Sunday, June 12, 2022

Nappendixia- Mar-Millor 2.0 Campaign

 This is a log of a 2 month solo rpg I ran to flesh out and test out a second companion campaign setting I'm calling the Nappendixia Campaign in obvious homage to the literature of Appendix N.  This campaign is set in Greyhawk, in a hex adjacent to the Mar-Millor hex, but I'm adding more sword and sorcery flavor in this hex, and introducing a 1:1 time campaign using AD&D RAW.  There is lots of movement between to 2 campaigns, they are basically 1 large campaign, one being more module driven, and 1 being more emergent story, random die rolls driven.


Nappendixia- Mar-Millor 2.0 Campaign


Start date-  2/27/22-  6 days food. Chance Taylor (level 1 fighter), Tom Shroud (level 1 assassin), Dougal the Red (level 1 magic user), and Chance’s archer/torchbearer hireling Perry materialize outside the hilltop and cave opening of B1- In Search of the Unknown.  They investigate the tower atop the hill first, defeat 3 giant centipedes lurking inside and find 15 gp in the litter of the room.  They rest and reconnoiter from the top of the tower.  They observe no activity overnight.


2/28/22-  5 days food.  The party enters the Caves of Quasqueton, is warned by a Magic Mouth triggered in the first corridor of the dangers of the dungeon, and defeat 6 Giant Rats in the kitchen with a Sleep spell.  They find a jeweled dagger (100gp).  They search the next room, find a secret door back to the hallway, and find some silver mugs and a pitcher (30gp), a silver chain (25gp).  They then fight 2 kobolds attracted to their attempts to bash down a door.  They find 7gp coins on the bodies.  The party decides to leave, rest, and rememorize Sleep.  They leave and sleep and watch from the tower overnight.


3/1/22-  4 days food.  Back into the dungeon, no random encounters.  They investigate the door that they did not check last time.  They have to bash it three times to open it, alerting the 7 orcs inside.  The party wins initiative and drops a Sleep spell, taking them out all at once.  After searching the room they find 120gp, a dagger and a longsword, which Chance takes.  Concerned there may be more orcs, the party decides to return to the outpost to resupply and possibly hire another mercenary.  They travel half a day, make camp along the trail that evening, and arrive at the outpost at noon the following day.  7 orcs= 106xp 120gp=xp = 226xp.


3/2/22- 3 days food.  Arrive at the outpost at noon.  Perry is gifted the silver pitcher and 5gp, and he trades the pitcher and 1gp for some studded leather.  Chance resupplies him with arrows and the party resupplies on food.  They put word out they are looking for another hireling.  10 days food.


3/6/22-  6 days food.  They locate a new hireling, but decide to go on 1 more exploring trip before hiring her, hoping to find a little more treasure to be able to buy her some better armor.  At the outpost they get a rumor of a cave 5 miles northeast of there that may contain a natural spring.  They travel to the cave entrance, and set up a watch to see what comes and goes.  A brownie greets them, hiding in a nearby tree.  He knows that a giant gecko lives in the cave and uses the natural spring as its lair.  He offers to use his magic skills to assist the party in defeating the creature and splitting its treasure.  They scout the cave and see 4 killer bees that buzz about the entrance of the cave.  They decide to rest and plan an attack in the morning.  


3/7/22-  5 days food.  No encounters overnight.  The party approaches the bees at dawn with torches, surprising them.  The brownie casts Mirror Image on Chance before he approaches the bees in melee, which proves valuable.  After that combat, they make a plan to have Chance go into one side of the cave and use his voulge to provoke the water and hopefully the lizard while the missile firers of the party enter the other side to get shots off.  It charges at the voulge, but Dougal puts it out with a Sleep spell.  Tom quickly executes it and they drag it from the cave without making much of a mess.They spend the next few hours assessing that the water in the cave is fresh potable spring water, and diving to the bottom of the spring to collect the lizard's treasure.  This will prove to be a boon of resources to the Outpost, as long as it can be guarded.  In all the party collects 300gp and a suit of exceptionally light (likely magic) chainmail armor.  Dougal is lightly wounded searching the cave, being scalded by a vent of hot steam that vents periodically from a crevice in the rear of the cave.  A cold rain begins to fall on the walk back to the Outpost.


3/8/22  4 days food.  Chance decided to don the likely magic armor.  It is not cursed and turns out to be Chain +1.  He then hires and equips Morgan Steelpanther, 0 level mercenary, with Chance’s old Splint mail and morningstar, and purchases her a new shield from the smith.  750xp treasure, 244xp monsters, 331xp each.


3/10/22  2 days food.  Hire on at the Outpost.  In exchange for room and board, Chance and Dougal hire on as night watchmen and Tom hires on as a scout/spy.  He is immediately dispatched on a scout mission and will be gone for 1 week.  Chance, Dougal, and Perry rest from the recent adventure.  The party now has room and board expenses covered and will no longer have to pay for food while employed at the Outpost.  The party meets Naima Vance, a cleric who comes to the Outpost to assist as a healer.


