Nappendixia Campaign 2.0- session 57

 Nappendixia Campaign Session Report

Session #- 57 Session Date- 8/23/23

  

Time Passed-  1 day (8/23/23)

Roll Call-  Harry- T5

Maximillion- F3

Godhard- C4

Bart- C3

Tomas- F4

Morsov- C2

Adventure Log-  8/23- Midnight- 15 days until TPK.  The party is inserted via zipline onto a treestand at the tallest tree nearest the Eastern Wall of the Caves of Chaos Penitentiary system.  It takes over an hour to insert and descend down the iron rungs hammered into the massive tree.  As the party descends, a cacophony of hell bounces around the massive walls.  They hear distant sounds of chaos, and assemble outside the closest, easternmost copse of trees.  From within, curiously, they hear music, human cultured music, singing, and the playing of primitive stringed instruments, almost like show tunes or tavern songs.  They penetrate the interior of the copse, it opens into a great room and several hovels and dark alcoves around the edges.  There they see 20 or so mostly humans, most dressed as shabby bandits, but a few others.  Several of the men are in improvised costumes and are singing and dancing a show tune on an improvised stage.  The rest of the crowd sits enjoying the music.  They notice 1 figure too large to be human, and Tomas approaches and sits by him, seeing the figure is actually an ogre.  Fortunately a friendly ogre, as he is mostly jovial and enjoying the music.  He turns to Tomas and says “ hey aren’t you one of the Strangers from Bartertown?  I heard you were dead!”  Tomas confirms they are the Bartertown Strangers, and they are not in fact dead.  The rest of the party joins and several folks gather some good info and build good relations with the ogre whose name is Cabbie.  He agrees to give them rides with his tractor and wagon if they need to travel, and they ask if any strange characters are around, new entries into the prison etc.  Cabbie confirms that in fact some kobolds from the local cave lair to the north, recently dragged a human sized figure into one of the darkened alcoves off the music room, he points to which one, but says, you don’t want to walk around down there Snake, I mean Tomas.  He then looks intently at the strange mechanical snake Tomas wears as a necklace.  He says he’d like to trade for it, they do a lot of trading in the prison.  He pulls out a rubber King Kong mask and says it will transform the wearer into a great ape when worn, it has 3 charges.  Toams agrees and takes the magic item.  The party enters the darkened hovel anyway, revealing a group of kobolds accosting 2 creatures, one another smaller, slighter kobold, perhaps a female, and the other a hooded human form that 6 kobolds are gathered around kicking and stomping.  The party charges into the scrum, bashing the snot out of most of the kobolds, the few accosting the small one try to run and Harry misses a shot at their backs, a few flee but the human is saved.  He turns over to reveal a horrible breath of sour wine and vomit, his toothless grin reveals he didn’t feel any of the previous beatdown.  He holds up a filthy wrist with a peculiar metal band around it; the band is split crudely and bent back around his wrist.  He holds it up exclaiming “I’m the President, I woke up with this band on my wrist just like a miracle, and they told me I'm now the president.”  He begins poorly singing “Hail to the Chief”.  The party bends the bracelet off his wrist with great difficulty.  They head back into the main room to see Cabbie no longer there, and look for others who stand out.  They notice a slight person and approach her to discover she is an elf, a fighter/mage, and will accompany the party with her prepared sleep spell for her protection.  At that the floor rumbles and the palisade wall right where the elf is standing gives way and the arms of several undead reach out and grab her, skeletons and zombies are suddenly everywhere, as the floor gives way in the little alcove and the elf girl is pulled in, several of our heroes grab the elf to try to save her, but her lower extremities are ripped from her and she dies in their arms.  Fleeing the horde of undead, at least 30 in number pouring from tunnels in the ground, the party clerics get off a successful volley of turns, and push the undead back away from them, but unfortunately others in the greatroom are not fortunate.  They back from the undead masses, and retreat outside, where they hear a rumbling machine as Cabbie rolls forward driving a green tractor much like the one they found at the refinery pulling a wagon, the party quickly hops in and Cabbie drives away, one clutch of undead blocking their path.  Both Morsov and Bart fail their turning, but Godhard manages to turn a shadowy creature lurking in the back, likely the leader of the undead horde.  Fortunately whatever foul effect it may have is kept at bay by Godhard’s holy symbol.  As they leave, the dawn begins to break, and Cabbie tells them he can bring them to his lair which adjoins the goblin lair, and Cabbie can give them safe passage in the goblin area.  They eagerly take him up on the offer and find a few safe rooms out of the way from the goblins main movements and take a much needed rest, they had been going on for nearly 24 hours without sleep.  Before resting they meet with the Goblin Chief who offers to trade with the newcomers, he pulls out a metal bolt and says it is a relic from a famous building that once stood on this land.  He says when activated it will remove fear and improve morale on the whole party for 1 week.  They again eagerly trade 2 potions and some gold for the magic bolt.  They awake in the late afternoon and begin to formulate various plans using their knowledge of the different gangs and ways to create distractions, and ways to nail down exactly where the president is being kept.  Obviously they can’t use the cobalt bracelet anymore.  Cabbie tells them about another mover and shaker in the prison, Brain and his pet Maggie.  Brain makes a kind of alcohol that can power cabbie’s tractor, and the other vehicles that exist in the prison.  The party saw in the goblin lair some little buggy cars, and they have been told that the Duke, the leader of the whole prison has some dirt bikes that his gang can use to get around.  They meet up with Brain and Maggie, his pet mountain lion, and get some intel on how the Duke operates and how the groups in the prison coexist.  They realize a frontal assault isn’t going to work, and decide stealth and distraction are the key, getting the Duke away from his area and then searching for the president seems like the best course of action.  The party decides to use the next few days to formulate a plan and prepare for its commencement.

