Nappendixia Campaign 2.0- session 48

 Nappendixia Campaign Session Report

Session #-  48 Session Date-  6/21/23

Time Passed-  6 days (6/21 to 6/26) Stig bedrest until 7/3. Training until 7/10.  Harry, Godhard, Bart training until 7/3.

Roll Call-  Harry-  T2

Jack Daniels- Dwarf F1

Stig- Dwarf T1

Bart- F2

Henchman- Bezio F1

Hireling- Gregory F2 Sgt

Maximillion- F1

Godhard- C3

2 Med Cav

Tomas- F2

 

Adventure Log-  After arriving at Bartertown and resting, Bart and Harry take the lead on advertising and auctioning off the armor they brought from Lancebrass.  Bart models the armor and spends 2 days fighting any opponent in non-lethal combat.  He fares very well and several people are impressed by the armor.  Bart is impressed by two of his opponents and hires them on as a henchman and a mercenary sergeant.  The armor auction goes well, although maybe not up to Harry’s high expectations, they turn a nice profit.  The next day a heat wave sets in, the full brunt of Bartertown Summer is felt.  Those in the newly purchased metal armor are heat exhausted in less than an hour as the armor heats up to scorching temperatures.  Some degree of buyer’s remorse sets in and Harry tries to stem the bleeding.  The party finds out that on above average temperature days in summertime, metal armor is too hot to wear.  On average temperature summer days metal armor can only be worn for 2 hours at a time.  Many of the party scramble to purchase the marauder armor available as it does not cause heat exhaustion.  The brutal heat also does a bit to stymie the efforts of Godhard and Maximilion.  Their humble shrine to Pelor is met with confusion, restrained anger, and abject pity.  The citizens of Bartertown are baffled why anyone would want to worship the sun, the most brutal and ruthless killer of all life in the land, more deadly than any creature on or in Nappendixia.  They begin to understand their leveraged position, but keep the faith, and their charisma and kindness avoid any outright hostility.  After reconfiguring armor and adjusting to the heat wave that day, that evening Tomas and Bart each set out to pick up some rumors from the local taverns.  They both will be successful, although no one who has tried has yet to make contact or speak with Auntie.  Tomas learns that Papagallo is interested in the badlands SE of Bartertown; he'd like a report from anyone who has recently scouted that area.  Bart is drinking at the Rat when several gladiator types come from the Thunderdome.  He overhears them mention a Lodge.  Unsure, he follows them to the north end of the Master’s quarter to a nondescript clay building then goes and gets the rest of the party to investigate.  It turns out to be the long sought after temple of Kord!  Several party members rejoice at the marvelous structure of training rooms, baths, statues of Kord, altars and knowledge of all things strength and fitness.  The head cleric, John Paul Litmorson, greets the party and encourages them to make a donation and attempt to lift a series of metal axles. 1cp, 1sp, or 1gp to lift an increasing amount of weight.  Most of the party makes a donation and an attempt at strength, and none are successful.  John Paul points to 3 pillars that are engraved with the names of those who successfully lift.  Bart is able to secure a fighter trainer here and is very interested in joining the faith.  The following day, the party gathers to explore the town more and set a course of action when out of the hot dusty horizon a warband of orcs make an assault on Bartertown!  It’s all hands on deck as petty squabbles are put aside as all factions and all citizens mount a defense at the town walls.   The party mans a gap at the makeshift outer walls as 10 orcs attempt to assault their area.  A volley of arrows hits true, several are wounded as more orcs climb ropes and ladders to the top with short swords.  Stig the dwarf is struck badly and falls unconscious, but is later healed by Godhard.  The orcs are repelled thanks largely to a hold person from Godhard that incapacitated 3 at once.  Before being able to catch their breath from the defense of the walls, the main southern gate is blown wide by an orc assault, over 70 orcs pile into the center of town and almost as many citizens meet them.  The party leaps from the walls to engage and takes out several more orcs as the main body and full assault fails, but not before 70 citizens are slain.  In the aftermath they see several wrecked orc war wagons being pillaged by various bartertown cavalry, and spy a wagon yet to be reached by looters.  Godhard orders the med cav off and the party hops on their horses to follow.  A pair of chariots ride for the wagon, but the party cuts them off and gets there first, the spoils of gold, electrum, gems, and jewelry is quite lucrative, the Bartertowners seem willing to share the spoils and seem more open and appreciative of the party.  The following day they decide to explore a bit in the SE direction to see if they can learn anything for Papagallo.  The heat wave continues and they travel for 2 days about 48 miles SE into the badlands.  They encounter some harmless herd animals the first night, and fight off a pair of mountain lions the second.  That evening they notice in the distance behind them a ruined keep and note its location for future exploration.  They turn around the following morning and head back to Bartertown, encountering a 12 ogre warband.  Fortunately they spotted them from a distance and their riding horses were easily able to avoid the encounter.  Upon returning to Bartertown, the treasure is cashed out and split and Bart, Godhard, and Harry all go into a week of training.

