1/72 Redcoats 2 squads with cannon

 

6mm Russian Napoleonic army and WW1 Airplanes

 

10mm WW1 french and german from Irregular Miniatures

 

Red Frontier Campaign Session Report 37

 Red Frontier Campaign Session Report

Session #- 37 Session Date-  2/17/23 Time Passed-  5 days 2/17-2/21  

Roll Call- Laughing Fox- Druid 8

Dog Breath- Fighter 6

Laurentis- Cleric 7

Laurentis’ Henchmen

Ned- Magic User 1

Lucky- Illusionist 1

Dusty- Cleric 1

Alemondro- Fighter 1

Beacon- Cleric 4

Cindy- Fighter 2

Robin- Ranger 2

Neil Young- Fighter 1

12 Longbowmen

3 Pikemen

10 Light Foot

Adventure Log-  On 2/17, Laughing Fox and Dog Breath, Laurentis and his henchmen, and Robin gather in the party hideout in the ruins of Pottsfort.  The access to the hideout is no longer under water, making getting in much easier.  They wait a bit and Boldvay arrives ready to transport them to Nappendixia.  He brings a message from the advance party stating to bring the Bag of Holding from the party’s stash in the hideout.  It will be useful in a world where the party has no formal base of operations.  They grab it and Boldvay reminds Laurentis of the Censer of Control Air Elementals he gave the party a while ago, now that they have a magic user in the party, they can use the item.  He transports them all, along with Laughing Fox’s men at arms to the stone structure in Nappendixia the previous party arrived at, and points them in the direction of the haze and smoke of Bartertown.  

They make the 2 day journey almost without encounter, until the last 10 miles approaching Bartertown, they are met with 2 chariots and 5 cavalry riding out as if on patrol.  They are dressed in canvas jumpsuits and leathers and furs and wear creepy leather masks.  Their chariots and horses are adorned with spikes and bits of armor, the chariots accommodate 2 riders and have a heavy crossbow mounted at the rail.  The 2 groups regard each other as the chariots and cavalry half circle around the party.  They hail them, and the riders slow and approach.  They say they seek Bartertown, lodging, and information, and ask how the town operates.  They are told that visitors who offer skills and resources are valued, and the party assures them they have both.  They are told the group are called the Smegma Crazies, and their leader is called Papagallo, a healer and one of the community leaders.  They are about to escort the party back to that part of town when they notice a disturbance to the west, and ride off telling them to seek out Papagallo.  

They enter Barter town, seeing the town divided into 4 main areas, a common area at the front of the town where day merchants set up their wares, some preachers and pilgrims gather, and short term travelers can sleep or get a meal.  The other areas are more well guarded, and they have a policy of no weapons- all weapons are submitted, and reason for entrance is requested at these other areas of town.  They are also told dueling is part of the culture here, so to be mindful of others; duels are held outside the city walls.  Surveying the town, there appear to be 3 main types of inhabitants-  the smegma crazies as already described, and a group that wears leather jackets, small helmets and spiked leather masks, and a group that sports mohawks and piecemeal armor made of studded leather and plate.  Each group seems to be associated with a different section of the city, they are not totally segregated, some groups are mixed, some not. They don’t seem openly hostile to each other, but not completely friendly either.  

Beacon seeks out some of the other religious types that have set up in the common area, and finds a cleric of Beory (Mother Earth/ rain), one of Obad-Hai (Wildlands/ freedom/ hunting) and a third he does not identify.  Speaking to the priestess of Beory, he asks if there is any presence of lawful or good gods in this area.  He is told that it is far and few in this area, life is tough and cheap here, and it is difficult for goodness to take root here.  The party acquires lodging at the Moon Motel, a large inn catering to travelers.  

Laughing Fox asks for the name and location of the seediest tavern in town, and is told of the Rat.  That part of town is run by someone called the Master, and is mainly populated with the leather jacket/ helmet tribe called the Berserkers.  In this part of town, the master likes to provide entertainment to the people, they have a thing called Thunderdome, a dome arena where mortal combat is done to settle disputes and entertain the crowds.  They are also told of a new sport the Master is promoting called Blood Bowl, a team combat sport played on a big field or pitch.  He is currently in the process of building a pitch and wooden bleachers for the game in Bartertown.  They find the Rat and meet its proprietor Peter Wolf.  Laughing Fox pays him for information.  He tells them about Auntie Entity, the leader of the town and her rivalry with the master.  Laughing fox asks how to get an audience with auntie and he’s told that anyone with skills or resources will eventually be sought out by her, and presenting yourself to her and showing what you have to offer is a perfectly acceptable way.  He also tells them a little of the local land, of large strange mesas to the south, each with their own legends and rumors, they surround a central mountain that is constantly puffing out clouds of dust and gas that affect the local atmosphere and likely local fauna and flora.  They ask about a local megadungeon or ancient cults, but he knows not.  He refers them to the several sages in town, or the local runecaster, or arcanist. Laughing Fox decides to rest one night to memorize different spells in an attempt to gain an audience with auntie and impress her with his magic.  