3/13/22  Dougal is still out on his scouting mission, but Naima Vance tells the party of a tomb to the north of the Outpost that may have been disturbed.  The party agrees to investigate.  They arrive after an 8 mile trek north.  They detect some Giant Centipedes lurking at the entrance to the tomb.  They smash 2 and chase the third deeper into the tomb.  About 20 feet of corridor opened up to the crypt room filled with multiple bodies wrapped in webs and suspended from the ceiling.  Amongst the slowly moving hanging corpses 6 Zombies emerge.  Chase goes to light the webs with a torch, hoping to ignite all the zombies, but is surprised by a Crab Spider.  The crab misses, and he still manages to ignite the webs, damaging the zombies.  Morgan, the newly hired henchman, is killed by a zombie, and Naima misses her chance to turn undead.  Dougal drops a Sleep spell, and takes out the remaining centipede and the spider.  The party smashes and burns the rest of the zombies and kills the sleeping creatures, but not before Naima is injured by a zombie.  On the corpses of the webbed bodies they find a Potion of Healing, 10 +1 Arrows, a silver dagger, 80gp and a 200gp gem.  Chance takes the weapons, and Naima is given the gem, and the other 2 split the gp.  Treasure xp= 525, Monster xp= 350  292xp each.  Safe travel back to the Outpost that night.


3/27/22  Working at the Outpost for over 2 weeks, Chance, Dougal, and Naima are tasked with checking on the Spring and securing it for permanent use.  They are given 5 0 level men to assist.  (studded leather, spear, shield).  It’s a warm day for March, but a heavy rain falls with light winds.  On the trip out they find wild bull tracks, but no creatures.  Later on however, they encounter a group of killer bees (6), likely remnants of the hive that was distrubed in the cave.  The party waits and lights smoky torches, but the bees remain hostile and block the way.  Dougal casts Sleep on the bees, and 5 fall asleep, and Chance slays the last with an arrow.  They make it to the cave only to find a wild bull has begun sheltering here.  They decide not to provoke the bull especially without the sleep spell.  They hope the creature is not too large to be affected by the spell, and retreat ¼ mile back and camp overnight, hoping to take out the bull the next day.  


3/28/22  The party awakes after an uneventful night out.  The rain ended overnight and the weather remained seasonably warm.  They locate the bull outside the cave, cast Sleep and it succumbs.  They quickly slaughter it, and assess its meat.  It is of good quality and 3 of the men begon butchering and dressing the meat for travel back to the Outpost.  The party and the 2 other men begin setting up a permanent camp in and around the cave spring, hoping the local bee problem will be manageable.  They will spend 2 days setting up camp, gathering wood, building fences, etc.  Bees- 192 xp, Bull- 156 xp= 348xp= 116 + 12xp bonus= 128xp/ PC


Thus ends the first month of the Nappendixia Campaign-  Chance Talon level 1 fighter 950xp, Dougal the Red 1st level magic user 950xp, Naima Vance 1st level cleric 408xp, Perry level 0 torchbearer, located at the Outpost, and Tom Shroud 1st level assassin 542?xp location unknown 


4/8/22  After 10 days the party and the guards secured teh Spring Cave, building a wooden gate and fence around the cave mouth, and clearing brush from the area and gathering wood.  The 3 spearmen returned from the Outpost with 2 more men, and supplies, and the fort and a rotation of guards was set up.  The 5 spearmen went out on a patrol yesterday 4/7, and never returned, they are presumed dead or injured.  The party investigates at first light.  Following their patrol path they begin to hear something, and Dougal, making his Lore roll, quickly instructs everyone to cover his ears.  He believes the sound was a Harpy song.  The men are never found.  The party and 2 remaining men decide to head out on one last patrol of the area, mindful of a harpy song, then trek back to the Outpost to report on the missing men.  On this patrol, they encounter a scene of combat on the NW edge of the patrol loop.  Claw marks and errant feathers mar a scene with 2 centaurs holding spears frozen solid in stone form.  Dougal correctly assesses that the scene was caused by a Cockatrice, and that there could likely be a small tribe of centaur nearby.  With so much new information, they make it back to the cave and rest, pondering how to protect the cave in this dangerous area.  200xp for Dougal.  

