Nappendixia Campaign 3.0- Session 140

 Nappendixia Campaign Session Report

Session #-  140 Session Date- 8/28/26

Time Passed- 1 week

Roll Call-  Ralph- F1

Pentagon- C2

Ard- M/U3

Bakarit- I1

Trotter- R2

Adventure Log-  The party is hired by the mysterious Anastasia, who says she can lead them to the fallen dragon Slither’s treasure.  She brings a party of other adventurers with the PCs and leads them off east to a ruined keep in the forest.

Pentagon’s Journal-

“I have decided to depart from Atagon’s service and forge off on the path of an adventurer, spreading Pelor’s word along the way.  My fellows have proven themselves to be true and courageous, and I pray for Pelor’s strength to bless us on our journey.  We are off to locate a fallen dragon’s treasure, I wonder if my efforts are pure.  I pray I am on the right path.”

(Pentagon was torn in half by carnivorous apes while the party rested to enter the dragon’s lair.  His body was crudely and hastily buried as the surviving party prepared to delve the lair.  Such is the life of an adventurer.)

Session Notes-  Back to school and I’m beat.  I washed out early on in the game and just kicked back and listened to the session.  Hope the bros scored big.  

Player Session Report-

We met this broad Anastasia at the Broken Sword in the Merchant's quarter. Claimed she had looted the Tomb of Durkha Durkha, whoever that was. She was dressed like a noble though, so it must've been a big haul. She said she was looking to make a big score and needed our help. "Say less", is what I thought. I just needed a few more gold pieces to train. The party sure wanted to say a hel of a lot more.

We agreed so she introduced us to the rest of her crew. Greenbeard the half-elf Initiate of the 2nd Circle led a party of two adepts Tut and Ankh who worshipped some god named Apophis (never heard of him) and a veteran named Teal'c. The other crew had a less clearly defined leader. Two adepts Phobos and Deimos who worshipped another god I wasn't too familiar with named Hermes and a  pair of magic users Affelnar the Theurgist and Zarinthar the Prestigidator who seemed like a master and apprentice pair (Affelnar was clearly the most experienced). Green Beard was apparently a local but the rest definitely looked like foreigners to me. Instantly my compatriots wanted to scrutinize the fellows down to the last detail. Pentagon cast some sort of detect evil spell and whispered to us that the clerics, magic users, and even our patroness were red hot. It didn't much matter to me.

We set out later that day, joined by a pair of drivers named Fred and Frank. The trip was smooth sailing for the most part. As we approached the keep, a pack of wolves eyed us but didn't decide to mess with our caravan. It seems all the carnage of the recent weeks left their bellies full. By the time Anastasia told us we were getting close to the keep, the sun was starting to set. I didn't want anyone running off with the gold in the middle of the night, so I convinced the group to wait until the morning to delve. My mistake.

As we were settling into camp, we heard a rustling in the tree canopy above. Turning we were faced with six giant apes staring us down with hungry eyes, licking their chops in anticipation. As I rushed to pull some fine sand out of my belt pouch, the apes jumped down from their perches and attacked the party. One of them bit me! In the chaos, the druid shouted something and most of us were caught up by plants and held fast. I was pissed until I noticed the apes were caught too. The fighters in the party finished the apes off. A few yards away we found the young watching in horror. We put them to rest too. Unfortunately Pentagon our trusty cleric was ripped to shreds in the carnage and so were Zarinthar and Deimos. More cuts for me, I supposed. 

That morning we set off for the keep. The druid was able to blaze a trail, and soon enough we were standing on the precipice of a ruin. Anastasia cleared away some vines and revealed an entrance that led below. After spending some time to make sure the coast was clear, we roped down into the belly of the beast. Looks like this spot was where those damned apes came from. We mucked around in their lair and found some gems. They gleamed pretty bright once you cleaned the dung off 'em. Anastasia was apparently familiar with the place, and was able to point out a secret trap door while we messed around. We pulled the stone to the side and roped down to another level. 

About this time, Anastasia started freaking out. This was apparently where the gold was supposed to be. All that was left were some arms, armor, a potion, and a pearl. I scooped up the potion in any case. The druid had one just like it, and he claimed it was a potion of animal control. There were a few mangled giant ant corpses amongst the horde, so, with the druid's help, we figured they must've been the culprit. Taking a look around, we found yet another hole leading down. 

This one was an old well that had apparently gone mostly dry. Anastasia was the first down and the rest of us followed. We entered into a long tunnel that we followed for probably a hundred feet until we found a side passage. We figured the ants must've built this one, so we took it. After a few winding curves, we found a pair of chambers. About a dozen ants found us! I quickly quaffed that potion, blindly trusting that druid, and it turned out he was right. The ants were immediately turned docile. Whoever wasn't got their head bitten off. 