Finally the party visits the area of the smegma crazies supposedly led by Papagallo.  They give up their weapons and ask for him, making their way to the interior, more defended area of the city and meet Papagallo.  He shares that he is a healer (cleric) and is able to train visitors who agree to be helpful to his people, training, however, will be more expensive than on Red Frontier, the economy is tighter here in Nappendixia and precious things like access to good training have more value.  He introduces them to Warrior Woman and Bearclaw, his sergeants, both fighters and available to train people.  They ask if he knows of any large dungeons nearby or legends of ancient dungeons and cults.  He knows a little of some ancient legends of a mountain to the west that had stories of caves and tunnels running through it and beneath it.  He also brings them to a room where there is a stone relief carving as such (see picture)  He tells them he has no idea the meaning of the carving, they are welcome to ponder on it, but it was retrieved by an advance patrol from a cave in a mountainside 50 miles west of Bartertown.  With much to ponder, they return to their lodging to rest and prepare for the next day.  

Beacon, Neil, and Alfred begin training, while the rest of the gang visit Auntie Entity’s part of town, and see a tall open sided structure looking down on the city, they see a menacing looking woman looking down on the people.  Laughing Fox says he has skills and wants to deal with Auntie, and they are granted entrance to her lair.  They meet Ton Ton, her Bard playing smooth jazz saxophone, and Ironbar, her assassin.  Laughing Fox planned the visit at the hottest part of the day, and casts a spell and magically brings down the temperature, chilling Auntie’s room.  Impressed but undeterred, Auntie says nice trick, but what are you going to hang out here all day and cast spells for me?  Also she says there are other druids in the area, so it’s not like his powers are totally unique, but nonetheless she likes his moxie and clearly he and the party have some skills that can be put to use.  She says she needs a spy, asks if the party can produce one.  The party tries to control the narrative making several counter offers, but auntie assures them she is in charge of the negotiations, and that trust is something built slowly over time.  She needs a spy, and Ricarda offers to do the job.  Auntie says that Ironbar will work with her for a week, provided she pays the training costs, train her, and take her through the intended spy mission.  If successful they can talk about further plans.  They agree and Ricarda will begin training tomorrow.  That evening the crew goes back to the Rat for some gambling and revelry.  Laughing Fox drunkenly loses 1000gp at dice, then thinking he’ll win it back loses 3000gp more.  Upset and drunk, he can’t take being laughed at by the drunken Berserkers who beat him at dice, he and Dog Breath start a bar fight, knock out a few of the berserkers, and take a few licks.  Then Cindy jumps in and Laurentis’ casters pop off a few spells.  With that Peter has his bouncers grab a few of the party and toss them out, screaming at the rest to get the heck out of there.  The barroom clears in chaos.  The following day Cindy begins training with Warrior Woman, and Ricarda goes over to Auntie’s part of town to start training with Ironbar. Session ends on 2/21/23.

Session Notes-  This was an “establish the setting” session.  The players were in need of figuring out the new town, finding trainers, finding lodging, and getting information.  It worked out fairly well, trying to follow 1:1 time with 2 groups traveling a few days apart who are about to meet up.  There was a little gap in that the first group “arrived in Bartertown” a few days before the first, but there was no easy way to coordinate it.  What I should have done is run the part where boldvay transports over the second group, then go to the players who were in session from the first group and have them have a day in Bartertown, then run the second group’s travel to Bartertown, then have the 2 groups unite.  Instead I just kept with the second group’s transport, travel, and arrival, and kept the first group “in limbo” for a day.  In the future I’ll slow down and figure these things out better in the moment when they arise.  It’s cool to have a large group that transported over, both in players and in PCs/henchmen/men at arms.  I was unsure if players would be willing to bring their main PCs over, or just bring over backups/henchmen, but people seem receptive to a longer form adventure in Nappendixia.  The same is true with running sort of free form town sessions.  Some players like to tool around and just interact with the npc’s and role play, and others prefer to stick to getting what they need, gathering information or what have you, and moving on to more adventurous parts of the game.  I was aware of both, letting players have space to do whatever they want but centering things around getting the info necessary to get the players making informed choices.  It was good to slow things down from heavy dungeon exploration and combat, the players so far have been very front loaded with xp and treasure, so it was good to have a session that focused on developing the group’s story and setting up the new world of Nappendixia for a set of future sessions and breathing life into the whole stargate mission.  I definitely was well prepped, which helped a lot, players had a lot of ideas and questions, and lots of things they wanted to check out.  Less defined npc’s and factions and places to visit would have made the session more clunky, I was pretty on top of whatever the players wanted to do and gave them total freedom to do whatever they wanted in whatever order.  I also rolled the wilderness encounter with the smegma crazies totally randomly off a random encounter table I made for Bartertown.  That could have gone a lot of ways and keeping it random was cool and so far has worked well for the party.  They got just enough role play, r&r, and information to set them up for a next session where they can pretty much head out with newly trained characters and do some wilderness travel and dungeon exploration.  I was able to put together a group snapshot of the whole Stargate Mission Party using the minis we use in sessions for each character.  Check it out.  

Treasure and XP-  Laughing Fox and Laurentis receive 7500gp half payment up front for the stargate mission.  7500xp each.

Graveyard-   (Death’s Door)- Robin- brought to -1 by the Caryatid Column, needs 1 week bed rest. #34

3 Mercenary Pikemen killed by a spiked pit trap in the Chambers of the Eyeless void, 1 at death’s door, needs 1 week bed rest.  #35

1/72 British Redcoats

 Speed painted with contrast paints, about 1.5 hours time.