Session Notes-  So it’s the midpoint of the 3 part story arc, a real break away from what usually is a completely emergent game based on player choice and random tables.  It’s weird how I, and likely many other DMs have made the transition.  When I first started this game, the original intent was to play through some classic AD&D modules.  I would prep the modules by reading them several times, watching youtube breakdowns of the modules, then re-read and plan more specifically each week based on exactly where the party is in the module.  I enjoyed it at first, but over time it became too much prep for me to feel comfortable going into each session.  I didn’t enjoy going back and re-prepping stuff because it had been so long since I read that part, and I had to re-go over certain parts.  I also didn’t enjoy finding the time a day or so before the session to do that specific session prep.  Contrast that to when I first started doing player driver emergent play.  At first I was nervous not having anything to prepare for in the days before the session, and I definitely needed more practice in knowing the rules and the books.  Over time however, as I got more confident and knowledgeable in finding rules references quickly in the moment, and running sessions based on random table results/ improving my improvisation skills, I began to really enjoy just showing up to sessions and just letting the players tell me what they want to do.  Usually there are 2-3 obvious choices of what the players will likely do, so you can still mentally prep things like where are the players on your map, what terrain are you on, what are the local points of interest, etc, but there is no need for any intensive prep before each session, just grab and go.  I’m still working on my setup, setup is super important in DMing, you need to know where all your books, notes, charts etc are and you need access to your computer/discord.  It really is important to take 5 minutes before the session and get everything out and placed where you can easily grab them, I like to use a clipboard for my main session notes- session #, date, days, passed, roll call, intro notes.  Then I use the blank space on that paper to track combats- monster hp and tick them down as the combat goes on.  I write treasure found there too, especially random treasure generated on the fly.  That way I always know where to look if I have to go back.  Also after the session report has been published I don't throw out my original notes, I stack them in a folder in reverse chronological order in case I ever have to go back and settle a dispute or mistake.  

Treasure and XP-  Monsters-  8 Kobolds, Turning- 9 Zombie, 9 Skeleton, 1 Wight (½ xp), Rumors- Duke, Goblins/Cabbie,  Treasure- King Kong Mask, Empire State Building Rivet  (xp will be given to survivors of Escape From Bree-Yark)

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)

Harry- Brought to Death’s Door by the Tsathoggua Temple slime monster #54 (1 week 

bedrest)

Stigr/Tomas’ 3 Med Cav- killed by large spiders SE of Bartertown #55

Nappendixia Campaign 2.0- session 56

 Nappendixia Campaign Session Report

Session #-  56 Session Date-  8/16/23

Time Passed-  7 days (8/16-8/22)