We took a look around and Anastasia let off a sigh of relief. Looks like this was Slither's horde. Well, at least half of it. The other chamber was filled to the brim with pinecones. Seems this was the ant's food. We continued on following the tunnel until we found another pair of chambers. This was the queen's room. My ants made short work of her and her minions. Apparently I was their new "queen". She was sitting on a huge hoard of coins, so, as Anastasia started greedily packing them away, I split from the party and followed the tunnel further until it sloped up and towards daylight. I was so relieved not to have to climb those ropes again.

About that time, I started getting the itch to explore a little further down here, but I was worried my new ant friends would realize that I wasn't their queen. I mirrored myself and led them into one of the pinecone chambers and Ralph set them ablaze, cooking the ants. It smelled awful in there.

As the rest of the group loaded up sacks full of coin, I slipped away with Ralph to take a look at the rest of this place. That tunnel we had originally been following led us to a huge cavern with a pool at the bottom. Suddenly, Ralph jumped into the water! I don't know what's wrong with that guy, but something isn't quite right about him. It didn't take me long to gather we were dealing with a group of nixies, and luckily the druid spoke their language. We were able to convince them to let go of Ralph as long as we gave them some of the copper. I was going to leave it anyways! Bakarit decided to be the one to deliver the bag. He said he probably had a better chance at resisting their charm. Yeah right. As soon as he heard their call, he fell for them hook line and sinker. The nixies let go of Ralph, claiming they held up their end of the bargain. To free our little illusionist friend, we'd have to pay them more copper. Great.

Ralph came up with a plan (that probably worked better in his head). We tied a rope around him and sent him charging back towards the cave with even more copper. Like a fish out of water he jumped right back into the water. We tugged hard but he was fighting back! I put my back into it and we pulled him out, but the poor guy was unconscious. Apparently they had a giant catfish in that pool and he was fish food. 

The nixies weren't too happy we had taken him again and demanded another copper payment. Luckily Slither had a penchant for the coin and there was plenty left to go around. This time we just left the copper in the shallows away from that pool. They reluctantly let Bakarit go, who was a little disappointed himself. A couple of hours later we emerged back into the sunlight laden with coinage. After being shaken down from some sylvian spirits (were they centaurs? Satyrs?) for six gems and a bunch of ant eggs we made it back to the fort that evening. Anastasia dealt out our shares at 1,811gp a piece. I claimed the pearl too and some of my buddies claimed the various arms and armors. Later we headed to Atagon and had him raise Pentagon from the dead. He's not getting off that easy! Luckily I now have just enough gold to train. Now I just need to find Boldvay. 

Treasure and XP-  TBD

Graveyard-   10x Gnomes killed by Guidon’s Brigands cavalry charge into the siege camp outside the western brigand Keep.  (session 134)

109x Troops of the Coalition of the Good killed at the assault of the Brigands Western Keep (session 135)

30x Lt Foot, 180x H Foot, 30x Lt Cav, 30x med Cav, 15x Crossbowmen (Coalition of the Good troops), Zalde- M/U5, Seth F6 (raised/failed, permanently deceased), Foyt- M/U5 (raised) killed at the siege of the Loc-Nar forces at Atagon’s ruined tower. (session 136)

Pentagon the cleric killed by Brigands outside the gnomes keep.  (session 137) (revived, 1 week bedrest)

Pentagon the cleric slain by carnivorous apes outside Slithers keep lair.  (session 140)

Nappendixia Campaign 3.0- Session 139

 

Nappendixia Campaign Session Report

Session #- 139 Session Date- 8/14/26

Time Passed- 8 days

Roll Call-  Hex Crawl Party-

Roland- P5

Bakarit- I1

Fletch- F5

Ralph- F1 hench

Pentagon- C2

Trotter- R2

10x mounted Archers

Sandpit Dungeon Party-

Ralph- F1

Bakarit- I1

Ard- M/U3

Trotter- R2

Pentagon- C2

Adventure Log-  Julystein final Wrapup Post-

The Triumph of the Coalition of the Good

A great timber beam is raised across the southern road into Ft. Dawnbreak, set on two posts and wrapped with garland. At dawn a bull is slaughtered beneath it and the meat is burned.

The Host Returns

The whole of the Coalition's strength forms up on the road and passes under the beam in column, every man with his head covered. They go through in silence. On the far side the covers come off and the shouting starts, and it does not stop for some time.

The Yoke

The surviving goblins and the brigand prisoners are brought up last and made to pass under the same beam. They are not bound afterward.