Nappendixia Campaign 2.0- Session 33

 Nappendixia Campaign Session Report

Session #-  33 Session Date-  2/15/23 Time Passed-  3 days 2/20-2/22

Roll Call-   Boneripper- Half Orc Fighter 6

Zellmax- Gnome Thief 6

Hellenna-  Human Druid 7

Thanquil- Elf Magic User 6

20 Heavy Foot Men at Arms

5 Short Bow Archers

Adventure Log-  The party departs from the tower and dungeon location back to Fort Turjmir.  Descending the forested hill, they pull back at the sound of troops, Helenna quickly shutters her lantern in the early darkness.  Peering down the hill about 100’ downslope they spy about 160 Hobgoblins, marching in loose formation.  They quietly find cover and wait for the group to pass, and note their direction heading to the southwest.  After scouting ahead to be sure of their passage they continue on.  They travel uneventfully right up until a few miles from the fort, where they catch up to a group of about 50 LG pilgrims, likely headed to Lancebrass.  They arrive at Fort Turjmir, and promptly report the sighting of the hobgoblins to Pelador, and check in with Chance to let him know also.  Pelador responds with reports from the road to the north, monster sign has been spotted by the caravan and to be wary of ambushes in the area.  The party considers their options, thinking that perhaps focusing on the dungeon tower location, should it be able to be cleared out it could serve as a base of operations, and with the fort for a lookout and the secret doors of the dungeons entrance corridor it would be easy to defend.  Seeing how they have considerable treasure they decide to look for men at arms to assist in clearing out the dungeon.  They are able to hire 5 short bow archers rather easily, and then they are able to find a unit of 20 heavy foot looking to hire on, should they be all equipped and paid for a month.  They are fortunate to be able to clear out the armorer who happened to have 20 suits of chain available, and he was happy to get the coin for them.  They arm them with spears, hatchets, helmets, and large shields, and pay each a month's pay.  With fresh troops, and Boneripper as their designated sergeant they return to Zelligar’s dungeon in the morning.  Travel the first day is without encounter, and the evening watch is set.  That night, just before dawn, during the watch of Zellmax and 3 footmen, a stealthy large shape leaps out of the darkness at the group of guards, slashing one and nearly killing him.  Zellmax and the guards begin yelling for the party to awaken, and Boneripper springs up bare chested with shield and sword.  The guards' spears strike true to the shadowy form, but seem to do no puncture wounds and the creature takes no notice.  Immune to normal weapons, it’s some kind of magic creature.  Zellmax tries to hide in shadows to get off a backstab, and Helenna begins casting faerie fire to help reveal the creature, while Thanquil casts a magic missile.  The light reveals a weretiger attacking the party, and it is eventually slain after more attacks from Bonerippers magic sword, another magic missile and Helenna’s Shillelagh, but not before slaying the wounded footman, and doing several serious wounds to Boneripper.  In death the creature returns to its uncursed form, a human woman.  He returns to his bedding after some healing to rest, and early that morning Helenna casts speak with animal to talk to local fauna about where this weretiger lays its head.  A sparrow catches her attention and leads her to a hollow of matted grass where the creature must have been bedding down.  They find a pile of cobbles, and disturb it to find a small hole with the creature's modest treasure, 11 gems in a pouch. They regroup, break camp and travel hard all day, making the tower that night 2/22.

Session Notes-  So we decided to move forward one more week with this group of PCs despite the fact that they are still ahead in 1:1 time.  One of our players is busy this month, so we can’t move forward with the main PCs as they are trying to finish their final module of the campaign.  This group isn’t too receptive to rolling up 1st level characters when their mains are not available due to time issues.  That’s just how they like to play, so we decided that since the last session's trip back from the dungeon to the fort was done hastily, and that is still ahead in time, we would start the session at the beginning of the return trip and roll out for random encounters.  We also sort of clarified that tonite’s session needs to not move the clock forward a lot, and that worked out because their only intention was to travel back and forth from the dungeon to the fort and back.  Since they were staying local and also the fact that there aren’t any other PCs currently on the map, and there aren’t any big patron plans that could affect time.  I explained that as things got more complicated on the map with multiple PCs and patrons doing actions we will have to respect 1:1 time more strictly.  Also we looked at what day we were on and realized that if we moved forward 3 days this session, then the next time we played the calendar would match up real time to game time. It's still early days managing this 1:1 time, and it has been fun keeping that all in mind as we track time from session to session.  There will be new PCs getting zapped into Nappendixia very soon. (actually we’ve already played the session, they just don’t actually arrive in 1:1 time until today, 2/17)  but with more groups on the map, there should be more rumors and news generated which will travel around and inform the different groups.  

Treasure and XP-  Session 33- Weretiger 797 xp, 5500gp in gems= 6297/ 4 PCs = 1575 xp each add % bonus if applicable.