Roll Call-  Harry- T5

Maximillion- F3

Godhard- C4

Bart- C3

Tomas- F4

Morsov- C2

Adventure Log-  8/16-  Having just returned from their long journey to the refinery site, the party rests in the morning of the 16th and divvys up the potions and a few magic items.  They later head out to the departure ceremony with the Castellan of Hartford, who they find out is informally referred to as “The President”.  He is dry and weasley, stuffy, but very intelligent.  He produces what he calls a “tape”  a small rectangular object, and places it inside a larger silver rectangular object.  He pushes a button, and everyone hears voices coming from the box.  The voices are mostly of the President, but you also hear Auntie and Papagallo’s voices, they are speaking in detail of specific treaties, alliances and agreements they are calling the Hartford Summit.  With another round of successful diplomacy in Hartford a strong alliance and trade routes can be formed.  The party is approached by bodyguards form both Auntie and Papa, and are escorted around the corner to a private alley where Auntie and Papa await. They tell them they are impressed with their abilities to get jobs done, their skill in exploration and their resourcefulness.  They tell them they need an elite group that can act as both bodyguards and negotiators representing Bartertown in the summit.  The gyro Captain and President will be travelling via 2 flying carpets, and space is limited to only 6.   The party is escorted and introduced on stage with the president.  The ceremony wraps up and the party, gyro captain, and president are joined by two of the president's Hartford guards with black helmeted visors pulled down.  The flying carpets depart to a crowd of cheers and race east over scrubby badlands and stretches of soft desert sand.  They fly low and fast for 24 miles or so, when the guards react-  one pulls out some type of magic scroll and begins reading/ broadcasting a message.  The other cop throws a rope of entanglement over gyro, who is instantly wrapped up, and slides off the carpet hanging beneath from the rope, then grabs the reins of gyro’s carpet and flies hard right, the other cop on the other carpet jerks the wheel and banks hard left.  Harry, Godhard, and Morsov are immediately bailed from the carpet, fortunately landing on soft sand form not too high and taking minimal damage.  They pull up their visors revealing themselves to be hobgoblins.  The one speaking says- “We, The Hobgoblin Liberation Front, in the name of the workers and imprisoned, declare an alliance with Bartertown and Gang Green, and declare war on Hartford!  May the president rot in his own inhumane dungeon!”, and with that he reaches into a satchel and pulls out hundreds of pieces of parchment with this same message printed on it and litters the ground below with paper.  The hobgoblins rise on the carpets and pull out weapons.  Bart responds by casting Command on the one on his carpet, telling him to “land!”, while Max and Tomas try to grapple and slash at the hobgoblin on their carpet.  The one hobgoblin does land, and Bart ineffectively tries to punch him in the head.  The other carpet manages to lose Tomas but Max holds on with all his might.  All the while Gyro is dragged across the ground as the commanded hobgoblin lands the carpet, damaging him.  After the spell wears off however he quickly flies the carpet high and steep, dumping Bart off the back end.  Meanwhile the other carpet banks a hard u turn, then grabs the president’s finger, the one with his signet ring on it, and breaks it then slices it off with his sword, and despite all his efforts Max is finally thrown from the carpet, but not before the hobgoblin can put the severed finger in his outstretched hands.  The other Hobgoblin jumps over to the carpet with the captured president, and the gyro’s unmanned carpet flies off into a sand dune in a puff of dust and debris.  The hobgoblins escape east on the carpet with the captured president.  We look back to the first group to get thrown from the carpet- Morsov, Harry and Godhard.  They collect themselves and head east following any signs left by the carpets during the combat.  They move east for an hour, then spot a large contingent of mounted riders to the north heading south.  They don’t seem to be noticed, and make more progress east, linking back up with Tomas and Bart, the second group to fall off. At this reunion, they respot the mounted group, noting there are over 100, likely over 150, and they seem to be ranging and roving in search of something.  A little further on they link back up with Max who has recovered the Gyro captain and received some healing.  The story of the finger and the president's capture is told, and Gyro agrees to take the finger and use a powerful druid spell plant door to transport himself to the wilderness near Bartertown.  He will relay the story of the betrayal and mount a force to rescue the PCs, and even bring their battlewagon.  He departs and the party tries to make a fast move north trying to avoid the mounted men once and for all.  They are spotted and immediately headed towards, where they make no effort to flee.  As they approach they see the men are dressed in the blue fatigues of Hartford and know they are caught.  The leader and some men mount griffons with 3 seater saddles and meet the party.  The leader removes his helmet and some PCs as Bob Hauk, a war hero they heard about in Lancebrass.  His LN tactics were not in agreement with the LG Lancebrassers, and he moved on after the war to form the settlement of Hartford.  He tells the PCs he knows them too, however he thought they were dead.  Harry tries to dazzle Bob with his Charisma and word salad, but Hauk tells a man to grab him and gag him.  Harry is grabbed and mouth and hands bound, Hauk reaches into Harry’s inner shirt pocket and pulls out a bandana with the colors of Gang Green, and a bindle of powder- clearly some kind of drug.  Hauk says Thievery is illegal here, as is smuggling, drugs, associating with thieves, terrorism, kidnapping, and a host of other charges.  The PCs implore him this isn’t Hartford, and are informed of the newly expanded borders of Hartford that they are within.  They are told of the Penn of Chaos, a massive dungeon prison complex that the Hartforders walled in and use as a prison city- once you go in you don’t come out.  They are told there will be a trial the next day, and are bound and their gear is removed.  They are bound to the back of horses and ride all night to Hartford arriving in the morning.  8/17-  From there a kangaroo court of a trial is enacted and they are quickly found guilty of all charges, however right after they are brought to Hauk’s office for a private meeting.  They are offered the mission of entering the Penn of Chaos, finding the President, finding the tape, and bringing him out however possible for a full pardon of all charges and crimes.  They will be given their equipment back as well as new equipment that will aid them.  The party agrees and is told they must wait in solitary confinement for several days while they are “prepared”.  During that day and for the next 5 days, 1 by 1 each party member is brought into a room bound and blindfolded.  They hear a woman’s voice in arcane casting and then hear the following-  “Return the President and the tape if possible, in 2 weeks from the Penn of Chaos.  Bring him to the platform, or any other means of escape.  Do nothing to remove the items placed inside you, upon your return with the president, they will be removed.”  this happens to one PC per day until 8/23.  On the 22nd, after the party has all been affected by the Geas, they are assembled into a room filled with equipment and medical supplies, their own gear in neat piles off to one side.  They are given the following gear to aid them- 

