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)
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