Graveyard-   Larry the Caveman-  died from orc crossbow bolts in the Slavers Hideout. #29

        Captain Caveman-  died in combat with an Aspis Drone in the Slavers Hideout #30

Red Frontier Campaign Session Report 36

Red Frontier Campaign Session Report

Session #- 36 Session Date-  2/10/23 Time Passed-  7 days 2/10-2/16

Roll Call- Ricarda- Assassin 4

Beacon- Cleric 3

Alfred- Fighter 2

Cindy- Fighter 2

Neil Young- Torchbearer 

10 Light Foot

Adventure Log-  The session begins with the party resting, some are in training at the power station.  The people of the Red Frontier have been witnessing the last few weeks the end of the curse of Lamalla, the waters of the land begin receding and the other markers of the curse of Lamalla begin dissipating.  The leadership of the power station decides to hold a humble celebration of the end of the curse on Saturday, the following night.  All adventurers who delved the Chambers of the Eyeless Void receive an invitation to attend as an honored guest.  The evening of the event people gather in the larger receiving rooms of the power station for a fine meal and libations.  The prominent leaders of Red Frontier are all in attendance, Lord Rogett, in his usual grouchy self, Glom, who almost single-handedly is maintaining the economy of the land, and the captains and lieutenants who have been maintaining patrols and defense of the power station, are all in attendance.  The party, who has been vigilant to find a prominent wizard interested in buying their found magic wand, locate the apprentice wizard who identified the wand in the staging area of the Eyeless Void Chamber, and meet his master.  They ask if he is interested in purchasing the wand, and a deal is made agreeable to both parties.  Beacon, who brokered the deal, is set upon by a pickpocket who must have witnessed the transfer of cash in the sale.  Fortunately for Beacon, his fingers are not very nimble, and Beacon is able to freeze him red handed with a hold person spell.  The leadership of the power station is a bit embarrassed, but thankfully Beacon is discrete and understanding not to draw too much attention and ruin the event.  The thief is quietly led away to pay for his crime.  The following 2 days are the completion of training for a few PCs, and during that time Cindy finalizes the deal to hire the 10 light foot and acquires the leather armor, spears, shields, and helmets necessary to equip them.  On Tuesday 2/14 the party assembles fully trained, rested, and equipped in the staging area and delves into the Chamber of the Eyeless Void.

     They assemble in the foyer and set up a marching order and light sources.  They know the NW corner is the area yet to be explored so they head up the main corridor and to the left when it splits.  The first door they come to on the left branching passage is rimmed with blue stones, a color they have not yet discovered and have no key to.  No matter because Ricarda deftly picks the lock and opens the door.  Upon opening the door and entering the room, a blue light activates around the perimeter of the room, and another of the computer devices, screen and desk control panel activates in the room, this one has a cylinder with antenna attached to it.  The screen reveals Boldvay the renegade mage, at a desk inside a massive metallic structure, he’s speaking to some kind of metal creature.  When he dismisses the creature he regards the screen from his side and is shocked to see people staring back at him through the screen.  He tries to speak to them, but realizes the party can’t hear him, so instead he holds up a finger at the screen to indicate “wait a second”.  But the party doesn’t have a second because in the corridor to the north of this room and just beyond that in the room beyond are 2 dried up desiccated piles which upon activation of the lights begins growing and becoming more gooey.  Eventually a skeleton erects from the pile of guts and slime and worms forming a most hideous creature, and a second forms behind it from the other pile.  Each has putrid green worms crawling out of their mouths and writhing all over them.  The sight causes all who view it to be filled with fear and run away, only Cindy is able to bravely resist the fear, and she strikes the creature, then thinks better of things as its return attack nearly gets her with diseased paws and a putrid worm that ejects from the creatures mouth.  She retreats and backs away around the corner as the party is regrouping, realizing that running away has removed the fear effect.  They poise with plasma pistols and some fire attacks and manage to take it out and fully burn it before it can reform.  They hold again, waiting for the rush of the next vile creature, but instead the next thing that comes around the corner is- Boldvay.  He hails the party and is holding a black and yellow book that says Windows for Dummies.  He explains to the party that the machines in this place are called computers and he is learning about them and how they work with the help of the strange insulting tome.  He tells the party he was using his computer in his stronghold to try to find other computers, and when the party activated the computer here, they linked.  He was able to get their location from the computer and teleport to the party, thinking that he recognized Ricarda, one of Laurentis’ henchmen from the war with Weir and the orcs.  He asks about Laurentis and Laughing Fox, and is told Laughing Fox is still near the party and adventuring.  Boldvay says he has a proposal for the party, he has become aware of the activation of the Eyeless Void, and wishes to try to stop it.  He has become aware of 2 other worlds that also are being besieged by the Eyeless Void, one the planet Jull-Nar, the spider planet Tethro Jull was marooned on, and Nappendixia, a world that supposedly has an ancient megadungeon to the Eyeless Void that is also awakening.  He tells them that he has a stargate, and if that stargate could be placed in Nappendixia, then the 3 worlds would each have a stargate, and Boldvay could change the “settings” of the star gates so they permit travel back and forth to all 3 worlds.  With this ability to travel, the places where the Eyeless void is gaining power could be located and eliminated.  The stargate must be placed in what Boldvay, and the computer, refers to as a “nexus point”.  In the case of Nappendixia, the nexus point is a place that matches the party’s hideout in the Red Frontier.  He says he has a way to transport the party to Nappendixia, from there they must find the Eyeless Void megadungeon, find the level that has a structure that perfectly matches the party’s hideout, set up the stargate, and it will send them back through to the original stargate the party found the Tethro went through, now currently the location of Boldvay’s stronghold.  They ask how time sensitive this mission is, and Bolday types into the computer and the screen changes.   The scene shows the second of those vile guts covered creatures, he is standing in a room likely somewhere in this dungeon. The creature is standing in a room bathed in orange light similar to the other colored light rooms in the dungeon.  The creature is reaching out touching a tapestry.  The scene on the tapestry is a strange land, dry and rocky with a pinkish brown hazy overcast sky.  As he touches the tapestry, the fabric begins changing, becoming more real, as if the scene is becoming real and one could step through the tapestry onto the land.  Boldvay tells the party that the creature is a son of Kyuss, an evil cleric that was tainted by the insanity of the Eyeless Void.  The creature is presently transporting itself to Nappendixia where it will actively be trying to wake up the Eyeless Void and its subsequent megadungeon.  As the tapestry transforms, so does the creature, the flesh reknits together forming a human male with red hair and sideburns.  When the transformation is complete he steps through the tapestry into Nappendixia.  Time is of the essence if they are to counteract this.  Knowing their mission, and knowing how and where they will return, the party takes to negotiating, knowing that Boldvay is probably flush with cash, and is desperate to accomplish this task as he hopes by defeating the Eyeless Void he can remove the evil alignment he has incurred through his actions.  They manage to negotiate a pretty sum for each, get paid half up front, and get Boldvay to offer to send a second party over in a week or two’s time should a second party form and want to go.  He gifts them with a magic scimitar and a wand of detect magic.  He gives them what background information he can on Nappendixia, and tells them that where they will arrive he has scried a town nearby called Bartertown.  He gives them an envelope, tells them absolutely not to lose it, it contains the stargate.  He then gives them 3 copies of the scroll dispel magic- 1 cleric, 1 druid, and 1 magic user.  He says when they get to the nexus point place the envelope on the ground back away and cast dispel magic.  The stargate will be revealed and they can travel back to Boldvay’s stronghold. With that he pulls out a magic item, a cubic gate, each side is attuned to a world, he touches the side attuned to Nappendixia, and the party is sent through the cubic gate to Nappendixia.

