Nappendixia Campaign Session Report
Session #- 39 Session Date- 4/19/23
Time Passed- 5 days (4/19-23, plus 1 day of rest)
Roll Call- Bart- Fighter 1
Ragenard- Cleric 1 of Foltus
Tomas- Fighter 1
Godhard- Cleric 1 of Pelor
Harry Flugelman- Thief 1
Adventure Log- Play begins with some new adventurers entering the area. Bart, a burly fighter who had been hanging around Fort Turjmir, decides to try his hand at adventuring and introduces himself to Ragenard and Harry. Also, the fighter Tomas arrives from a country to the north, seeking vengeance for his murdered family. He and Godhard, loyal cleric of Pelor arrive at the fort and are quickly met by the rest of the party. Godhard looks around his new surroundings to see what kind of amenities the fort has. Just the basics at this small outpost, but clearly it is a safe haven amongst the dangers of the wilderness. The group asks around for news and rumors in the area, feeling like having a day of adventuring. They ask Chance Talon to tell them a little more about the area and about some locations he has adventured to. They ask about 2 locations Chance has marked on his map, near the road to the north. He tells them one place is an old tomb where he and his party fought a giant spider and some zombies over a year ago, he hasn’t been back since. The other location as they approached they encountered several statues. Nearing the location they spied what could only be the strange sight of cockatrices and their lair, their statuesque victims littered about. He says they got no closer and reported it to Pelador. The party agrees that they would also like to get no closer to cockatrices. They also ask more about the reported monster sign on the road north, and get some details from past sightings, but no new information. They make some inquiries about horses, Tomas asks if there is any current work with the horses or if any can be borrowed, as some of the party had horses and others did not. Not at this moment, but that type of temporary work does come up, he is told. Not too interested in the adventuring options at the fort, they decide to head west to Zellmex and his party at the dungeon in the hills. Gregor, the half orc fighter, chooses to stay back at the fort polishing her newly fixed and fitted plate mail. Not having horses this time, the travel takes a little longer, and they decide to sleep the first night at the edge of the road, and not head into the wilderness at night. This probably proves wise, as they do have an encounter but it is only merchants. They greet each other and ask if they saw any monster sign on the road north, as they had come from there. They say they had seen no sign, and pass on to the fort. They make it safely over plains and into the hills and arrive at the dungeon. The travel is wet and rainy. The guards quickly hail them from the tower on the hilltop and shortly Zellmex comes out and greets them. He tells them a couple of wild stories about their last week. His ally Hellenna the druid had been setting up a hallucinatory forest to cover the dungeon entrance, and after a few days of rain went to check on the fake forest and some traps and snares Zellmex had set. She finds several of the snares to have been sprung and dragged haphazardly downslope and discarded by a swampy trail leading into a dank marsh. Also, Zellmex tells them of an encounter he had to the west- Zellmex heard a commotion near his westernmost set traps and dashed off to investigate. coming into view he saw a human-ish creature caught up in the snare. It made an animal call, and silently a second creature dressed in similar natural garb dropped to the ground and cut him out of it with the edge of a wickedly sharp spear. The pair fled west into the dense forest. Less interested in the outdoor rumors, they ask if they can assist inside in clearing out the dungeon, Harry is certain there is better treasure in there somewhere. Zellmex agrees, as his party is busy and the need to clear the dungeon is pressing. He tells them he has set some traps and snares inside, and confers with Harry in thieve’s cant as to where these traps are. They hash out a rough map of the traps, and Zellmex offers to pay them 50gp per room that they clear, search and map, and provide him with a decent map for proof. He says be careful, as he recently caught some troglodytes in a trap near the entrance. Finally he tells Harry about another secret door he found and marked across from the one Harry found last week, he did not open it however, and suggests the party start there. They ask to spend the evening sleeping and eating in the dry goods storeroom they found last week, and awake the next morning fresh. They start at the secret door Zellmex had marked, and behind it find a workroom filled with benches and tables and cabinets, appearing to be a wizard's workshop. Two of the cabinets on the north wall are filled with many vials of powders of various kinds. They note this but don’t spend much time investigating. There is a second door in this secret room, and a listen behind it reveals some muttering voices in common. Bart applies a heavy boot to the door, but it holds fast. A second kick bursts the door open, but the bandits behind it have already been alerted and have taken cover in the back of this 30x40 