The Procession

Spoils taken from the enemy keep are carried up through the fort on carts — arms, standards, a fire drake head on a pole. Godhard rides at the head on a plain brown horse, in a wreath. Walking at his shoulder is a settler from the Gorge Hamlet in his working clothes, holding a second wreath above the high priest's head and speaking to him without pause the entire length of the route. The army follows, and the army is howling abuse at him. Every man in the column, the whole way up, and nobody stops them. Some of it concerns the high priest's horsemanship. Rather more of it concerns a week spent in a tent. Godhard does not respond and does not appear to mind.

Guests Under the Sun

At the gate the Patriarch dismounts and receives each foreign leader personally — Ted Nugent of Sunrize, YoinkusGrandPoobahsmasher The IV of the Rustic Gnomes, and Diana of Myrina — naming each a guest under Pelor's protection and setting a crown of green on each head with his own hands. Crowns are handed to every man and woman at the tables.

The Silent Course

The first dishes are eaten without a word spoken anywhere in the fort.

The Reckoning

Godhard then speaks the business aloud in front of everyone:

• The gnomes are paid what they were promised for the defence of the fort, and spells are handed across in the open.

• Terms are set with Sunrize: Hex 2414 will be left as untouched wilderness, though an exception will be made for defensive improvements such as roads and fortifications.

• Myrina's offer of fealty is answered: The Many Mothers must swear fealty to Godhard but they will govern internal affairs within Myrina.

• A new sheriff is named for Cowpens, Curtis, in the presence of Atagon, who is crowned beside the Patriarch and named as the man who put the Loc-Nar off the world.

• All will be called to settle disputes at the Thing during the Summer Solstice.

The Atonement

Godhard kneels and communes for some time in full view of the tables. Whatever answer comes, he rises, calls Diana of Myrina forward, and lays hands on her. A light comes off the two of them bright enough that the men at the back stand up.

The Fire Goes Out

At dusk every flame inside Ft. Dawnbreak is extinguished, including the chapel light, and the fort stands entirely dark for about an hour — long enough to be noticed from a considerable distance. Then a single fire is struck in the tent chapel by the young priest Meinhard, and carried out from his hand to relight the rest.

The Feast

Everything after that is loud and rowdy, and goes on until dawn breaks. 

8/14/26 session-

In the aftermath of the war between good and evil, Godhard gains recognition as a leader in the area.  Through troop and scout movements and reports from local villagers he is able to get information on terrain and inhabitants of the southern part of his domain, as well as some reports of nearby undead lairs.  Banking this information, he sends out a mid level party to explore the unexplored SW of his region.  After several days of exploration and mapping, they reveal the area to be drier, mostly scrub, rough, and plains, with some forested areas.  They are interdicted twice by a group of 17 ogres, but keep their distance and avoid encounter.  In the area they discover a N town of 4500; they make some introductory diplomacy with them and spend the night.  They also discover a CG village of 200 who receive them coolly, wary of the lawfulness that paladins bring to their lands.  Probably the most interesting thing they discover is a lone Illusionist hermit living in the wilderness.  Bakarit is able to make very friendly relations with him and finds a future trainer and mentor.  After 5 days in the field they return to Dawnbreak to rest.  With his entire hex now revealed, Godhard can now begin the task of clearing out lairs and planning construction for his keep.

Sandpit Dungeon Delve-

While resting, the low level guys find out that in the aftermath of the battle at Fort Dawnbreak, a group of goblins made off with several bolts of very valuable fine silk from their raid on the Merchant Quarters and are offering a reward for their return.  Bakarit is able to add to this rumor that while travelling to the fort he had seen a group of goblins descending down into a sandy area carrying some large bundles.  They quickly put 2 and 2 together and plan a delve into the nearby Sandpit Dungeon which up until now they have heard only vague rumors that some more powerful adventurers deemed the delve not worth their time.  They gear up and get to the locale, about a mile of scraggly pine nestled among low dunes of sand.  At the lowest spot they find a sand clogged hole, and Ard lowers himself first into a sand covered cavern, 2 piles of bones knit together into a skeleton and attack, as 2 more creep forward, the party pushing through the upper hole as fast as possible.  Ard holds them off with a mirror image spell, and the fighters smash 2 skeletons and Pentagon chases 2 more away with his holy symbol.  They consider chasing the fleeing skeletons down a natural stone stairs going east, but instead elect to finish exploring the larger cavern, where they avoid some fire beetles and giant rats, and find a small rear chamber containing 2 zombies which they turn and chase into a dead end staircase filled with sand and finish them off.  A small amount of treasure and some possibly magic arrows are found.  They search the NW part of the cavern and trigger a spray of spikes trap and a subsequent charge from 5 angry weirdly evolved bird men.  Their double talon attacks are quite formidable, but 3 fall to a sleep spell and the other 2 are brought down.  Three fine rubies are found on their meager garments.  Feeling like the larger cavern has been cleared, they move east carefully hoping to locate the fleeing skeletons; they also find a few scraps of filthy silk discarded here, and carefully avoid another trigger trap on the crude staircase.  The passage narrows and they continue east, opening into another large chamber, this one even larger, and containing a large pond fed by underground streams flowing SE.  They are besieged by giant ants, but defeat them, and notice a strange carved stone door that they avoid.  To the east they find another set of rough stone stairs, and again evidence of soiled scraps of silk leading down the stairs.  Before they can follow they are hailed by a group of gnomes who are stuck and lost down here, they ask for assistance and promise a reward.  They oblige them, tired from being sand covered and breathing the dusty air for hours.  They rescue the gnomes and make it back to Fort Dawnbreak.  