Session Notes-  So a new patron joined this week with a unique approach.  He is starting very small with just a small group of monsters and just wants to interact with the map/terrain irregardless of what’s going on with the PC’s. I support this small scale approach and have let him know there is room for more of these mini-factions, or room to grow a mini faction into something larger.  More on this as it develops.  

I have put more work into my city encounters document.  It’s a simple template of all kinds of things a party can get up to in a city environment referencing important page numbers.  From the template you add details specific to each city settlement in your campaign.  So far I have like a 7 page doc of details and info on bartertown.  I made 2 docs, one for me with all the details and rules, one player facing doc that has a few of the more secret details removed.  This way players can peruse the city doc on their own time and use it to learn about the city settlement and come up with ideas of city adventures they’d like to explore. I can use my version of the doc as a repository for all the info I need to run a city adventure.  I’m going to keep going with more city adventures, this is a perfect situation- the players are in a well-detailed interesting city environment run by a very active, creative patron.  That’s 2 people behind the scenes creating hooks and interactions.  I’m trying to figure a way to make city adventuring more lucrative as far as xp and gp, so far i’ve decided to give xp for rumors and xp for sort of “abductive quest completion”.  By this I mean when the players derive their own goal in game based on stuff that comes up from random rolls and in-house player decisions, when they see those goals out to the end I feel that’s worth xp.  The same with rumors.  They drive the game, and give the players new information and opportunities similar to how gp and xp give them opportunity for better equipment and more power, even magic items will generate a PC xp, so likewise rumors.  Not a lot of xp, but recognition of good interaction with the game world.  It would be cool to see city adventuring truly become an equal leg in the trinity of city, dungeon, and wilderness adventuring.  I hope to get more data and share it with some others also working on the city adventuring conundrum.  Which brings me to a final point, sharing xp and gp among larger parties, the shares can be rather small, so I’m finding the small supplemental adds of xp for rumors and quests just kind of nudges the session to a more satisfying level of incremental change.  We’ve had 7 players the last 2 sessions, I’m enjoying the slightly larger group, though it’s definitely more on the players to speak up and make sure they take their turn and things, 7 is too many to manage at the more granular level, and players are definitely seeing my style of keeping the game moving, we only really play 2hr and 45 min sessions, so you would probably agree we get a lot accomplished in these shorter sessions.

Treasure and XP-  Monsters- 15 orcs 225xp, 2 mtn lion 320xp. rumors 400xp, kord quest 2000xp. Treasure- 330gp, 2000ep, 6 gems- 1300gp, 2 jewelry 1300gp= 3930gp/xp= 6875/ 7PCs = 982xp each add % bonus if appropriate.

