Red Frontier Campaign Session Report 34

 I was fortunate enough to run a session in the excellent Red Frontier Campaign that I am a part of.  Here's a rather verbose session report.  Check the Red Frontier link for more.

Red Frontier Session Report

Session #- 34 Session Date-  1-20-23

Time Passed-  2 days adventuring

Roll Call-  Beacon- Cleric 1 NG

Cindy- Fighter 1 CN

Robin- Ranger 1 CG

Alfred- Fighter 1

Laughing Fox- Druid 7 TN

3 Power Station Henchmen- Lt Foot

Adventure Log-  In a Sub Basement of the Power Station, a deep shaft is discovered behind a stone wall extending many stories

down.  It seems ancient, and climbers plumb its depth, revealing a temple or dungeon complex of some

kind.  The structure appears so old the bedrock it was carved in has shifted to a 30 degree pitch.  The

climbers reach the bottom, discovering a wide antechamber with a wide passage heading north, upslope.

  A call goes out to what remains of civilization in the Red Frontier, a need for adventurers to explore it

and assess its danger.  Over the week 5 adventurers gather, 4 very green- Cindy and Alfred (fighters)

and Robin the ranger and Beacon the cleric.  Also Laughing Fox the druid, a known hero of the land

arrives, and the people at the Power Station hope he can guide the new adventurers to success. He has

the wherewithal to bring some of the sci-fi gear given to the party by Boldvay, and the new recruits arm

themselves with plasma pistols, a few force fields, a bunch of glow sticks, and they have one of the

henchmen carry 5 incendiary bombs.  After gearing up on rope, spikes, lanterns and torches, the Power

Station forces give the party a scroll of Find Traps, and Beacon gratefully accepts it.  They descend the

shaft and assemble their marching order and check their surroundings.  They notice a large closed eye

laid out on the floor in mosaic tiles.  The 20’ wide passage slopes north, several alcoves and east-west

passages are observed.  The fighters take the front and the henchmen are kept in the rear, fixing spikes

and ropes occasionally along the sloped passage. They first encounter some statues of tentacled creatures

with a large eye for a head, examining them closely the right one is seen to have some kind of clay pot

with copper tubing attached to the base of the statue.  They avoid touching it.  Beacon the Cleric recalls

from ancient theology the Chaotic Evil god the Eyeless Void, a powerful entity that spans many worlds

and is worshiped by insane cults.  Up the corridor it has an east west passage heading 20 feet in each

direction and ending in a door. On the floor is another eye mosaic, this one with the eye ¼ open.  The

door to the east is lined with yellow stone and closed, the one west lined with red stone and smashed

open, the wood dry and splintered.  Avoiding whatever may have smashed the door, they opt to go east,

looking ahead along the northern corridor and seeing more statues in alcoves and wanting to avoid

those.  Laughing fox bypasses the locked door with a strange, yellow stone keyhole with a warp wood

spell, bending the doors timbers.  They enter a complex of a corridor and a few rooms, all lined along

the floor in yellow stone.  They enter the largest room of the area and encounter some kind of silver

screen hung on the wall, framed in bronze.  There is a desk with a few buttons on it and the screen

comes to life, and the room is bathed in yellow low light emergency lighting.  The screen and desk begin

to hum, but before they can examine, a swirling shadowy shape, somewhat manlike, begins swirling

violently around the room and attempts to gaze it's strange shadowy eyes at the party.  The plasma

pistols are effective against its form, but very hard to hit.  Some damage is done, but it manages to gaze

at Cindy and Neil Young the henchman twice, aging them 10 years per gaze.  A Faerie Fire spell from

Laughing Fox made the vision easier to hit and they are able to destroy it to shadowy nothingness.

  Searching the room they find a yellow stone key and an arcane scroll (later revealed to be Darkness).

  Now able to better look at the screen, it appears to show a few other locations in the complex, the words

“In-House Monitor” are displayed across the screen.  It shows a room bathed in blue light with some kind

of cylinder with antennae on it, and a red lit room with a hallway leading out, in that hallway the party can

barely make out a staticy, near invisible man shaped figure moving down the hall.  They look on the desk

and see a box with many buttons, and a switcher device with 3 settings.  They click the dial, it changes to

a different setting, “Nexus Located” displayed across the screen, and they see images of their hideout in

Red Frontier, and that same hideout location, but in a different time or place.  Then they see the

underground location of the Stargate to Jull-Nar in the Red Frontier, and then that same location in

another time or place, this one covered in giant spiders.  It cycles through those images over and over.

