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
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