Graveyard-  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)

Caolite- brought to Death’s Door by kobolds in Zelligar’s dungeon #40 (1 week bedrest)

Bart-  brought to Death’s Door by Firetoad breath in Zelligar’s dungeon #40 (1 week

bedrest)

Ragenard-  killed by Griffons exploring the plains west of Fort Turjmir #42

Vlana-  killed by Troglodytes in the 2nd level of Zelligar’s dungeon #43

Stigr’s 4 Lt. Foot- killed by Zombies on the plains of Lancebrass #45

Godhard’s 2 Med Cav- killed by Firenewt’s mounted on Giant Striders #47

Stig- brought to Death’s Door by Orc raiders at the walls of Bartertown #48 (1 week     bedrest)  

Newly Completed 1/72 Historical Minis Projects

Steppes Riders, Viet Cong, and American Colonials

 

Nappendixia Campaign 2.0- Session 47

 Nappendixia Campaign Session Report

Session #- 47 Session Date-  6/8/23 Time Passed-  9 Days (arrive Bartertown 

 6/16, 1 day of rest, available 6/17)

Roll Call-  Harry- T2

Stig- Dwarf T1

Maximilion- F1

Godhard- C3

2 Med Cav

Bart- F2

2 Lt Foot

Tomas- F2

Adventure Log-  A few new adventurers join the party this week, Maximilion, a young fighter looking to make his way in Nappendixia, and Stig, a dwarf thief who tagged along with the caravan from Bartertown, and has found some company with the party sharing stories of their respective homelands. Most of the other PCs and side PCs will be traveling with the caravan relocating their base of operations to Bartertown.

 *This week’s Log is written from the perspective of 2 of the Bartertown mercenaries*  

• Man what a trip, we finally found this crazy place called Lancebrass, after the caravan’s 2 week journey across the scrub, desert, and plains.  After clearing our pretty well patrolled scrub terrain outside of Bartertown, we first encountered a weird stone caravan circled up, partly buried in the desert sands.  Wez went inside the most closed up caravan car and had a ghostly nomadic figure reach out to grab him.  He’s real quick, real mean too, the nastiest fighter in Bartertown.  That’s why Papagallo sent the Gyro Captain on the caravan to co-lead it with Dr. Deadgood, the Master’s magic user.  There’s an uneasy alliance between the major players of Bartertown- Master, Papagallo, and Auntie Entity, the self proclaimed sheriff.  She does a decent job keeping the peace and keeping things running, but the caravan was too big a venture for any faction to not be well represented and get their say.  After the ghostly nomad, we encountered a sphinx, and Gyro learned a few things from her.  Then it was like monsters got our scent.  WE got hit by stirges at the edge of the desert, giant lizards at an oasis we found, then zombies, and killer bees, which took out our 2 best scouts.  By the time we realized we were off course and bumped into this party of adventurers we had lost half our troops.  The adventurers led us into Lancebrass and we were able to rest and replenish our food and water.  We noticed the cleric Godhard make a plea/deal with some bigwig paladin over travel to Bartertown and setting up trade and relations, pretty well played.  We also noticed the thief Harry has a pretty big venture/scam with armor, he’s got a bunch of metal armor loaded up on horses and plans to try to sell it in Bartertown.  We haven’t had a chance to check out the new armor yet.  His big friend is abrasive and difficult to bear, despite trying, he’s also in on the armor business, and has lately been terribly playing sergeant to a pair of light foot, they seem tortured.  Godhard’s Med Cav seem well cared for and better armed than us.  

• On our first day out we encountered harpies.  First we found a big burn area, and the fighter Maximilion found some talons in the ashes, and Gyro ID’d them as Harpy.  He’s no fool, he gave those adventurers some wax to plug their ears, and sent them ahead to flush out the harpies and maybe their lair.  Gonna definitely be putting these adventurers to work this trip back, we took heavy casualties, and only hired on 6 longbows in Lancebrass as replacements.  They came back victorious, a little wounded, and grumbling at a not great bit of treasure taken from their stinking cavern lair.  Better them than us.

• The following day we got back to that oasis with the giant lizards, only this time we encountered some kind of cliff dwelling crabmen.  A patrol headed up the path we were on heading into the oasis, and we sent the adventurers ahead again, figuring a battle with the armored crabmen could be tough.  Bart, the crappy sgt, actually did a smart thing, he held out some silver pieces, and these crab guys went wild, instantly made friends with us as the party gave them a bunch of silver pieces.  He must’ve noticed they were panning the local pond for silver, good ploy, and saved a possible tough fight.

• At the beginning of our first day of travel through the desert, we came back to that small ruined pyramid where the gynosphinx lives, Tomas the fighter went ahead alone and asked her a question, when he returned he had a cold stoic look in his eyes, he said little for the rest of the trip.  