  They opt to click the 3rd position, and the screen goes to static, and the message reads “Seeking Outside

Source”, and a circle icon begins spinning.  Not liking where this is going, they quickly click back to the

inhouse monitor, cover the monitor with some found ragged bedding and leave.  They go to the last room

in the yellow area, a locked door with fancy carved woodwork around its door frame.  It reveals a kind of

treasure room, an alcove across the back wall with a chest in the center, columns on either side of the

alcove of beautifully carved women in white stone.  Sensing a trap, Beacon reads the scroll, and the

pillars to indicate to him some kind of trap, but not a standard mechanical trap.  Unsure what to do, they

prod at the chest and the columns, nothing happens until robin moves in and grabs the chest, causing the

columns to come to life, becoming flesh and holding razor sharp scimitars they had been discreetly holding

at their sides.  The party loses initiative and Robin is struck down, dropping just to death's door.  Laughing

Fox casts heat metal on the ladies' swords, and Beacon tries to cure Robin, but is also struck and the

spell is disrupted.  He perseveres, and gets the heal off next round when Laughing Fox engages with his

magic spear.  Robin is saved and the Caryatid Columns are defeated after dropping their searing hot

weapons.  The chest is untrapped and reveals a dagger, a wand, and a nice haul of gold and electrum.

  Robin wields the dagger revealing it to be +2, the wand is arcane but unknown (later revealed to be a

wand of illusions).  Wounded, and laden with treasure they elect to return to the shaft, extract the treasure

, and rest, heal, and rememorize spells.

Refreshed on Saturday they return.  They decide to tackle the smashed door of the red lined section, anticipating

the staticy figure.  They come to a 4 way intersection and spot the figure to the north.  They attempt to parley

, but the creature seems to have no response, it approaches so they attack.  Again Laughing Fox uses

Faerie Fire to illuminate the barely visible creature, greatly aiding the party.  The rest of the party tries to

pelt it with pistol fire.  It’s hard to hit but a few make the shot.  It reaches out with 2 massive fists and a bite, hitting several with its staticy paws, damaging them, but also sapping their strength.  Alfred and the others

who were wounded immediately worry that the strength loss could be permanent.  They persevere and the

party takes out the Spirit Troll.  They find the room with the screen and desk with buttons that they had viewed

previously, and searching a door off that room set off a nauseous gas trap, much of the party begins gagging

and/or vomiting, nauseous from the gas, they pull back to the previous room.  Beacon does his best to tend

the nauseous and strength depleted, finding the strength to begin returning to the wounded.  The nausea

takes longer, but eventually it ends after 10 turns.  Behind the trapped door they find a room containing the

red stone key that opens the doors in this section.  The other 2 rooms in this section reveal some kind of

bunk area and some kind of eating/cooking area.  They exit the red area via a door north of the smashed

one, figuring they can get back to the main passage and avoid the statues in that hall.  Across from where

they reenter the main passage, they see a door trimmed in green stone.  At the intersection another eye

stone mosaic is laid on the floor, this one with the eye half open.  A little further ahead the main passage

splits east and west.  They decide to use Warp Wood on the green lined door, and do.  They hear scurrying

from the other side of the door, as well as from behind when all their light sources go completely dark.

  Shocked, someone pulls out a Glowstick, and its tech seems to cut through the magical darkness

somewhat, but when Laughing Fox Casts Produce Fire, the magical fire cancels the magical darkness

and the opponents are revealed.  About 7 small wiry creatures in dark ragged cloaks pull out daggers

and attack from the rear, likely the same creatures are beyond the warped door.  Cindy calls for the

hireling to hand up an incendiary bomb, drops it through the door, and boom Blinding light blasts from

the warped door.  At the same time one of the party drops one of the creatures from the rear and again

the creature explodes into a flash of blinding light, blinding him.  A few more of the creatures pop out of

hiding and attempt to pick Laughing Fox’s pocket, one of them getting their hands on the newly found

magic wand. They try to flee.  Laughing Fox throws magical fire at the creatures, slaying several, and

the party takes out the remainder while Laughing Fox grapples and captures one of them.  They find

their cloaks filled with gold coins (about 24gp each) and they find a magic ring (later identified as water

walking) and some valuable jewelry.  With a temporarily blind party member, wounded and spell depleted

, the party withdraws to the surface.  They rest Saturday night at the Power Station.