Session Notes-  We got a new player this week, so that was good to get some new player energy and make the party more robust.  I didn’t over-prep in anticipation of a new player, but I did finish off the Sandpit Dungeon, the “other” low level dungeon I'd given rumors on but had gotten no interest so far.  I figured a hook of some sort would have come in the aftermath of the big battle, and came up with the stolen bolts of silks, as the goblins actually had raided the merchant quarters looking for loot.  I figured at least one band would have escaped with some valuables.  They took the hook they didn’t have to.  This map took me no time at all, just improvised it and all rolled off the DMG dungeon level 1 table.  I did swap the dire corbies in for some orcs that I had actually rolled.  They just piqued my interest recently when I was browsing Fiend Folio, they seemed fun, tough, and were.  I think DMs can neglect the usefulness of just browsing the monster books in AD&D and only refer to them when needing a specific monster.  I’ve come up with several cool ideas recently just browsing the monster books.  I do recommend taking the time to do a little cross hatching border for your hand drawn maps, if anyone else still does this. Though tedious, it does really help make them pop and more fun to use.  

Treasure and XP-  Monsters- 4x Skeleton 44xp, 5x Dire Corby 145xp, 2x Zombie 100xp, 2x Giant Ant 88xp= 377xp + Treasure- 3x ruby 750xp, 5x Arrow +1 20xp, 100sp/20xp, 300cp/3xp, 50gp, 300ep/150xp= 1053xp.  Total 1430xp/5PCs = 286xp each.  Add % bonus if applicable.  Hench get 15% of their PCs xp.

Graveyard- 10x Gnomes killed by Guidon’s Brigands cavalry charge into the siege camp outside the western brigand Keep.  (session 134)

109x Troops of the Coalition of the Good killed at the assault of the Brigands Western Keep (session 135)

30x Lt Foot, 180x H Foot, 30x Lt Cav, 30x med Cav, 15x Crossbowmen (Coalition of the Good troops), Zalde- M/U5, Seth F6 (raised/failed, permanently deceased), Foyt- M/U5 (raised) killed at the siege of the Loc-Nar forces at Atagon’s ruined tower. (session 136)

Pentagon the cleric killed by Brigands outside the gnomes keep.  (session 137) (revived, 1 week bedrest)

Nappendixia Campaign 3.0- Session 138

 

Nappendixia Campaign Session Report

Session #-  138

Session Date-  7/31/26

Time Passed- 1 week

Roll Call-  The Goblins and their Dragon leader Faction

Atagon and the Sun Shard Order Faction

Fort Dawnbreak Faction

Guidon's Evil Brigand Faction

The Amazons of Myrinna Faction/ Kenny’s Cave Hideout 

Adventure Log-  Julystein Week 5 Events and Wrapup-

• 7-24

• A Gnome courier is spotted riding to and then later from Ft. Dawnbreak.

• 7-25

• 9 tall glowing angelic figures hover motionlessly above Ft. Dawnbreak, all facing the South East.

7-27

• Many decades of Gnomes march to Fort Dawnbreak.

• Work begins at Fort Dawnbreak as the men begin shoring up the fort's defenses under the watchful eye of Wolverinius and his angelic host.

On Friday

A Haunting Dream

• The men of Fort Dawnbreak wake up restless. During the night, each stalwart defender was shown a disturbing vision of their death at the hands of the Loc-Nar's horde!

Rock Slide!

• In the early hours of the morning, a great rumbling can be heard. The face of the mountain SW of Fort Dawnbreak slides away, revealing a ghastly sight. Carved into the rock are the massive busts of the four holders of the Loc-Nar: Guidon the Reaver, Slither the Dragon, Xena the Imperator and Diana the Chosen!

The forces of the Loc-Nar create a green glowing cloud blocking off Fort Dawnbreak from the south, rumors are the cloud increases defensive power.  The forces of good are plagued by nightmares foretelling their doom, 3 nightmares harm the forces, each more horrible. Both sides recon and mount their troops and the forces of Dawnbreak make defensive improvements to their fort, anticipating an attack by the evil army.  