They arrive at a large stone structure- a flat basin of likely salt water with a high rise stone surface at one end, steps descending and a curious looking carved pillar.  They scan the horizon and to the southeast they see the haze and smoke of a civilization likely 20 miles off or so.  They make a 2 plus day trek across barren scrub, hazardous badlands, gullies and rock outcroppings.  The travel is uneventful but the party stays on guard in this strange land with swirling pink and brownish hazy atmosphere.  The second night they come across a small group of wild boar, the party attacks hoping for possible food.  They manage to kill one of the males and the rest flee, boar meat is on the menu!  Regrouping from the encounter and making sure the boars don’t return, they camp and prepare to enter Barter town the next morning.  

Session Notes-  This was a turning point session, and I knew the players would be presented with a big choice, but I didn't know how they would respond, and if I should take the reins and force the story into the direction I wanted it to go based on what I had prepared.  I knew I had to have Boldvay’s pitch worked out, and it had to make sense to the players and feel like an accomplishable goal.  I had no idea how they would respond.  Would they not be willing to go based on the danger of the mission, would they be unwilling to leave the Red Frontier?  Would they get the story, or would it be too complex to follow, would they find the idea uninteresting?  So many unknowns.  I was concerned they would outright refuse, saying they don’t trust Boldvay because he is evil.  I was wondering if I should railroad the players, just have Boldvay force them to go against their will.  Instead the players did what so often players do, the unexpected.  They took the opportunity to negotiate a pretty penny from Boldvay for agreeing to the mission.  It totally makes sense, but it was not something totally on my radar when considering how they would react.  It worked out well, the players drove the negotiations, they were empowered to drive a hard bargain and get a good price for their efforts.  I probably would not have railroaded them into going against their will, that feels too “story on rails”, but on the counterpoint, it's also difficult to run a game in someone else's world they created, you don’t want to do things and make decisions that go against that person’s vision.  On top of that, generating a game strictly based on the random tables in real time can a) feel a little samey, rolling out wilderness encounters for the sake of rolling out encounters can get old fast, and b) generating all that info in real time without even any pre-rolled out encounters can be time consuming and make the game drag.  In the end it worked out great-  the players made their own uninfluenced decision, and I got them to a part of the game I'm much more comfortable running.  The world of Nappendixia already lives in my head. I can generate content there on the fly with much more confidence, and in between sessions I have time to flesh out whatever aspect of the game the players are currently investigating.  After getting them to Nappendixia and letting them know they would be next traveling to Bartertown, I was able to develop Bartertown quite extensively in just an afternoon.  Again I was able to use some favorite literature/film characters and settings to develop my world.  Why build from scratch what you can appropriate from your favorite stories?  I’m a huge Road Warrior fan, and am well versed in its lore.  That makes the development of Bartertown so easy. There are so many character and setting references already there you don’t have to come up with a lot on your own.  Keep some, change some stuff, make it your own but still heavily flavored by that commonly known IP.  It also proved that you don’t have to have things very well-developed at all.  You can wait for that aspect of the campaign to become relevant, then develop it between sessions.  For example, this session I had not done much thought or development into Bartertown or the lands players would have to travel through to get there.  I just used random tables from the Fiend Folio, i knew i wanted to use those more unique monsters to flavor my world, but after the session I was able to think better about what are my current needs, and I was able to develop some random encounter tables more relevant to Bartertown that connected the wilderness to the town.  The last half hour or so of the session I was feeling a little lacking in preparation, but during this time I was thinking of all the things I needed to develop in down time to make the next session more packed with stuff, interesting ideas and adventure.  