Session Notes-  This was my first time running in Red Frontier, my first time running someone else’s

campaign world, and first time running for some pretty elite players so I was a little nervous, but ended

up hanging quite well and having a blast!  We played a really long session (almost 4 hours) so I think

everyone was having fun, and I was thankful how deep I prepared because the party grinded through a

lot.  I figured a good way to get my feet wet in Red F. was to have some kind of dungeon for the PCs to

run, I wasn’t ready to run free form in someone else’s game world, the dungeon keeps it contained.  I

figured the Power Station consumed the first 3 “dungeon levels” to this complex, so I stocked my dungeon

as a 4th/5th level dungeon, focusing on ghosty/ planar creatures that could conceivably be sealed up in

a dungeon for a long time.  I figured this would work well since I anticipated having a small party of 2-3

PCs level 6-7, which would have worked.  However 4 1st level PCs and one 7th showed up for the session

, which was awesome, to have a bigger group and to have new people get involved.  I was worried the

session would be unfun and just be 1st level characters getting pounded on by 4th/5th level monsters,

but it worked out.  I reminded the party of the sci-fi gear they had, and they were happy to make use of it.

  I ruled they were rare and special enough to act as “magic” for purposes of being able to affect creatures

only harmed by magic weapons, of which there were a lot in this dungeon.  I was also concerned that a

lot of the creatures in this dungeon had very low ACs, like 2 or even 0.  This wouldn’t be too bad for level

6-7s but very difficult for level 1’s.  They did really well, however, I probably made a few calls on the easy

side, but they used good tactics, excellent spell usage, and perseverance to be very successful.  It was a

very high xp dump for level 1’s, enough for the cleric to double level, but it was a long session, and they

managed to get 2 pretty big treasure dumps in the session.

  

I’ll need to review all the steps to encounters and combats, I did OK running them but definitely forgot

a few things like weapon speed when initiative is simultaneous, that definitely happened a few times in the

session.  I also made a ruling on death and negative HP.  It is RAW in AD&D for death to occur at -10,

but I feel that’s too much and players often take advantage of the rule in combat.  I ruled that you can live

up to your level in negative hp, one more and you’re dead.  So a level 1 is unconscious at 0 and -1,

dead at -2.  Robin hit -1 when he fell, so that fits the rule.  It gives just a little play at low levels for surviving

hits.  The quality of play was excellent, really top notch players having fun, Beacon the cleric did an

excellent job taking the role of impromptu “caller”, reading the room from the party and relaying actions

to me.  Players were focused, funny, and played their roles well.  Excellent spell usage from Laughing Fox

was a force multiplier, the fighters were always up front and willing to take hits for the party, despite

unkind dice.  Robin the ranger was super risky and always willing to take point in lieu of a party thief,

he was amazed he didn’t die!  Really high grade play from everyone.  I look forward to running more

sessions in Red Frontier for these players and others.  I have a little adventure idea that can last just as

long as Elffinder would like to stay on sabbatical.  I love being a player in Red Frontier, but this was a ton

of fun too, and I’ve got energy and ideas to do more!

Treasure and XP- monsters- Vision, Caryatid column, 20 Dark Creepers, Spirit Troll- 4822 xp. treasure and magic items-

13480= 18302 - 5% to the power station henchmen (915) = 17387xp/ 5 PCs=3477xp per PC, add % bonus if applicable.

 The Cleric double levels and will require 2 weeks and 2000gp to train, the other 1st level PCs level and

require 1 week and 1000gp to train.

Graveyard- 

(Death’s Door)- Robin- brought to -1 by the Caryatid Column, needs 1 week bed rest.