 Gear-  Silence Stone Transport In/Out Cobalt Tracer Bracelet, secret signal button

Undead prot scroll Dust Disappear x5 Wand Mineral Detection x 10

Map potion ESP potion gaseous form

Potion heal x3 13 arrow +1 Sword +1

Dagger +1 Mace +1

And are given the following rumors and debriefed on how they will be inserted into the prison.  They are told the President also has a cobalt tracer bracelet welded around his wrist, the wand of mineral detection can be used to locate his bracelet.

Rumors/ Intel- Neutral Ogre is friendly w/ many gangs

• The orcs are in 2 opposing gangs, they will follow the strongest leader.

•  The kobold gang is trying to not be noticed.

•  The goblin lair is very active

•  The gnolls have allied with the Duke/Gypsies, used to be allies with the orcs.

•  Crazies control the underground, undead.

• There is magic Platemail and other magic items to be found inside the Penn of Chaos

Gangs-  Kobolds- Punks

Goblins- Skulls

Hobgoblins- Turks

Orcs1- Indians

Orcs2- Bandits

Duke/Gnolls/Bugbears- Gypsies

They are given time to formulate a plan and divide up their new gear, when a powerful looking wizard enters the room, she is introduced as High Mage Lith, and says nothing to the PCs but briefly speaks to Hauk, and they recognize her voice as the one who cast the Geas on them.  On a table she lays out 6 pieces of parchment, and places a pile of iron spikes on each piece.  She then begins casting what must be a reduce spell, as the spikes all shrink down to a small black spot on the parchment.  She then casts a second longer spell over the spikes.  She then motions to one of her assistants, who one by one picks up the parchment, rolls it into a cone, roughly grabs a PC by the head, places the cone into their ear and blows the shrunken iron spikes into their ear.  After each PC is affected, she turns to Hauk- Tell them.  Hauk says that the spikes have been affected by the spell limited permanence.  They will stay shrunk for exactly 2 weeks then return to full size.  Obviously this means time is of the essence for this mission, as if the president cannot get the diplomacy deal done in the next 2 weeks, his waning power will be at its end and he will be usurped and no longer necessary.  So everyone is in a time crunch.  

8/23- Midnight- insertion into the Penn of Chaos.  The mission begins.