4/9/22  Naima and the 2 spearmen depart to the Outpost.  Arrive safely and find out that Myfar, the Magic user and head of the keep has returned from an adventure, along with his second in command Leontas, a high level thief.  Pelador, a fighter and part of the Outpost leadership, was in charge this time in their absence.  He is the head of the guard for the Outpost.  Miir, Myfar’s apprentice, was also assisting in leading the Outpost, and made contact with Dougal as a source to train for new levels.  Chance has done likewise with Pelador.  Naima tells Pelador of the fallen 5 spearmen and the signs of the harpy and the cockatrice and the centaur.  He offers 2 footmen with spears and 2 light horsemen armed with crossbows and longswords to aid in guarding the Cave, but he could spare no more.  He tells Naima that the party must make a plan to defeat the harpy, and to limit patrols from the cave to the Outpost and avoid the NW where the cockatrice was detected.  They rest and return to the cave in the morning.  


Personnel of Fort Turjmir “The Outpost”

Myfar- M/U 11 Leader

Leontas- Thief 9 Assists running the fort

Miir- M/U Myfar’s apprentice

Thuuma- Assassin 8 Spymaster

An-Mar the Dervish- Ranger 6 Scout

Pelador-  Fighter 5 Leads the Militia

Naima Vance- Cleric 2 Healer

Turjmir Militia- 12 H. Horse, 13 L. Horse, 14 H. Foot, 12 Crossbowmen

150 Villagers, 6 Merchants/Staff  Income- 50gp/month, Militia cost-  173gp/month -143gp/month


4/10/22  Myfar begins a 2 week dungeon digging project with 10 workers he brought back to the outpost with him from his recent trip.  Naima, 2 H. Foot, 2 Crossbowmen, and An-Mar the Dervish head to the Spring Cave, planning on tracking down the harpy.  They elect to take the 2 spearmen, Dougal, Chance, An-Mar, and Naima to find the harpy.  Perry and the 2 horsemen stay to guard the cave.  After half a day the ranger caught a track of the harpy and tracked it to a ruined, overgrown tomb.  They observed all night, in the morning they noticed a baboon hanging about in the trees fairly close to the lair.  An-Mar used his ring of Mammal Control to befriend it, and realizes that the baboon is deaf, hence its ability to live near the harpy safely.  The baboon, after being fed and befriended, shows the party a hidden opening into the rear of the ruined tomb.  They plug their ears with wax and bandages, and try to surprise the harpy, but fail.  Despite the bonus for plugged ears, the spearmen still fail their saves and begin approaching the harpy.  The fighter does a little damage to it, and it hits him back.  They harpy slays the spearmen, but while gulping a hunk of flesh from their bodies the ranger and fighter manage to get in 2 good hits and take the vile creature down.  Her hoard is a scroll with 4 spells- Ray of Enfeeblement, Phantasmal Force, Animate Dead, and Invisible Stalker, a Sword +1 Flametongue (currently unidentified), 3,000sp, and 100gp jewelry.  Naima heals Chance.  On the way out the party is not surprised by some fire beetles hanging about on the walls, and quickly eliminates them with oil and flame as they were concentrated in the front entrance of the tomb.  505xp harpy and beetles, 1150xp treasure and sword, 414xp each, 1,600 to Dougal for the scroll.  Safe journey back to the Spring Cave.  Dougal levels, he will train for 1 week with Miir in exchange for the 5th and 6th level spell.  Training ends 4/18/22.  Dougal gets a ride back to the outpost with the horsemen.


4/23/22  Dougal returns to the Cave from training with Miir, meanwhile Chance and the menat the Cave have been improving the fencing.  Horse patrols have been frequent, and the cave is being made as a second stable/watering hole.  This new operation will attract more horses and possibly horse trainers if maintained for 1 month.  The centaur village to the north is located on a longer range patrol.  Chance does a preliminary scout of the village but makes no contact.  Chance gets 500xp for the scouting mission discovering the centaur village, and running guard patrols at the Spring Cave.  He levels and places Dougal in charge of the fort.  He goes to train for 1 week with Pelador.  He pays him 150gp and 6 months free labor running patrols and maintaining the Spring Cave.


Centaur Village-  24 males armed with clubs, bows, shields, lances, 48 females, 21 young, located in a hidden grove north of the Spring Cave, clearing in the grove houses 30ish huts and a few ramped watch platforms centered around a spring fed pond.


5/2/22  Myfar finally settles into his new stronghold and looks at his ledger books.  He realizes the stronghold is only taking in 50gp/month from its meager villagers, and the inn and the stables each take in roughly 25gp/month, so the outpost makes 100gp/month, but the militia costs 173gp/month to maintain.  Seeing that the H. Horse cost 73gp/month, he orders them to stand down this month, gives them 2 weeks R&R and sends word to the capitol that he has 12 H. Horse available for duty in exchange for something that benefits the outpost such as more frequent supply visits, better rates on crops raised etc. The costs incurred from the past 2 months since the H. Horse have been fully trained are offset by Chance’s training payment to Pelador.  The outpost is operating at a net profit of 1gp/month (slightly more until the outpost can fully replace the 5 H. Foot recently lost on patrol.  They will have them fully replaced in 5 weeks from 4/8, so May 13 all 5 will be replaced with new H Foot.

 

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