Nappendixia Campaign 2.0- Session 30

 Nappendixia Campaign Session Report

Session #-  30 Session Date-  1/11/23

Time Passed-  3 days (1-7 to 1-9)

Roll Call- Mandigor- ½ Elf Fighter 4

Malden- Paladin 4

Gunther- Dog

Gregory- Paladin 2 Squire

Thantas- Elf Assassin 4

Gruumsh- ½ Orc Thief 5

Ulster- Druid 4

Barry the Caveman- Ulster’s Henchman

Captain Caveman- Ulster’s Henchman

Hirelings

Mondius- Fighter 2

LaSalle- Fighter 3

Adventure Log-  The party, having just had a successful battle against the guards of the front gate take the opportunity to run out the front gate of the temple to rest, heal, and rememorize.  They bolt out of the front gate, and get into some low scrubby country to the NE.  They use the cover to make their way back around the temple to their camp in the rocky outcropping.  There they cast their remaining heal spells, eat and rest the remainder of the day.  The following day, Ulster memorizes as many cure wounds spells as possible and brings the party back to mostly full health.  During that day Ulster sends his remaining cavemen down into Highport to observe the temple and see if their attack on it has caused any changes such as new or more frequent guard patrols.  Their primitive features and garb should allow them to scout the area without notice.  They return later that day and report that the portcullis is now closed with the guards spotting from behind the gate.  Also they report that a patrol of 10 orcs has been positioned outside of the temple mainly guarding the 2 exterior doors in the NW corner of the building.  They occasionally walk all the way around the building, but mostly stay in view of the 2 side doors.   The cavemen report that the ruined wooden building in the NE corner would be a good place to gain entrance.  The north face of the building is in a blind spot, and is accessible from the low rocky country they will be approaching from.  The holes in the outer wooden walls could be enlarged to make it possible to enter.  This they do with excellent planning on the following day.  Rested and with a full complement of spells, they make their second assault into the temple.  The room they enter, the ruined room of smashed bunks and falling beams, seems undisturbed from when they were in there 2 days ago.  They move south down the corridor, and the room where they fought the slavers has been cleared, all the bodies removed and the trap door down has been relocked, even though the party left it unlocked.  They decide that this entrance into the underground level is as good as any, and Gruumsh successfully picks the lock.  They climb back down the ladder into the grain room, it also seems the same as it was 2 days ago.  They leave the room and follow the corridor west, back to the area where they encountered the 2 orcs.  Unable to fit through several of the small halfling sized tunnels, they move through the larger passage and send the invisible thief forward to spot.  He sees in the next chamber, 4 7 foot tall ant like creatures and several giant ants milling about on the floor.  Could these tunnels be some kind of giant ant creature’s hive?  Gruumsh reports back to the party, and Malden the Paladin attempts some diplomacy despite not knowing if the creatures speak a common language.  He enters the room speaking orc and trying to use diplomacy with the creatures.  They respond with some unknowing clicks, clearly not speaking an understandable language.  However, as Malden steps into the room to speak, he steps on a sticky trip line, and a net coated in sticky film lands squarely on his head and envelopes him, and the party moves into the room to attack.  Mandigor, Gruumsh and some of the stouter members of the party move in for melee, while an invisible Thantas gets in position to backstab, and an invisible Draden and the hirelings pull out daggers and begin cutting away the sticky netting from Malden.  The thick exoskeleton of both the ant creatures and their giant ant minions makes for a difficult battle, the party’s blows keep bouncing harmlessly off the exoskeletons.  Fortunately their return attacks do not do a lot of damage, so the battle becomes one of attrition, the party’s blows largely ineffective, while the ants slowly chip away at the party’s HP.  Seeing the toughness of the opponents, the remaining party members are called into the melee, and Thantas tries to get off a backstab, but even that bounces off the thick exoskeleton.  The ant creatures have 4 arms, and wield a shield and broadsword on each set of limbs, allowing them to melee 2 opponents at once.  2 blows from one of the ant creatures drops Captain Caveman, but slowly but surely they take out 2 of the ant creatures, then the weight of melee on the remaining 2 causes them to fall also.  The remaining giant ants are smashed and the party is victorious.  In the silence after the long combat, nothing seems to be approaching the sounds of the battle.  They look around the room, it seems to be some kind of juncture point where several of both the smaller and larger tunnels meet and pass through this chamber.  The session ends with the party deciding what direction to head next.