• The next day we came across some crazy looking hump backed beasts of burden, they stomped across the desert, the party paid them no real mind, but behind them as the dust cleared they saw a person, following the beasts then collapsing.  They rushed forward to assist, giving him water and shade.  He said his name is Halim, a desert monk.  Harry asks him about the wizard’s tower in the desert, and gets a possible location.  He also asks about the mountain megadungeon, and is given a possible location of that too.  Halim rides with the caravan in a cart for the rest of the day, leaving in the evening watered and rested.  

• The next day we get back to that weird stone caravan circle, and the party wants none of it, they don’t trust their ability to turn undead, they have met some very resistant undead lately, and move on.  Later in the day, they are out in front as we have had them all trip, and they spring an ambush of fire newts on giant striders.  They were dug in and camouflaged in the desert sand but didn’t surprise the party.  They did get several serious wounds in on them, Stig tried to get off a backstab, but the green thief was unable to connect, still brave for a fledgling adventurer.  Godhard’s 2 med cav also fell, despite his good tactics, he held them until they could make a flank attack, both newts were quick, and their blows were lethal.  Still, had they been just a little less, they likely would have survived, and would have had a cleric right behind them with healing spells.  

• After that we get out of the desert, and its a few days of travel through Bartertown scrub.  We take them past the Cubic Gate, and later that day bump into a Bartertown patrol.  They give us a resupply and escort us into town.  This is our opportunity to ask Godhard if we can hire on as replacement Med Cav.  We were only temporary hires for the caravan journey, and it might be better to work for a cleric, Wez was no fun to work under. This party is all right too, they work together well, and seem to share treasure and resources fairly.  We’ll see if we can get the job.

Session Notes-  This week we had 2 good patron/player interactions, and we had some 1:1 time interacting with the game.  First, it's great to get the PCs to Bartertown, but also that it happened organically and not in a rush.  The PCs had largely played through a lot of their adventure hooks they had gathered while in Brassmark, granted they could have stayed longer, not everything got fully explored, and there will alway be an infinite supply of new stuff, but overall they were done with Brassmark.  They were already talking about checking out Bartertown, figuring out a way to get there, when at the same time the Bartertown patron had an idea to send a caravan out to try to find Lancebrass.  The caravan got a little lost, and the PCs had some issues with training time that held them away from being able to complete their quest to find the magic shrine, causing them both to be delayed and both put on the road to Lancebrass at the same time.  I knew they were in the same vicinity, but a random roll of merchants cemented the encounter, and I had the lost caravan meet the PCs north of Lancebrass and they guided them into town.  This is going to be great having the PC based in the location being managed by my most involved patron.  He’s already come up with lots of stuff, and I’m looking forward to seeing more direct patron/ player interaction.  Just in the week since the session, the discord has been very active. It’s really great for me in that everyone is interacting directly with the discord, the various channels, and with each other.  I really don’t have to respond or adjudicate much, I don’t feel I really should, I’m trying to cultivate the group feeling more comfortable interacting without running everything through me, and people are being very responsive to it.  

The other great PC/ patron interaction was with Tomas at the sphinx.  In session, when he asked the sphinx about who killed his family, I said I’d figure it out later and get back to him, the next day I remembered I had already sort of talked about this with Resheph, a patron who has been around  a while, but a little more in the background.  He’s not too interested in getting into the nitty gritty of AD&D rules, he just sends me ideas every few weeks and has his domain mostly set up and is able to respond to my questions in a timely manner.  This is really the minimum I need from a patron.  Just someone who can feed me cool ideas, and has a vision for what their patronage is and where it's going, and can be consistently responsive when their area of the game comes up.  Now that a more clear link between Tomas and Resheph has been made, now he’s more motivated to get his domain more concrete, get some more ideas going, etc.  It feeds the game.

As far as how 1:1 time influenced the game, it gave me a good place to take a break.  I have been running weekly for a while, and plan to run weekly throughout the Summer, but I could use an occasional break.  This session, in that it took most of the existing PCs, and several new players, 9 days into the future, means that if we were to play next week everyone would need to roll up a new PC.  Instead of doing that I took the cue that this would be a perfect time to take the week off, and give the PCs a few days of downtime in Bartertown before the next session.  The downtime chatter is getting much more active, and I’m loving it just taking off on its own.  I think the game could use a week to breathe.

