Nappendixia Campaign 3.0- Session 131

 

Nappendixia Campaign Session Report

Session #-  131 Session Date-  5/29/26

Time Passed-  2 days (5 days upper level group)

Roll Call-  Trotter- R1

Pylon- G F/T1

Ard- M/U1

Pentagon- C1

Primus- F1

Adventure Log-  The session begins with an expedition by the higher level party exploring the SE of Godhard’s future domain.  Much of the terrain in that area is revealed, including a small range of mountains connected to a small dry desert, and a forest that shows signs of a goblin lair.  They avoid the lair with their swift horses, and believe they scared off some pegasi in the desert on the way back.  They benefit greatly from the newly built road that connects Dawnbreak into the domain area to the south.  They also discover a small thorp of NG villagers that share that the goblins often travel north through the swamps and seem to be beholden to a stronger monster somewhere north of there.  After 5 days in the field they return to Dawnbreak to rest.  Meanwhile Kenny finishes his gunpowder research and begins setting up his lab to produce a 6d6 bomb every month.  

Meanwhile the low level party uses their downtime to think about the rotating corridor with the strange symbols they discovered lower in the step pyramid.  They manage to figure that the symbols correspond to compass directions and the corridor can be spun in that direction by pressing the proper symbol.  Pylon also is able to retrieve a nicely cured stirge beak from his forest hiding spot.  They set out on the 29th to delve the step pyramid again.  They make it to the Brotherhood’s area again and have continued good relations maintained mostly by Primus.  They agree to allow 5 Brothers to accompany them on their search of the next level down.  They begin by working their way around clockwise searching the corridors beyond the rotating area.  First they locate a locked door, and smashing through they discover the stairs back up to the next tier.  Next they discover a corridor that ends at a door and pushing it in they disrupt a ritual being performed by mages of Usimigaras.  They see Primus and the Brothers in their Gorm garb and immediately rush forward to attack and begin casting.  Missile fire disrupts several spells and takes down several mages.  Both parties get off Sleep spells and all of the Brothers as well as Primus are brought down, and several mages are sent to sleep by Ard’s spell.  Later in the fight, Ard and Trotter are knifed quite badly, and 2 sleeping Brothers are given a coup de grace, but the remaining mages are slain and their leader gets away by casting Hold Portal on the door blocking his retreat.  The battle over, they rest and search, finding a hidden compartment in the stone altar in the large room of the mage cult.  Pylon opens it but fails to find the poison needle trap and perishes right there on the floor.  They collect treasure from the altar- gold coins, a magic mace, a wand and silver masks from the mages.  The injured party polices their dead and returns to a dismayed Brotherhood, then back to Atagon’s tower to rest and mourn.  

Session Notes-  There is truly a psychic/spiritual connection between Appendix N fiction and the AD&D 1e rules.  I have been wanting to reread the PHB and DMG to really affirm my rules knowledge and run tighter games.  Instead last week I dug into appendix N fiction, reading The Phoenix on the Sword, the Mound, and Jewels in the Forest, and I ended up running a really tight, rules forward session.  In each of those stories I saw direct connections to the rules Gygax wrote.  Helmet rules, thieves using slings and not bows, light rules, time and encumbrance- all have direct roots back to the old Appendix N fiction.  I will this summer target getting back into the rulebooks, but don’t neglect the impact of having fresh doses of Appendix N rolling around in your brain while you run and play.  Kudos to my elite level players who helped me clarify some rules this session such as daggers going twice on simultaneous initiative, and space required for weapons in respect to marching order and corridor width.  

Treasure and XP-  Monsters- 12 mages of Usimigaras 216xp.  + Treasure-  12 silver masks 240xp, 500gp, large tapestry of constellations 300gp, Mace +1 350xp, wand of magic detection (to be sold later)= 1390xp=  1606xp/4PCs= 402xp each.  Ard gets 1200xp for 12 1st level spellbooks/scrolls.  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.

