Nappendixia Campaign Session Report
Session #- 40 Session Date- 4/25/23 Time Passed- several months to the present
Roll Call- Mandigor- ½ Elf Fighter 4
Malden- Paladin 4
Gunther- Dog
Gregory- Paladin 2 Squire
Draden- M/U 4
Thantas- Elf Assassin 4
Gruumsh- ½ Orc Thief 5
Ulster- Druid 4
Henchmen
Barry the Caveman
Julius the Caveman
Hirelings
Mondius- Fighter 2
LaSalle- Fighter 3
Adventure Log- The party is primed to surprise the enemy leadership congregating in a below ground chamber. The chamber is a large circular room with a stream of sewage encircling the room, 3 bridges and a staircase cross the stream onto a main circular landing. The party has approached from the rear of the chamber, peering through a small corridor into a rear alcove of the main room, it is filled with crates and sacks, and in this rear chamber there are several orc archers and a couple of giant weasels. The slaver cleric and Harriman the wizard are on the central circular platform, with more orc archers and a group of 10 slaves. She is imploring Harriman to take the slaves and arrange for more to be moved because the fortress is compromised and is due to fall from the raids of good parties. A plan quickly forms, Ulster will use speak with animal to befriend one of the weasels, if successful the weasel will obey his orders. From there Draden will use sleep to put down the minions, and scare to try to incapacitate one of the leaders and the combat guys will rush in and attack. The animal friendship is effective, and the weasel begins herding the slaves out of the way into the corner of the room, clearing an area for the fighters to charge across to the leaders. Then Draden drops a sleep spell on the left side of the chamber, and several orc archers pass out, as well as several slaves who were providing cover for the cleric. The party’s archers pepper the wizard with arrows, but most bounce harmlessly off, though Gruumsh’s magic arrow strikes deep past whatever magic protection the wizard had. Aware they are under attack, the cleric calls out and throws a small wooden box at the bridge the party must cross to reach her. The box lands and pops open, a small stone rolls out of the box, and after a second, a creature begins to grow from out of thin air and stands to block the path over the bridge. Malden, Mandigor, and the melee henchmen bravely charge forward to battle the creature. They have never seen one in person, but they guess it to be a troll from their knowledge of monster lore. They know it must be stopped immediately, its massive strikes and ability to regenerate make this a tough foe. The strikes prove incredibly effective, all the attacking the troll hit, and it is quickly brought to low hit points. Then the wizard and Ulster begin casting, each trying to incapacitate the other party. Harrimans spell erupt s with a web covering ⅔ of the rear chamber, trapping several party members and a weasel. Ulster’s spell causes roots and vines to erupt from the ground and sides of the stream and grab and entangle the enemies in the center. The wizard escapes entanglement, but the rest are held fast. A few more weasels emerge from the edges of the room and try to push forward, but the crowd and positioning of the party prevents them from attacking. If the web wasn’t enough to deal with, a thief, apparently silenced and invisible, appears behind Gruumsh and lands a wicked backstab that seriously wounds him, but the poison on the blade is resisted and he survives. However, a nearly invisible Thantas due to his elven cloak emerges from the shadows and plants a blade in his back, dropping him. Draden begins reading a scroll of Monster Summon 3, it will take time but the party needs the assistance. The thief, in his dying breaths, staggers to the corner of the room, to a stone pillar type mechanism, his last bit of energy he presses down on the pillar and it descends, shortly after that, a great rumbling is heard to the west. The next spell cast by the wizard causes him to disappear, and the cleric is the only remaining threat, after Ulster drops a produce flame spell on the corpse of the troll, making it die fully. Mandigor charges across the floor and puts the point of his sword to the cleric's throat. She is unfazed and simply offers up her neck if he wants to slay her. Malden stops the violence and urges discretion, and she is spared, an angry Mandigor clocks her on the head knocking her out. The summoned monsters from the scroll go after the remaining weasels, who lost their nerve at the death of their master the thief. Unsure what the rumbling was, but it does seem serious, the party quickly searches the room and bodies, finding several stores of treasure and magic items, including a stone of diminution (what the troll was holding to make him shrink), a mace +1, some potions, a ring of protection +2, and the thief’s longsword +1 with a poison reservoir. They also find some documents that reveal more of the slavers' plans, the location of their alternate base and the path their caravan takes. They spy a ladder leading up from the rear room, and climb it to discover it leads out of the fort, they bring the 10 slaves with them. On the surface, they see the cause of the rumbling. The building must have been rigged to collapse part of the outer walls, they look and see the entire NW corner of the thick keep walls have collapsed, dead slavers among the rubble, and an opening from below that many slaves are beginning to emerge from. They gather themselves in small groups on the surface, orient themselves to where they are and take off