Boot Hill-  We got our Boot Hill mini-game going last week.  That means that somewhere on the campaign map there is a wild west environment.  Perhaps at some point the 2 worlds will meet.  But for right now we are getting the Boot Hill game going.  4 players joined the game, 3 made up wild west PCs and the fourth became the DM, running us through the encounters.  The first crew of cowboys to enter town were The Turnpike Kid, a young aspiring gunslinger, Joe San Antonio, an average fellow just trying to survive, and No-Horse, a Native American with worlds of experience.  We were first alerted to the theft of 100 head of Angus Beef cattle by rustlers.  We formed a posse and headed out after the herd. We discovered that the rustlers were actually Apaches.  After tracking them to Fort Griffin, we found that they had strapped dynamite to the cattle and drove them at stampede pace right up to the front gate of Fort Griffin and detonated the dynamite.  The doors of the fort were blown clean off, and pieces of exploded cattle were everywhere, but the army held fast and fought the attackers back.  They were able to loot horses and weapons from the fort, but as the Apaches were making their getaway they were met by us, hiding low along a ridgeline.  As the fleeing Apache rode right for us, we popped up from hiding and peppered them with shots, breaking the riders and killing 17.  Unfortunately Both The Turnpike Kid and San Antonio Joe were seriously wounded, and will take 3 weeks to recover, 4 other members of the posse were killed.  The army awarded each member of the posse a $75 reward for aiding in the Battle of Fort Griffin.  Later in the week, 2 new cowboys rode into town.  Robert Lee (No Relation), and Tom “Cattleman” Waits.  Both are made aware of a fastest gun in the west contest taking place that Saturday, and both pay the $50 entrance fee and put their life on the line, winner gets $1000.  Each cowboy is placed in a bracket.  Cattleman defeats his first 2 opponents by fatally shooting them, but on his second gunfight he is seriously wounded on the shoulder.  Knowing the injury is too great to continue, he drops from the contest, needing 3 weeks to recover, but claiming 2 single action revolvers from his opponents and a considerable amount of experience.  Robert Lee also succeeds in killing his opponents in the first 2 duels, but gets gutshot on the second duel.  Unfazed, he decides that he is either going to win this contest or die trying.  Despite being gutshot, he takes out his next opponent without getting further injured.  Then he is faced with the other bracket winner- John Carter, pre-Mars, still just a cavalryman.  Faced with the more skilled opponent, Robert amazingly defeats him and wins the whole contest!  $1000 will make it much easier to recover for the next 3 weeks.  With 4 out of 5 of the PCs recovering in bed, the first week's fever pace slows down.  The cowboys eagerly await their recovery and wonder what the wild west will bring them next.

Session Notes-  The session went well, I set the scene of the players back at their camp, then got quiet and let the players take over.  They asked good questions and planned well, and it allowed them to do that at their own pace.  Once they got back inside the temple, the session was largely a combat.  It was definitely a slog, the enemies had AC 2 and the online dice roller was not being kind to the players.  The fighters were hitting on like 12-13 and were missing more than they should, and the assassin had a super low roll on his backstab, but the players managed to keep their morale high.  I was also winning most of the initiative rolls, but the last 2 rounds they won and finally took down the combat.  DM and player perspective on these kinds of combats are often very different.  They fought a totally new kind of monster, and now have something to develop tactics from.  

It was great to get the Boot Hill game going, especially since one of the guys has really stepped up in DMing the rest of us through some cool encounters.  We are doing it mostly through a text channel set up on the discord server, but we have hopped on the chat 2 times to work out some combats.  It’s been a really cool mini-game, mostly text, using Boot Hill 2nd Edition, which is super stripped down but efficient.  We are using the original maps right out of the box, and I’ve acquired and painted up some cowboy and indian minis to possibly set up some combat scenarios with and post pics to the chat.  We had a fun productive first week, but are finding the PCs pretty easily can get a serious wound, which puts them out of action for many weeks.  It’s kind of comical, but probably will cause the game to go through some lulls, but again as a mini-game it’s kind of OK, plus rolling up a new character is easy.  I’m also digging that it’s adding depth to the game world, ala DMG rules for crossing AD&D, Boot Hill, and Gamma World.  I look forward to when the fantasy PCs cross paths with the Boot Hill world.