2 Brothers of Gorm- killed by mages of Usimigaras in the hidden step pyramid.  (session 131)

Pylon- died by poison needle trap in the hidden step pyramid.  (session 131)

Scores from the Brimfield Flea Market 5/16/26

 

Found a real nice complete Dungeon board game that even came with 2 d6 mud dice, X3, and a Wendy Carlos classical synth record.  Also found this beauty in the wild, didn't have the cash on me however.  

Nappendixia Campaign 3.0- Session 130 AD&D

 

Nappendixia Campaign Session Report

Session #-  130 Session Date-  5/15/26

Time Passed-  6 days

Roll Call-  Trotter- R1

Pylon- G F/T1

Ard- M/U1

Pentagon- C1

Primus- F1

Adventure Log-  During downtime Trotter explores the area around the sunken pyramid some more and finds more signs of a small group of humanoids camping in the area.  He finds tracks that lead into the open dungeon entrance.  Also Pylon investigates the body of the stirge he kept, hiding its body in the woods to decay so he can later retrieve its strange proboscis.  After unloading some treasure and upgrading some armor at Fort Dawnbreak, the party travels south to the dungeon entrance.  They narrowly avoid a group of giant lizards along the way.  After getting there, entering, and staging down the open flagstone floor trap, 2 hobgoblins are surprised when they open a door into the central chamber.  Trotter and Primus pepper them with missiles while the rest of the party climbs down the rope into melee, slaying them.  They search around a little more, and find the Brothers of Gorm.  They present the hobgoblin scalps, and request a few Brothers to help hunt down the remaining monsters Trotter had tracked topside.  The request is granted, and they emerge with 3 Brothers armed with chainmail and longswords.  They are able to track down another group of hobgoblins, initially one who is quickly slain by a well placed arrow.  Two more are defeated while hunched over the body of their comrade.  They follow the tracks to the densest part of the wood, and creep forward in the foliage.  Five more hobgoblins charge out to attack, but are fallen by a well placed sleep spell from Ard.  They gather up the scalps and some treasure from the main camp, interrogating a spared prisoner to find the small group has been tasked with investigating the pyramid, but were lost in the wilderness for weeks, and unsure how to handle the nasty denizens inside the structure.   They plan to pass this information on to Atagon.  After returning with the Brothers and resting, they decide to head down into the next level to explore.  They are allowed to access the next level through the trap door down into the Brotherhood's sacred ceremonial room.  From there they access a hallway that ends in a door with a strange symbol and button adjacent to it.  They carefully investigate it and check it for traps, and eventually open and enter the door revealing a 40 foot corridor that also ends in a door.  On the inside of each door they find a larger panel with 8 symbols inscribed, each with a corresponding button.  The gnome uses his stonecraft to realize the inside of the doorway is slightly curved, and intuits that the hallway can likely be made to pivot.  They close the door and try to engage it, choosing the 4th symbol.  It rotates 180 degrees.  They exit the trick hallway into another corridor that also ends in a door. Pushing it open, they find an unused ruined temple containing a large gliding lizard.  It leaps to attack, but is stymied by the party’s attacks and is eventually cut down despite resisting Ard’s sleep spell.  They find a thief’s corpse with some treasure in his pack, and some fancy teak holy symbols.  Laden with the treasure they return to the cleric’s tower to rest and consider finding some hirelings.

Session Notes-  We got into it with some rules this session, checking our knowledge on surprise rules, missiles during surprise, gnome abilities, parry rules, and spell descriptions.  Several players stepped up with rules knowledge/adjudication.  It’s so great as a DM when players know their rules, especially ones that come up frequently.  Keeps the game flowing and RAW attended to.  

Treasure and XP-  Monsters- 10x Hobgoblin 320xp, Draco Lizard 200xp= 520xp.  Treasure- 40sp, 40gp, 50pp, 200gp for HG scalps, 400gp, 2x gem 100gpea., teak symbols 75gp= 1167xp= 1687xp/5 PCs= 337xp 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.

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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