Treasure and XP-  session 36- monsters- son of Kyuss, wild boar- 452, Boldvay's stargate mission 1/2 up front payment- 7500 PCs (Cindy, Alfred, Ricarda, Beacon), 2500 Neil Young= 7607xp each PC 2522xp Neil Young.

Graveyard-   (Death’s Door)- Robin- brought to -1 by the Caryatid Column, needs 1 week bed rest. #34

3 Mercenary Pikemen killed by a spiked pit trap in the Chambers of the Eyeless void, 1 at death’s door, needs 1 week bed rest.  #35

Nappendixia Campaign 2.0- Session 32

 Nappendixia Campaign Session Report

Session #- 32 Session Date-  2/8/23 Time Passed-  3 days 2/18-2/20

Roll Call- Boneripper- Half Orc Fighter 6

Zellmax- Gnome Thief 6

Hellenna-  Human Druid 7

Thanquil- Elf Magic User 6

Adventure Log-  the party secures itself in the tower atop the hill for the night, secures the door, sets watch, and the night passes uneventfully as they rest, rememorize spells, and heal.  They enter the dungeon entrance in the morning, leaving Chance, the fighter from Fort Turjmir, and the animals on top of the hill to wait.  They walk up the main entrance corridor, past the alcoves and the triggered magic mouth warning from Zelligar.  They get to that main first intersection where they found the desiccated bodies.  They realize there are 3 different passages to the north, and one each heading east and west, both of which promptly turn south.  They elect to go east and south, and come to another alcove on their right and passages leading east and continuing south.  Curious as to why there are so many alcoves in this place, they do a more thorough search of the intersection, finding a secret door at the back of the alcove.  The door leads to the back wall of one of the sets of alcoves in the main hallway.  Again they search, and again they find a secret door, this time in the alcove opposite the alcove of the other secret door, heading west.  Behind this door is a corridor that runs parallel to the main corridor, it must be some kind of defensive system or escape route.  After figuring out the corridors and secret doors of the main entrance, they go back to the intersection they originally searched, and continue south from there, and then east down a long corridor ending in 2 doors. The first door revealed a northern corridor and a room that only revealed stored furniture and some woodworking tools and a workbench.  The other door revealed an ornate but ancient and untouched bedroom, with a  matching bed and headboard like they found in the wizard’s chambers.  Many old but fine items, furniture, tapestries decorated the room, and Helenna cast detect magic, but nothing magic was revealed, although a search of the dresser revealed a silver hairpin.  Beyond the woodshop room, a series of twisting corridors landed the party in a large open chamber lined with pillars and smooth stone slate floor, one set of pillars is carved as 2 beautiful women, and beyond that is a dais of red stone with 2 marble thrones atop it.  Behind that 5 skeletons in ragged chainmail and rusted weapons stand at the back wall as if placed there.  Zellmax crept forward to examine the thrones, and when he passed the pillars carved as women, they came to life, becoming flesh, and drew razor sharp scimitars by their sides and attacked!  Zellmax was on his guard so not surprised, but the party lost initiative, and he was struck.  Also Thanquil cast web on the skeletons at the back of the room, but they moved first and were only just caught in the edge of the web, immobilized but still poised to strike into the melee.  Helenna cast barkskin on boneripper, and he quaffed a giant strength potion and waded into melee, striking before the potion took effect, but hitting.  Upon striking the statue lady, his weapon made an unearthly noise as if it struck something hard enough to break it.  He becomes cautious to strike her again with his magic weapon.  Zellmax is able to strike a statue lady with his mundane dagger, it also resists breaking, but for some reason does little damage.  Tranquil is able to get off a magic missile and it seems to have its full effect, and boneripper punches one after gaining his giant strength, dropping one, but the other is able to wound Zellmax again.  A second magic missile and a shillelagh spell and strike from Helenna’s club manage to take out the outer one.  The webbed skeletons are peppered with missile and reach weapons and are taken out.  They find 3000ep and 6000sp in a drawer in the marble throne, and consider returning to Fort Turjmir, wounded and depleted of spells.  The small party must act with prudence, as one false move could spell disaster, and they egress from the dungeon with their treasure, and safely make the 1.5 day journey back to the fort.

Session Notes-  So I made the decision to move forward in the timeline despite the party already being “out of pocket” due to last week's session taking them 17 days out.  However, we left the party last week in a temporary resting place in the ruined tower above the dungeon, so resuming this week, I figured it would be sensible to let the party delve the dungeon one more time, then end the session in a permanent resting place.  Sort of a part 2 of last week's session.  This party is currently the only one on the map active, the main party is still finishing A1, and no patron activity is happening that is time sensitive to the party so I figured it seemed allowable.  I’m sure you could make the argument I’m just making excuses, and what’s the point of running 1:1 time, but it’s a process, and this was an opportunity to get a party onto the map and explore, so it felt like the right move for the campaign.  I’m trying to keep the prestocked dungeon I had placed on the map “living” by rolling for other creatures that may have entered the dungeon over time so the inhabitants of the dungeon change a little as different inhabitants vie for space.  That has been going good not overdoing it just adding/tweaking a few things with random tables/common sense.  It was a shorter session as I had a long work week, but no excuses, I was a little loosey in the interest of moving things along.  Sometimes I think I’m being much more time sensitive than the players.  I guess most players don’t mind/don’t notice a slower paced game, especially since I already take pretty good effort to keep things moving along.  I suppose the next stage in my growth is to be more precise, get things right more consistently without tons of rulebook searching.  I think one thing I’ll do to that end is to add the DMG and PHB to my reading list, really read them cover to cover (slowly, over time) to let them marinate into my brain.  I know the rules pretty well, and have made several good homemade dm screens, but a deeper connection to the original texts will up my game.