Treasure and XP-  Monsters- 2 Harpies 353xp, 4 Firenewts 441xp, 2 Giant Striders 192xp, Crabmen parley 400xp. Treasure- 400gp, 52sp, 16gp, 100gp gem (518xp)= 1904xp/ 6 PCs= 317xp each, add % bonus if appropriate.

Graveyard-   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)

Caolite- brought to Death’s Door by kobolds in Zelligar’s dungeon #40 (1 week bedrest)

Bart-  brought to Death’s Door by Firetoad breath in Zelligar’s dungeon #40 (1 week

bedrest)

Ragenard-  killed by Griffons exploring the plains west of Fort Turjmir #42

Vlana-  killed by Troglodytes in the 2nd level of Zelligar’s dungeon #43

Stigr’s 4 Lt. Foot- killed by Zombies on the plains of Lancebrass #45

Godhard’s 2 Med Cav- killed by Firenewt’s mounted on Giant Striders #47

Nappendixia Campaign 2.0- Session 46

 Nappendixia Campaign Session Report

Session #-  46 Session Date-  5/31/23 Time Passed-  5 Days (5/31-6/4)

Roll Call-  Harry- T2

Bart- F2

2 Lt Foot

Godhard- C2

Waiofar- M2

Sgt. and 2 Lt Foot

Adventure Log-  The session begins in Lancebrass and the party is resupplying and resting.  Waiofar finds a few 1st level arcane scrolls for sale at the scribe’s shop, and learns the spell Identify.  They check their items and find they have a Javelin +1 and the following potions- climbing, levitation, speed, etherealness x2, animal control, persuasiveness, plant control, healing, frost giant strength, heroism, and invulnerability, and they have the magic displacer stink bomb belt pouch.  A newly trained Godhard suggests a second attempt at the magic shrine to the north, and  the party agrees to set out on the 2 day journey.  At dusk on the first day, they are circled overhead by a pair of winged creatures, they get larger as they approach. Fearful of another griffon attack they hold, not making any big movements.  The creatures have hoofed rear bodies and faces and forepaws of eagles.  They notice the party but are not interested or unsure of challenging the large group.  The next day they come upon a hollow cave like depression, and investigate but don’t enter, marking it on the map should they find it on the way back.  As they shine lanterns into the cave, several cobras emerge from their holes in the cracked earth and hiss at the intruders.  The party backs away from the threat of poison.  They travel north to the shrine location.  As they approach the tree cover thickens, and they hear voices and horses around the next bend in the trail.  Harry sneaks forward to investigate and spies a group of about 15 mounted humans dressed in hand woven wools and furs, they appear to be hearty nomadic peoples.  As Harry is spying, several regard him and hail him, he emerges from his hiding spot and hails them back.  At the same time, from the rear of the party emerge 2 more of these people stealthing on foot covering the party with impressive looking bows.  Everyone indicates parley, and weapons are sheathed, and they realize these humans speak a dialect of common, but it's not entirely understandable.  They manage to mostly understand each other, and the Cleric of the group speaks with Godhard and confirms that they too are here seeking the magic fountain, they warn the party of a group of lizardmen up ahead at the entrance to the shrine.  They call themselves the Kazarians and they claim to be nomadic wanderers of the high steppes to the east.  They agree to ally themselves, and 5 of the nomads best warriors step forth to aid the party in fighting the lizardmen.  They gain initiative and Waiofar’s sleep spell drops 2 immediately. The rest of the party charges in and strikes, the lizardmen are taken out without much response.  The 2 sleeping bodies are bound.  The party then moves forward as they have a plan to deal with the spider.  Harry deftfully sneaks forward and coats the floor of the first room of the shrine in oil.  Then Bart and one of the warriors throw the bound lizardmen into the room right where the spider would spring its trap.  The spider leaps out and begins feasting on a body, only to have a torch hurled onto the oil puddle, igniting the spider and burning it beyond recognition.  After the oil goes out the second room is searched and the fountain is discovered, along with treasure from the dessicated bodies of the spider's prey. They find nearly 2000gp in gems, gold, and a little platinum, then turn to the fountain.  Godhard goes first, calming himself and centering on his deity.  He hears a divine voice telling him he has been true and his quest is complete, he will have the choice as to whether the fountain boosts his wisdom or charisma.  He chooses wisdom, and the rest of the party moves in to drink, each randomly gaining a point of wisdom or charisma.  Afterwards, the Kazarian cleric and leadership enter to drink, and each is benefited.  The 2 groups camp and rest outside the shrine, and are not bothered throughout the night.  They show the party a large sack of gold coins, about 600, they found in the lizardman lair in the woods, and the party shows their treasure, they agree to each keep what they found.  Harry gives the leader his potion of animal control, and they are thankful, it could be useful in a wilderness encounter.  In turn, they give Harry a composite short bow and teach him how to use it and some techniques to practice to gain proficiency with the weapon.  They part ways in the morning, as allies, they say they can be found in the high steppes to the east.  They head south back to Lancebrass, and along the way encounter a strange sight, what they believe to be merchants, but curious ones at that.  They are garbed in a strange armor of studded leather and metal plates riveted together into arrangements of shoulder pads, breast plates, and greaves, and have mohawk haircuts greased up tall and some dyed bright colors.  They call themselves Bartertowners, after the city distant to the east beyond the Sind Desert.  The traders are affable and happy to meet some travelers, they claim they are lost and looking for a city called Lancebrass.  The party is happy to assist in finding it, and again a quick alliance is formed.  They show the party their strange wares, they are hoping will be profitable in Lancebrass.  They have their strange marauder armor, wrist mounted light crossbows, and polarized goggles that aid in spotting and avoiding getting lost.  They have other wares, and give the party one each of the items, saying they could train people in the use of the wrist crossbows.  They are eager to ask about the lands to the east, Bartertown, and the rumor of the nearby mountain/ megadungeon, and several other rumors they have heard.  Much sharing of information occurs, and Harry uses his charisma to do some marketing and sales for the merchants.  They also discuss traveling across the desert with the caravan and making Bartertown their new base of operations.  