     Also excited that the patron game is going well.  My LG patron is kicking ass, very organized, creative ideas, he’s been hex crawling and trying to clear a hex near his keep.  He communicates consistently and is making the patron experience a lot of fun.  Two of my players have also dipped their toe in the patron game.  What I’m finding is working is to have them run neutral patrons, it’s less aggressive/reactive, more of a set it and see what happens kind of approach, plus it will be unlikely to conflict with whatever the PCs/party gets up to.  My CE patron seems to have flaked, but I was able to find a reliable and very capable person who has a lot of experience as a patron.  So that puts the patron game in a solid place- 1 LG, 1CE, and 2 neutral patrons, plenty to work with and still room for a few more.  Between getting the Boot Hill thing going, and feeling like there’s better sailing on the patron game, the campaign is really starting to feel more robust.  I’d like to find some more players still, possibly a second party or an open session that anyone could drop into.  I’ve got some feelers out there, but nothing solid yet.  Get in touch if you want to join the Nappendixia Campaign!

Treasure and XP-  Session 30- monster xp- 2234, no treasure. 373 each, those with henchmen- 318 for PC, 55 for henchman

Graveyard-  Larry the Caveman-  died from orc crossbow bolts in the Slavers Hideout.

        Captain Caveman-  died in combat with an Aspis Drone in the Slavers Hideout

Nappendixia Campaign 2.0- Session 29

 Nappendixia Campaign Session Report

Session #-  29 Session Date-  1/4/23

Time Passed-  2 hours (1-7)

Roll Call- Mandigor- ½ Elf Fighter 4

Malden- Paladin 4

Gunther- Dog

Gregory- Paladin 2 Squire

Thantas- Elf Assassin 4

Gruumsh- ½ Orc Thief 4

Ulster- Druid 4

Larry the Caveman- Ulster’s Henchman

Hirelings

Mondius- Fighter 2

LaSalle- Fighter 3

Adventure Log-  We resume the action with the party Face to face with 17 slaves huddled along the wall of a long narrow room.  The 2 half orcs who let them in through the trap door call out and 3 orcs, 1 small and holding a whip and a lantern.  A third half orc stands at the back of the room wearing orc divine symbols and wielding a half orc claymore.  They yell out in orc, only Malden understands, and he translates.  They gruffly ask the party if they are here to purchase slaves, and the party quickly responds with a ruse, saying they are in fact here to purchase slaves for their master Lareth.  Mandigor grabs one of the slaves and begins complaining of their quality, trying to elicit more information from the orcs or be taken to a place with better slaves.  The orcs respond with a planned ruse of their own, the human slaves stand up and reveal that their chains were fake, and they are actually also half orcs.  They pull out daggers from their rags and attack the party with the orcs.  The half orc divine caster begins casting a spell, but the party manages to win initiative and Gruumsh bravely stands in front of Draden, absorbing hits while the mage casts Sleep.  The half orcs are pretty ineffective, but Draden’s sleep spell only puts down 5, still quite a crowd to deal with.  The half orc divine caster takes a wound while casting and his spell is disrupted.  2 of the half orcs appear to have some thief skills, and they both try to use the crowd to hide themselves.  One is quickly spotted and cut down, but the other is lost from view.  Fortunately on the following round, Draden drops another sleep spell, which is much more effective than the first. All of the remaining half orcs collapse in sleep, and the formerly hidden assassin is revealed and taken down, as are the orcs, the caster is slain while again trying to cast.  A small amount of treasure is recovered, as is a valuable ring, 2 short swords and the claymore which could be magical.  After the combat, the party is unsure of where they are in the fortress complex, so they listen intently to see if the combat has caused notice.  Hearing only silence, they assume they did not catch anyone’s attention.  2 Invisibility spells are cast on the thief and assassin so they can explore the corridor beyond the slave room.  The room to the north is an empty ruined room in an outbuilding that must be attached to the fort proper.  There are some collapsed bunk beds here, and the walls and ceiling are rickety and reveal holes out to the outside of the fortress.  It would be possible to break open a hole in the wall here and the party could leave.  The corridor to the south reveals a long corridor filled with dirty water, an absolute no-no for this party; they avoid water and mud like the plague.  Also in the south they find a door leading west, before the flooded part of the corridor.  They briefly discuss making an egress from the fort and resting and memorizing spells, but decide to push on a little more.  Beyond the door the corridor twists around and goes east, where they discover the other end of the flooded corridor, and west where it seems to lead back through the thick stone outer walls of the temple and ending at a door.  Listening at the door they hear a few voices speaking orc, and decide to bum rush the room and take it by surprise force.  They burst through the door with Mandigor leading, and Gruumsh and Larry the Caveman following.  When they smash through the door, they are met with 3 orcs with crossbows behind an overturned table. It’s positioned to give them cover from both the door the party entered and also from the main gate of the temple, a raised portcullis leading out of the temple.  This must be the guards who watch the main gate.  Also in this room are 4 half orcs manning some kind of cart on wheels with a strange contraption on it.  It seems to be some kind of tank of liquid mounted on the cart with some kind of tube or cannon protruding from the heavily armored front.  The orcs are not surprised, win initiative, and quite accurately let loose 3 crossbow bolts that all hit their mark.  Mandigor takes but a mere flesh wound from the bolt, but the other 2 thud solidly into Larry the Caveman’s barrel chest, and he drops dead due to his injuries.  They then yell out “Light the Burna!”, to which the half orcs spin the cart towards the party, ignite something at the rear of the cart, and a gout of flame erupts from the tube at the front, showering Mandigor and Gruumsh in flame.  Neither make their save and Mandigor is grievously wounded, but survives, and Gruumsh is moderately singed.  He chooses to wield the newly found claymore, and it reveals itself to be a +1 weapon.  After the first volley of effective hits from the orcs and half orcs, the party regains the upper hand, they push past the table barriers and rush past the Burna and dispatch all the enemies.  As they are recovering and checking out the strange flamer device, a door opens up by the portcullis, obviously alerted to the sounds of battle.  It appears to be an orc of some rank, better armed and armored than the rest.  He sees he is outnumbered, and makes a run for a rear door that leads deeper into the temple.  He begins to yell out “Intruders!”  but the party quickly spins the burna to face him, and he is eliminated in a ball of flame.  A valuable gem is found on his person, as well as some likely magic bolts.  After another quick battle, the party pauses to see if anyone was alerted, and also looks out the open portcullis, seeing it free of patrols or enemies.  Being very depleted of spells and having several wounded members, the party decides to rush out the open portcullis and away from the temple.  They make it to the rocky outcroppings outside of town and make their way back to their camp to rest, heal, and rememorize.