Session Notes- So the PCs are getting railroaded into a preconceived story, but it’s a cool story, and once I set the parameters they will have total autonomy to do this mission however they want to.  It for me was just too cool of an idea, I love the Keep on the Borderlands, and also love Escape From New York, and one day it just hit me what a perfect mashup the 2 would be.  I sat down and wrote a preliminary doc, then fleshed it out over the next few days, then just augment a bit as the players got more inserted into the story.  I wanted to do something special  as an end of summer/ end of the 2nd arc of the campaign, and this just kind of all came together.  It got big approval from the player’s last night, even though that session was the main railroad and story set up.  The next 2 sessions they will be free to roam the prison with whatever plan they want, minding that there will be no established safe place to rest, and therefore must figure out some kind of safest position to end the session.  I also told them I’d be more available for more in depth downtime endeavors, or even possibly impromptu short sessions if there was interest.  It’s good to mix up your campaign, some people really think modules should be avoided, I think they can be used but must be incorporated in a much more creative manner.  Also this campaign is really developing the 80s action movie vibe, all my favorite movies are coming home to roost- road warrior, planet of the apes, efny, dune, the list keeps growing.  I don’t know, I'm probably biased, but I feel like I’m getting similar but not identical juice from those sources as I am from Appendix N sources.  I guess the foundation of the campaign will always be Appendix N derived, especially during emergent, free form play/  But I think people, myself included, are enjoying the nostalgia the 80’s sci fi vibe is bringing to the game.  It definitely comes from a place I know really well, so it’s easy to borrow from in an interesting and not cheesy way.  

Treasure and XP-  7 rumors= 1400xp/ 6 PCs= 233xp 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)

Harry- Brought to Death’s Door by the Tsathoggua Temple slime monster #54 (1 week 

bedrest)

Stigr/Tomas’ 3 Med Cav- killed by large spiders SE of Bartertown #55

Nappendixia Campaign 2.0- session 55

 Nappendixia Campaign Session Report

Session #-  55 Session Date-  8/9/23

Time Passed- 7 days (8/9-8/15, half day of downtime/rest on 8/16)

Roll Call- Harry- T4

Stewart- R3

Stigr- F2

Morsov- C1

Tomas- F4

Adventure Log-  8/9-  Resting in St. Girault, Harry recovers and investigates the ebony coffers.  He locates a visually obvious poison needle trap, and avoids it, he devises a technique to open them safely and removes 1914ep in strange pentagon coins stamped with Tsathaggua’s image, and a small green peridot the same hue as the statues eye and the veins in the ebony.  The coffers themselves have a value of about 700gp each.  Tomas and Stigr go to the drayage shop to dig for information.  The rude drunken owner Thibault is gruff but converses, Stigr asks to go into his warehouse to help himself to some horse feed, and is laughed off, told the feed will be brought out to him.  He has a few things for sale, but most are earmarked for various shipments.  The pair leave and the caravan mounts up and travels SE.  The day of travel goes uneventfully across the badlands scrub, until the predawn hours of the next day, when Tomas and his 5 mercs on duty are charged by an aggressive herd of 13 large spiders.  He fires the ballista and calls out, telling the cav to charge.  They crash into the spiders and skewer a few on lances, but 4 are bitten, and 3 clutch their throats and fall from their horses dead from poison.  The party rouses and grabs missile weapons and calls forth the crossbowmen.  The spiders are cut down as the remaining 2 cav back away.  

8/10-  after the combat they break camp and Stewart tracks the spiders 1 hour to their crude lair filled with a few dried husks of former meals, and a scattering of copper and platinum from a burst sack in the hole.  They travel the rest of the day and set up camp and again things are quiet until Tomas’ watch.  In the light of dusk he spies some rustling in the brush, as 5 giant weasels burst from the cover to attack a stand of horses resting while tied to a scrubby tree.  2 Weasels immediately sink their fangs into the horseflesh and begin feeding.  This time Tomas holds back his cav and has them fire a volley of arrows along with a ballista shot.  Another horse perishes, but a volley of arrows slays 2 weasels.  They begin dragging the horses back into the brush hoping to eat them undisturbed, but the party advances and kills 2 more from range, the last tries to flee but is cut down also.  No lair or treasure is found, but the pelts, despite being damaged by arrow punctures, could still fetch 1000gp each if cured correctly.  