Session Notes-  These weekly sessions are going to keep some of these session reports brief.  They can take a bit of time, but are super important to giving depth to the campaign, and giving others an insight into 1:1 style play.  The campaign continues to flow nicely, we’re about to have some more direct patron/player interaction, and the party is getting ready to see a new part of the map.  I will be doing some kind of formal new map reveal soon, just need to work out the details.  I’m continuing to feel more confident about playing “unprepped”.  I pre-rolled the nomads at the shrine anticipating that was likely where the party was headed, but everything else was random rolls emergent play.  I’m getting faster at putting all that together in real time, the rolling plus the on the fly creative aspect, interpreting the dice if you will. The players continue to be interested in the stuff that comes up, so it just kind of flows.  Now that they are getting past 1st level and into 3rd, things are a little less lethal, and they are more aware of running away or avoiding fights, assessing their worth in the big picture.  They could have attacked the cobras, delved that little cave, attacked the Kazarians, but instead they did all those things without combat, and still got the big payout from the spider’s lair.   

Treasure and XP-  Monsters- 7 Lizardmen 366xp, Huge Spider 175xp, Treasure- 13cp, 4pp (20xp), 2 500gp gem, 2 100gp gem, 500gp (1700xp) Shrine Quest 500xp= 2761xp / 4PCs = 690xp each. add % bonus if appropriate.

Graveyard-  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)

Caolite- brought to Death’s Door by kobolds in Zelligar’s dungeon #40 (1 week bedrest)

Bart-  brought to Death’s Door by Firetoad breath in Zelligar’s dungeon #40 (1 week

bedrest)

Ragenard-  killed by Griffons exploring the plains west of Fort Turjmir #42

Vlana-  killed by Troglodytes in the 2nd level of Zelligar’s dungeon #43

Stigr’s 4 Lt. Foot- killed by Zombies on the plains of Lancebrass #45