running from the fort and from Highport. The party makes their way to the shoreline and lights a signal fire as a sign for Shadisse, the ship captain, to pick them up. On board, they have time for Draden to identify all the magic items they acquired on this adventure. They travel for several months west along the coast, then upriver to Niole Dra, and on through back to Orlane. The people here are happy to see them, the curse of the town lifted, and the village back in harmony. They travel all the way back to Mar-Millor, where they rest in Cedar Crossing and visit some of their old haunts. Father Charleston and the church of St. Cuthbert are assembled at the temple, they have a ceremony prepared for Malden and Gregory. He was told many months ago that after his adventure with the slavers, he must part ways with his non-LG party members, and move to the next stage of holiness in the life of a paladin. Malden is knighted and presented with a fine magic blade as a symbol of his rule. He is given 100 0 level man at arms, 10 1st level fighters mounted, 2 sergeants, and a lieutenant, all LG and loyal to Malden. He is charged with some mission work, to travel south to the unknown land of Nappendixia, find the LG country of Brassmark, and work with that country to grow the influence of LG in the land. The rest of the party are told tales of this strange land to the south, of its opportunities of open territory to be conquered, and the possibility for the adventurers to become conquerors or kings. Mandigor takes the opportunity to ride off into the sunset, who knows when or where we will see him again. As Malden takes command of his troop and makes preparations to travel south, the rest of the party also wonders where the future will take them. They reflect on their first few weeks of adventuring, when they were first getting to know each other, they remember the fallen who were left behind along the way. They remember those first rumors they heard about kidnappings happening on the road south of Cedar Crossing, and the world spanning adventure it took them on. Who knows what the future holds for these heroes, only time will tell. This concludes the second chapter of the campaign. The heroes of Mar-Millor are victorious, and back in their home area. New adventurers stir and rise from obscurity to begin their adventuring careers. Chapter 3 will bring Nappendixia into full focus, and we will see what adventures call what heroes to future tales of glory.
Session Report- So I’ll take a minute to talk about scheduling and real life stuff as it affects your campaign. Obviously as adults, especially with kids/families we have busy lives and gaming always takes a backseat to kids and family. You’re not doing right if you do it any other way. This thrilling climax to our 2+ year game was supposed to occur in late January, but due to kids and scheduling issues, the whole group could not meet until yesterday. Murphy’s law being a thing, my daughter decided to get herself in a situation that required a trip to the emergency room like 3 hours before the scheduled session. Scary at first, but it worked out ok, and she is good, but coming down from all that anxiety and adrenaline wiped me out. However I knew a reschedule would be difficult, and as we get closer to summer we tend to have more canceled sessions due to peoples various vacation plans, so I wanted to get this session finished. The players were very understanding that I was still a little distracted and tired, I wasn’t that sharp but did my best. I was unable to prepare for the battle much, I had to spend time looking up spell choices and a few things, but nonetheless the 40 session campaign ended on a good beat, the players victorious and flush with cash and new magic items. The players already have some experience on the Nappendixia map, and now are free to interact as they see fit. This also puts the campaign in full 1:1 time, all PCs are on the main campaign map, and all play from now on will be emergent and player driven. There will be open sessions players can drop in/out of, and there won’t be narratives or modules per se. The map is peppered with locations, some of them derived from modules, but it's totally up to the players how they want to interact with them. They can take or leave them, check out whatever stuff interests them, leave the rest undeveloped until a future player shows interest. I’m very excited for chapter 3. There should be some patron activity that drives play, and there are now enough players that there will likely be a different mix of players each session. I’ll run sessions weekly for a while until the new energy wanes, or I need a break from running weekly. I’ll start a new document to begin Ch. 3 of the Nappendixia Campaign.
Treasure and XP- Monsters- Cleric 6 640xp, Troll 821xp, Thief 7 910xp, 5 G. Weasel 1033xp, 10 Orc 140xp= 3544xp. Treasure- Sword +1 Poison Res. 3000xp, Stone of Diminution 3000xp, Potion Speed 200xp, 2000gp/xp gem, 900gp/xp, 5000gp/xp, 3 jewelry 3000gp/xp, Ring of Protection +2 3000xp, Potion Invisibility 250= 18,300xp Total- 21,844xp/ 6PCs= 3641xp each. Those with henchmen- 3095xp, henchmen get 546xp
All PCs get a 5000xp bonus for being dedicated, smart, funny players who completed a 2 ½ year arc from green adventurers to renowned heroes. All the henchmen get 2000xp bonus, and Malden and Gregory get an additional 5000xp each for their fledgling LG army. Gunter gets a suit of chainmail barding that gives +2AC.
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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