Treasure and XP-  monster- 2 Caryatid Column, 5 Skeleton- 655xp, treasure- 1885xp =2540 xp / 4 PC+ 635 xp each.  Add % bonus if applicable.

Graveyard-   Larry the Caveman-  died from orc crossbow bolts in the Slavers Hideout. #29

        Captain Caveman-  died in combat with an Aspis Drone in the Slavers Hideout #30

Red Frontier Campaign Session Report 35

 Red Frontier Session Report

Session #- 35 Session Date-  2/3/23 Time Passed- 4 days 2/3-2/6

Roll Call-  Laughing Fox- Druid 7

Ricarda- Assassin 4

Beacon- Cleric 3

Neil Young- Torchbearer 

6 Pikemen Men-at-Arms

12 Longbowmen

Adventure Log-  During downtime, Beacon the cleric spent time seeking out Boldvay, or some means to contact him, seeking a  wealthy wizard who may want to purchase the scroll and wand found in the chambers of the Eyeless Void.  With Zappos missing, the economy for arcane items is in turmoil.  Cindy the fighter also spent some time investigating during downtime, looking for some mercenaries to hire for the next delve into the dungeon.  She was able to locate several bands of men at arms, displaced and without equipment due to the flooding and curse of Lamalla.  (More on that in the future, as rumor has it the curse has been lifted, so it’s likely some changes are coming to Red Frontier)  All the new adventurers from last time were in training, with Beacons training lasting the longest.  While he finished up training, the party spent Friday and Saturday selecting and purchasing equipment for 2 mercenary bands Cindy had located- 6 pikemen and 12 longbowmen.   Between Glom and the other merchants displaced from Pottsfort  there are ample arms and equipment for sale.  Laughing Fox purchases the 2 groups for the month and is hopeful they survive to work on other plans the rest of the month.  Neil Young has been hanging out by the shaft opening, manning the ropes and hopeful to return to the crypt to face his fears and get his nerve back.  He is pleased when the party, missing 2 members from last time, but now joined by an assassin, returns to the shaft on Sunday, intent on clearing it out.  

 They descend the shaft, set their marching order and light sources, and check the main corridor upslope.  The fixed ropes are still there.  Proceeding carefully, they move up the corridor to the first juncture point, intent on checking out the second set of statues they avoided last time.  At that point Neil shines his bullseye lantern up at the alcoves containing the statues, revealing the small shadowy shapes of Dark Creepers.  The pikemen at the front move forward to spear them, and Laughing Fox casts Heat Metal to damage them with their own daggers.  The pikemen kill a few, but then one of the creepers uses his darkness power and all the light sources go out.  At the same time, 3 creepers who had hidden themselves at the intersection attack the rear of the party, the lightly armored bowmen.  Beacon is able to maneuver into the melee and gets a sneak attack from one of the creepers, slicing his back.  The other 2 creepers are less able, and fail to connect with any bowmen.  Neil Young is able to light a torch, finding the lantern not working for some reason, and Laughing Fox casts Produce Flame canceling the darkness at the front.  A few bowmen are able to get shots off, as well as a few pikemen connect with creepers.  Laughing Fox slays one with his spear, and the damage from the heat metal kills a few more.  The creepers manage to drop one of the pikemen to 0 and beacon rushes to his aid casting Cure Light Wounds.  Just when the last creeper is wounded and at his last hit point, Laughing Fox moves in between the 2 statues with his magical flame to engage it, and the 2 statues come to life, gargoyles waiting to be released by their magical trigger.  Right back into the melee, and knowing they likely need magic weapons or spells to face the gargoyles, Laughing Fox begins casting Stone shape, hoping to alter their stony bodies.  Beacon takes a shot with the plasma pistol and wounds one, the pikemen hold despite each being wounded, Beacon keeping the morale high, and fortunately the gargoyles couldn’t land a mortal blow.  The spell goes off and the gargoyle’s body is altered into a solid block, taking away its senses and means of attack.  It staggers top heavy and bangs against the wall, combat ineffective.  The assassin in the confusion of the melee is able to sneak up on the gargoyles, and beacon slyly slides the plasma gun across the floor into her waiting hands.  The shot goes wide unfortunately, and laughing fox again begins casting stone shape and the pikemen again engage it from reach until it is transformed, becoming a vase with legs and a stone daisy.  Laughing Fox intends to take these bizarre attractions and use them as entertainment in his future casino business enterprise.  Each creeper has a pocket full of coins, and one also has a green key on him.  The party searches the base of the statues and a false stone reveals a valuable piece of jewelry.  They elect to return to the surface to drop off the treasure, the gargoyle monstrosities, and to return the fallen pikeman, who spends several rounds in a coma, who is in need of a week's bedrest.  They all rest on the surface, and return down the shaft on Monday morning.  

