in playing reach out to the discord or the blogspot-  https://discord.gg/YTaA2q2APr  https://fantasticwargameswmass.blogspot.com/ 

Treasure and XP-  Monsters-  100 gnolls 5060xp  Treasure- 700ep, 800gp (1150xp)= 6210xp/3 players= 2070xp per player.   Must share xp evenly among PCs brought, tip out henchmen at least 15%.  Add % bonus if appropriate.  

Graveyard-   4 Med Cav, 5 Lt Cav- smashed by Hill Giants outside Fort Dawnbreak.  Stigr (will be raised by Godhard) and more Med and Lt Cav- Blasted by Fireball from the Brigands M/U outside Fort Dawnbreak.  (session 122)

Laurentis of Red Frontier- turned to stone by a Medusa in the Ghost Tower. (session 123) Recovered with a Flesh to Stone scroll. 

20x H Foot- Killed clearing out the Brigands cave complex.  These brave men defeated over 100 brigands.  (session 125) (many will be raised by Godhard over the coming weeks)

Nappendixia Campaign 3.0- Session 125 AD&D

 

Nappendixia Campaign Session Report

Session #-  125 Session Date-  3/27/26

Time Passed-  5 days

Roll Call-  Stigr- F7

Godhard- C10

2x P5 hench

Boyo- C8

Merv- M/U5

60 H Foot

80 L Foot

20 Cavalry

20 H XBow

Adventure Log-  The party decides it is time to do something about the Brigands in the forests to the south.  Their Leprechaun ally returns from trying to steal the brigand wizard’s spellbook- unsuccessful but he does give some good intel about the Brigand’s cave complex, and about their numbers and leadership.  They bring what they think will be overwhelming numbers, and a detachment of their available PCs and position themselves near the brigands with the use of a hallucinatory terrain spell.  They eventually reveal themselves, and the brigands retreat into the caves to mount a last defense.  The party starts sending in waves of troops, 10 abreast into the wide caves, choosing their heavy foot to go in first.  They cut through wave after wave of leather clad brigands, enduring charges and volleys of arrows.  Eventually they fall, just before a large cavern where the next squad is charged by two squads of cavalry and the last squad of bowmen.  They resist the charge and slay them in the countercharge.  The bowmen surrender and the caves are cleared.  Meanwhile, the leadership of the brigands comes out of a secret entrance and mounts a rear attack on the party of PCs while the brigand leader and the brigand wizard escape to fight another day.  They use good spell deployment along with fighter’s might to take them down, eliminating the brigands from this land.  They liberate them of a large amount of magic items and some treasure, but clearly the leader and wizard have made off with the best treasure.  Still quite a haul, they head back to Fort Dawnbreak.

Session Notes-  I had such a busy and long week at work and home that by the time Friday had arrived, I was so certain it had been two weeks I went ahead and posted a session announcement even though it’s really an off week from our schedule.  2 players showed up and we decided it was a good time to take on the brigands.  I offered to do this on a different night where we could prep up a battle and run it as a minis battle, or we could abstract things a bit and try to grind it out tonight.  They chose the second option and I rationalized that the troops they brought could be fed into the cave complex at a 10:1 scale and we would run the troop vs troop combat that way.  We used the weapons vs AC table and it was meaningful in a few combinations.  We also saw the impact of weapon speed in that we had many rounds of simultaneous initiative.  It was a pretty cool and fast way to grind through what could have been a tedious combat.  Plate and shield is awesome vs 0 level dudes.  After that we ran a  second combat of all the PCs vs the brigand leadership.  We ran that combat theater of the mind, but as RAW as possible.  I do find I hit a fatigue point after about 1 ½ hours of running straight combats RAW, but with more practice I’m getting better.  The guys got a nice haul of magic items rolled from the table for leveled NPCs.

The brigand's captured caves

Treasure and XP-  Monsters-  120 Brigands, Brigand Leaders- 3x F4, 2x F5, 2x F6, C6= 4017xp  Treasure- 2000cp, 3000ep, 22 gem 10x 500gp, 12x 50gp, 780gp, 20x arrow +1, Sword +3 Frostbrand, Sword +1, 20x Bolts +2, Splint +4, Xbow of Speed, Ring +1, Hammer +2, Shield +1, Mace +1, Potion- polymorph self, extra heal, 7x prisoners, 40x camp followers, 10x s. bowmen= 18,690= 22,707xp/ 2 players= 11,354 per player.  Must share xp evenly among PCs brought, tip out henchmen at least 15%.  Add % bonus if appropriate.  

Graveyard- 4 Med Cav, 5 Lt Cav- smashed by Hill Giants outside Fort Dawnbreak.  Stigr (will be raised by Godhard) and more Med and Lt Cav- Blasted by Fireball from the Brigands M/U outside Fort Dawnbreak.  (session 122)

Laurentis of Red Frontier- turned to stone by a Medusa in the Ghost Tower. (session 123) Recovered with a Flesh to Stone scroll. 

20x H Foot- Killed clearing out the Brigands cave complex.  These brave men defeated over 100 brigands.  (session 125) (many will be raised by Godhard over the coming weeks)

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