Session Notes-  So far in this adventure, the combats have largely been easy, but punctuated by a few major unforeseen setbacks.  I briefly questioned myself, thinking should I be altering these combats to make them more challenging?  Should I be more conscious of those unexpected events that occasionally really screw up the party?  I quickly decided no.  This is the result of emergent play, these combats go exactly as they party handles them.  They mostly play at a very high level, they are thoughtful, plan well, and therefore should be able to roll through many encounters with ease.  No one can plan properly for every contingency however, so despite good play and planning sometimes bad things happen to the most well-laid plans.  Also, I think DMs are more conscious of too many easy encounters, they feel players aren’t being challenged.  But players usually have a different view, they often enjoy the easy encounters more, seeing them as successful based on their planning and skill, and they also like that the story moves along, more encounters happen, and the game isn’t getting bogged down with massive hour plus long combats.  The truly neutral arbiter DM shouldn’t think like this.  The difficulty of the game is big picture, not every encounter has to be balanced against that moment’s party strength.  The difficulty of the campaign comes from the sum of the whole of the encounters, how do they look in the big picture, also good planning and problem solving should boost the party and allow them to get through encounters easier.  Anything else would be disrespectful of truly emergent play.  The game develops directly from the player's interaction with the world, and any DM intervention against that is bad DMing.  As far as the players go, the quality of play was above average.  All class roles were well played.  The druid has been creatively interpreting his relationship with his caveman followers, but that has some natural consequences that will work itself out.  As for myself, DMing needs improvement.  I forgot to mention the door that led west into the main portcullis room. I caught myself a few minutes later, but it was awkward going back and saying “woops, I forgot about that door.”  had I not caught that, they probably would have left the temple earlier than necessary.  I also did not read well, and I thought the burna attack was a no save attack.  Better reading noted a save was granted, and they were retroactively allowed to make one, however it didn’t change the outcome.  Still DMing needs improvement.

Treasure and XP-  monster xp- 2875 + treasure xp- 2817= 5688xp divided by 6 PCs,  + % bonus, - 15% for henchmen.

Graveyard-  Larry the Caveman-  died from orc crossbow bolts in the Slavers Hideout.