They head back up the main corridor, the bodies from the previous days fight missing.  They move back to the site of last session's fight with the creepers, at the warped door with the green trim.  Having the key, but not needing it on this destroyed door, they look inside the room, seeing the bodies from the last combat again gone.  A door on the northern wall of that room opens to a hallway, all the locked green doors now accessible with the key.  They proceed 20 feet east down a corridor where it turns north.  They are about to continue east where the corridor continues for 20 feet and turns south, with a door at that corner, when the pikemen step headlong into a pit trap, a false floor opens up and they fall 10 feet onto some spikes, impaling themselves and dying at the bottom of the pit.  The party begins hauling the bodies out of the pit when they hear snickering from behind the door.  Certain the creepers must pay, and be exterminated, Laughing Fox casts fire trap on the door, then the party makes as if more have fallen in the pit, they cry out for help and fall silent.  After a few minutes, the door handle turns and bam! The trap goes off and the death flash of 3 creepers pops off from behind the smoldering door.  It swings wide, and Beacon promptly tosses an incendiary bomb into the room, and 2 more creeper death flashes emanate from the room. Thinking nothing could have survived, they cautiously enter the room, and from an open door to the north a wall of fog rolls into the room.  Beacon yells caution it could be poisonous, but Laughing Fox, throwing caution to the wind and wanting to end this conflict now, pulls out a cockatrice powder thunder corn device, arms it and steps into the fog and hurls it through the door.  The fog is mere vapor, not poison, and Boom! The explosion goes off and 5 creeper flashes follow, followed by a 6th larger explosion, stone debris spills from the room and then silence.  They investigate to find the room ruined, the remnants of creeper bodies and the stone petrified feet of what could be a larger leader type of the creeper species.  Unsure, but only able to guess, perhaps this creature had its own destruct effect that was compounded by the thunder corn.  The room is scoured for several turns and 4 medium quality gems are found as well as the filthy bedding and exploded home goods these creatures were living off of.  Determined to make sure the creepers are all killed, they search through the remainder of the green rooms, and searching one room the wall comes to life and a sticky pseudopod reaches out, almost striking Ricarda, but she dodges it.  The archers and pikemen pepper the wall with puncture wounds killing it.  The creature, some kind of cousin to the gelatinous cube looks identical to a stone wall and it was hiding in a recessed area at the back wall of this room.  As it disintegrates, the undigested bones of a former victim ooze out of the protoplasm, as well as a fine looking flail.  They search the remaining rooms of the green area and find nothing of note, just some former living quarters and debris.  They do find 2 doors leading back to the main corridor, the northernmost of which had a passage leading north that had a black x mosaic detailed in the floor.  Sure teh green area has been cleared out, and assessing that only the NW corner of this complex remains to be searched, the party decides to return to the surface to rest and plan what they hope to be the final assault of the crypt, unless of course they should discover a lower level.  The power station leadership is happy to hear of the success in defeating the evil  creatures of the crypt.  The flail is identified as a +1 flail and Beacon requests it.  The surviving pikemen and bowmen are given their well earned cut of treasure, and they are thankful to have survived.  Neil Young gets more experience and may level next delve should he live.  The party rests Monday evening and Beacon begins training on Tuesday 2/7.

Session Notes-  I wasn’t 100% sure if I should allow non fighters to hire men at arms, I’ll need to see if there is an official ruling, but I figured that the fighter did do the legwork on downtime in finding the groups, and the fact that the population is crowded into the power station made them more willing to hire.  Also bringing them to essentially a 4th level dungeon and therefore requiring a % cut of treasure felt fair, and it definitely made the PCs think twice (PCs hate sharing cuts of treasure or xp with anyone!), but it wasn’t totally RAW.  I think I’ll say it was a special case based on the cramped conditions at the power station due to the curse of lamalla.  I’ll ask the PCs if they’d prefer to play it more RAW and go from there.  Also I’m not sure if I should have allowed the So=tone shape to work on the gargoyles.   I did describe them as stone statues, but their description said nothing either way.  I allowed it because the PCs at the time only had Laughing Fox’s magic spear and Beacon’s plasma gun as effective weapons, so I figured creative spell use was effective and appropriate.  I did grant them a save vs spells and both failed.  Other than that the combats are going well, players have initiative, announcing actions, and casting time down pretty well.  Next time I intend to go over a little better the list of declared options in encounters such as move, charge, parley, etc as per the actions listed in the DMG.  good session, more highly skilled play from the group.

Treasure and XP-  Session 35- monsters- Dark creepers, Dark Stalker, Gargoyles, Stun Jelly= 3204xp. treasure and magic items- 6306xp = 9510xp 5% to Neil Young- 475xp. 3011xp each for the 3 PCs. add % bonus if appropriate.

5856gp in treasure.  the archers are willing to take 5% because they were limited by the confines of the dungeon and you kept them safe.  292 gp for the archers.  10% for the pikemen they earned it- 585 gp.

the party gets 4979 total in gp value of treasure.  you can cash out the jewelry and gems to Glom and split how you like.

Graveyard-  (Death’s Door)- Robin- brought to -1 by the Caryatid Column, needs 1 week bed rest. #34

3 Mercenary Pikemen killed by a spiked pit trap in the Chambers of the Eyeless void, 1 at death’s door, needs 1 week bed rest.  #35