The evil army chooses a direct assault in view of the Mount Rushmore of Evil that has formed on the horizon.  A throne of carved stone has been prepared for the Demon Bear to observe the battle.  The Fort Dawnbreakers prepare for the assault.  The opening order of battle is as follows-

 The evil army moves out of the green cloud of defense only to find the fort has been surrounded by sharpened posts- anti-cav barriers.  The ogres move forward and start ripping them out but are quickly smited with fire by the fort’s angelic host.  The firedrakes fall shortly after from the same fate.  The reconstructed body of Slither flies over some cavalry setting up a flanking charge and scares them off the field.  The goblins breach the walls of the merchant quarter and start looting.  The head angel then moves forward to engage Diana and Xena who have the Loc-Nar.  The demon Bear- watching from the mount evil throne summons a Type IV demon to assist the evil forces.  The angel makes Diana’s enchantment falter, and she drops the Loc-Nar.  The summoned demon tries to telekenese the artifact away, but is quickly imprisoned deep below the ground by the angels.  Atagon tries to plane shift the Loc-Nar off Nappendixia, but it resists the magic.  As the mass combat ensues, and the evil army tries to breach the walls of the fort, the elite forces fight over the Loc-Nar.  The demon places a symbol of Discord amongst the scrum, and the group falls to bickering and random fighting.  The crab men do great damage with their lasers, but on the second attempt Atagon is able to plane shift the Loc-Nar, using a special tuning fork he helped create with the help of the gnomes.  Guidon the Weasel escapes despite the angels trying Power Word Kill on him as he flees.  The Loc-Nar rises and is bathed in positive energy, and a planar portal opens.  However, right before it enters the portal to be locked away on a positive plane, the Demon Bear rises and shrouds the Loc-Nar in a small field of negative energy and announces that the forces of good may have won for now, and that there were no one on this plane worthy of the Loc-Nar.  It will be banished to a positive plane, but it does have the ability to figure out how to escape.  It is only a matter of time before the Loc-Nar’s evil will be released again.  He tells them that the portal will remain open if they ever want to try to enter and truly destroy (or wield) the Loc-Nar they can by entering the plane and travelling through several other worlds to try to find it.  

Session Notes-  DM notes from the final battle-

• I resolved the main force versus the fort and the goblins vs the Nuge seperately, counting down until the Loc-Nar was banished. The amazon and brigand horde was slaughtered by a combination of spells, missiles, and bombs. Only twenty amazonian heavy foot and sixty brigands survived. Meanwhile, the Nuge lost forty light foot while causing the goblins in the merchant quarter to surrender.

The board has changed fairly significantly. The Amazonian army has been crushed and Diana has been humiliated. Atagon’s Sun Shard Order is in tatters and the Radiant Tower was destroyed. Godhard and the Iron Company lost a great deal of troops at the battle at the Radiant Tower. The Nuge also suffered heavy losses, but made a good friend in the process. The Gnomes have overtaken the western keep and have plans to explore and grow in the art of illusion. Brigand’s were scattered and humiliated. Slither and his Goblin horde was eradicated. Guidon lives to see another day. 

Excerpt from the DMs Substack post- read the full post at-

https://seeardstapa.substack.com/p/the-war-for-the-loc-nar

What worked

One thing that worked for me during the Slime War and that I carried over was Owlbear. It’s such a simple yet flexible virtual tabletop that made tracking orders so easy. I’m a very visual person, so seeing exactly where banners would interact was extremely useful. One thing that I did that I also found helpful was importing a blank version of the hex map into Owlbear and then adding the icons for the various locales there so that if a village was razed or a castle was destroyed, I could update the map in real time. I also added various faction banners (inspired by Mike’s Urf V campaign) that let me keep track of who was in control of what. We also ended up with a number of large (one-thousand plus man) battles with an average of fifty to a hundred figures on each side. Using Owlbear, I was able to keep track of these seamlessly. I’m a huge fan of theatre of the mind, but these battles were a great example of where TotM is lacking and I was very thankful to have a player-facing solution to the problem.

One thing that I learned from the aftermath of the Slime War was to keep better track of orders. I know Google Forms is at the cutting edge of orders taking (Joshua is using them to great effect in Spacestein II), but I went a little old school this time and just kept a document open in Google Docs where I pasted all of the factions orders that were submitted through Discord player channels. From there, I created a calendar of events and convergences that would happen throughout the week that really helped me visualize what was going on and when. Finally, for each minor battle, I created a new tab and kept strict records turn by turn that I could share with players. This is another thing that I regrettably did not do during the Slime War that really came back to bite me.