8/11-  Stewart takes 4 hours to skin the weasels and sets them on the wagons as best he can to begin curing.  It is messy smelly work, the kid is covered in gore by the end.  They travel west into the open scrub hoping to find the refinery at range.  There is an hour where they are uncertain what direction to go, the bright sun confusing their sense of direction.  But calm heads and use of the goggles corrects their error and they find the direction east and spot the refinery in the distance.  They search around in the compound, ruined walls made of scrap metal with gaping breeches in them.  Sand covers everything, many tarps and ropes indicate there was once some tent structures here.  In the center there is a tall spindly tower made of metal triangular supports, a large iron crank mechanism, a large cylindrical structure that they are unable to see into, and a gangplank that goes over the metal mechanism and attaches to the tower.  A search around the place reveals a locket with a very realistic color picture of a man and a woman inside, a green cart about the size of a mule, the words John Deere emblazoned in yellow letters is revealed after a thick layer of dust is wiped off.  The cart has 4 wheels, and on the bottom there seems to be a fixed spinning metal blade facing down towards the ground.  One blade is broken halfway up.  Finally they find buried in the sand a thick paper box containing some kind of weapon or dart.  The box has the word “Jarts” on it and contains 4 large heavy blunt darts, some papers with writing, and a hoop of pliable material.  They appear to be an indirect fire ranged weapon with the same range and damage as a javelin.  Any PC could train to use them at their next weapon slot.  Finally Tomas takes a look into the metal cylinder, stepping in, it is shady but open at the top, his first step clangs against metal flooring, and from above, lazing on some scaffolding on the inside of the cylinder, a griffon, rolls over from sleep, yawns and looks down at Tomas with a bored expression.  They briefly think of trying to take out the griffon, but are reminded of their ally who was bitten in half by one and Tomas quietly steps back out of the structure.  They decide to make a hasty withdrawal from the compound and mark it well on their map with landmarks and distances listed.  They camp about an hour away from the compound.  

8/12-  heading back NW, they party encounters a derelict bivouac, a triad of logs that could be used as a teepee, and a pile of firewood bleached light gray from the dry sun.  

8/13-  Once again Tomas’ sharp eyes make a save on predawn watch.  A restless Harry rolls over too hard and the corner of his blanket lands in the embers of the campfire.  It begins to smolder as Tomas runs over and stamps it out before anyone gets burned.  Harry, still weary from the ooze attack, never rouses.

8/14-  Morsov, while driving the battlewagon, realizes an errant crossbow bolt has lodged itself into his pack, as he pulls it out, the tip slices open his waterskin, soaking everything in his pack, soaking his torches, ruining his incense, and some of his iron rations that were not well wrapped.

8/15-  after a full day of travel they reach the outskirts of Bartertown, a patrol of Papagallo’s Chariots escort them right to the leader.  They spend an hour or so telling tales of their travel, and the location and state of the refinery.  He pays them 2000gp, 1000gp for expenses incurred, and 1000gp for the successful mission.  The following day they speak with him a little more about the mission, and spend the first half of the 16th resting and doing light downtime activities.

Session Notes-  This session the players themselves remarked about finding unknown settlements on long distance journeys, and how it can allow for longer range travel goals without trying to cram the whole expedition into one session.  We discussed its positives and negatives, another way to play with 1:1 time, but more options for places to spend downtime also means more opportunities for PCs to get separated and begin a session in different locations.  This is mitigated 2 ways we discussed-  through being a player type who doesn’t mind making up new 1st level characters in multiple starting point settlements, or careful planning during downtime, and staying aware of the current goals of the party to plan downtime travel so a certain PC can be used in the next session.  Any kind of hand waving at the beginning of a session and just saying yeah yeah you moved here during downtime, but a player that actually planned and stated such actions in downtime would be respected.  Another thing that came up is the giving of xp for treasure when the PCs decide to hide the coinage away and not spend it.  I ruled that if the coins are specifically being withheld from spending, no xp, but things like the coffers, which were valuable and the party decided to use them to house their own treasure would grant xp the way a magic item that was kept and used grants xp.  If at some point the party chooses to spend the electrum, or try to get it converted, then they would get the xp.  

Treasure and XP-  Resolution on the treasure from Session 54-  3 trapped Ebony Coffers (worth 712gp each) 2136xp, green peridot 69xp= 2205xp / 6 PCs= 367 each add % bonus if appropriate.  (no xp on the electrum until you bring it into circulation.  The coffers are being used so you get xp for them)

Session 55-  Monsters- 13 Lg Spider 897, 5 Giant Weasel 985= 1882xp, Treasure- 299cp(3xp), 26pp (130xp), 5 Weasel Pelts 4900gp/xp (the tanner will broker the sale of the pelts over the next few weeks, he will pay you 4900gp in advance to save you the trouble)= 5033xp  Total- 6995xp/ 5 PCs= 1399xp each add % bonus if appropriate

• If this xp causes your PC to level, you may automatically level your character, no charge.  You are not sure how you have “trained”.  Perhaps the long distance exploration served as your trainer, or perhaps you are subconsciously aware that your next challenge will require every bit of your abilities.

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)

Harry- Brought to Death’s Door by the Tsathoggua Temple slime monster #54 (1 week 

bedrest)

Stigr/Tomas’ 3 Med Cav- killed by large spiders SE of Bartertown #55