room. The party tries to respond with missile weapons, but the bandits are fast and on them too quick, the resulting melee however quickly drops 2 of the tougher bandits and the rest surrender. Their weapons are taken and they are interrogated. They say their former leader and several bandits took off from this dungeon weeks ago. A woman fighter and her mercenaries arrived and took over part of the dungeon. From then on, things at night were not safe, several bandits went missing, and several others were terrified. The others fled, but this group had found the secret room and were hoping it would provide safety. A small amount of coin is taken from the fallen, and the party finds the bandits to be in possession of a map. Several take a look at it but aren’t able to make sense of it. They ask the bandits to take them to their former headquarters. They tell them it's a library room in the NW part of the dungeon, and they reveal a second secret door leading north to a hallway going that direction. A search of this room reveals it to be an old laboratory, and on a shelf they find 4 gold stirring rods. The bandits reluctantly agree to lead the party to the library, as they don’t have much choice. They lead them through some twisting passages to the NW, Harry mapping the whole time. They discover a few passages leading east, and the bandits say there is a room with a burned up and broken out door, they avoid it and don’t know what is inside. They search the first room to the west they come to, it contains a large amount of old but useful tools of all types, carpentry, masonry, etc. Harry notes and maps this. Around the corner from that room, another secret door is found, and the bandits caution that this area is confusing, they often get lost in this area. The secret door reveals just a small room with a pile of rubble in the corner. The next room they come to is a smallish room with a strange rock crystal formation in one corner, the party examines, carefully touches, and eventually shoots at and chips off a few pieces of crystal, the crystal produces some refracted light, but the small chips seem mundane. Bart backs out of the room, unsure if the crystal will react to being chipped, and when he opens the door, the hallways are different, they are facing different ways, the bandits peer out to the left, and say they recognize the way from here, the library is through a nearby door. Unsure, the party follows the bandits, and it does indeed lead to a library, an empty one, the books all seem ordinary and uninteresting. The room is illuminated by fire beetles kept in iron cages inset into the walls, the party marvels at this wondering how the fire beetles live. Keeping their word, the party lets the bandits leave, the clerics professing they seek better life choices, and the bandits honestly seem thoughtful at this. They tell them that south from the library is a long southern corridor that they had never checked out. With the entire NW corner mapped as best as possible, minus the weird crystal room and its shifting halls. They head south down the long corridor, slowly searching, and come to a room at the end consisting of a smith’s workroom with a forge and chimney chamber to the NE. Before they can get to searching, a breeze blows down the wide flue, and the room is filled with 5 winged creatures with long proboscis- stirges! The party is not surprised, but the stirges are on them in a beat, and immediately Bart, Ragenard, and Harry all find they have a stirge stabbing their flesh and sucking their blood. Bart is able to yank his out with brute strength, and the party rushes to aid Harry who is terribly wounded, and Ragenard, who drops to unconsciousness as the stirge feasts. Fortunately, the stirges are squashed, and Godhard is right there to lay a healing hand on Ragenard before he can slip away to death. Ragenard is revived by the magical healing, but is much exhausted from the ordeal and will require 1 week of bedrest should he manage to get safely back to the fort. The captured stirge is thrown in a large sack and tied taut, perhaps it's worth something to the mage that bought the bag, the party thinks. Searching the forge room, they find 4 gems worth 400gp each, their biggest score so far. With a still recovering Ragenard, and the map as complete as can be, they decide to not tempt fate and head back to the fort safely and without incident the evening of the 23rd. Ragenard will be recovered by 4/30, while the rest of the party takes that Monday for rest and recovery and begins downtime activities. Stewart shows back up, newly trained as a ranger. He spends time in the woods near the fort scouting and trying his hand at hunting. Tomas spends some time talking with others around the fort. He inquires about his murdered family without giving much away, but his family is from Keoland to the north and the country of Brasmark has little dealings with them. He does make a little headway on acquiring a job as a horse trainer, or more assistant rider, but Chance says he will call for him the next time the horses need a training ride. He and a few other party members also think on what to do with the captured stirge. Pelador is unavailable this week to inquire, and they are not sure how long they can keep it safely stowed in a sack.