SeriousDM’s SEEN posts played a major part in the Braunstein. I really didn’t have to beg for these. Thankfully, the elite players were almost overjoyed to share what they had been doing in their orders, and they led to a number of great memorable events that wouldn’t have been shared otherwise.

What didn’t work

Regrettably there were some things that just didn’t work out the way I had intended to. One of those was scaling. I used some of Macho Mandalf’s guidance on scaling, and, to be fair, it works great when you’re fighting figure to figure in these mass thousand man battles. I used some fairly aggressive scaling during the braunstein to cut down on the number of figures and it really did speed up the bulk of the resolution. This may just be a skill issue, but whenever you blend spells or higher hit dice monsters into the mix that also have their own abilities and spells, it can get over-complicated fast. In the last battle, we had a host of high level PCs, planetars, devas, and even a solar face off against demons, a horde of crab-men, ogres, and fire drakes — not to mention over thirty figures of men-at-arms on each side! In the end, we just had to narrow our focus to the main actors of the battle in session and afterwards I zoomed out to resolve the mass combat. If you had a Saturday afternoon and a cooler of beers at an in-person session to game this out, it would be one thing. But packing all of this into a snappy two-hour discord session was just a bit much. Thankfully, the players were very patient with me as we resolved this, but I felt that regrettably not every player was as involved as they could have been just due to the time it took to resolve each round.

I understand the intent behind nine-sided alignment, but in practice it’s all just “good vs evil” and “law vs chaos” and that was very much reflected during the braunstein. While setting up the braunstein, Boldvay and I worked to make sure that just about every alignment was represented as a faction. I intended for this to lead towards a free-for-all for the Loc-Nar. Naturally, this didn’t work out, and the factions merged into the Coalition of Good versus the Axis of Evil. I really don’t blame the players. Our real world is very much black and white like this in many ways. Maybe having all eight of the factions at each other’s throats the whole time would have helped cut down on the number of figures participating in the four mass combats that we played out. And maybe this was just the result of bad refereeing on my part. Who can say?

Player Perspective- from the player who plays Trotter and ran Atagon’s faction-

What I did on my July-Stein Vacation:

I play in the Nappendixia campaign and like many other places in the summer of stein, we held a Braunstein in July to shake up the status quo. It began as a weekly-orders deal but quickly evolved into something closer to always on.

Report:

In our regular sessions I play Trotter R1 named after what Tolkien almost named Aragorn. We've been taking missions from Atagon NG C9 at the Radiant Tower, a cleric's tower to the SE of the largest safe settlement in the area, Ft. Dawnbreak. Mostly we've been delving a pyramidal megadungeon. But that all changed in July.

I took command of Atagon, his maybe 50 infantry and cav along with the militia of a small village nearby, Cowpens, loyal to the cause led by a F6 named Seth.

Real AD\&D is also a book club. I learned that the original patron player for Atagon modeled him and his tower after the same-named characters in "Changa Nor" a short story by Harold Lamb about Cossacks discovering a mysterious isolated tower in the steppes. It rocked. Never read Lamb before. Easy to see how he inspired Robert E. Howard. Here's the other piece of this. Learning what fiction other players are reading, be they friend of foe, motivated me to plough through this story because it would give me greater insight to the Secondary World we were playing in. And it worked.

Since I've observed in other steins that turtling gets you punished, I decided to be aggressive which was in character with Atagon anyway and seek out the evil brigand fortress to the west. I amassed troops, began plotting the assault and recruiting allies while trying to find a way to harass their supply lines and setting up contravallation to prevent them from sortie against us early.

The macguffin: I practically ignored it initially apart from casting Commune to try and find it. Other players were sweeping over hexes for it. What was it? The Loc-Nar, a la Canadian animated film Heavy Metal, which was spawned by a satanic giant space bear. Not good.

Late the following Tuesday my tower was greeted by a Bandit Raiding party. Yikes. They didn't test the fortifications (Motte and Bailey style) but they posed a problem for me communicating with my forces without.

I sent Gord, R6, out in the night. Fortunately was able to hire a MU5 just before this. We silenced and invisible him and then had him stalk the raider camp at night, killing those who were relieving themselves in the bushes in the most gruesome way possible. SEEN framed this as a vengeful spirit from the swamp and it worked. The raiders bugged out. For now.

We continue preparing the assault on the Brigand fort to the west, however the Brigands return a few days later now with ladders and more men to assault Atagon's Tower.

We elected to run this play by post. I need to reflect on our triage of battles to session docket vs play by post I think we mostly got it right but there was a deeper rhyme and reason for what worked.

