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
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