Session Notes- So the combat with the stirges was quite tough, Ragenard was brought to -1, and Harry was brought to 1hp. I don’t go all the way RAW on death, AD&D allows up to -9 before death, and I prorate it by level- a level 1 can live at -1, dies at -2, level 2 can go to -2 etc. it’s just enough leeway that sometimes, as it did here, it prevents PC death, but not too abusive as -9 before death. I do stick with the RAW ruling that anyone that goes unconscious or gets raised needs one week of bedrest before activity. The stirges attacking at a higher HD makes them nasty, Godhard, who runs a Hyperborea game mentioned that he had a TPK at his table with stirges, they really can pile on the damage, and my dice were exceptionally hot during this combat. The session went well, 2 straight weeks of new people showing up, I am pleased with their skill and cooperation. The patron front continues to grow, I had a few new inquiries, and a few currently active patrons are continuing to plan and make moves. It’s been really cool introducing the game to so many new people and I look forward to the growing community. However, I also realize that other people’s interest, especially strangers online can be fleeting. Of the 20 or so new people who have joined the server, a bunch have never made contact beyond initial joining, and several others have had spotty communication/commitment. I’m prepared for this and we will see who and what materializes as the big players in the campaign. I’ve seeded the new people with several directions, and the OG party is about to have their big module finale and return to the game map. From there it will be the beginning of chapter 3 of the campaign. All the original PCs will be on the Nappendixia map along with all the new people and anyone else who may join. Sessions will be episodic and complete, no rescheduling will be necessary, and the play will be emergent from what the players say they want to do each week. I’m very glad to have kept such detailed session reports since the very beginning of the campaign. It provides a huge resource for any new people who want to see the history, and opens up the campaign story to a bigger audience. I look forward to seeing how all this develops and hope as many people as possible come along to help build and play. One final note, I recently was talking to some knowledgeable rules people about how I run initiative, and I'm realizing I do it wrong, not super wrong, but enough where it was damn complicated to figure out what I was doing wrong and how to get it right. It’s certainly a process of learning AD&D RAW, and sometimes online resources like videos and documents can be a pitfall. They may seem like they know what they are talking about, but often can’t be trusted due to ingrained house rules or wrong interpretations that got passed down. I myself found some biases based on BX’s system of movement, missile, magic, and melee constituting the basics of the game turn. AD&D doesn’t have this; the action options are different and produce different results in combat from round to round. Learning this more correct interpretation of the rules also led to 2 other things that never made sense trying to apply- the weapon vs AC charts, and the dealing of attacks to random opponents. When the initiative rules are applied correctly, these things, and others like weapon speed (which I thought only was important on simultaneous initiative, it is, but it’s used more than that), and weapon length, which I had never used before, all ake a lot more sense, and work together less clunkily. It’s still ADVANCED d&d, no shortage of complication, but for the first time I feel like I really understand how initiative and combat work to the point where I can show others, and adjudicate most low level situations with confidence. It certainly will get more complicated as PCs get multiple attacks, but I’ll have time to learn the more advanced situations. I really can’t say enough about the AD&D core books. They are a curiosity, and when you crack the code you feel like Indiana Jones finding a clue in an ancient text. Enough melodrama, see you next week.
Treasure and XP- Monsters- 5 bandits 91xp, 5 stirges 210xp. Treasure- 18gp (18xp), 4 gems 1600xp, 4 gold stirring rods 120gp (120xp) Mapping- 7 rooms, plus details- powders in the cabinets, tool room contents, weird crystal, 2x secret doors= 600gp/xp. all that totals to 2639xp / by 5 PCs = 528xp each. Add % bonus if appropriate.
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
Rollo Tomassi- consumed by a Bag of Devouring in Zelligar’s dungeon #38
Ragenard- brought to Death’s Door by a stirge attack in Zelligar’s dungeon #39 (1 week bed rest)
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