Of course, a black dragon appears. My only hope is to slay it. The tower was meant to keep people out from the ground, not from the air, moreover, the villagers (120 laborers and tradesmen) were vulnerable in the bailey. My only real weapon apart from a few pot shot fireballs and an aging ballista is an artifact of Atagon's religion. Waning in power, but it just might do the trick. Just as the first sprays of chlorine gas start billowing down into the village, I blast the dragon sending its husk to the ground. As soon as I can I hit the invading brigands with Insect Plague and seal myself in a secret inner chamber with my trusted bodyguards. When we survey the damage later that day, most of my men and villagers are lost. We retreat by Lamasu (courtesy Godhard of Dawnbreak) to Dawnbreak.

Later in the week a band of goblins assaults Cowpens but my milita there holds them off! We capture several and question them learning not very much. Actually I think a couple of them might be tied up in a barn somewhere still now that I am writing this.

Gnomes (ugh) arrive at the siege camp and agree to help us dig.  Atagon and retinue arrives at the siege camp and pays handsomely to have the gnomes forge a perfectly made B# tuning fork of silver. I wonder why?

We draw up battle plans to assault the brigand fortress now that, after our like 5th divination, we think we can take em. The fortress is huge but we have some tricks up our sleeve.

Speaking of divinations, the ref pointed out I was using them as often as Xenophon and that seemed right to me.

Key to the assault are some gunpowder bombs (gunpowder doesn't work in Amber but we're far from it, it seems) made by Kenny the MU, somehow.

We blast the doors and try to take the inner gate. I mistake I made in command that almost cost us the battle--but did cost us time as some of the mass combat slogged -- was not rushing some men, at the expense of free attacks from the brigands, to the gate to open it and allow cav to enter. A wind elemental appeared and wiped most of my light foot before I could Flame Strike it. At that point, the player controlling the evil MU leading the brigands bails and a mano-a-mano fight begins in the inner courtyard against one of their high level Lts. The forces of good prevail but at what cost?

We find later that laborers we left in our siege camp have all been killed by what appears to be dragon chlorine gas. Did the black dragon survive?

We pick up the pieces and return to my tower only to find it occupied by brigands! And an undead dragon!

And so begins a new mass combat session. This time scale adjustment helped prevent a slog in addition to realizing when the key elements of a battle were decided and the rest, which matters for unit head counts, could be gamed out by post.

I missed the very beginning of this one due to my children, however, it appears that Atagon and another Pelor worshipper prayed and their prayer was answered by a Solar!

These guys are insanely overpowered. But I had to play them to character. They arrived because the Loc-Nar was there and was a threat.

Actually... the only thing that makes sense is to destroy the very place where the Loc-Nar was being held. The Solar, who for some reason looked like Wolverine, started casting Earthquake (a 1turn spell!) on the Tower to make it come crashing down on the evil occupants.

Seth get's polymorphed (I can't remember how or why) into a Bronze Dragon. His exhilaration at flying through the air is cut short by (I think) a lightning bolt or something and he plummets to the ground.

In vengeance, the undead dragon gets made dead again by a power word.

More craziness ensues but we somehow get the bad guys to retreat and the tower comes crashing down on the rest. The Loc-Nar escapes us though. My tower is destroyed!

We roll to see if Wolverinius the Solar sticks around and he does. But I decide he's just going to loom in the air high above Atagon and daily gate in a Planetar until we have a host of angelic forces just silently hovering in the air like the trailer to Death Stranding.

I send Gord, who now has a cloak of Elvenkind to scout in the direction of the enemy. It appears they have another keep!

No mass combats and a schedule conflict so we decide to grab our level 1 characters and explore the area, especially looking for riches and unplundered-plunder. What we find turns out to be basically a hook from the Good the Bad and the Ugly but the Bad being played by Amazon women turned into giant green ogres. Yikes! I'm sure the Loc-Nar is to blame.

Gord returns to Ft. Dawnbreak, where we have all rebased, and reports that the enemy has a contingent of Crab People armed with magical arm guitar lasers.

Atagon gets a nice tan-- like Carry Grant, not like spray on. This was Wolverinius the Solar granting Atagon the ability to survive in the Positive Energy Plane... if it comes to this.

Gord heads off to find Ted Nugent, who is the leader of a ranger, kind of woods people camp to the west. He and the Nuge become fast friends and talk at length about responsible bow ownership and the virtues of armor piercing rounds. The Nuge and his retinue come to Dawnbreak as scouts start reporting a host approaching.

We prepare for a climactic battle as Atagon's trump card is finally ready-- the tuning fork, a very important material component in Plane Shift.

We set booby traps and what not around the fort. The Nuge hides a contingent of his men in the nearby market village on the hill.

The dragon reappears! And chases off our cav held in reserve. It turns out this was an illusion, but don't count on the Planetars to start shouting that down to you, they have bigger fish to fry. Namely the Crab People and Amazonian Ogres whom they begin Flame Striking relentlessly.

Meanwhile, Atagon and Wolvernius secretly go invisible and the Solar carries Atagon to the vicinity of Diana, Amazon Queen and Holder of the Loc-Nar. I imagine the Solar carrying my aged priest like Shaggy carries Scooby Doo.

The Solar attempts to psionically mass dominate Diana to get her to drop the Loc-Nar (he and his ken will not touch it or use Wish to do crazy things to it directly). But he fails!

A Type IV Demon Appears! And casts Symbol of Discord. This works on the Solar too.

The good guys for now, forget about the Loc-Nar and start bashing Chotic Evil heads.

Wolverninus Imprisons the Type IV Demon. --Hey guys, there's a Type IV demon buried at the foot of the hill where sits Ft. Dawnbreak... and that spell is reversible...

A choir of Devas arrives and telekinese the Loc-Nar into the air (for some reason it was flying away like Thor's Hammer). They hold it in place for Atagon to approach. He casts Plane Shift... but he has to touch it... will he be corrupted like the others? Naw Atagon is rock solid man. He resists and sends the Loc-Nar to the Positive Energy Plane-- my thinking here was if anything the positive energy might destroy it or at least all the beings there would be too Good to do anything but seal it away. I thought about other planes but they just seemed too high risk.

The Loc-Nar passes through a portal that opens. Atagon expects to be pulled in or to have to escort it. But it goes on its own. The portal changes color. The evil space bear makes a speech and the campaign landscape is forever changed.

We need to get the band back together and see where that portal goes!

There's still casualty reports coming in so this isn't even a clear picture of the ending.

Player Perspective-  from the player who runs Kenny and ran the Amaon faction-

1. Long Term Consequneces: Amazons are giving half their treasure to Ft Dawnbreak and the Iron Company to comapnesate for their chaos and blood shed. (Amount will be looked up soon). They will also promise fealty to Godhard or Boyo if Godhard will not take it. With Gabriella dead, Xena steps down and throws herself into random fights wandering the land, seeking death. Diana is the true leader and lauded for trying to stop the Locnar even if it took her over. The amazons turned into orcs and female goblins turned into orcs are tolerated as long as they do no evil ...EVER....but the male goblins are driven from the village. Giant Evil Mountain overlooking Ft Dawnguard with a large portal King of the Hill Giants was turned into a monster and returned to his dungeon (pretty sure he is still alive) The Guano Cave is set up as a regular source of sulfur and most of the remaining Tower Guard return to Wight Box Canyon, Kenny is recommended building the rail from barter town to Dawn Guard.
2. Curing the Last Week: Dreams (known), Shielding Fog (known), Created Sapient Illusions of previous enemies of the company but only Slither remained for final battle; Summoned 20 crab men with laser rifles (now in the dungeon)
3. Kenny ordered his men to add a cav barrier, spiked covered pits, and a special secret trap 10 archers waited for the enemy to pass, attack and then run to a hidden chamber with a trip wire gunpowder bomb trap.

So the Julystein has concluded, it went great, extremely well-run by an elite player.  The Seen posts worked great, gave evidence of actions but kept mystery, and the difficult mass combat resolutions were well planned, scaled, and the visual aids were a huge help.  I feel like 5 weeks was about as long as it could/should be sustained.  There were a few railroad moments but the vast majority was player driven spontaneous actions that caused further situations to be attended to.  The Loc-Nar developed powers on its own as it encountered play, our first rules for it were very basic, but by staying true to the film lore the Loc-Nar ended up being a very cool mcguffin.   We changed the game landscape through braunstein play, and set up several hooks to be played with in the future.  It was tiring, and I didn’t even do that much.  We could have used a few more players to avoid some people running multiple factions, but we just don’t have the player base currently, and I don’t overly recruit this game, I tend to wait for interested people to come to the campaign on their own.  That being said, do reach out here at the blog if you are interested in participating, either as a regular player, casual player, or faction player.  

Treasure and XP-  The Planetars get all the xp lol, treasure TBD.

Graveyard-  10x Gnomes killed by Guidon’s Brigands cavalry charge into the siege camp outside the western brigand Keep.  (session 134)

109x Troops of the Coalition of the Good killed at the assault of the Brigands Western Keep (session 135)

30x Lt Foot, 180x H Foot, 30x Lt Cav, 30x med Cav, 15x Crossbowmen (Coalition of the Good troops), Zalde- M/U5, Seth F6 (raised/failed, permanently deceased), Foyt- M/U5 (raised) killed at the siege of the Loc-Nar forces at Atagon’s ruined tower. (session 136)

Pentagon the cleric killed by Brigands outside the gnomes keep.  (session 137) (revived, 1 week bedrest)